Survival Hunter PvP Useful Macros (Season 4)
Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that all Survival Hunters can benefit from.
This page is part of our Survival Hunter PvP Guide.
Notes:
Mouseover, exists
You will see that many of the macros below will cast at a mouseover if they exist. This will enable you to quickly cast on targets that are not your target without having to focus them or keybind three separate @arena1 to @arena3 macros. This is useful for utility spells such as Tranquilizing Shot, Concussive Shot, Scare Beast, so that you can use them without changing target away from the player you are attacking.
Having the [@mouseover,exists] clause in your spells like Mongoose Bite, Wildfire Bomb and Serpent Sting will also be extremely useful for killing Psyfiends, totems and pets.
Known
This new feature in Dragonflight is very useful because of how the new talent system works. You can use the phrase [Known: ] with a spell ID (you can find these on Wowhead) so that a macro will cast a different spell or show a different tooltip based on your selected talents. It's a nice way to avoid having to redo your action bars when changing talents.
You can use the spell ID or type the spell name. There is a limit of 255 characters to a macro, so if it's a longer macro, you'll want to use the spell IDs rather than typing the name of the spell.
Cursor
You will see that some of the macros below for targetted reticle spells (eg Freezing Trap, Tar Trap and Sentinel Owl) they are cast [@cursor]. This casts the spell immediately at the location of your mouse. This cuts down on the delay when casting a spell because you only press the button once (instead of pressing the button, aiming, then left-clicking to confirm).
As hunter is one of the very few classes that require precise aiming (and timing) with launching traps, you will find that using @cursor will make it much easier to land those important crowd control abilities on time.
Cancelaura Aspect of the Turtle
Aspect of the Turtle is a great defensive, but you aren't able to attack during it. Most of the time, you will want to cancel Aspect of the Turtle before it ends so you can start using your next attack or crowd control. You will see that some of the macros below will also cancel Aspect of the Turtle when pressed.
Cancel Spell Queue
This is a little bit more obscure, but in World of Warcraft, there is a built-in latency adjustment known as the "spell queue window". This will allow you to queue up a spell before your character can cast it (e.g., during the global cooldown).
Without going into too much detail (you can google spell queue window if you want to find out more), without the line /cancelqueuedspell in your Macro, it is possible that you will already have a spell queued up that would be used instead of the spell you decided to cast at the last moment.
Including /cqs or /cancelqueuedspell in your Macro will clear any queued spell and ensure that the spell in your Macro will be cast instantly.
Damage Rotation
Explosive shot/Steel Trap
- showtooltip [known:Steel Trap] Steel Trap; [known:Explosive Shot] Explosive Shot;
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /cast [known:Steel Trap,@cursor] Steel Trap
- /cast [known:Explosive Shot,@target] Explosive Shot
This Explosive Shot Macro does a couple of things. If you are talented into Explosive Shot it will cast that on your target. If you are talented into Steel Trap it will cast Steel Trap at your current cursor position instead.
It will also cancel your Aspect of the Turtle if it is active.
This should be combined with the following Macro so that you are able to Explosive Shot while talented into Steel Trap.
Serpent Sting (or Explosive Shot if talented into Steel Trap)
- #showtooltip [known:Serpent Sting] Serpent Sting; [known:Explosive Shot] Explosive Shot
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /cast [@mouseover,exists][known:Serpent Sting][] Serpent Sting
- /cast [@mouseover,exists][known:Explosive Shot][] Explosive Shot
This Macro will show the tooltip of Serpent Sting and cast Serpent Sting when pressed on your mouseover (if it exists) or at your target if you do not have you mouse on an enemy.
The mouseover portion of this Macro is so that you can quickly kill low-health targets (e.g. grounding totem) without targetting them.
If you do not have Serpent Sting talented (for example if you decided to play Steel Trap, Explosive Shot, and Death Chakram, this would show the tooltip of Explosive Shot and cast Explosive Shot at either your mouseover or target).
Having this Macro, as well as the previous Macro, you will not have to change your action bar or keybinds if you play a game without Serpent Sting.
If you are not talented into Explosive Shot, it will show the tooltip of and cast Serpent Sting instead.
Raptor Strike (or Mongoose Bite if talented)
- #showtooltip Raptor Strike
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /cast [@mouseover, exists][] Raptor strike
- /startattack [@target,exists]
This Macro will cast Raptor Strike at your target, or your mouseover if one exists. Having the mouseover element is useful during Aspect of the Eagle to quickly kill totems and Psyfiends.
Note that Raptor Strike becomes Mongoose Bite when talented, so this Macro works for both spells.
You will want a similar macro for lots of your rotational abilities, such as Wildfire Bomb for the same reasons, and Flanking Strike so you can quickly use the mobility to jump to a target without having to target them.
Kill Command
- #showtooltip
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /cast [@mouseover,exists] Kill Command; Kill Command
- /stopattack [stealth]
- /petattack
Having this Kill Command macro allows you to use the ability during Camouflage without breaking your stealth.
At the start of an arena match make sure you cast Camouflage after summoning your pet, which allows your pet to attack and for you to use Kill Command, while being in stealth.
Death Chakram
- #showtooltip Death Chakram
- /use Draconic Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity
- /use Draconic Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity
- /cast Blood Fury(Racial)
- /cast Death Chakram
This is a simple macro that uses off-global cooldown temporary damage buffs (trinkets and racial ability if orc) when you begin bursting with Death Chakram.
Kill shot
- #showtooltip kill shot
- /cancelqueuedspell
- /stopcasting
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /Cast [@mouseover, exists, harm] kill shot; kill shot
This Macro will stop any queued spells or spells that you are casting and immediately cast Kill Shot.
As with the macros above, it will cast at your mouseover if they exist and otherwise will cast on your target.
Sentinel Owl
- #showtooltip sentinel Owl
- /cast [@cursor] Sentinel Owl
- /p WALLHACKS WALLHACKS WALLHACKS
This macro will immediately cast Sentinel Owl on your cursor.
It will announce the cast in party chat so that if you are talented into Sentinel's Perception, your party will know when they can cast through pillars.
Defensives
Camouflage
- /run SetCVar("SoftTargetInteract", 0)
- /run SetCVar("SoftTargetEnemyRange", 0)
- /run SetCVar("SoftTargetFriendRange", 0)
- /cast !camouflage
This macro will cast Camouflage (and will not cancel Camouflage if you accidentally press the macro twice!)
The Macro will also change some "CVar" values. Without going into detail, this solves a bug introduced in Dragonflight that would make your Macro'd spells cast at your target instead of the target that your Macro specifies.
By having the corrections on a macro with Camouflage you know they will be fixed at the start of every game.
Aspect of the Turtle
- #showtooltip aspect of the turtle
- /stopcasting
- /stopcasting
- /cast !aspect of the turtle
This Macro will stop casting any spell and cast Aspect of the Turtle.
This macro will not cancel Aspect of the Turtle if you press it multiple times.
Exhilaration
- #showtooltip exhilaration
- /stopcasting
- /cast Exhilaration
This Macro will stop casting any spells and cast Exhilaration.
Feign Death (and mark pet as star)
- #showtooltip
- /stopcasting
- /cancelaura feign death
- /cast !feign death
- /stopattack
- /run local t="Pet" if 1~=GetRaidTargetIndex(t) then SetRaidTarget(t, 1) end
This macro will cast Feign Death and stop your character from attacking.
The Macro will also mark a star raid icon on your pet. It is useful to have a raid marker on your pet to make it easier to track the pet's position. Having the Macro on a spell that you use often means the raid mark will be applied even if you only summon the pet midway through a game.
Note that this Macro will only mark your pet while inside arena if you are the party leader, but you can press it outside of the arena if you aren't the party leader, and unless you swap pets, the mark will stay.
Roar of Sacrifice self
- /stopcasting
- /cast [@player] Roar of Sacrifice
This Macro will stop any spell casts, and use Roar of Sacrifice on yourself.
Crowd control
Freezing Trap
- /cancelqueuedspell
- /cast [mod:alt,@player][@cursor] Freezing trap
This macro will cast Freezing Trap on your cursor if pressed without any modifier.
If you press alt while pressing the Macro, the trap will be dropped immediately (and activate immediately with no travel time) at your feet.
I highly recommend that you have a Freezing Trap [@player] macro like this. It is significantly easier and more reliable to land traps by standing on a healer and using the [@player] Freezing Trap, especially following a Harpoon or Flanking Strike.
Scatter Shot (or Binding Shot if talented)
- #showtooltip [known:scatter shot]scatter shot;[known:binding shot]binding shot
- /cancelqueuedspell
- /stopcasting
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /Cast [@mouseover, exists, harm] scatter shot; scatter shot
- /cast [known:binding shot]binding shot
This macro will cast Scatter Shot at your mouseover if they exist which is useful in BGs or world PvP to CC off-targets or to crowd control a pet (e.g. to stop a Warlock's Succubus Seduction cast without targetting it).
The Macro will cast Scatter Shot at your target if you aren't mousing over an enemy.
If you have Binding Shot talented instead of Scatter Shot, it will cast Binding Shot.
Intimidation (or High Explosive Trap if talented)
- #showtooltip [known:19577] intimidation; [known:236776] High Explosive Trap
- /cancelqueuedspell
- /stopcasting
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /Cast [known:19577,@mouseover, exists, harm] intimidation; intimidation
- /cast [known:236776] High Explosive Trap
This Macro will cast Intimidation at your mouseover if they exist (this is useful in BGs or world PvP to CC healers or to stun an enemy in arena who has just come out of stealth).
The Macro will cast Intimidation at your target if you aren't mousing over an enemy.
If you have High Explosive Trap talented instead of Intimidation, it will cast High Explosive Trap.
Chimaeral Sting (alt to cast on focus)
- #showtooltip Chimaeral Sting(PvP Talent)
- /cast [mod:alt,@focus,harm,nodead] [@mouseover,harm,nodead] [] Chimaeral Sting(PvP Talent)
This Macro will cast Chimaeral Sting on your mouseover if selected, your target if you don't have a mouseover, or your focus target if you press alt at the same time as the Macro.
I recommend also having a macro like this for utility spells such as Concussive Shot and Tranquilizing Shot.
Harpoon/Muzzle arena 1-3
- #showtooltip Harpoon
- /stopcasting
- /cast [@arena1] Harpoon
- /cast [@arena1] Muzzle
This Macro will Harpoon the first member of the enemy arena team (highest unit frame on your UI) if you are at range.
If you are in melee range of the target, it will Muzzle them.
You will mostly use this Macro to Harp to healers to interrupt and/or trap them. This saves you having to keybind Muzzle or arena 123 separately to Harpoon.
You want three of these macros, one for each of the three members of the enemy team, [@arena1], [@arena2], and [@arena3], respectively.
Intimidation arena 1-3
- #showtooltip Intimidation
- /stopcasting
- /cast [@arena1] Intimidation
This Macro will Intimidation the first member of the enemy arena team (highest unit frame on your UI).
You will mostly use this Macro to stun healers to land an easy Freezing Trap.
You want three of these macros, one for each of the three members of the enemy team, [@arena1], [@arena2], and [@arena3], respectively.
You will also want those three macros with Intimidation replaced with Scatter Shot so you can instantly crowd control anybody on the enemy team (it's nice to have with Concussive Shot too if you have the keybind space).
Pet utility
Command Pet (Master's Call, Fortitude of the Bear, Primal Rage)
- #showtooltip command pet
- /cast [@target, help] [@player] command pet
This will cast your pet's active ability.
If you have a friendly target and a cunning pet, it will cast Master's Call on your target (useful in BGs/world content)
Command Pet (to Master's Call partner)
- #showtooltip command pet
- /cast [@party1] command pet
This will cast Master's Call on your party member. You need this Macro for both party1 and party2 to remove important roots and snares (for example, Mass Entanglement and Solar Beam from a Balance Druid).
Pet attack
- #showtooltip Freezing Trap
- /petattack [@target]
- /cast dash
- /petattack [@target]
- /startattack [@target]
- /petautocaston savage rend
This Macro will command your pet to attack your target and use their sprint ability if available.
You can change the #showtooltip to whatever spell you want to track the cooldown of (this is a way to show the cooldown of a spell on your action bar when the Macro doesn't have a specific ability to show the icon or cooldown of).
Pet Follow
- #showtooltip Freezing Trap
- /petfollow
This Macro will command your pet to follow you.
You can change the #showtooltip to whatever spell you want to track the cooldown of.
Pet Move to
- #showtooltip Freezing Trap
- /petmoveto
- /stay
This Macro will command your pet to move to a specific location.
You can change the #showtooltip to whatever spell you want to track the cooldown of.
Fancy macros
Camouflage during combat macro
- #showtooltip Camouflage
- /stopcasting
- /petpassive
- /petfollow
- /stopattack
- /use [pet]Play Dead;[pet]Wake Up
- /cast !Feign Death
- /cast !Camouflage
This Macro will make it easier to cast Camouflage during combat.
It will put your pet on passive and cast Play Dead (the pet equivalent of Feign Death) so your pet will not keep you in combat. If you have put your pet on passive and it has not been attacked for two seconds before pressing this Macro, you will go into Camouflage when you press it even if Play Dead is on cooldown.
If you use this Macro and you're still in combat (but you aren't getting hit), you can run around a pillar and keep pressing it to enter Camouflage.
Target enemy pet macro
- /target arenapet1
This Macro will target the pet of the first member of the enemy team.
Use this Macro to quickly swap to enemy pets (for example a Beast Mastery Hunter or Demonology Warlock, which will have many pets at once), this Macro will target the correct pet instantly every time).
If you plan on using this Macro in a game, replace the 1 with the position of the enemy Hunter or Demonology Warlock on your unit frames so it will target their pet.
Use this when a Hunter or Warlock uses defensives or mobility to stay alive, and you want to maintain pressure by swapping to their pet.
Taunt enemy pet macro
- #showtooltip dismiss pet
- /cast dismiss pet
- /cast [@arenapet1, exists] growl; [@arenapet2, exists] growl; [@arenapet3, exists] growl
This Macro will command your pet to taunt enemy pets. You can put it on your action bars where Dismiss Pet is, which means you can use your existing Dismiss Pet keybind to taunt enemy pets.
Changelog
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 23 Mar. 2024: Guide re-written.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5
- 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 28 Feb. 2022: Page reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.5.
- 03 Jul. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.
- 30 Mar. 2021: No updates needed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 16 Oct. 2020: This page was checked for patch 9.0.1 and no updates were necessary.
- 28 Jan. 2020: Page added.
Other PvP Guides
This guide is written and maintained by Slo, a Multi-Gladiator and Multi-Rank 1 Solo Shuffle Hunter. You can find Slo on YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit
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