Shaman Keybindings and More

I have a huge post planned for a revisit of my UI, but its going to take some serious effort to put together, so you will have to wait a bit longer. I did promise a post on my shaman keybindings, macros, and mousebindings, so I’m going to share that first. A rogue version of this may come in the future, she is currently sitting on the back-burner as a profession mule while I gear up my Shaman.

These are all based on personal preference, and won’t feel efficient or comfortable for everyone. My tendencies are to bind the abilities I use most often to the easiest to reach places. I try to use as few modifiers as possible. These are constantly in flux (in fact I changed quite a few of them as I wrote this post) but this is the current state of things to be used as an illustrative example for anyone just getting started or looking to revamp.

The addons that I use for casting are: Bartender4, Grid, Clique and TotemTimers.

I’m currently using a Razer Naga mouse, so keep that in mind if things seem a bit strange.

Resto

Clique Mouse Bindings

I don’t bind anything to just Left-Click because I use it to target party members on Grid.

Keybindings with Mouseover Macros

Mouse over macros are very simple. Just use this form: /cast [@mouseover] spellname.

2 has always been my Shield, and even though it might be better off somewhere else, I couldn’t bear to move it.

Keybindings on Actionbar

Elemental

Clique Mouse Bindings

I don’t bind anything to just Left-Click because I use it to target party members on Grid.

Keybindings with Mouseover Macros

I put Cleanse Life in such a prime position mainly because that’s where it is in my Resto spec, and I also never had anything important there as Elemental anyways. I got very used to the positions of my DPS spells and can’t imagine changing them.

Keybindings on Actionbar

Other Keybindings

Most other keybinds are still set to the defaults.

Macros

“Nature’s Save”

#showtooltip
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast [@mouseover] Greater Healing Wave

I don’t know why I gave this one a quirky name, but essentially it uses Nature’s Grace + Greater Healing Wave for a big punch to the tank’s health when I don’t think it can wait for a cast. Learning when to use this is quite difficult – I tend to under-use it, but I’m getting better at it.

Wind Shear w/ Stopcasting

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast Wind Shear
Preventing avoidable damage in Cataclysm is more important than ever. Shaman have a very nice interrupt now with a 6 second cooldown. Unlike melee DPS, however we have the disadvantage of usually being in the middle of a cast when the boss begins the ability we need to interrupt. It may seem like you can finish your cast before the boss finishes his, but chances are you will be wrong. This macro kills my cast and casts Wind Shear immediately.

Purge w/ Stopcasting

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast Purge


Mana Tide w/ Trinket

#showtooltip Mana Tide Totem
/castsequence reset=180 Figurine - Dream Owl, Healing Stream Totem
/cast Mana Tide Totem

Basically what this does is the first time I hit it, it pops my trinket and Mana Tide totem, then the next time I hit it within 180 seconds it drops Healing Stream totem. This allows me to maximize the usage of my trinket and Mana tide, and quickly get my healing stream totem back up after mana tide is done.

EDIT 1/11/11: Mana Tide has been changed so that it is not affected by temporary buffs, so the above macro no longer applies.

Assist Macro

/assist [@focus,exists,noharm];[@target,exists,noharm];[@pet]
/target [@focus,exists,nodead,harm]

The macro works by doing the first action in this list that is true:

• If you have a focus that is unfriendly, target it.
• If you have a focus that is friendly, assist it. (target their target)
• If you have a target that is friendly, assist it.
• If you have a pet, assist it.

I usually focus on the tank and use it to target what he is targeting. I keep this on a hidden Bartender4 bar.

TotemTimers Bindings

Getting used to totems took me a very long time. I constantly struggled with the idea of totem sets, and dropping other totems on-the-fly during fights. To put every totem on its own keybinding seemed impossible, yet to click cast one was incredibly slow. TotemTimers saved me here, even after Blizzard updated the totem UI.

Basically I use a single totem set, which is dropped via keybind above. I change the makeup of this set before a fight if I know what I need. If I need to drop something during a fight, say Mana Tide for example, I’m able to to cast it with three keystrokes, which is still faster than clicking on it. With TotemTimers you can keybind the Open Menu capability. Each totem within a menu has a number assigned to it, so that is keybound as well. Basically you press the keybind to open the menu, and then the corresponding number, and the menu closes when you drop the totem. Here’s my setup:

It just so happens that the letters that the totem types begin with is the letter that they’re keybound to! They’re all in convenient reach of my left hand. I found this incredibly lucky, because its easy to remember. SHIFT + A is the most awkward, but I rarely need to cast an Air totem mid-fight.

I do put some short-lasting important totems like my Fire Elemental, Earthbind, Mana Tide, and Searing totem on my main bars for quicker access.

Other Reading

Beru from Falling Leaves and Wings put up a great post about her resto druid keybindings and Clique settings.