I’ve avoided Trap Launcher macros throughout Cataclysm mainly due to their inflexible and clunky nature. Most of the macros I’ve tried have suffered from one fatal flaw or another, and in the end, just wind up not being worth it. As such, I’ve gotten used to the act of manually using the ability for all of my traps.
However, recently I started working with a couple of macros that utilize Trap Launcher + Freezing Trap, and both are working famously for me, so I figured I’d share. 😀
First off, know that all Trap Launcher macros require two button presses no matter what. Trap Launcher initiates a Global Cooldown so there’s no way to macro it with a trap – using only one button press.
Trap Launcher + Freezing Trap Macro
This is a very simple macro that I started using, which sort of mimics our old ‘Freezing Arrow’ ability – only it requires two button presses instead of one.
You can spam this macro and it will not use Trap Launcher more than once (burning additional focus), nor will it cause you to lose your target circle. Two quick taps and you’re ready to click your target circle and lay your trap. Also, since this has no ‘castsequence reset=x’ flibbidy flab you can queue up another Trap Launcher + Trap right away if needed. For example, you can use this macro to trap a healer or approaching enemy player, then tap it again to just activate its Trap Launcher effect so that you can get an Entrapment proc on a different enemy by throwing some snakes at them. I can’t stand the Trap Launcher macros that impose a fake cooldown on the ability. This one does not.
#showtooltip Freezing Trap /cast Trap Launcher /cast !Freezing Trap /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
If you seldom PvP and would prefer to use this type of mechanic with Explosive Trap, then just substitute Freezing for Explosive.
In essence, this macro just replaces my plain ol’ Trap Launcher button. When launching any other trap besides Freezing Trap, I just hit it + the desired trap button.
Scatter Shot + Trap Launcher + Freezing Trap Macro
This one is a beauty. Press it once and it will Scatter Shot your current target, or your mouseover target if you have one selected. Press it again to activate Trap Launcher, then press it a third time to place your Freezing Trap target circle. This is an excellent macro because it combines three abilities which are almost always used together in PvP — Scatter Shot, Trap Launcher and Freezing Trap. Scatter Shot is often used to set the stage for trapping an enemy target, so it’s helpful having all three abilities tied to one button.
#showtooltip Scatter Shot /castsequence [@mouseover,harm][harm] reset=3 Scatter Shot, Trap Launcher, !Freezing Trap /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
A lot of pro players will activate Trap Launcher prior to Scatter Shot so that they have the ability queued already – allowing for a super-quick trap after Scatter’s been applied. This is a good approach, but it doesn’trequire a macro to execute. The logic behind my macro is that I’m merely adding some utility to my Scatter Shot button. I can simply Scatter Shot and nothing else, or I can trap as well. The reset timer in the macro is equal to the duration of the Scatter Shot effect in PvP, which means I can pause a few seconds to see if my enemy trinkets out of the Scatter. If so, I just press the button two quick times and I can trap them after they’ve blown their trinket.
This macro is spam-proof as well, so spamming it will not cause additional unnecessary uses of Trap Launcher, nor will you lose your target circle.
Alrighty… well give these macros a whirl and let me know how they work out for you. 🙂 If you like them and you want to try out a few more, please refer to my macros page.
Also, if any of you out there have some Trap Launcher macros that you recommend – PvP or otherwise – please post them in the comments below.
I love u…..seriously I love u so much. LOOOOOOOOVE!. <3
This s the first and only macro I have seen thus far that does EXACTLY what Im looking for. Mouseover scatter, with trap launcher and ice trap that is spammable without resetting itself/removing the flare marker thing for it. All the other ones if u spammed it a couple times itd still fall off or other issues 🙁
But seriously thank you so much I love it!
Thanks very much for this Gar, very helpful indeed. It’s a shame though that we have to go to these lengths to pull off our best CC when most every other class can do theirs with one click. (Just starting playing a mage in arena, poly focus is simply 1 key press that can seamlessly be woven into blizzing the main dps target rofl simple compared to what we have to do to get same cc duration and dont even mention druids and their cyclone…).
An alternative solution to macroing that has worked very well for me is to use a hardware solution. Many keyboards and some mice allow you to record keystrokes. I have a Naga and use the scroll wheel click button for my trap, For me this has proved the most reliable way to trap as its very intuitive to click the middle wheel to get reticule then click mouse to set. I know this, strictly speaking, is contrary to rules of use but then I figure that since Blizzard broke our trap in the first place so its only fair.Just one note for anyone using this, set short intervals of around 20 ms between keystrokes and a longer one of around 150ms between the launcher and the trap.
Should have mentioned, this solution allows you to fire a trap with one click, pretty identical to how it was in WOTLK before Blizz broke it.
I have a G19 keyboard which can do something similar, although I haven’t messed with those features… yet.
I approve this message!
But I spend a lot of time in random BGs with my small guild, and so I was hoping to nab a bit more utility out of this, but I can’t seem to make it work.
/cast Trap Launcher
/cast [mod:shift]!Snake Trap; [mod:ctrl]!Ice Trap; !Freezing Trap
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
Any ideas as to how I can make this work? Or if it’s possible? Thanks again.
I did some digging, and it’s a LITTLE gobbledeegook, but not really that bad. Now, all I have to do is find out how to make this work with keybindings, lol. Here’s the macro —
#showtooltip
/castsequence [nomod] reset=3 Trap Launcher, !Explosive Trap
/castsequence [mod:alt] reset=3 Trap Launcher, !Ice Trap
/castsequence [mod:shift] reset=3 Trap Launcher, !Freezing Trap
/castsequence [mod:ctrl] reset=3 Trap Launcher, !Snake Trap
So after I used this in game a bit, I realize this isn’t really a good way to go about this. The biggest detriment is not being able to actually see the cooldowns on my traps, because it’s all reduced to one button (not to mention, the castsequence reset is fudgy somehow..). Thus, I took your original macro and simply applied it to my other traps with modifier keys and dedicated a short bar in Bartender4 as a “trap bar”. Trap launcher is bound to one key, while the actual traps are bound to the modifiers of said key. I think this works out great, because it still preserves the utility of the “one button trap launcher macro” but gives me the ability to see the traps on a dedicated bar with their remaining cooldown.
Trap Launcher macros are a pain in the ass for sure, and I’ve found that they can behave poorly depending upon whether your traps are in the bars or not. I tested out quite a few variations of macros, and as I recall, you need to have the traps in your action bars somewhere – even if the bars are not visible. In turn, this means you still need at least five separate action bar slots with a #showtooltip TrapName if you’re to macro all of your traps.
My suggestion would be to copy Chloroformist’s Freezing Trap macro and duplicate it for all of your traps – making sure each trap type has its own #showtooltip with trap type identifier, i.e., Frost Trap(Frost), Explosive Trap(Fire), Snake Trap(Nature). That’s a solid macro.
This is the Freezing Trap Launcher macro I created for my own purposes:
#showtooltip Freezing Trap(Frost)
/use [mod:shift] Freezing Trap(Frost)
/stopmacro [mod]
/castsequence reset=9 Trap Launcher, !Freezing Trap(Frost – Trap Launcher), nil
This one sets a Freezing Trap at your feet if you use the shift key modifier and stops the macro, and just does the normal double-tap Launcher sequence if you don’t use any modifier. Of course, you can substitute any Trap in this macro.
Sometimes, I’ll just use this though:
#showtooltip
/cast Trap Launcher
/cancelaura Trap Launcher
And just to share, here’s my Scatter Shot macro:
#showtooltip Scatter Shot
/stopcasting
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/cancelaura Deterrence
/use [@mouseover,harm][harm] Scatter Shot
Hope this helps. I’d love some criticism if anyone has some.
Thanks.
I like your Trap Launcher / Freezing Trap macro. I’m curious as to why a lot of PvP macros have /stopcasting in them twice. Guess I’ll need to research that a bit.
You need the double /stopcasting command to interrupt your steady shot casts. I find that for whatever reason, 1 command line doesn’t do it.
#showtooltip
/castsequence [nomod] reset=7, !Trap Launcher, !Freezing Trap, nil
/cast [mod:shiftl] !Ice Trap; [mod:ctrl] !Snake Trap; [mod:alt] !Explosive Trap;
/cancelaura [mod:shift,mod:alt] Trap Launcher
Sweet Jeebus thank you, I’ve been trying to write my own trap launcher macro for like 3 weeks now…
Hey Gar,
I find that I am launching different traps for different situations in arenas/rbgs, so I don’t just want a dedicated freezing trap macro. What I’ve done instead is to bind my trap launcher to scatter shot and just avoid button mashing altogether. Hopefully this helps some hunters out there.
#showtooltip Scatter Shot
/petattack [@focus]
/cast [@focus] growl
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/cancelaura Deterrence
/stopcasting
/stopcasting
/cast [mod:shift,@focus][@mouseover, harm][harm] Scatter Shot
/castsequence reset=14 Trap Launcher
What this macro does is cancel pally bubble or deterrence and have my pet growl off any shammy totems that could prevent the freezing trap, before activating the trap launcher and casting the actual scatter shot. In addition, if I have a focus target up, holding shift and then this macro scattershots the focus target. It’s been pretty convenient to help cut down on all the key binds. If you use this macro, you just have to keep in mind that your pet will continue attacking the target if you don’t end up using the freezing trap. In situations where I’m simply scattershotting an enemy to peel him off a teammate, I’ll manually pull the pet off. However, in most situations, it’s not that big a deal as most of the time I’ll be dropping off a different type of trap, such as frost/snake in order to hold the target even longer.
Thanks for sharing that, pepprdgefarm. That’s exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping to see from others when I posted this.
I haven’t done any arena for awhile, but I still am thinking about incorporating Growl into a macro or two.
Cheers.
Hey Gar,
Well Ive been reading your site for quite some time. I think you and Frostheim have been doing such a great job informing and teaching everyone about the right way to be the hunter. I do believe the hunter class has the best resources to insure everyone meets their full potential. Too bad we always don’t feel that love. Anyways, I’ve been searching and searching for trap macros and you’ve provided me with two great ones. I knew I must use the scatter trap macro and it has already saved me so much time and effort. Especially since Im using a regular laptop and mouse to play, I try to minimize how many keys I must press. Thanks again and Ive been sending any new or old hunter to your guides. Hopefully they’ve found it as helpful as I. Keep up the good work! BM FTW!
Tersky- Black Dragonflight
I appreciate the kind words and the referrals, Tersk! Thank you.