Macro Guide for World of Warcraft

By Anshlun Updated: 2025/09/11

What are Macros in World of Warcraft?

Macros cannot use tools not normally accessible to players.

Macros can only trigger one global cooldown. When the global cooldown is triggered, it cancels the remainder of the macro.

Macros cannot be programmed to make decisions for the player, like "heal the target with least HP".

Accessing the Macro Screen

Open the Game Menu (Shortcut Esc) and then select Macros.

Type /macro in the chat box and hitting Enter.

120 macros18 macrosCreating a Macro in World of WarcraftMacro ScreenNewChange Name/IconWriting Your First Macro in World of WarcraftIce BlockDispersionFocus/focusMost Popular Macro Slash Commands and Modifiers in World of WarcraftMacro Tip: A little trick you can do is to add #showtooltip to the start of a macro to have the macro behave as if it was the ability from the spellbook itself, overriding names and adding result spell's tooltip shown in the macro.Chat/Emote Macro Commands

Command

Function

/e or /emote

Prints a message as if your character had emoted it

/s or say

Your character will say the message after the command

Combat Macro Commands

Command

Function

/stopcasting

Immediately stops your current spell cast or channel, if happening

/targetlasttarget

Changes your target to the last unit you had targeted

/cast

Casts the spell with the name input after it from your spell book. (i.e. /cast Fireball )

/castif existsisn't deadan enemyconditional@target=

Command

Function

@arena1

Targets the first unit in the Arena frames. This is a PvP-only modifier, usually only available during arena matches. There are more variants like arena2, arena3, etc.

@boss1

Targets the first unit in the Boss frames. Usually only available during Dungeon and Raid encounters. There are more variants like boss2, boss3, etc.

@cursor

Targets the spell in the terrain the mouse is currently hovering (only available for spells with reticle targeting, like Mass Dispel or Blizzard).

@focus

Targets the focus target.

@mouseover

Targets the spell on the target that the mouse is currently hovering.

@pet

Target the player's pet.

@player

Targets the player.

@target

Targets the player's current target.

@targettarget

Targets the target's target. For instance, when used targeting a Boss, it will target the tank or whoever the boss has targeted in that instant.

noexactnoharmhelp

Command

Function

advflyable

true if you are currently somewhere you can skyride.

button:number

(or btn) used to check with which mouse button you activated the macro. is the default, left button, right, middle. For mouses with more buttons the number of them button follows the pattern for the option.

channeling

true if you are currently channeling a spell.

combat

true if you're in combat.

dead

true if the target for the cast is dead.

equipped:slot

(or worn) true if you have an item equipped in the slot. For instance, will be true if you have a chest piece equipped.

exists

true if the target for the cast exists.

flyable

true if you are currently somewhere you can fly.

flying

true if you are currently flying.

form:number or stance:number

true if the character is currently in the given form/stance of a given id. List below.

group

true if you are currently in a group. Can be specialized to or .

harm

true if the target for the cast is an enemy.

help

true if you can aid the target for the cast.

indoors

true if you are currently in a position that is considered indoors.

known:spellID or known:spellName

Used to check if your character knows how to cast a certain spell. Useful for macros that should change depending on talents learned

mounted

true if you are currently mounted.

outdoors

true if you are currently in a position that is considered outdoors.

pet

true if the player has a current pet.

petbattle

true if you are in a pet battlet

pvpcombat

true if you can use PvP Talents.

resting

true if you're in a rested area like a city or an inn.

spec:number

true if you're currently in the specialization given by the number. Specializations are ordered in alphabetical order and can be checked in the Specializations Menu.

swimming

true if you are currently swimming.

List of Forms per Class

Druid

Bear Form
Cat Form
Travel Form/Aquatic Form/Flight Form
Moonkin Form
Treant Form If you don't have Moonkin Form learned, Treant form will return "4" instead

Priest

Shadowform

Rogue

Stealth
Vanish/Shadow Dance (For Subtlety Rogues, all three return "1" instead).

Shaman

Ghost Wolf

Warrior

Command

Function

mod:shift

true if the keybind was pressed while the SHIFT key was pressed.

mod:alt

true if the keybind was pressed while the ALT key was pressed.

mod:ctrl

true if the keybind was pressed while the CTRL key was pressed.

General Commands

Command

Function

/run

(or /script) Execute the message after it as a LUA script (scripting language present in WoW addons and scripts.

/use

uses the item with the name written after the command. Can also be used with numbers, which will cause it to use the item equipped in the slot of that number.
(i.e. /use Potion of Prolonged Power or /use 14 to use your second trinket)

1 - Head

2 - Neck

3 - Shoulder

4 - Shirt

5 - Chest

6 - Waist

7 - Legs

8 - Feet

9 - Wrist

10 - Hands

11 - Finger 1

12 - Finger 2

13 - Trinket 1

14 - Trinket 2

15 - Back

16 - Main hand

17 - Off hand

19 - Tabard

More Advanced Macro GuidesOfficial WoW Forumspost on the Official Forums

Comments

Comment by mymy379

Excellent guide! All the basic info conveniently placed in 1 place (instead of digging through wowpedia pages like I normally do), in an easy to read format.
Also, Macro Menu can be accessed with just '/m' for maximum lazyness :P

Edit: Just noticed the guide is missing some specialized conditionals, full list can be found https://wow.gamepedia.com/Macro_conditionals, in addition to links already present at the bottom of the guide.

Edit2: WoWwiki moved, https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Macro_conditionals is far likelier to receive any further updates.

Comment by bleuwolfe

thank you thank you THANK YOU for this guide, you have no idea how long I've been wanting one so I can make up my own (working!) macros instead of having to search for someone else posting one for something I want to do.

And anyone who's never tried a macro should really give it a spin, they make life so much easier :)

Comment by Aprune

Nice guide, but missing some elements :

Could explain the meaning of brackets, especially the consecutive ones. Same for the use of consecutive options, separated with a semicolon.
Missing the form condition, which is greatly useful for Druids (but for Shadow Priests too, and Warriors if stances are getting back)
One error though :
pet - true if the player has no pet currently.

should be the other way around.

Comment by Gothy

Saving this and coming back to it later. :D

Comment by Shurai

why no druid form's under conditions?

Comment by 509794

/focus command does not work in the current Classic patch

Comment by Aerynsun8449

I have been trying to get the nodead to work with /target with no success. I've tried;
/target Shadow Panther
/target Shadow Panther
/target Shadow Panther

Everything I try targets the Shadow Panther I just killed. How do I get it to ignore the dead ones?

Comment by ArxonHavenloft

So is there a way in Classic to format a Talisman of Ephemeral Power macro in this manner:?:

-If Cooldown(TOEP) = 0
then /Use TOEP
else /Cast ShadowBolt(Rank 9).

Comment by kelitaur

Can an "instant" from the Heart of Azeroth neck piece be macro'd?

Comment by EatFish

Hi Lovely guide
I tried and tried.. but no cigar-

Any chance anyone could help me out with a macro for my rouge=?
I tried to make a countdown macro for using my Shroud of Concealment, but alas no luck.
no problem in getting.

/s Shroud up
/cast Shroud of Concealment

to work

But I cannot get a countdown timer to say when shroud is running out.

I do not want an addon for just this.

In advance.

Thanks for any help/suggestions

Comment by Boondoggles

/cast ' is doing.

In another comment, someone asked about having multiple sets of brackets, semicolons, etc. I will try to explain that here:

/use spell1; spell2;spell3;spell4

- In any set of 'conditions', you are looking at an all-or-nothing. In the case of 'moreconditions', spell2 will only be /used if ALL of the 'moreconditions' are met.
- Inside a 'set of conditions'/square-brackets, you can view the commas as the word 'AND'. E.g. "/use Rejuvenation" essentially means "use rejuvenation @ a-target-if-I-have-one AND I can help said target"
- However, spell1 has two sets of conditions, which is essentially two chances at an 'all-or-nothing', or in logical/coding terms, an 'or'. If either 'setofconditions' is evaluated to 'true', or 'anothersetofconditions' is evaluated to true, spell1 will be /used, otherwise, it will go on to check further into the macro
- The semicolons can be largely viewed as 'else' or 'else if'... in the example above, the macro is going to always/eventually try 'else spell4' if all of the previous conditionals in the same line had failed

tl;dr if there multiple sets of without semicolons before a spell/item/whatever name, it is saying if ANY of these are true, do the thing, otherwise a semicolon denotes an 'else' or 'else if', indicating a new set of evaluations will commence for the next (IF ANY!) conditions

Comment by Unaffiliated

(Tested 9.1 Shadowlands) on a hunch I tried and confirmed that there is currently a macro conditional for Warmode, but only as a generalised spec, so you can’t have it change automatically with your talent selections.

/cast ability

Also

/cast ability

I hope this helps anyone else searching for macro solutions.

Comment by alanwelch91

can you add a bit on castsequence macros?

Comment by RealRevChris

I do not know what Dragonflight has broken, but I can not get the
/cast SPELL1, SPELL2, SPELL3, SPELL4

or &several others. The changes the macro button, but just shows a "?" & no spell. Anyone figure this out?

Comment by Kessyra

Can anyone help me. I would like both spells to work @mouseover but I'm not sure how to do this. This one doesn't work. Barbed shot will cast at mouseover but that overrides Kill Shot.
Thank you

/use Barbed Shot
/castKill Shot

Comment by morituri

Please excuse my ignorance. Why many macros begin with the "showtooltip" line?

Comment by Raffo42

Something I just spent way too long on:

When turning a targetable AoE into an instant @cursor, it of course works with
/cast Ring of Peace

It even works just like that with most modifiers:
/cast Ring of Peace

But sometimes, the cast with one specific modifier (for me it was alt) is cast @player, even tho the macro still says @cursor?
/cast Ring of Peace

Go to menu > options > gameplay: combat > set the "self cast key" to "none" and free your modifier!

Comment by JunoDeez

I have a simple question but just can’t figure it out. I made the macro:

#showtooltip
/equipset NoN
/equipset PvP

It’s simple left click puts on regular equipment in my equipment manager and right click puts on the PVP set of gear. It works it’s simple and easy. The issue i have is I don’t know what gear i have on. I wanted to put a simple print to my screen that it changed gear to pvp or changed gear to my “non pvp gear”

Or should i just scrap the macro entirely and try something else.

What im trying todo is have a way to simply change gear to pvp gear and back without having to look all over the place to see what gear i have on etc. just change gear and go and I know what gear i have on.

Comment by Benderbot

Leaving this here in a comment because this is one of the first things on google that pops up and I can never find it. Earlier this year they changed the API for spec swaps and shortened it to

/spn {spec name}

Comment by Daghda

I am still so incredibly confused :(

Comment by Bellena

You're missing mod:cmd from the modifiers.
It's the macOS command key, and I assume the windows key.

Comment by hsvi78

bonjour, je suis druide et je cherche a avoir une macro qui met permet de lancer un eclat lunaire et qui me fait revenir en fome de felin apres. merci je suis nul en macro

Comment by TheLazyRangers

Raid Target Macro for Midnight

to make an easy macro for midnight raid marking. Choose the number b/w 1-8 (8 is skull and work backwards) Then type the following

/tm 8

that’s it. It will require you to click on the target b4 u mark it though.

Macro Guide for World of Warcraft

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