Understanding castsequence
/castsequence allows you to create a rotation of abilities to be used in normal Macros. WOW expects that this will be on a normal macro. /castsequence spell1, spell2, spell3 would cycle from spell1 to spell2 to spell3 to spell1 again. Castsequences follow all the normal rules but have modifiers to reset the cycle back to the beginning. Here is the documentation on CastSequences
- https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/MACRO_castsequence
- https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/MACRO_cast
- https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Macro_conditionals
This is the most important things to be aware of with castsequences lines. Castsequence lines will also not progress to the next spell until the current spell is cast. for Example /castsequence Judgement, Templar's Verdict This line will get stuck as Judgement generates 2 Holy Power but Templar's Verdict needs 3 Holy Power to cast. This line will get stuck until you have 3 Holy Power. No matter how many times you press it, it wont do anything.
Castsequences can be mixed into GSE sequences but you need to watch this limitation and turn it to an advantage. Also when reading a castsequence in a GSE sequence it doesn't progress how you would immediately expect.
Action 1: /cast spell1
Action 2: /castsequence spell2, spell3, spell4
Action 3: /cast spell5
The way this works is that spell1 casts then moves to line two and attempts spell2 then moves to line 3 and attempts spell5. It then resets and starts again with spell 1. If spell2 worked last time it now casts spell3, spell 5, spell 1 then if spell3 worked spell4 and on.
THe first common problem is Generators and Spenders of a resource on the same line. This leads to macros getting stuck. Instead of a macro like /castsequence Judgement, Templar's Verdict If its just the two spells make them two different cast lines. For more complex examples like Demonology Warlocks put the generators into one castsequence and the spenders into another eg;
/cast Life Tap
/castsequence [nochanneling] Doom, Demonbolt, Demonbolt, Demonbolt
/castsequence [nochanneling] Call Dreadstalkers, Demonic Empowerment
/castsequence reset=15 spell1,spell2 is supposed to wait 15 seconds and then reset. Except thats not what reset=15 means. It means that if I dont press the button to attempt to use this spell in 15 seconds then reset. The second you spam this button it resets the timer. This only will work if its the only line in a GSE macro and nothing in PreMacro or PostMacro and you DONT HIT THE BUTTON.
A normal castsequence's behaviour is to repeat back to the beginning when you get to the end. You can glitch a castsequence by putting a nonsensical name, essentially a fake ability that you do not know, at the end of a castsequence so it never repeats. Doing this has the advantage that it doesn't lock the GCD so can be mixed with other spells. Originally we would use null as the fake ability. This works till it doesn't and is random. The name of what you put here is less important than putting something you don't know and will never know.
/castsequence reset=target Agony, Corruption, null
/cast Shadowbolt
This action will cast Agony, Corruption then Shadowbolt over and over until we change targets.
The key to this is that null is not a spell. Except it is an item and is an abbreviation of a spell. Sometimes Blizzard goes oh, you are trying to cast null. You must mean Nullification Barrier. Oh, you can’t cast that yet. Wait it’s a GCD ability so I will lock the rest of your macro. As Nullification Barrier is on the GCD, so even though it’s not in your class and you don't know it, the rest of your macro can lock.
There are two types of locks- a GCD lock and castsequence locks.
If you are using /castsequence lines in your macro, there are several gotchas you MUST become familiar with. The first is it’s broken and inconsistent. You may respond but it’s always worked for me. Just wait till it starts acting weird and remember this post. Blizzard is aware of the problems; however, it is not inclined to fix them as in the scenarios they have designed castsequence for it works fine.
You need to know every spell in a castsequence. If you don’t, the castsequence will get stuck. A castsequence won’t progress unless the current attempted cast succeeds. If the spell you are attempting is on cooldown or doesn’t have the resource, or the gcd is in effect, it won’t succeed and will loop back to the same point. There are generators for things like holy power or combo points, etc. If your castsequence is trying to do a finisher and you don’t have the points, it will sit there and keep trying until you do have the points.
GCD locks happen when you try to cast two or more abilities simultaneously. The rules are simple first in, first served. You need to think of each line in the sequence part of your macro like the hamburger patty. There are buns above and below it and other layers around it. When you press a key, that entire stack is sent to WoW. The first GCD ability that meats the modifiers and conditions is the only one processed, irrespective of whether it’s on cooldown or not or able to be cast or not. Even putting GCD spells from other classes can lock the stack.
The War Within has introduced a new quirk to castsequences. /castsequences in macrotext (within an action in GSE) are ignoring all the reset clauses. This is a bug at Blizzards end and there is no ETA on when this will be fixed. In the interim the workaround is to create a normal /macro containing your castsequence and referencing it by name in the Macro block.
Castsequence is buggy at Blizzards end and will do whatever it wants. It’s been broken this way since it was removed in the beta of BfA and shoehorned back in 1 day before launch. The overall rule is this: if you need it to work don’t use a castsequence as 50% of the time it works every time.