For this article, I wanted to be short and to the point. The topic for this is macros. Macros basically simplify certain actions or sequences of actions for players to accomplish in a single keystroke, thereby reducing the chance of human error as well as reducing the overall reaction time involved in performing said actions. A simple example would be a Death Knight wanting to Strangulate an enemy healer. While it is certainly possible to just tab target or manually click target the healer and then cast Strangulate, it simplifies and speeds up the process a lot better by using a simple focus strangulate macro (setting the healer as your focus target and hitting the macro when needed). For today's article, I wanted to cover just some of the general macros, Death Knight macros, and Warrior macros I use.

General

1. Basic Weapon Swap:

/equip Betrayer of Humanity
/equip Deadly Gladiator's Greatsword

This will swap between the 2-handed weapons each keypress. This is useful for weapon swapping to a 2nd weapon that has a Swordshattering runeforge on it when you expect to be disarmed to reduce the duration by half.

2. Weapon swap when weapons have identical names, for example, 2 Sinister Revenges and you want a macro to swap a 3rd dagger to your off-hand:

/equipslot 17 0 1

If you place your 3rd dagger in the first bag slot, this will swap your offhand (slot 17) with the first item in your bag (the 1 stands for first item, the 0 stands for main backpack). This should put your off-hand Sinister Revenge in the first bag slot now and then you can just hit the macro again to put the weapon back on.

3. Party spell-casting:

/cast [target=name]spell
or
/cast [target=party1]spell (replace 1 with #1-5 for party member numbers)

Replace spell with whatever spell you want to macro to cast on your party members and you can now cast them without having to select the party members first.

4. Useful mount macro:

/dismount
/script if ((GetZoneText()=="Wintergrasp") or ((GetZoneText()=="Dalaran") and (GetSubZoneText() ~="Krasus' Landing"))) then CallCompanion("MOUNT", 10);end
/cast [flyable] Black Proto-Drake; Swift White Hawkstrider

Replace the #10 with whatever mount slot your ground mount is in; replace Black Proto-Drake with your flying mount and Swift White Hawkstrider with your ground mount name. This macro will then allow you to use your ground/flying mount automatically depending on your location (arenas, dalaran, krasus landing, wintergrasp, etc).

Death Knight

1. Focus Strangulate:
/cast [target=focus] strangulate

Will cast strangulate on your focus target obviously; can replace this with gnaw and other abilities for other focus cc macros.

2. Corpse Explosion:
#showtooltip Corpse Explosion
/target pet
/cast Corpse Explosion
/targetlasttarget

Corpse Explosion is a very underrated ability. When it is used on your ghoul, it explodes for 25% of its total HP in shadow damage, which is further modified by other debuffs such as Ebon Plague. My ghoul typically explodes for 5500-6000 damage non-crit in arena. This macro is the only way for it to be instantly casted on your pet without manual targetting.

3. Totem Stomp:

#showtooltip Rune Strike
/cast Rune Strike
/petattack [target=Disease Cleansing Totem]
/petattack [target=Mana Tide Totem]
/petattack [target=Grounding Totem]
/petattack [target=Earthbind Totem]

Because Rune Strike is an ability you can spam without fear of wasting anything and also an ability you basically want to always use when available, it also becomes the best macro ability for totem stomping. This will have your pet running around killing any totems you designate like the ones I've listed here.

4. Pet stun:

/cast leap
/cast gnaw

This will have your pet leap at your target and stun them also. Make sure you keep auto-leap off to do this.

Warrior

1. My awesome all-in-one charge/intervene/intercept macro:

/cast [help,stance:2,target=targettarget]Intervene;[help,stance:2]Intervene; [help,nostance:2]Defensive Stance; [combat,harm,nostance:3]Berserker Stance;[nocombat,nostance:1]Battle Stance;[combat,harm,stance:3]Intercept;[nocombat,stance:1]Charge

This macro is really useful. If you're out of combat and you hit it, it will put you in battle stance and charge your target. If you're too close to charge or placed in combat, you'll be switched to berserker stance and attempt to intercept the target. If you're targetting a friendly unit, it will put you in defensive stance and intervene the target.

2. Spell reflect:

#showtooltip Spell Reflection
/cast [nostance:1] Battle Stance
/equip Brutal Gladiator's Cleaver
/equip Brutal Gladiator's Shield Wall
/cast spell reflection

This is usually a better macro than swapping to defensive stance because a lot of casters use the defensive stance graphic as an indication that a warrior is about to use spell reflect and will be ready to waste it. Battle stance makes it much less obvious and incredibly easier to get the spells you want reflected.

3. Disarm / Overpower:

#showtooltip disarm
/cast [nostance:2] defensive stance
/cast disarm

#showtooltip Overpower
/cast [nostance:1] battle stance
/cast overpower

Simple disarm and overpower macros:

4. Weapon Swap 1h/shield -> 2h:

/equipslot 16 Brutal Gladiator's Cleaver
/equipslot 17 Brutal Gladiator's Shield Wall
/equip Brutal Gladiator's Decapitator

Another weapon swap macro, this time swapping between sword and board and a 2-hander.

Hopefully people can find these macros useful and maybe even share some of your own.