Extending Vocola (More Commands)

One of the tricks to making the most out of voice dictation (and Vocola in particular, I think) is that you must be willing to continually improve upon the way you do things. The command you wrote three months ago and that has served you well since can likely be improved upon in response to a changing play style. This post explains three techniques I have recently introduced into my gameplay: using dynamically declared variables to heal your off-tank, issuing multiple commands at a time, and dragging and dropping.

Dynamic Variables

I have previously demonstrated how one can pre-define an array of values as an available variable for use in a macro, allowing you to write just one macro to handle all spells of a particular type (targeted, helpful; targeted, harmful; untargeted). This can be expanded further, however, by using the Variable Vocola extension:

This simple extension allows you to remember things between commands during the same session. For example, you could remember the current contents of the clipboard (obtained via Clipboard.Get()) for inserting later via a different command. By session, it is meant that all these variables are forgotten each time you exit Vocola or use the “load extensions” command.
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Community Spotlight: Holding out for a Healer (Machinima)

One of my favorite things about returning to the world of Azeroth has often been catching up on and discovering new, amazing machinima, machinima like Holding out for a Healer a collaborative effort between Kruithne (Song/Machinima), Sharm (Vocals/Mixing), and Letomi (Choir Vocals). Give it a listen and, since you will undboutedly love it as much as I do, give it a download so you can regale your coworkers and guildmates with a ballad of your restorative superiority.

Best Druid Titles

What’s in a title? An in-game title can be a glamorous advertisement of objectively determined skill — as with The Proven Healer or Battlemaster. Or it can be an indicator of how one enjoys spending their time: Loremaster, Professor, Bloodsail Admiral (each of which is likely to be an indication of a masochistic personality). Pursuing a special title is a completely optional exercise, and yet I think many players have a special affinity for a moniker that has struck a chord with how they view their character.

Of course, not all players feel the need to pursue this particular avenue of achievement. When asked why his character sports no title at all, Mr. Phae gamely replied, “You only need a special title when other players don’t already know who you are.”

Dramatization of Mythic+ LFG with no Title

To my mind, there are really three distinct categories into which the most desirable Druid-oriented titles fall:

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Raiding with Voice Recognition (Nighthold)

By popular request, I have created and uploaded two YouTube videos from our Normal Nighthold adventures this week: Elisandre and Skorpyron. Because it was important to observe the voice commands I was using, I was unable to exclude our voice chatter. (I believe that to do so, I would have to install a second soundcard, but someone please correct me if I’m wrong.) These are not the only videos that I created, but I have a tendency to die to stupid effects during our Heroic runs, due to the inherent latency of voice recognition. Please comment below with any questions you have.

Thanks for watching!

Leveling Restoration in Legion

Shaikov of Garona (US) writes:

Hey there, I was just wondering how you leveled your Resto Druid in Legion. I feel like a lot of people say choosing a DPS spec is totally viable because of the way artifacts work but at the same time it kind of [frustrates me] to keep on changing between raids/dungeons and [World Quests]. What do you recommend?

Although I leveled as Restoration all the way through Wrath of the Lich King, once Blizzard introduced zero-cost talent respecs, I have been less dogmatic about avoiding at least one of our other two (now three) talent specializations. I recognize that my DPS as a Balance-specced Druid is abysmal, but it is still an improvement over that of my Restoration specialization, so I generally elect to make the switch when engaging in World Quests. However, I think it is totally viable to level exclusively Restoration, especially with the heroics (and a not insubstantial amount of showboating) of our Legion bodyguard, Broll Bearmantle. Simply set him as your focus and ensure your healing macros are set up to preferentially heal your focus if one exists (and can be helped). Something like this:

/use [@mouseover,help][@target,help][@focus,help][@player] Rejuvenation

Likewise, you can set your harmful spell macros to preferentially target your focus’s target, assuming you don’t already have something else targeted yourself. This can be useful when fighting multiple mobs. Something like this:

/use [@target,harm,nodead][@focustarget,harm,nodead][@targettarget,harm,nodead][@target] Sunfire

Note that the [nodead] modifier helps to ensure you’re not happily nuking away at a corpse. The final [@target] modifier may seem redundant but ensures that your spell displays the correct icon, even if you don’t have an enemy targeted.