Is macroing pet abilities still a dps increase?

[Brad1959]

I ran out of macro slots, and am wondering if I still need to macro pet abilities (forcing me to have a separate macro for each spell and each pet).

[bluedot]

The reason you macro pet abilities is because there is a tiny delay between the time a pet ability comes off cooldown and when the pet AI causes him to use it again.
There has been no mention of a fix/change to this and it is still occurring on the PTS, so I would say yes.

[TheLithium]

Actually, as of the last update, I had to unmacro my zealot pet. It would constantly spam that the abilities could not be found. Maybe they changed the macro syntax? Or maybe its just me. Anyway, the dps was more or less the same (actually 3dps more) and I now have some free slots.

[Zaphrina]

Also took them out since last patch.

[Pricia]

Actually, as of the last update, I had to unmacro my zealot pet. It would constantly spam that the abilities could not be found. Maybe they changed the macro syntax? Or maybe its just me. Anyway, the dps was more or less the same (actually 3dps more) and I now have some free slots.

It happens to me also... really annoying. But usually relogging fixes it.

Last I checked though, there was still some time before the time the ability was up and when it was used.

[Benlisted]

I generally just remove my general channel from the ones I normally keep an eye on, so i don't see the error spam :P, helps when using a spec in overworld with a different pet out too.

[Akyaevin]

Actually, as of the last update, I had to unmacro my zealot pet. It would constantly spam that the abilities could not be found. Maybe they changed the macro syntax? Or maybe its just me. Anyway, the dps was more or less the same (actually 3dps more) and I now have some free slots.

This happened to me. I dismissed the companion I'd summoned and it started to work fine. Seems as if it was trying to make the companion cast the spells rather than my actual pet. Could then resummon my companion and continue to have it work, implying that it's based on the order you summon them (and my companion was above it in the list at first).

[Calibix]

As far as the OP, I haven't had time to test much lately, been working overtime and trying to fix up my new house so I honestly don't know.

On a side note, I've seen lots of macro's on the forums and was curious what people use as far as the order of the pets abilities. I use Bloodspike>Jagged Wounds>Soul Rend. I usually see Jagged Wounds as higher dps than Soul Rend unless I'm at the dummies where I can maintain 5 stacks of DC with ease. On necro/lock friendly boss fights, I rarely am dps so any advice would be much appreciated.

[bluedot]

Actually, as of the last update, I had to unmacro my zealot pet. It would constantly spam that the abilities could not be found. Maybe they changed the macro syntax? Or maybe its just me. Anyway, the dps was more or less the same (actually 3dps more) and I now have some free slots.

Ive never had it spam that the abilities could not be found, but a quick test on the dummies agrees that the DPS difference is tiny if at all.

@Calibix In my experience Blood Spike is the highest damage, so I put it at the front, followed by Soul Rend and Jagged Wound. I haven't done the nity grity theorycrafting on it, though. In theory it shouldn't make much difference since they all have different cooldowns and it will just use the next one off cooldown anyway.

[Diora]

I actually removed them, too, mainly because i noticed on my cleric (while playing druid) that my satyr wasn't using his abilities correctly (as in, according to the macro) and sometimes not at all. So I tested it on my zealot and the same thing was happening.

I have no idea if i was bugged or what, but when i turned autocast back on, my DPS went back up to "normal".

[Arcanas]

It is now safe to let your pet manage its own abilities!


Woohoo

[kalliades]

just to add, in case some people didn't already know, if you macro your pets abilities that have a cast time (ex. air elemental) spamming the macro just makes the pets spell interrupt constantly and it will never get a cast off, i tested this a couple of weeks ago but haven't since.

[Arcanas]

This has always worked like that, it was only the melee pets you needed to macro but now you dont