Sharing a "discovery" (maybe :p)

[Layrajha]

If, some days ago, someone had ask me "How can I cast Mass Dispel or Lightwell on myself in a macro, in one click, without clicking the ground?", I would have answered "The 3D world and the UI are really dissociated, and you cannot simulate the click on the ground like that, thus it's impossible".

However, a pure coincidence made me realize that I was wrong.



A priest asked me how to cast Ligthwell, and then ping the center of the minimap, so that people could know where to go. I suggested a macro that was roughly:

/cast Lightwell
/run Minimap:PingLocation(0,0)

This macro didn't appear to work properly. In fact, if, for example, you are inside an instance and try this, you will only get an "Out of line of sight" or "Out of range" message. Lightwell will not cast, and you won't see any minimap ping.

However, if you are outside, in a plain area, and try the macro, it will cast Lightwell on yourself (and there will be no minimap ping either).



The reason is that you can cast spells like Mass Dispel, Lightwell, Blizzard, Volley, Grenades or anything like that by clicking on the spell, and then on your minimap. It will attempt to cast the spell on a location centered under your miniamp ping.

If you are inside a building, it is likely that it will try to cast your spell on the roof. Thus, you won't be in line of sight, or sometimes even not in range. But outdoor, it will work.

Thus, outdoor, some basic tweaking of the macro above would let you script a place where to cast Blizzard. From "On myself" to "15 yards in front of me" or "5 yards to the north", to more complicated things, like "On one of my pre-defined keypoints, if I am in range of them".

Picture! A still-non-blocked spell-related automated decision!



I wonder if it's something "known" and if I'm like 3 years late discovering this (from the click on the minimap, to the Minimap:PingLocation(x,y)), I wonder if it's really exploitable (in which case, I think Slouken should be informed, but unfortunately I have no US account to post on the US forums).

It would also require a little bit more testing to see if it works in outdoor instances, and in "non instanced" buildings. I have currently tested only in indoor instances, and totally outdoor (because of a lack of time), but I don't think that being in an instance or outside an instance can change anything (sure, you have no working coordinates, but minimap pings work in instances, so...).



Let me know what you think about this

[Slakah]

Thats pretty nifty. I doubt it would be useful with AoE spells, but with lightwell it might be interesting. Also is Minimap:PingLocation() a secure function? if not you could probably use it in conjunction with say indemand and cast after a delay.

[Layrajha]

Indeed, this function isn't secured. That means that, for instance, you can ping to a scripted location.

In PvP, it's usually quite easy to face your target. Pick this mage who's right in front of you. He'll ice block soon. You press your Mass Dispel macro, which casts mass dispel and calls an addon's function to:
- wait until it parses a combat log event that shows that the mage has iceblocked
- set the minimap to its "direction that i'm facing on top", instead of "north on top"
- check the range from you to the mage (it's unfortunately not accurate, but well...)
- pings the minimap depending on this range using clever pre-set values
- sets the minimap back to its original state

Assuming that you keep facing the macro properly all the time, and as mages can't move while in iceblock, it would be an effective way to cast mass dispel on the mage instantly when he iceblocks (no need to press your hotkey, and no need to click on the 3D world either: 2 operations removed).



The problem is that it's really not working indoor, and that you need to be facing the direction precisely to compensate the lack of accuracy of the range information :<

[Jaffy]

Its ashamed that this will no longer work, so people reading this thread and interested in trying it out, dont:

Originally Posted by Blizz's 2.4.3 patch notes You can no longer click the minimap to cast ground targeted spells

Oh well, props on the good idea anyways...