I've never been a fan of macros for rogues. Why? Because mostly all the macros I see are bull shit macros for lazy-ass rogues. You know, macros that contain multiple abilities so that, when you hit the macro once, it does one thing... hit it again, it does another, and so on. 'Freak that. If I want to Premeditate, Shadow Step, Ambush... I'll hit those keys on my keyboard myself. "5, 1, 2". Or for more complicated stuff, Kidney Shot, Shadow Dance, Ambush, Ambush, Cheap Shot, Eviscerate... I do "8, C, 2, 2, 7, 3". Or when I need to get away, Trinket (Insignia of the Alliance),Preparation, Cloak of Shadows, Vanish, Sprint... I do "],P, -,=,O". I have almost every single ability needed to me key bound to keys on my keyboard, setup in a way that provides easiest access and also have placed keys that I don't want to accidentally hit away and near special "oh no" only keys. This hones your skill so that you can hit anything in any order you need to at any time without having to rely on a scripted macro.
But there are a few macros that actually make improvements over abilities and skills. I'm gonna' share with you the only macros that I use, but they're ones I can't really do without.
Preparation
#show preparation
/cast sprint
/cast [nostealth] Evasion
/cast Preparation
What this does is, when you have to use your preparation for something, such as vanishing when your vanish isn't finished on it's cool down, what's the point us using it when you still haven't used sprint or evasion? Once you use preparation, it resets them whether you've used them or not. So replacing your preparation with this macro instantly trigger sprint and / or evasion right before preparation starts and resets everything. This is great because it's like it gives you a free sprint and / or evasion when you use preparation.
And, if you happen to be in stealth when you use it, that "[nostealth]" line prevents evasion from happening... so that evasion doesn't break stealth. The original macro had shadowstep in there, but mine doesn't have that in there because the last thing you want is to shadowstep to an enemy when you're not trying to shadowstep to them.
This macro is so good and I recommend you replace your preparation with this macro. (just add a "space" to the macro name and select the same icon to make it look exactly the same)
Backstab
/startattack target
/cast Backstab(Rank 10)
Ok, this is something I've replaced my backstab with, but it's up to you if you want to use this. This is a simple macro I created (couldn't get the tool tip working though). You ever been in one of those scenarios, such as a raid, where you get knocked back or feared or you have to stop and bandage... and for whatever reason your attack is turned off and when you go to back stab your group's target, hitting your backstab key, only to have your character not attack for a few seconds until you have the energy to backstab?
Well what this macro does is, if your not attacking and you're out of energy to perform a backstab, if you use this macro as your backstab, your character will start auto attacking so you can start attacking your target until your backstab until is ready.
I don't really recommend this for PvP, it's sorta' only a PvE thing, although I do use this macro when PvPing. It's up to you if you wanna' use it.
Vanish
#show Vanish
/stopattack
/cast vanish
This is an awesome little macro I picked up from the boys at roguerogue.com. This is something you should replace your vanish with. What it tries to do is stop your auto attack before you vanish. The reason why is because a lotta' rogues think their characters attack while vanished, bring themselves out of vanish (and not necessarily an enemy hitting them). The guys at Rogue-Rogue say they noticed less stealth breaks after using it and I noticed the same thing. I really recommend you replace your vanish with it.
Sap
#showtooltip Sap
/console targetNearestDistance 10.000000
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/console targetNearestDistance 41.000000
/cast [harm,nodead] Sap
This is what you could consider "improved sap". I had build a sap macro from scratch that was unbelievable, but with the new patch it erased the macro. Since I don't remember how I built it, I'm just using a standard improved sapping macro. This is something I recommend you replace your current sap with. What it does is it targets far away targets, 41 yards like sap does now, but in case a rogue is near by, if you hit the sap macro your character will try to target the stealthed rogue, as he/she'll be the nearest target.
It's basicly what most skilled rogues use to try and sap other rogues first. I recommend you replace your current sap. And don't worry, it actually helps out in PvE and in raids. Using this sap macro in raids is better than the standard sap.
Shadow Dance
#showtooltip Shadow Dance
/cast Shadow Dance
/swapactionbar 1 2
This is something I built when the patch first came out for shadow dance. The problem with shadow dance is that it doesn't bring up your stealth action bar. Good, so you've got use of your stealth openers... but no way to use'em unless you fuck your keybinding and abilities all around. I think Blizzard will fix shadow dance someday so that it birngs up the stealth bar when shadow dance is active, and once it's finished, will bring the normal action bar back up.
But, here's something I came up with after a lotta' trail and error. (I've been teaching every rogue I know.) You know that second action bar that you can scroll up to? Not your secret "stealth" bar, but the number "2" action bar? Well, you probably got some junk up in there now... like first aid, cooking, ect. like I did. Take all that and get it outta' there.
Copy every single ability / macro that you use for your stealth bar and put them into the same exactly spots in the number 2 action bar. Then, replace shadow dance with this macro. What this does is... when you hit the macro to use shadow dance, it switches to this second "stealth" action bar (action bar number 2). Since you put the abilities / macros in the same spot as you've got them on your stealth bar, you're now able to use your stealth abilities with the same exact keys (instead of remapping anything).
This is important, once shadow dance is finished, you simply hit the macro again and it switches your action bar back to number one. What's great about this is that you can switch between your non-stealth and stealth abilities even while shadow dance is still active. Already got 5 combo points? Already got them cheap shotted and a garrote on them, but you're rooted so you can get behind them? Simply hit your shadow dance macro again and you can now evesterate. If you still have time, you may be able to use another stealth opener again by hitting the shadow dance macro once more.
It takes some time to get used to, but this is actually how shadow dance was meant to be used.
So, enjoy these macros... and try NOT to use multi-push macros because manually hittin' your abilities makes you a better and quicker fighter in the long run.
Jeaxx
P.S.
There is a macro I've left out, the most important one. It was part of vanish. It was a shift-modifier. I added a shift modifer to my vanish, so that if I hit my "shift" + my vanish key, it would use cloak of shadows right before vanish. Well, with the new patch, something changed so cloak of shadows won't work that way anymore with vanish... as far as I can tell, it's impossible to setup as a single click macro (and it seems to fail as a multi-click macro). So, what do I do now? I simply moved my cloak of shadows next to my vanish, so that when I need to vanish with DoTs on my head, I hit the "-" key followed my "+" key instantly. It's extra work... but it works.
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