MeleeStartAttack - a simple Melee-addon

[Morkah]

Hi guys!

I got tired of writing `startattack` into macros for pretty much every offensive ability on my Warrior, so I made a little addon to do it automatically.

**Warrior Start Attack** will automatically start your normal melee auto-attack whenever you use (or try to use) an offensive Warrior ability against a hostile target. No more separate attack button, no more stuffing `startattack` into every macro.

It is especially handy when switching targets or jumping into a fight. Just use your abilities and your Warrior starts swinging.

It works on Vanilla 1.12.1 and uses a whitelist of Warrior abilities, so defensive abilities won't accidentally start combat.

Download it here:
https://github.com/Morkahja/WarriorStartAttack/

Simple little addon, but one less thing to think about.

[Asaplink24961]

awesome addon thank you

[Morkah]

Hi guys!

I expanded my little Start Attack addon to support Warriors, Shamans and Paladins, because I kept running into the same issue on all three classes.

For me it feels much more intuitive that when I press an offensive ability, my character also understands that I intend to attack the target.

Download:
https://github.com/Morkahja/MeleeStartAttack

Cheers!

[Obs]

this is awesome! Will you add rogue, feral, and hunters?

[Auren]

Thank you for the addon

[Morkah]

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback! I worked a little further on the addon and now you can teach the addon the ability you want to add to the selection by typoing /msa learn and then pressing the ability!

https://github.com/Morkahja/MeleeStartAttack

I havent tested it on rogue or others but please send your feedback if you do

[Seniormoo]

Morkah, my dude, thanks for the addon.

I watered down your code into this:

Code: Select all

-- StartAutoAttack - Vanilla 1.12.1 / Lua 5.0
--
-- Adds two slash commands:
--   /start_auto_attack  - begins auto-attack on your current target, if possible
--   /stop_auto_attack   - stops auto-attack, if currently active
--
-- Intended usage is inside your own ability macros, e.g.:
--
--   /start_auto_attack
--   /cast Judgement(Rank 3)
--
--   /stop_auto_attack
--   /cast Intimidating Shout
--
-- Requires "Attack" (from your spellbook's "General" tab) to be placed somewhere
-- in your action bars. Anywhere on the bars is fine, any page, can be hidden/unused.

local attackActionSlot = 1

local function GetAttackActionSlot()
    local slot = attackActionSlot

    if IsAttackAction(slot) then
        return slot
    end

    slot = 1
    while slot <= 120 do
        if IsAttackAction(slot) then
            attackActionSlot = slot
            return slot
        end
        slot = slot + 1
    end

    DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("|cffff3333StartAutoAttack:|r Please place the 'Attack' action (from the 'General' tab of your spellbook) anywhere on your action bars. This addon can not function without it.")
    return nil
end

local function GetAttackStatus()
    local slot = GetAttackActionSlot()

    if not slot then
        return nil
    end

    if IsCurrentAction(slot) then
        return "on";
    else
        return "off";
    end
end

local function StartAutoAttack()
    if GetAttackStatus() == "off" then
        if UnitExists("target") and not UnitIsDead("target") and UnitCanAttack("player", "target") then
            AttackTarget()
        end
    end
end

local function StopAutoAttack()
    if GetAttackStatus() == "on" then
        AttackTarget()
    end
end

SLASH_STARTAUTOATTACK1 = "/start_auto_attack"
SlashCmdList["STARTAUTOATTACK"] = function()
    StartAutoAttack()
end

SLASH_STOPAUTOATTACK1 = "/stop_auto_attack"
SlashCmdList["STOPAUTOATTACK"] = function()
    StopAutoAttack()
end

Lets me put /start_auto_attack and /stop_auto_attack into the macros for the keybinds I mash on a new target. For me this is enough (same as /startattack and /stopattack in newer versions of the game). If you wanna publish it go ahead as it's mostly your work.

My changes: This *requires* that "Attack" be somewhere on the action bars. No enable/disable, does not track in/out of combat, does not keep an attackActive variable because it always gets the answer from the action bars, and caches the action bar slot number to save some CPU cycles.

SeniorMOO

[Morkah]

Thanks for the feedback—I really appreciate it. My original goal was a slightly different workflow: automatically start attack from supported ability buttons, so players do not need to create macros for every spell.

That said, I liked your way of detecting the real Attack state through the Attack action bar slot. I’ve integrated it as an optional path in version 1.2.1: when Attack is on a bar, the addon checks its active state directly; otherwise it keeps the existing fallback behavior.

I also added your /start_auto_attack and /stop_auto_attack commands, so the addon now supports both approaches.

Also, /msa status now prints the current method used to detect attack in chat.

Cheers! /Morkah

[Seniormoo]

Yeah for people who want more than macros your approach is needed, but I feel it's a little clunky because of the game limitation of casting an ICON rather than a spell. And the icon names can be quite confusing because Blizzard recycles them across classes and inventory, I'm sure you've noticed.

Maybe you can switch to saving pairs of [icon name, spell name], or maybe even trios of [icon name, spell name, start or stop attack when cast]. I think that kind of data structure would allow you to support commands like:

/msa learn Judgement
/msa list - show the names of the abilities enabled
/msa unlearn Judgement

Would make the addon easier to use. And of course /msa reset because we mess up

SeniorMoo

[M6rapea12]

is it working on rogue aswell ?