WoW Forever PvP Controls and Macros

What to bind first, how to write mouseover and weapon-swap macros, and how to set up the Cooldown Manager. Since October 8 you can swap several weapons in one global cooldown again, and the Cooldown Manager tracks racials and trinkets for every class.

Sources checked

Oct 22, 2026

Tested in game

Not yet

Updated

Oct 22, 2026

What to bind first for PvP

We bind these first because you press them in reaction to the enemy, with no time to look for a button. Levels and cooldowns are the first rank from Wowhead's Forever database.

Not available at the beta's level 30 cap: Pummel (Warrior, level 38), the Felhunter's Spell Lock (Warlock, level 36) and Divine Shield (Paladin, level 34). Combat mechanics covers how interrupts lock a spell school.

Keybinding layout

Our advice for keyboard and mouse:

• Emergency keys next to movement. Put the six binds above where your hand already rests, then add Shift and Ctrl layers for everything else.
• No modifier on emergency keys. Keep the interrupt, trinket and racial on plain keys, so holding Shift for another spell never changes what they do.
• Same keys on every character for your interrupt and trinket.

Blizzard's September 18 known issues listed a spell-queue bug after queueing Heroic Strike, Cleave or Raptor Strike. Its current status has not been verified. If input timing feels wrong, compare the normal button with the macro before changing your binds.

Macro commands and conditions

Forever has macros: Blizzard fixed macro bugs on October 1 and 8. Our examples use WoW's standard macro language, documented on Warcraft Wiki. The parts you need:

#showtooltip

Shows the spell's icon and tooltip on the action button.

/cast, /use

Cast a spell or use an item. /use 13 and /use 14 use whatever sits in your first or second trinket slot.

/stopcasting

Stops your current cast or channel.

/equipslot

Equips an item to one slot: 16 is your main hand, 17 your off hand.

@mouseover

Acts on the unit under your mouse cursor, such as a party frame, without changing your target. @target is your target and @player is you.

help, harm, nodead

The unit is friendly, hostile or alive.

[…][…]

Checked from left to right; the first set that matches is used. If none matches, nothing happens.

Warcraft Wiki also documents @focus. Blizzard's October 15 notes fix a focus-macro targeting bug for Light's Vigil, but that announcement does not validate every focus macro. Our examples use mouseover.

Mouseover heal and crowd control macros

Mouseover heal

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][@target,help,nodead][@player] Flash Heal

Hover a living friendly player and press the key: the heal lands on them and your target does not change. With no ally under the cursor, it heals your target if that is a living ally, and otherwise you.

Put your class's fast heal in place of Flash Heal:

The same pattern works for Power Word: Shield, Dispel Magic, Blessing of Protection and Remove Curse.

For a strict version, delete [@target,help,nodead][@player]. It then heals only the player you hover, and a missed hover casts nothing. The fallbacks are quicker in a fight but hide a missed hover. Before you queue, test the strict version over a friendly player, an enemy and empty ground: only the first should cast.

Crowd control on a second enemy

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][@target,harm,nodead] Polymorph

Hover the enemy you want out of the fight and press the key. Your target stays on the player your team is killing. Fear (Warlock) and Hammer of Justice (Paladin, 10 yards) work the same way.

Interrupt while casting

/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell

The first line cancels your own cast, so you can interrupt without waiting for your spell to finish. Shamans can do the same with Earth Shock.

Weapon swap macro (October 8 change)

Since October 8 you can again swap several weapons within one global cooldown. Blizzard's example is a macro that swaps a two-handed weapon for a sword and shield.

This matters most to Warriors: at the level 30 cap Shield Bash is their only interrupt, and it needs a shield. It works in Battle or Defensive Stance, so an Arms Warrior with a two-hander can swap, Shield Bash and swap back without changing stance.

/equipslot 16 Sword Name
/equipslot 17 Shield Name

A second macro puts the two-hander back:

/equipslot 16 Two-Hander Name

Replace the names with your items' exact names.

Cooldown Manager setup and tracking

Forever's built-in Cooldown Manager shows important cooldowns and buffs from your action bars and buff bar in a separate display that you can place and arrange.

• Off by default. Turn it on in Options, under Gameplay Enhancement.
• What it tracks. Since October 8 it supports every class, racial abilities and trinkets, so it can show your PvP Insignia. Blizzard says consumables follow in a later patch.

Blizzard's September 24 known issues listed these tracking problems; this is a historical checklist, not a confirmed list of current bugs:

• Healthstone, pet and Arcane Blast cooldowns, and weapon enhancements such as Windfury and Rogue poisons, could not be tracked.
• A Mana gem tracked only after the Mage cast another spell.
• Banes and Curses tracked wrongly after you dropped your target and then targeted one that already had your Bane or Curse.
• Priests had every spell tracked by default.

Interface and gamepad options

Blizzard's October 8 notes added:

• View Talents below Inspect when you right-click your target's frame.
• Discord Voice as a voice chat option under Audio settings. The party leader's choice applies to the whole party.
• Edit Mode layouts saved separately for each interface type.

Forever also has a Personal Resource Display. Blizzard updated its combo points, and the target frame's, on October 1 and 8, which matters to Rogues and Druids. Blizzard has not said where to turn it on.

Gamepad options

Gamepad support is still labelled Alpha in the options. Since September 24 it has:

• Class flyouts on the gamepad action bar: stances for Warriors, auras for Paladins, forms for Druids and pet controls for Hunters and Warlocks.
• Swap Target Modifier Sides, which puts friendly targeting on the right and hostile targeting on the left. Two more options swap the D-pad and face-button actions for each modifier.
• Fixed Party Targeting, which gives each D-pad button one party member. It works only in a party, not in a raid.

Since October 1, gamepad bindings are fixed: rebinding only changes the keyboard-and-mouse interface. Since October 8, gamepad action bar settings such as the compact bar live in Edit Mode. Set them again there, because the old options did not carry over.

October 15 notes add a gamepad swing timer and support for Press and Hold Casting. They announce fixes for ground-targeted items, class flyouts and saved layouts. For combat feedback, the new options are under Options → Gameplay → Combat → Scrolling Combat Text for Self.

Recent controls and interface changes

• Sep 24Druid, Mage, Priest, Warrior and Warlock can test the Cooldown Manager, without spell rank support yet. Gamepad flyouts and targeting options added.
• Oct 1Cooldown Manager supports racial abilities and Rogues, and stops listing each spell rank separately. Gamepad bindings become fixed, and macros on a gamepad action bar can now be moved.
• Oct 8Several weapon swaps fit in one global cooldown again. Cooldown Manager supports all classes, racial abilities and trinkets. Edit Mode saves layouts per interface type. Character-specific macros no longer show your general macros. View Talents added to the target menu.