How to Create a Mouseover Healing Macro in WoW: Forever

In World of Warcraft: Forever, a healing macro with @mouseover can cast on the friendly player under your pointer while leaving your selected target in place. Put it on a keyboard key and hover the player's party frame. Use a strict version first so the key only acts when the pointer is over an eligible ally.

Add the heal to your bar

1. Open your Spellbook and pick a friendly heal you already know. The example uses Healing Wave for an English Shaman. Replace it with the exact name of a heal your character knows.
2. Type /macro, make a character macro, and paste the two lines below.
3. Drag the macro to a slot with a keyboard binding.
4. Invite a friend and test the key on their party frame while a different unit is selected. Check that your friend was the recipient.

#showtooltip Healing Wave
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead] Healing Wave

The condition asks for a living friendly unit under your pointer. If none is there, the macro doesn't cast. That makes mistakes easy to notice. If you hover empty ground and press the button, you should see no heal. If you hover a friendly player and the cast fails, read the error and check distance or line of sight.

Test with a keyboard key before using a mouse input. A mouse click on a unit frame can have another function, such as selecting the player or opening a menu. A keyboard test makes it easier to tell whether the macro itself works.

Choose the fallback you actually want

Some healers want the same key to work when no mouseover is present. You can change the cast line to use a living friendly target and then yourself as fallback options:

/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead][@player] Healing Wave

Test each case. Hover a friendly player and confirm the heal goes there. Then move the pointer to empty space and select a different friendly player. Finally, clear the mouseover and select an enemy. The last example should use yourself when the first two conditions don't match.

The first matching group determines the target. A friendly mouseover behind a wall can pass the conditions and still fail the cast. The macro won't retry on yourself because the target couldn't be reached. If you want to avoid unexpected self-heals, keep the strict version and put a direct self-heal on another key.

Compare with Forever's built-in mouseover casting

Forever includes native mouseover cast settings. Open Options and search for mouseover if you want the behavior for ordinary spell bindings. Use the macro when you want to specify the conditions and fallback for one spell. Test the native option and the macro separately so you can see which one is directing the cast.

For example, use one plain heal button to test the built-in setting, then use the strict macro to test its behavior with no mouseover. Compare the target in both cases. If a test unexpectedly heals you, check your self-cast options as well as the macro. Change one setting at a time and repeat the same test.

Fix a cast that goes to the wrong player

Check which frame was under the pointer when you pressed the key. If you're moving the mouse between frames, enlarge the group frames or put them closer to where you already look. A clear frame layout reduces mistakes without changing the macro. If you use a fallback, check which player you had selected.

If the macro never fires, compare the spell name with the Spellbook and verify the action bar binding. Test close to a friendly player in open ground. If the button works there and fails in a dungeon, check range and line of sight before rewriting it. Also verify the rank if you intended to use a specific one.

Use the setup for one familiar heal before changing the rest of your bars. Practice a friendly mouseover, an empty mouseover, and a target you can't reach. Those three tests show whether the macro behaves as you expect before a real pull.

If you move the spell to a different bar after setting it up, verify the new binding with your friend again. An old key can still point at an ordinary heal or a different macro, even when the new macro looks correct in the editor.