Editing WoW:Making a macro (section)

===[target=] or [@] versus unit parameters===
Some commands accept units directly as their parameters. For example, /target party1 will target your first party member. The command /target [@party1] while a bit more verbose has the equivalent behavior. However, in most cases the designers don't want us to be able to test conditions on one unit and then act on another, so you must use one or the other. E.g., a macro like the following will not work as expected:

 /target [@focus, dead] party1

WoW will ignore party1 because you set a unit with the [@] targeting option. There are some specific exceptions to this rule. A few commands have "key units" that are fundamental to the command. If you use that unit in your [@] option, WoW will allow you to specify another unit or will use the default unit for the command if you don't specify one. That last bit needs a concrete example: 

 /focus [@focus, dead] [@focus, noharm] target

In this case, the key unit is focus. Since we are using [@focus], WoW will send "focus" to the /focus command. We could also have left off the "target" at the end since the /focus command defaults to your target. Below is a list of all commands with key units, and their default units if any. To reiterate for clarity, the key unit is a unit you can use in [@] option that will allow you to send another unit to the command. The Default Unit is the unit that will be sent to the command if you don't provide one. 

 <nowiki> Command      | Key Unit  | Default Unit
    ------------- ----------- -------------
    /target      | target    |
    /focus       | focus     | target
    /startattack | target    | target
    /petattack   | pettarget | target</nowiki>