[GUIDE] Warrior: Skill Intensive Tanking

[HiirNoivl]

Macros got really annoying at endgame. I can't find one that doesn't get in the way. =/

[Exrage]

now that i think a little more about it, that makes perfect sense. just add the wait after the Heavy Swing. Guess this was just me trying to overcomplicate it...

Adding a /wait will cause your second ability to always be late by .2 seconds (minimum wait time), Adamar's syntax is correct. On the first page of the guide I go into macro logic- the first ability will ALWAYS be used first, if it's unavailable the SECOND ability will be used if available, if not the THIRD ability will be used if available and so on. The key to remember with macros is that the code from top to bottom is executed EVERY TIME YOU PRESS IT- so /wait will cause your macro to no longer be instantaneous but will still remain "sure fire," as a word of caution.

[Exrage]

Macros got really annoying at endgame. I can't find one that doesn't get in the way. =/

The saying goes that if it isn't broke, you shouldn't fix it. Macros do nothing but clear up your action bar when coded correctly at the trade-off of having to remember which abilities are used in a very specific and unalterable (during the fight) rotation for increased reaction time by fractions of seconds hunting for the specific ability on your bar. If you've managed this far without them it's safe to assume you've developed your own system that works great for you- the problem is recreating it later on if you want to change or experiment specific combinations for specific encounters as I can literally recreate any boss fight from start to finish from recorded keystrokes for data analysis purposes.

[ExarKun007]

I find that putting cooldowns in a macro, in the order of least useful to most, is a fairly easy way to do it. I also have them on my 2nd bar, just above my regular attacks to a) See what the cooldown is, and b) Hit them manually if I, for instance, need thrill, but not so much feather foot (I use that on stuff like primal HM ultimates with so-so healers, gives them a buffer to heal the group up and not have to worry about me). I macro berserk to Inner Beast. I can hit it once when the hit is incoming, like everyone's grudge, and once just as it lands. If berserk is down, oh well, if not, it makes the heal that much bigger.

[Exrage]

*snip*

This is a great way to start out, but as your trip down end game progresses you'll begin to realize that most boss fights use repetition and for what I feel mostly deals with the fact you can NOT use abilities simultaneously and they must allow a large "buffer" for the 2-6 seconds you require to use the abilities necessary to counter a boss's attack or mechanic, making each fight very predictable.

That being said there is one thing that requires macros for the sake of using two abilities simultaneously and it's pets- which can't be simultaneously accessed without separate button presses (requiring gamer peripherals).

Hopefully as content progresses they'll ease off the crutch on our clutch and allow abilities to be fired without animation requirements, but for now we continue to enjoy "wariors r brokin" and "how 2 fix warior" posts while shaking our heads over our allagan battleaxes.

[Vortok]

Ah what I think you're seeing is the time delay with the animation cooldown, the ability is going off on time but it appears there's a split second lag due to the archer's drawback before firing the ability. To this end I've created a lvl 20 archer and sat down with all 3 abilities next to the macros you've posted and have seen a few seconds in DPS favoring your macros so I'm not sure where the error could be.

I'm staring at the GCD, not the character. I find it unlikely that an ability can 'animation lock' itself (and only when used in a macro) since in my latest test I only used Straight Shot and no other attacks/abilities. There weren't any other animations (sans auto attack, which doesn't matter) to interfere with it.

Put another way, if you watch the GCD tick around and try to press an ability around when it reaches the 10-11 o'clock position, it should still fire when the GCD gets done/to 12.

When using the exact same ability via macro, I have to wait for the GCD to finish/reach 12 before pressing the button - thus losing dps/threat over the fractions of a second that the GCD is done before you hit the button because human reaction times/latency isn't perfect (thus why many MMOs let you hit abilities a tad early), which can add up over the course of a long fight. The ability isn't going off on time, because even though I press the macro at the same time during the GCD as I would a normal ability, the macro simply won't fire because the GCD wasn't done when I pressed it - or rather, the macro does fire but it only checks if I can use an ability that instant, rather than if I can in the very near future and queuing/buffering the ability if that's the case.

If I'm seeing it right, then my guess is that macros execute the ability but don't have the same ability to 'buffer' if pressed a fraction of a second before the GCD finishes that seems to be baked into the abilities you pull out of your spellbook/action and traits menu.

[Exrage]

*snip*

Again, I'm sitting here with both the macros you've posted and their respective abilities on my action bar on test dummies/mobs of my level and the DPS is slightly in favor of the macros as it's queuing Inner Release faster than my fingers can with the exact same rotations. Either your game is playing at less-than 60-120FPS and you have a serious input lag or there's some other factor affecting your game that I can't reproduce or think of because the instant that GCD is up in both cases the weaponskill is fired, although to be fair I start spamming the next key the instant the other ability fires and don't wait until the last .5 second when pressing either.

Worst case is that you're right Vortok, for you the abilities actually don't queue with a macro as fast as they do pressing the buttons manually in which the worst case is not being able to use them and having to design action bars without them.

[ExarKun007]

If you're using a TV, you're looking at up to a .3 second display lag. With the already stupid server issues, it can complicate things.

[Judge_Xero]

It's a macro thing. You can que up the CD Skills, but you can't pre-activate anything on the GCD using Macro's.

[Taz]

War some times is the tank so vitality needs to be number one then strength - if you look at the majority of guides etc you will see that same recommendation -