Macro Editing for (the slightly more scholarly) Dummies

[Delvish]

As any Scholar that has played to cap and endgame knows, or at least any half-wit that made a macro set has realized, the Scholar is one of the most diverse jobs in the game. We have access to a large list of both White and Black magic, more with addenda, our exclusive list of spells, and of course all the extras that come with our support job. Seeing as how it is nigh impossible to effectively play even just one style of arts using only the in game menu, to play both effectively is ludicrous and will undoubtedly end in death. Unless you're subbing /BLM, and then you know precisely how to perform the Alacrity+Warp combo with supreme effectiveness. In which case your party dies in your stead. :rolleyes:

/end intro and lets get down to business. Every job in the game needs macros to play well and Scholars are no exceptions. How else can one possibly go from nuking the mob to hitting the oshi button after the White Mage dies and taking over main heal duties (to the best of our non-cure V abilities)? What I am attempting to compile is a compendium of scholar macro knowledge for the less educated. A pool of everyone's macro setups to both teach to and learn from our fellow mortarboard donners.

Note: The macros in this thread are all macros described as usable with SE programming. Third party tools are a violation of SE TOS agreement. :mad:

The following is a summary of my Scholar Macro Book setup, though I wouldn't mind stealing a few ideas from my peers as I see logically fit.
Quoted for your viewing ease.


Ctrl Keys are my focus separators. On every ctrl line of each macro set lies the same string of macros. They mirror each other for rapid access of spells and abilities. This can be accomplished using the command /macro set x (good to put a /echo as well)

Alt Keys are reserved for set specific abilities such as Light Art Job Abilities under the Light Arts Ctrl set. I won't get into each specific one as equipment and spells should be self explanatory.
Alt0 on all ctrl sets is my resting button.


Ctrl1 - Light Arts


Alt1-7 - Light Arts Job Abilities

Alt8 - Sublimation

Ctrl2 - Dark Arts


Alt1-7 - Dark Arts Job Abilities

Alt8 - Sublimation

Ctrl3 - Cure Spells


Alt1-5 - Cure spells (I have it reserved. >.>)

Alt6 - Regen

Ctrl4 - Weather Effects


Alt1-8 - Weather spells

Alt9 - Klimaform

Ctrl5 - Enfeebling Spells
Ctrl6 - Elemental Nukes


Alt1-6 - Elemental Spells

Alt7-8 - Drain and Aspir respectively

Ctrl7 - Helix Spells
Ctrl8 - Sleep


Intentionally blank. Sleep spells are cast using Ctrl8 for immediate access.

Ctrl9 - Tabula Rasa (JA and Spell setups exclusive to expedient TR needs)


Alt1 - Dark Arts Job Abilities all-in-one

Alt2-4 - Luminohelix -> Earth for SC -> Blizzard for MB. Options available.

Alt6 - Light Art Job Abilities all-in-one

Alt7 - Accession (as needed)

Alt8 - Cure IV

Alt0 - Tabula Rasa

Ctrl0 - Enhancing Magic


How do you sort your macros?

[Rambus]

page 1:

level 1 spells ctrl, weather spells on alt ( the intent was making these for weather buff roatons but i never got in a party where i needed to cast more then say 2 people that wanted same weather) The space there is still reservered when it is needed though.

page 2:
ctrl : level 2 spells
Alt: level 1 spells , luminohelix, noctohelix, all with Immanance. intenet of these is weak SC starters and teaching people how scs mix, I had no reason to deleate them yet (they are more for playing around) . I used stone with immance time to time just ot see how high detonation can get on mobs where stone V > aero V wont make a sc due to mob hp.

page 3:
level 3 spells on ctrl
alt nothing

page 4:
ctrl level 4 spells and there is a button for ebullince with Svnt. bonnet in the macro

alt level 5 spells and there is a button for ebullince with Svnt. bonnet in the macro

page 5:
ctrl : elemental dots
alt: helix

page 6
ctrl :
enfeebling magic gear, dark arts ja, ES, manifestation, sleep, addendum black, sleep II, sleepaga
alt
enfeebling magic gear, dispel, para,slow, gravity, silence, poision, brake bind
page 7:
dark arts, dark magic gear, bio stun, drain aspier
ctrl and alt are the same
page 8:
Light arts ( with enchacing magic gear), accession, addendum:white, Phalanx ( with more enchacing magic gear), stoneskin (with mind gear) then a secodn button with more mind gear

page 9:
(most ctrl and alt are the same)
resting set gear, a second button for resting set gear, nuking set button 1, nuking set button 2, nuking set button 3
convert button gear, convert button 2 gear (alt has gear for sublimation in 2 buttons where ctrl is convert) Last button on page 9 is 2 hr
page 10:
ctrl:
An assist macro (used to call out elementals that where out of mp, bit out of date), idle, a start skillchain macro( line one use Immanence; line 2 /wait 1; line 3 /ma blizzard IV) line 4: /equip main aquilio's staff) next button Ebullience( if i have 5 charges at start, or 4 if i dont plan to mb. I useally do not use ebullince here for this SC since my intent is to MB with aero V doing this SC) with svnt. bonnet +2, next button( line 1: alacirty, line 2 /wait 1, line 3: immance, line 4: wait 1 line 5: /ma "water V" line 6: a pt statement i am using a reverberation for SC. next button equip main neptune's staff next button is MB macro ( a lot of times i dont mb though) line 1: ja alacrity <me>, line 2: wait 1, line 3 ma aero V, line 4 equip main auster's staff, line 5: equip R.ear static earing
alt ( same concept as above ecept the sc is stone V> aero V. When i use stone V> aero V the intent is to do most damage with aero V (so i tend to use elbullience more for this SC).

last button on the page 10 is equiping light neck and belt for Omniceience

I wrote my skillchain marcos before the wait command change and i really do not feel like changing them, and testing them to make sure they work from lag issues, that’s why i keep each spell separate ( SC 1 spell, SC 2 spell, and MB) plus if someone gets in the way of my SC after using the first spell , im not suck wasting the stratagems. I act like that on all my jobs though, like on blu I have the ws and chain affinity separate, ws separate from trick attack and so on for thf and so on.
when I hit a macro I dont want to be stuck on "auto bot" if iwant to stop or change something midway

You get used to flipping pages like that with practice:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9241/aerovscresize.jpg
(on screan damage is detonation the 3893)
what i had to do:
hit alt 5 from page 2 then flip to page 10 , hit ebullience(alt 5) then hit alt 6, then once aro V starts hit alt 7 for the staff change. if you can understand what I wrote for page 10, above, like i said I have a stone V> aero V SC setup, so after hitting the stone I from page 2 ( the play SC group ) i went to the aero V part on the page 10 SC macro

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/4214/macros2.jpg
"deto" starts the SC wtih stone V , the you see "elb" thats ebullince with Svnt. bonnet in the macro, SCdeto is aero V (so the label is telling you that is the ending detonation , then hit staff button. I found out if you hit the staff button before the spell starts, the spell never casts.

It is not best organization but the idea of separating like this gear and spells, is to avoid lag maybe with the new wait change I would not need the extra staff button but w/e I been used to this setup by now, why change it
oh and i menu command casting cures.

The reason for me having marcos like is all gear releated, when i do not need strong nuke ( like i can still use an unbuffed aero III to mb the stacked detonation) The aero III macro is tied with the needed staff. If I didn't need an enchacing magic set, enfeebling magic set, dark magic set, mind set for stoneskin, general nuking , ebullince macro, each staff for specific element, resting set (though abyssea is killing the need for one), i wouldnt have macros like this.

[Krystal]

i've always been rather unorginized when it comes to my macro sets for mage classes since they have so many spells. however before i had uninstalled FFXI for a short time and then reinstalled it i had it set up as thus.
First line: All my light arts stratagems and black arts stratagems.
Second line:All my whm spells a combination of healing spells and enhancing spells
third line:All my blm spells a combination of nukes and enfeebles.
fourth line: all my weather spells.
5th line: all my helix spells

and that's how i had it set up..course it's no where near like now..need to reorganize it...

[Rambus]

i've always been rather unorginized when it comes to my macro sets for mage classes since they have so many spells. however before i had uninstalled FFXI for a short time and then reinstalled it i had it set up as thus.
First line: All my light arts stratagems and black arts stratagems.
Second line:All my whm spells a combination of healing spells and enhancing spells
third line:All my blm spells a combination of nukes and enfeebles.
fourth line: all my weather spells.
5th line: all my helix spells

and that's how i had it set up..course it's no where near like now..need to reorganize it...

and geaar changes?
I do not like the idea of enfeebles and nukes being on one page, because with the way i macro, 20 buttons is not enough

[Krystal]

and geaar changes?
I do not like the idea of enfeebles and nukes being on one page, because with the way i macro, 20 buttons is not enough

gear change? frankly i don't need gear changes to be a good player on my job...and the fact i was able to heal a full alliance plus nuke periodically without a single gear change(minus staffs for healing MP)proves that. i would say"gear changes are for noobs and make it hard as hell to heal them" but then i'd get flamed by the idiots who think"gear changing is what pros do!" so ya....i can't tell you how many times players have gotten killed becuase they switch armor so often it makes it impossible to heal them..then they scream at me"why didn't you heal me?!" and i'm like..well..gee...if you didn't switch armor so often like some noob who can't decide on which piece of armor to wear..i would have!

[TimeMage]

gear change? frankly i don't need gear changes to be a good player on my job...and the fact i was able to heal a full alliance plus nuke periodically without a single gear change(minus staffs for healing MP)proves that. i would say"gear changes are for noobs and make it hard as hell to heal them" but then i'd get flamed by the idiots who think"gear changing is what pros do!" so ya....i can't tell you how many times players have gotten killed becuase they switch armor so often it makes it impossible to heal them..then they scream at me"why didn't you heal me?!" and i'm like..well..gee...if you didn't switch armor so often like some noob who can't decide on which piece of armor to wear..i would have!

You should gear change, because that makes you better. The equipment setup that works for nuking doesn't work for healing, doesn't work for enfeebling, doesn't work for enfeebling, and doesn't work for taking as little damage as possible when doing anything.

And you shouldn't be worried about players blinking if you are healing, because you can use <stpt> or <stal> instead of <st> or <t>. The command <stpt> makes the blue pointer go to the party character list, so even if the player blinks, you won't lose the target. The command <stal> does the same, but lets you target memebers of other parties in your alliance as well.


If you didn't gear change because you didn't know the above, please give it a try now that you know. If you didn't because you don't like to blink, even if you know you will severely underperform against a player who blink, then it's ok. But please, please, don't think you will do on par to someone with sensible gear changes, or even just ok, doing no gear changes other than staff changes.

I hope you learned something new and start reconsidering your choices, I want great SCHs out there showing the world what we can do!


Edit: I'll add my own macros later, if anyone's interested.

[Krystal]

You should gear change, because that makes you better. The equipment setup that works for nuking doesn't work for healing, doesn't work for enfeebling, doesn't work for enfeebling, and doesn't work for taking as little damage as possible when doing anything.

And you shouldn't be worried about players blinking if you are healing, because you can use <stpt> or <stal> instead of <st> or <t>. The command <stpt> makes the blue pointer go to the party character list, so even if the player blinks, you won't lose the target. The command <stal> does the same, but lets you target memebers of other parties in your alliance as well.


If you didn't gear change because you didn't know the above, please give it a try now that you know. If you didn't because you don't like to blink, even if you know you will severely underperform against a player who blink, then it's ok. But please, please, don't think you will do on par to someone with sensible gear changes, or even just ok, doing no gear changes other than staff changes.

I hope you learned something new and start reconsidering your choices, I want great SCHs out there showing the world what we can do!


Edit: I'll add my own macros later, if anyone's interested.

gear changing doesn't make the player. but i suppose it can help somewhat. i have played for years without using gear changes and did more than okay under most circumstances. if i want to change gear mid battle it's usually as i said my staffs. on a rare occasion i'll switch up my gear totally. but not in mid-battle.

[Hiroshiko]

You should gear change, because that makes you better. The equipment setup that works for nuking doesn't work for healing, doesn't work for enfeebling, doesn't work for enfeebling, and doesn't work for taking as little damage as possible when doing anything.

And you shouldn't be worried about players blinking if you are healing, because you can use <stpt> or <stal> instead of <st> or <t>. The command <stpt> makes the blue pointer go to the party character list, so even if the player blinks, you won't lose the target. The command <stal> does the same, but lets you target memebers of other parties in your alliance as well.


If you didn't gear change because you didn't know the above, please give it a try now that you know. If you didn't because you don't like to blink, even if you know you will severely underperform against a player who blink, then it's ok. But please, please, don't think you will do on par to someone with sensible gear changes, or even just ok, doing no gear changes other than staff changes.



Pretty much this. A lot of our gear (AF1-3 in particular) doesn't benefit both Arts or all abilities. I probably blink like a Christmas tree, but it significantly improves my performance. When <stal> and <stpt> first came out, I was hesitant to utilize it because there were times I'd have to heal outside of a party/alliance and it made targeting people more difficult. However, those days are long gone and I don't know what I'd do without them. It's even made gear swaps a bit easier in some instances. For example, my Sublimation macros have the Sublimation enhancing gear before a <stpt> so I can swap my gear without activating/deactivating Sublimation for idle purposes, but if I need to use it I just target myself and it works like <me>). Macros take time and effort, but it makes a difference that one would not receive from full-timing gear.

[Delvish]

I highly encourage gear changes, especially for SCH over other jobs. WHM and BLM (sans elemental specifics) can get away with not, but SCH does so much that it is really hard not to. It is actually sickening how much of my AF1-3 I still use just because it is all just so useful in it's own way. SCH Gown + Argute pants for Drain/aspir, Sch pants + Argute Mortarboard for healing, Argute hands + Savant's pants for enfeebling, not to include all the ability specific pieces. It is really hard to take full advantage of the benefits our AF give you without gear swapping regularly. Not saying you're a terrible player, but if you could manage to just slip them into your macros, you might not even notice that you blink but your speed and power will probably increase notably. Worth a try if you've never done so before.

As for myself, my gear changes are all macro'd in with the rest of my spells and abilities to be used as I need them. It gets confusing sometimes though when I get one piece that replaces another one or two different pieces. I have to go hunt through all my macros for them and change them. Thankfully putting them in my Ctrl lines replicates things much more easily.

BTW, the new <wait> commands... how are those typed out to be used effectively? mine don't seem to always work quite as effectively as they used to, and my sleep macro NEVER works.
/ma "Sleep II" <t> <wait1>
/ma "Sleep" <t>
/equips
My gear changes, but Sleep I never works and I don't even get an error message.

[Jobea]

I highly encourage gear changes, especially for SCH over other jobs. WHM and BLM (sans elemental specifics) can get away with not, but SCH does so much that it is really hard not to. It is actually sickening how much of my AF1-3 I still use just because it is all just so useful in it's own way. SCH Gown + Argute pants for Drain/aspir, Sch pants + Argute Mortarboard for healing, Argute hands + Savant's pants for enfeebling, not to include all the ability specific pieces. It is really hard to take full advantage of the benefits our AF give you without gear swapping regularly. Not saying you're a terrible player, but if you could manage to just slip them into your macros, you might not even notice that you blink but your speed and power will probably increase notably. Worth a try if you've never done so before.

As for myself, my gear changes are all macro'd in with the rest of my spells and abilities to be used as I need them. It gets confusing sometimes though when I get one piece that replaces another one or two different pieces. I have to go hunt through all my macros for them and change them. Thankfully putting them in my Ctrl lines replicates things much more easily.

BTW, the new <wait> commands... how are those typed out to be used effectively? mine don't seem to always work quite as effectively as they used to, and my sleep macro NEVER works.
/ma "Sleep II" <t> <wait1>
/ma "Sleep" <t>
/equips
My gear changes, but Sleep I never works and I don't even get an error message.

i dont know why you would want to cast sleep directly after sleep 2 but just so you know the macro works right after casting starts therefore if u use wait 1 sleep is not gonna go off because after 1 sec you will still be in middle of casting sleep 2

[Rambus]

gear change? frankly i don't need gear changes to be a good player on my job...and the fact i was able to heal a full alliance plus nuke periodically without a single gear change(minus staffs for healing MP)proves that. i would say"gear changes are for noobs and make it hard as hell to heal them" but then i'd get flamed by the idiots who think"gear changing is what pros do!" so ya....i can't tell you how many times players have gotten killed becuase they switch armor so often it makes it impossible to heal them..then they scream at me"why didn't you heal me?!" and i'm like..well..gee...if you didn't switch armor so often like some noob who can't decide on which piece of armor to wear..i would have!


and i used to really like you...

though in a way your right i guess, god i hate abyssea.....

when you played in CoP ish era if you did not gear change you where resisted to hell.

"skill" does not change that.

saying "i do not use gear changes because of healer" basically says you have a gimp healer, I do limit my gear change if my hp is taking a beating. That does not change the fact you should use macros.



BTW, the new <wait> commands... how are those typed out to be used effectively? mine don't seem to always work quite as effectively as they used to, and my sleep macro NEVER works.
/ma "Sleep II" <t> <wait1>
/ma "Sleep" <t>
/equips
My gear changes, but Sleep I never works and I don't even get an error message.


sleep I is not working because its trying to cast sleep I while you cast sleep II. The game will not give an error for that.

do not put sleep I and sleep II in one macro please.

you can sleep II> sleep I ( meaning sleep II overrides sleep I, not order of macro) but if you put that in one macro, then hit a different macro, ill stop the remanding command if your first macro.

in otherwords

/ma sleep I <t>
/wait 30
/ma sleep II <t>

will not work if you hit something else.

can't tell you how much I failed soloing scs because I hit my staff macro too fast.

[Delvish]

sleep I is not working because its trying to cast sleep I while you cast sleep II. The game will not give an error for that.

do not put sleep I and sleep II in one macro please.

you can sleep II> sleep I ( meaning sleep II overrides sleep I, not order of macro) but if you put that in one macro, then hit a different macro, ill stop the remanding command if your first macro.

in otherwords

/ma sleep I <t>
/wait 30
/ma sleep II <t>

will not work if you hit something else.

can't tell you how much I failed soloing scs because I hit my staff macro too fast.
Almost, but the point of the macro is to automatically cast Sleep I when Sleep II is down. Before, and I could probably reorganize it (but would lose some of my enfeebling gear), it was set up
/ma sleep II <t>
/wait 1
/ma sleep I <t>
/equips
And Sleep II would cast first while Sleep I would error out saying cannot cast spells at this time as expected. However when sleep II was still on cool-down Sleep I would initiate since I was not casting any spell at the time. Now I can never get sleep I to initiate and I'm wondering if I've got the <wait1> command wrong (I'm unsure of if I have a space in between the command, I'd check but...yea...)

[Miera]

Oh man I cannot tell you what my Macros look like because it's hard to remember.

If I threw some player on my SCH and told him to use my macros he'd hyperventilate. :P All I can say is I used almost every last single space there is in one of my Macro books for SCH but its well organized... I have issues with organization and macros. ;D

[Rambus]

Almost, but the point of the macro is to automatically cast Sleep I when Sleep II is down. Before, and I could probably reorganize it (but would lose some of my enfeebling gear), it was set up
/ma sleep II <t>
/wait 1
/ma sleep I <t>
/equips
And Sleep II would cast first while Sleep I would error out saying cannot cast spells at this time as expected. However when sleep II was still on cool-down Sleep I would initiate since I was not casting any spell at the time. Now I can never get sleep I to initiate and I'm wondering if I've got the <wait1> command wrong (I'm unsure of if I have a space in between the command, I'd check but...yea...)

Seperate them. only time I did something like you are doing is on brd. I would put elgy 2 in first line, then if im on a level sync too low I would cast elegy 1, and if i was too low for that I would cast some resist down spell.

Like in my long post i made to detail my macros I have dark arts on one button ( in case i flip to it in light arts) then button for enf gear then ill have my sleep I macro, then next to that i would have add: black macro, then next to that be sleep II, the idea was to have sleep I like that in case I did not have time to use jas for sleep II.

even if you do get stacking spells like that to work there is a delay (something that annoyed me on brd) and that delay can be the difference of life and death in a pinch. same with the strage "errors" you are talking about, i do not want it scewing me so i seperate them.

I would not know how to answer your question, it might work but is something like that tends to mess up when you need it the most then you wind up dead. I just keep mashing my sleep I and sleep II buttons if i need a sleep spell that bad till one goes off.

[Kashel-Sylph]

Here is my macro set up, it is redundant, but having the same type of spell on the same slot gives you a second nature feel. You don't have to look for the spell you already know where it's at.

line 1: ALT and CTRL both have all my enhancing magic SS Blink En spells Aquiveil pro shell ECT and

line 2: has aurorastorm in alt 1 lumino heelix in slot 2 and the rest from there are cure spells regen regain ect
line 2: Ctrl has all my /jobabilities starting with light arts, addendum white, half mp, 50% cast, rapture, AOE, Enlightenment and a rest and resume macro (includes my -Enmity set) one for resting and the other for casting white magic. I add gear changes into my light arts macro all my fastcast gear is macroed in. Looks like this:

/jobability "light arts" <me>
/equip feet "Scholars loafers"
/equip head "Arguet M.board"
/equip Ear1 "Loquacious Earring"
/equip Ammo "Incantor Stone"

you can also change gear before the /jobability in your Dark Arts macros to avoid animation lag for soloing or whatever.

Line 3 ALT Hailstorm, Cryo Heelix, bliz3, 4, gravity, bind, Sleep2 ,drain ,aspir. Obviously you would insert your equipment in the same macro accordingly here is an example Sleep2:

/equip main "Pluto's Staff"
/equip body "Savant's Coat +2"
/equip legs "Savant's Pants +2"
/equip neck "enfeebling torque"
/magic "Sleep II" <t>
/recast "Sleep II"

Line 3 CTRL has Dark Arts, addendum black, half mp, 50% cast, ebullience, manifestation, rest, nuke (6 lines to reset from whatever gear set back to my nuke set) and sublimation.

If you notice weather will always be in ALT1 line whatever and parsimony/penury will always be CTRL 3. This method is very organized makes me much faster.

Also helpful when when making stratagem macros this method never fails.

/equip legs "Savant's pants +2"
/jobability "penury" <me>
/jobability "parsimony" <me>
/recast "penury"
/recast "parsimony"

This method works great because with both half mp stratagems in one macro whether your in Dark Arts or Light you always get the right stratagem w/o looking for it and also get recast time on next stratagem and how many remain should look like this:

Parsimony :35 [4]

Meaning 35 secs till next stratagem recharge and 4 charges remaining.

Hope this helps, sorry to drag it out but this system has been working for me for years try it!

[Bureikun]

BTW, the new <wait> commands... how are those typed out to be used effectively? mine don't seem to always work quite as effectively as they used to, and my sleep macro NEVER works.
/ma "Sleep II" <t> <wait1>
/ma "Sleep" <t>
/equips
My gear changes, but Sleep I never works and I don't even get an error message.

I believe it's because you forgot the space. It should be <wait 1> not <wait1> but you obviously can't test that until the servers are back up.

[Granny]

How I do mine is on first macro page top is macro for light arts>aden white>then macros to forward me to light art pages, one of which is for main healing/frequent buffs, one for enfeeblments, na/barspells, enspells/weather spells, and on each of those pages I stick the most used ja for light arts for less page switching. Also on each page I stick on the same corner a macro to forward me back to first page which is like the macro page directory which quickly takes be to which spell set page I want and also gives me access to quickly change arts. I also stick on the first directory page, a macro for stoneskin and sublimation, and enchantment and reraise since I find that very handy to get to fast .

Bottom set on first directory page is same thing, dark arts macro> then aden black> macro to direct me to nukes> helix(which also has weather on same page)

I have tried a lot of macros for sch, and this is by far the fastest/easiest I've found for myself and least confuseing since everything is grouped together, and first page is like macro page directory and every other macro page has a macro to take me back to that page, also on my nuking page I have a macro to take me to healing page for those quick oh shit moments.

It takes time to setup such a macro set but trust me on a job like sch in the long run will save you alot of headaches lol, hope this explanation helps someone even though I never went into specific macro details.

[Alderin]

I read a couple of posts, saw a wall of text and skimmed over it so I apologise if I am repeating information here.

/ma "Sleep II"
/ma "Sleep"

without a wait command inbetween means that you would cast Sleep 2 on the mob it is up and you're good to go - having no wait command inbetween shows an error when trying to cast Sleep 1 saying "That action cannot be performed" (or something similar).. So Sleep 2 goes off, and Sleep 1 comes up with an error - meaning you only cast Sleep 2 on the mob..

If however your Sleep 2 timer is up, with no wait command inbetween means it will come up as an error for Sleep 2 saying "That action cannot be performed" (or something similar), however Sleep 1 would still go off - so in effect your forcing a broken macro to cast the teir of sleep that is available - starting with the highest teir...

You can do the same with all spells..

/ma Paralyze II
/ma Paralyze

for example.. The end result - 1 macro for 2x spells, while only casting the one that is up.

*edit* oh wait your probably right regarding <wait 1> .. can't jump on and check my macro's at the moment for obvious reasons.

[Delvish]

I read a couple of posts, saw a wall of text and skimmed over it so I apologise if I am repeating information here.

/ma "Sleep II"
/ma "Sleep"

without a wait command inbetween means that you would cast Sleep 2 on the mob it is up and you're good to go - having no wait command inbetween shows an error when trying to cast Sleep 1 saying "That action cannot be performed" (or something similar).. So Sleep 2 goes off, and Sleep 1 comes up with an error - meaning you only cast Sleep 2 on the mob..

If however your Sleep 2 timer is up, with no wait command inbetween means it will come up as an error for Sleep 2 saying "That action cannot be performed" (or something similar), however Sleep 1 would still go off - so in effect your forcing a broken macro to cast the teir of sleep that is available - starting with the highest teir...

You can do the same with all spells..

/ma Paralyze II
/ma Paralyze

for example.. The end result - 1 macro for 2x spells, while only casting the one that is up.

*edit* oh wait your probably right regarding <wait 1> .. can't jump on and check my macro's at the moment for obvious reasons.

AHA! That sounds like it will work PERFECTLY! I'll have to test it when the servers are up again.

[Rambus]

Sorry if I sounded like I was imposing on your play style but I prefer having them on split buttons

GL with your macro!

[Saefinn]

My method probably could be quicker, but it's not so bad if you're quick on the macros.

I use [Ctrl] mainly to go through a directory, with Light and Dark arts on Ctrl-9 and Ctrl-0 and couple of exceptions.

Main Directory (Also, essential spells):
Ctrl
[White Magic]
[Black Magic]
[Sublimation]
[Stoneskin]
[Equipment Change for MP Recovery]
[Target]
[Light Arts]
[Dark Arts]
Alt
[Attack] (reserved for any situation where melee might be useful, even if rare)
[Deo]
[Sneak]
[Invisi]

White Magic Directory (for each one, Ctrl-> Strategems Alt->Spells):
Ctrl:
[Main Directory]
[Cures] -> Cures, Regens, Raise/Rereaise
[Buffs] -> Protects, Shells, Blink, Aquaveil
[-Na spells]
[Weather Spells]
[Light/Dark Arts]

Black Magic Directory:
Ctrl:
[Main Directory]
[Elemental] (Separate book)
[Enfeebles/Drains]
[Helices]

Elemental Directory:
[Main Directory]
[Black Magic Directory]
[Earth]
[Water]
[Wind]
[Fire]
[Ice]
[Thunder]
[Light]
[Dark]

And an example of a magic directory:
Earth Directory:
Ctrl:
[Main Directory]
[Elemental Directory]
[Parsimony]
[Alacrity]
[Addendum: Black]
[Manifestation]
[Ebullience]
[Light Arts]
[Dark Arts]
Alt:
[Stone]
[Stone II]
[Stone III]
[Stone IV]
[Stone V]
[Sandstorm]
[Klimaform]
[Modus Veritas]
[Geohelix]


But I'll probably need to reshape them a bit just to try and make them more efficient. I find they work nicely if I'm working a single role, but they can be a little annoying when I've got to fill multiple roles.

[Delvish]

Sorry if I sounded like I was imposing on your play style but I prefer having them on split buttons

GL with your macro!
Not at all! I sometimes find myself tempted to create two macros myself, but I'd have to put them on a certain ALT macro line given my setup which means an extra button press and a possibility to fat finger a different CTRL key. In the end it feels almost safer having a default sleep button. And assuming Alderin's idea works, then it'll be even more effective, since I was always waiting on the /wait 1 timer for sleep I.

@ Saefinn: You have a similar set up to mine. I agree, having them all lined up like that is effective if playing one role, but playing multiple roles gets difficult. Same for me (and ultimately the same number of button presses, if not less). You might benefit from adding a few extra directories to access different sections of your macro book in a hurry, like a link to your cure directory while you're in the nuking set.

It confuses things a little bit more, but I wonder if anyone has resorted to having multiple macro books since we have such a macro?

[Saefinn]

Yeah, I'll probably do that and make macro switching quicker. I might do a separate set of macros for different play styles - I mean, I've found in some exp parties: AoE Regen II -> Helix/Nuke -> Heal is quite effective when you're main healer. My current set up involves a lot of macro hits. Perhaps in my elemental book, I've got sets for 'Light' and 'Dark' elements, so I could probably use the light book for a second set of cure/regen macros.

[Laraul]

CNTRL-SHIFT-[NUM] will quickly jump you to a page... CTRL-SHIFT-4 will jump straight to page 4, for example.

[Diska]

Here is my macros optimised for "PS2 pad".
I'm not sure it works well for keyboard or mouse.
It works very well for me.
----
Pad's L2-button menu
Ctrl-1 ----
Ctrl-2 Lv75 abilities(I have "Tranquility" only. Ctrl-1 may be used if i have more.)
Ctrl-3 Lv55 abilities
Ctrl-4 Lv40 abilities
Ctrl-5 Lv25 abilities
Ctrl-6 Lv10 abilities
Ctrl-7 Addendum: White/Light Arts
Ctrl-8 equip set1(for Cure)
Ctrl-9 equip set2
Ctrl-0 /sea all name <t>
----
Pad's R2-button menu
Alt -1 ----
Alt -2 Lv87 abilities
Alt -3 /ja Enlightment <me>
Alt -4 equip set0
Alt -5 /ja Modus Veritas <t>
Alt -6 /ja Sublimation <me>
Alt -7 Addendum: Black/Dark Arts
Alt -8 equip set3
Alt -9 equip set4
Alt -0 ----
----
Ability macros:
/ja LightArtsAbility <me>
/ja DarkArtsAbility <me>
/recast LightArtsAbility
/recast DarkArtsAbility
/recast Light Arts <me>
/recast Dark Arts <me>
----
Equip macros(run this macro twice when you want to use line 1(may need wait by hand)):
/equip Main ElementalStaff1
/equip Main ElementalStaff2
// other equipments...
----
Arts macros(run this macro twice when you need Addendum):
/ja Addendum: White <me>
/ja Light Arts <me>
// just a remainder
/echo Left hand is for the Shield.
/recast Light Arts <me>
/recast Dark Arts <me>
----
note:
ALL magics and other abilities are invoked without macros, are started BY HAND from the system menu. Use quick access for magic menu with Pad's cross-key right-left.
Rewrite equip macros if needed, even if it is mid of battle.
"Select next macro, before the magic casting ends. Select next magic, before the book of arts closes."
I use same macros for RDM/SCH. My RDM policy is "Select next magic, before the magic casting ends."

[Greggles]

I haven't used them in forever, but my SCH macros look something like this
[I]
Macro book 1: (Light Arts)
CTRL:
Set1: 1(Cure2) 2(Cure3) 3(Cure4) 4(Regen III) 5(Refresh) 6(Haste) 7(book switch into Dark Arts) 8(Animus Augeo) 9(Animus Minuo) 0(Sublimation)
Set2: 1-5(enfeebles) 7-0(same as set 1)
Set3-5: (empty except for 7-0 same as set 1)
set6: 1-6, 7-8(storms) 7, 0(same as set 1)
Set7: 1-6(Barspells) 7, 0(Same as set 1) 8-9(Protect and Shell)
Set8: 1-6(Enspells) 7-0(same as set 1)
Set9-10: 1-6(empty) 7-0(Same as set 1)

ALT:
These are all the same for the most part: Stratagems will change based on the set
1-2(Sleep 1, 2) 3-4, 6-7(stratagems based on which set) 8-9(Gravity and Bind) 0(Heal) *On Set 6, ALT6 is Libra. ALT7 is a macro which contains both Addendum: White and Light Arts so that you don't need two macros.

Macro book 2: (Dark Arts)
CTRL:
Set7-1: 1-6 Nukes(Tier 5), 7(Klimaform), 8-9(Drain, Aspir) 0(Sublimation)
Set2: 1-6, 8,9(Helices) 7(Klimaform), 0(Sublimation)
Set3-5: 1-6(empty), 7(Klimaform), 8-9(Bio II/Poison II) 0(Sublimation)
Set6: 1-6, 8-9(Weathers), 7(switch to healing book), 0(Sublimation)

ALT:
The same as the other book:
1-2(Sleeps), 3,4,6,7(Stratagems based on which sets) 8-9(Gravity, bind) 0(heal)


I keep the alts the same that way I'm not flipping through the books trying to find spells I might need. I can generally switch between roles quickly enough - a few people tell me that this is a very convoluted way of macros, but I dunno. They work for me at least. XD

[Merton9999]

It confuses things a little bit more, but I wonder if anyone has resorted to having multiple macro books since we have such a macro?

Yeah I do this. Both books match identically except a few sets have alternate spells related to the corresponding set in the first book. For example, I have the tier V and IV nukes on one set of the main book, and the corresponding tier III ones on the alternate book in the same set. One of my ALT macros (which are the same for every set), switches to the alternate book or back to the main one. This way if I want to throw in a quick tier 3 nuke in LA (or if for some reason I can't Add:Black) I can hit the macro that switches me to the nuke set, then the one to the alternate book, then nuke with a tier III, and easily return to the main book while it's casting.

I put all my Immanence SC commands in the alternate book on the set where Helices are in the main book. It has macros that look like this:

Macro 1
Equipment changes that require blinking

Macro 2
Immanence <wait>
First SC Spell
Equipment changes that don't require blinking + Staff

Macro 3
Immanance <wait>
Alacrity (if spell 2 is a tier IV or V)
Second SC Spell
Equipment changes that don't require blinking + Staff

Macro 4
Ebullience
MB Spell
Staff equip

Common enhancing spells like Phalanx and SS are on the main book's enhancing set, while the alternate book has enspells and spikes.

For double sleep macro, does this work for you guys if you are NOT in Add: Black?

/ma "Sleep II" <t>
/ma "Sleep" <t>

The claim is it will error on Sleep II and cast Sleep instead. It will NOT do this for me. It gives me the error "<Playername> cannot cast Sleep II" and then does nothing. I tried this concept forever ago expecting it to work because I've always had my RDM barspell macros like this:

/ma "Barfira" <me>
/ma "Barfire" <me>

That way if I am /WHM Barfira casts and it skips Barfire because I'm casting Barfira. If I'm not WHM it casts Barfire. I expected the same to work with SCH but it is treating the fact that I don't have Add: Black up as some prohibitive problem for the entire macro and never gets to the Sleep line.

[Delvish]

For double sleep macro, does this work for you guys if you are NOT in Add: Black?

/ma "Sleep II" <t>
/ma "Sleep" <t>

The claim is it will error on Sleep II and cast Sleep instead. It will NOT do this for me. It gives me the error "<Playername> cannot cast Sleep II" and then does nothing. I tried this concept forever ago expecting it to work because I've always had my RDM barspell macros like this:

/ma "Barfira" <me>
/ma "Barfire" <me>

That way if I am /WHM Barfira casts and it skips Barfire because I'm casting Barfira. If I'm not WHM it casts Barfire. I expected the same to work with SCH but it is treating the fact that I don't have Add: Black up as some prohibitive problem for the entire macro and never gets to the Sleep line.

Actually I posted a similar question a bit ago. The fix I did was did the <wait 1> command after the Sleep II, but I put the Sleep I command at the end of my gear switching.

[Ashlotte]

I'm Japanese, so please be gentle:D (my English skill sucks)

*Intro*
Hi there!　Well seems I'm little late:(
As many of you mentioned, I also use '/macro set' or '/macro book' to maintain my chain of macro-pages.


It confuses things a little bit more, but I wonder if anyone has resorted to having multiple macro books since we have such a macro?

Unfortunately I don't use multiple macro books anymore. Before AF3 came out, its worked for changing Light Arts gear and Dark Arts gear, but it wont need anymore. At the time I used AF1, I had a copy of my Macro set to keep sync gears with side of Arts. But still I use "/macro" so let me introduce my macro.

The point I focused are 'less keys to push', 'important spells reach fast', and 'less page-chain-keys'.
NOTE: "page-chain-keys" are macros that includes '/macro set' or '/macro book'.


*Less Keys To Push*
When I use enfeebles, I often don't switch Arts because it doesn't make much change on accuracy.
(and still its fast enough to cast; instead of adding switching Arts)
I decide to settle Spells and Page-Chain-Key in same (Alt+)line, so I can reduce chance I switch Alt and Ctrl Keys.


*Important Spells Reach Fast*
Because of Scholars need to control "Light Arts" and "Dark Arts", I decide to separate 2 basic-magics sets for Light and Dark, but I still want to make my macro switch quicker and stable.
What I thought is to settle "cure" and "enfeebles" to 2 Base pages.
I'm able to cure people faster, and sleep mobs faster.

for example:
Alt-8>2 always cast "Cure III".
Alt-9>2 always cast "Sleep".

Some spells that don't need gear changes like Haste or Na-Spells, use them through system menu.
Using system menu helps us out:

Solve problem where to settle new or rarely used magics in my macro
Sometime its bit faster, bit accurate than using macro (e,g, We don't want to use Dia by mistake, don't we? I remove them from macro)

Keep maintain list of magics (even during fight). Move important magics to top of the list.


*Less Page-Chain-Keys*
Keep number of Page-Chain-Keys in three.

here is my sample:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/405/24661319.jpg/
NOTE:WGri is "Light Arts" because Japanese version of its name is "Grimoire of White"

Description of First Row : Light Arts Base
Ctrl: Light Arts+Addendum, Sublimation, Penury, Celerity, Accession, Rapture, Target with Equip Change, Protect, Shell, Perpetuance
Alt: Regen, Cure III, Cure IV, Cure IV+Rapture, Silence, Paralyze, Slow, (LIGHT), (DARK), (ENHANCE)

"(LIGHT) key" (in image, its named "White")
Doesn't do anything in the Light Arts Base Page.
Is just be there for keep them in same format.

[Saefinn]

I've found that having my macros set out by spell type that actually it can be inefficient, it can be all the more awkward, say if I was nuking and needed to heal somebody, the amount of macros I'd go through would be just awkward. Though, I've not replaced those macros (though since improved them since my last post as I was a level 70 SCH then). These are still useful and can easily be switched back to.

I've got an extra book for different play styles. Currently they're Abyssea orientated and don't account for lower tiers or all stratagems, so most of my nukes pages are lacking 'parsimony' for MP efficiency because I find other stratagems take priority in Abyssea for me, particularly with the MM atma.

So for example:

Sleep Nuke:
Ctrl:
Root (Switches to a root set of macros for playstyle options)
Manifestation
Regen III (I cast Regen III when an enemy is slept to account for any damage they deal, I don't switch arts)
Aquaveil
Enlightenment (For emergencies)
Alacrity
Ebullience
Addendum: Black
Dark Arts

Alt:
Sleep
Sleep 2
Stun (in case I am attacked with Aquaveil down and want to cast sleep)
Break (back up if both sleeps are resisted)
Stone V
Water V
Aero V
Fire IV
Blizzard IV
Thunder IV

That accounts for my soloing.

Another example is:

Nuke/Heal
Ctrl:
Root
Celerity
Rapture
Addendum: White
Accession
Alacrity
Ebullience
Addendum: Black
Light Arts
Dark Arts

Alt:
Cure IV
Regen III
Raise
Stone V
Water V
Aero V
Fire IV
Blizzard IV
Thunder IV

This covers a lot of situations, for example when I'm teaming up for an NM and am not helping proc, healing people whilst others find proc, then all out nuking when an NM is procced saving space to quickly heal somebody if they need it. And if I'm proccing, I can have a set for all the procs.

Other sets include:
Skillchain
Nuke/Enmity
Nuke/Weather
Enhance/Enmity
Heal/Enmity
Heal/Helix
Heal/Enhance
Sleep/Heal
Enfeeble/Nuke
Enfeeble/Heal
Procs
PL

I've not accounted for level sync because I don't level sync my SCH, if somebody in a lower level needs me I offer to PL instead. I'll only jump into my macros and change 'Protect/Shell' to correspond with the appropriate tier for their level.