How Gear Swapping Works: Simple Macros for the Simple Minded

[Kimara]

Sup, WHM since late 03 chiming in. Yeah, I have every idea what I'm talking about, since I've done it all from ground HNMs all the way to lolAbyssea and everything in between.

So I second my previous post. If you're slacking in your curing, gtfo whm. I don't want to see you on it.

(Yes, I know people get one-shotted and lag spikes happen. That IS beyond your control. Everything else is not. Stop eating your cheese sandwich and focus.)

I agree with this, besides if someone is getting "One-shotted" No WHM was gonna be able to save them anyways.

[Khiinroye]

Another hint for the gear swaps:

If you are worried about the spelling or abreviations,you can use the autotranslate to help. First, open your inventory. This is required, as the {Item} autotranslate is limited to items you have recently viewed, and you need to force the items in your inventory into the list. Bring up the autotranslate menu, scroll to {Items}, and open the list. It should be the last category, so I just press up and I'm there. This will refresh your ability to auto-complete items when typing them in.

When making your equipment change macros, type in the first few letters of the item name and bring up autotranslate. Be sure to note, this uses the abbreviated versions. Many of the empyrean/relic/artifact armors have the first word shortened, so be sure to know what abbreviations are used for those. Pick the autotranslated name of the item, and then put quotation marks around the item name. The quotation marks are required. Unless the item name is one word, but use them anyways for consistency.

Make sure that you spell /equip correctly and use the appropriate slot in
/equip slot "Item Name"

Whenever you change an equipment swap macro, test it out to make sure that each line that you changed or added is working.

Edit:
One last note--if you are changing both rings or earrings to the same type of item, separate the lines if possible. If the lines are consecutive, the macro will try to equip the same ring to both slots, and one of the equipment swaps will fail.

Instead of
/equip body "WS body"
/equip ring1 "Pyrosoul ring"
/equip ring2 "Pyrosoul ring"

Use
/equip ring1 "Pyrosoul ring"
/equip body "WS body"
/equip ring2 "Pyrosoul ring"

[CrystalWeapon]

I would suggest to clean the guide up a bit to make it easier to understand and remove the spoilers. Also had videos to SHOW gear swaping AND that other macro targeting s9o those can see it actually works. Actions speak louder then words. If you can edit the title, If you wanna help try to be less condencending.

Some of the replies though are pretty rude if not false. And some make my wonder why people take this game super seriously.

Pro tip: if you wanna make a guide, understand what the guide is for, who the guide is for. And for what type of product. Game guides should be a fun read. Not electronic instrustions, like the old joke comment of vcrs.

to be honest I never did any of this stuff mentioned hear, and I never had a problem. Typically as dnc I out cure the whms/ healers in the party. It really is all about fast reflexes but also lag can play a role.

Also there is a difference between being "good" and over complicating things.

Anyway as I stated decent guide. Thank for writing it.

If you want concrete examples as to why changing gear mid battle is useful, look at any mage class. Say you want to nuke something down, the magical damage staffs provide a 30% damage increase and 10% magical accuracy bonus. Let's say without this bonus your nuke on a particular mob hits for 3,000 (just a random damage example). If you swap to using the magical damage staffs for each element, your nukes will increase to 3,900 damage. That's a noticable difference. Now whether your reactions are fast or slow it doesn't matter that 30% increase still applies to both types of players.

Similarly healing magic has a staff that increases cures by 22% meaning on a (another random example) 900 hp cure would be increased to a 1,098 cure by swapping in that gear. The effect is multiplied more if you swap in other gear to further boost the %.

Just keep in mind that whatever set you are using as a static set can also be used by players who swap gear. The difference is that when the situation changes say they want to max their ws damage, the swappers can change in gear to max the damage at that situation. They can gear up exactly as you do and do the same thing that you do but with the flexibility to switch to another layout that maxes their performance in every category. That means they can attack at the fastest possible rate they can at any time they want, deal the highest possible damage per ws at any time they want, have the highest rate of evasion at any time they want, etc... they aren't limited in any way sans their ability to hold multiple sets. On a 4 second delay weapon 25% haste will hit approx. 1,200 in an hour vs 900 with 0% haste. It's all mathmatical there are no exceptions to things in this game that are dictated by static numbers.

Note: No one is telling you how to play or that you have to play a certain way. They are merely telling you that if you do this you will perform better which is a cold hard fact. If you choose to play a certain way that's a choice, but you can't say 4>6 and not expect to be corrected on it. That said drop it, move on, don't drag this topic into another fight.

[Romanova]

Sup, WHM since late 03 chiming in. Yeah, I have every idea what I'm talking about, since I've done it all from ground HNMs all the way to lolAbyssea and everything in between.

So I second my previous post. If you're slacking in your curing, gtfo whm. I don't want to see you on it.

(Yes, I know people get one-shotted and lag spikes happen. That IS beyond your control. Everything else is not. Stop eating your cheese sandwich and focus.)

^ I have always used a controller in ffxi and have healed just fine with it.

Heck at one point in my ffxi life I decided it would be a good idea to do the whole dual box madness (F THAT NEVAR AGAIN, and not 'cause I sucked it just gave me headaches trying to split my brain especially since at the time I was main assist in dynamis), and I would use the keyboard (on the pc) for my melee, and a controller (on ps2) for my healer.

Controller is not that bad. I think people assume the opposite when they just simply aren't used to it. When I first started on the keyboard for my melee dualboxing it was a nightmare for me 'cause I wasn't used to it. But I was patient until it became insanely easy.

[Kensagaku]

I aim impressed by this guide, just looking at it. It's nice to see someone really trying to help educate folks without shoving it down their throats! You put out a guide that offers suggestions, as well as pertinent examples, and honestly it's very well written out.

I would like to make my own suggestion though, just to supplement it.

Don't waste a slot with a WS macro. Gear? Sure, go for it. For a controller I can see it a bit more but as a keyboard player I think it's silly. Honestly, it's easier to ctrl+w for your weapon skill menu, select the weapon skill and boom. Best part is that the cursor works on a "memory" function, so you can just hit it and hit enter rather than scrolling to the weapon skill every time. For a controller it's a bit more complicated since I imagine you have to navigate to Abilities -> Weapon Skills -> WS Name but that's a guess as I don't use one. :P

The only reason I say this is because sometimes macro palettes get full quite quickly (I'm looking at you, my RDM/BLM/BRD/SMN ;~; ) and as a result every saved slot helps.

[Pharaun]

Don't waste a slot with a WS macro. Gear? Sure, go for it. For a controller I can see it a bit more but as a keyboard player I think it's silly.

Another suggestion is that if you have empty space in the macro just add the weapon skill on to the end of that.

Line 1 - Gear change
Line 2 - Gear change
Line 3 - Gear change
Line 4 - Gear change
Line 5 - /wait 1
Line 6 - /ws "Ukko's Fury" <t>

The wait line isn't even strictly necessary, I just prefer to have it in there to make sure all the gear swaps are reqistered.

[Kensagaku]

Don't even need wait lines anymore! <wait 1> at the end of a gearswap line works just as well. :P

Line 1 - Gear change
Line 2 - Gear change
Line 3 - Gear change
Line 4 - Gear change <wait 1>
Line 5 - /ws "Ukko's Fury" <t>

[Rayik]

Ok, serious question. Is <wait 1> recommended for lengthy gear changes in WS macros? Is there a potential that the WS will activate before all the gear has been adjusted? Just one of those odd little things I keep forgetting to ask.

[Pharaun]

Oh man, I totally forgot that they changed that, thanks for the reminder.

[Kensagaku]

I don't really think so. I don't remember getting issues in switching gears unless my comp lagged. Aside from lag though, it's easiest to put a wait after the last one so a gear piece or two doesn't get cut off.