How Gear Swapping Works: Simple Macros for the Simple Minded

[Kensagaku]

It is leeching, though. Those people who do not swap gear and are instead providing minimal effort towards others are leeching. A DD among "equals" (I'm talking non-empy versus non-empy or empy vs empy) who provides less than 1% of the parse is leeching. A mage who can't help cure, or has all their nukes resisted, or can't land an enfeeble on a mob that's not immune is a leech. Maybe it's not in the typical "I'm sitting there doing nothing" style, but it's still leeching. You can "try" all you want, but if you're accomplishing nothing, you might as well be doing nothing.

[Karbuncle]

playing. Games are not jobs. ~.~

But really I play just as well as anyone here. [Removed by Moderator according to the FINAL FANTASY XI FORUM Guidelines.]

Look, its great you dont want to make the game more complicated.

Enjoy your own playstyle but stop spreading your misinformation to new players. This threads goal is to educate people on the more in depth aspects of the game. Its okay you dont like it, But go away if thats the case, Your making this thread go further off topic and your spreading wrong information to new players.

[CrystalWeapon]

Look, its great you dont want to make the game more complicated.

Enjoy your own playstyle but stop spreading your misinformation to new players. This threads goal is to educate people on the more in depth aspects of the game. Its okay you dont like it, But go away if thats the case, Your making this thread go further off topic and your spreading wrong information to new players.

Just stop responding to her and report all of her attempts to drag this out into another argument as inflammatory. That's what I'm doing. You have to learn to cut your losses when someone isn't willing to admit that +10% to something isn't more than +0% without seeing a video first.

[RAIST]

Simple example for simple minds....if swapping gear for a little more oomph to your spells/abilites didn't matter, we wouldn't be jumping through the hoops to make the +2 cure potency staves because the Apollo's Staff you can simply BUY on the AH would be JUST AS GOOD.... which....if you've ever seen the two in use side by side, you would clearly know is not the case. And yes, I carry it also when on SMN or BLM for when I have to go into curing mode, and it is in my cure macros to swap it in--I just trade it for my Carby staff from my satchel when I have to go on cure duty with SMN, stays in my inventory for BLM.

Edit:
In case you've never looked at these two staves, The cure potency bonuses:
Suryu's Staff +2: +22% Cure Potency mod to cures
Apollo's Staff: +10% Cure Potency and +2 MND/VIT mod to cures

+22% > +10% and 2MND/VIT

This is why we swap gears--to be more efficient.

[Sira]

impressively simplistic zatias, i like it (hoping to keep this topic from being deleted via Rosina's non-sense)

as a note an old setup i used to have used was more "vertical" than what the conventional player has

like:

(macro bind: alt + 1)
WS1
/equip head "Etoile Tiara"
/equip neck "Peacock Charm"
/equip body "Charis Carasque +2"
/equip hands "Charis Bangles +1"
/equip legs "Charis Tights +2"
/macro set 2

WS2
/equip feet "Charis Toeshoes +2"
/equip back "Atheling Mantle"
/equip L.Ear "Brutal Earring"
/equip R.Ear "Aesir Ear Pendant"
/equip L.Ring "Rajas Ring"
/macro set 3

Evis
/equip R.Ring "Angel's Ring"
/equip waist "Warwolf Belt"
/ws evisceration /wait 2
/echo WS finished, Return to Macro home, Execute TP set
/macro set 1

then go about doing a similar process for TP set (alt + 2)

doing it this way would minimize skipping and you can spam it carelessly till you ws then will take you back to main set.

[RAIST]

[Removed by Moderator according to the FINAL FANTASY XI FORUM Guidelines.]

I know.. I should know better. All our advice in the past seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Keep hoping if we show her with her own words, maybe one day the coaching in the past will finally sink in. Guess it's my paternal nature...can't just turn my back on someone, no matter how lost a cause it may seem.

Zatias. There's a lot of good stuff in here. I hate to suggest it, but might be worth it to copy paste the goodies into a text editor to create a final compilation and post it as a new thread so this crud can just roll off the first page. This is some REALLY good stuff for new players, and I hate to see all the good ideas go to waste.

I think it may even be worthy of a sticky in the New Player's forum if the mods could do that for you.

[Anethia]

@ Rosina

If you really want examples of how gear swaps make a difference come watch myself or crystalweapon handle things on our respective jobs. He is one of the best main DRG/main BLM I know, and though he and I have slightly different ways of playing DRG, I never would have become the drg I did if not for his tutolage (spellcheck please). Anyway, the fact of the matter is that you play the game/job the way you want and that is fine. But straight up denying facts despite that the reality is that there is not only math, but player experience to back up those facts, is simply ignorant on your part.

Believe me when I say that swapping in waltz potency gear and chr on dnc, is the difference between an 800 point Curing Waltz 5 and 900+ Curing Waltz 5 (maybe even 1k with phurba dagger and Roundel Earring, I wouldn't know, I dont have either one). The same goes for ws, tp, jig, eva and samba based gear sets.

In closing, understanding what gear to swap in for what you intend to do is the difference between good players and mediocre players. Which one you choose to be is entirely up to you.

[Nala]

as far as stacking vertical macros with the /macro set x commands should make it the first line of your macro, it will still execute all follow on lines but swap the macro set faster preventing lag from messing you up as badly. i had been using it as my last line for years before i had a rather rudely awakening epiphany its not much but there is a noticeable difference in response time when you re arrange your macros, especially when your gear swaps are 3 macros long.

[Puck]

Here's something you might want to include that I didn't see in the guide.
/echo (Your text here)

/echo displays a message that only you can see in yellowish text. Why is it useful? To tell yourself that a gear and/or macro swap has been completed. Although it takes up a macro line it can be very convenient in letting you know that you've completed a sequence of gear swaps (if you stack your gear swap macros on the same button on different sets and have to press that button 2 or 3 times to finish the swap, for example).

Or, if you use multiple macro sets for one job depending on the situation and often switch between them. I use an entire book of macros on BLM alone. I have all the sets linked via a macro and gear swap set, with /echo messages like "ELEMENTAL AGA3/JA" or "ELEMENTAL IV/V" so I know when I've switched to the set containing all of those spells.

[Alymorel]

Here's something you might want to include that I didn't see in the guide.
/echo (Your text here)

/echo displays a message that only you can see in yellowish text. Why is it useful? To tell yourself that a gear and/or macro swap has been completed. Although it takes up a macro line it can be very convenient in letting you know that you've completed a sequence of gear swaps (if you stack your gear swap macros on the same button on different sets and have to press that button 2 or 3 times to finish the swap, for example).

Or, if you use multiple macro sets for one job depending on the situation and often switch between them. I use an entire book of macros on BLM alone. I have all the sets linked via a macro and gear swap set, with /echo messages like "ELEMENTAL AGA3/JA" or "ELEMENTAL IV/V" so I know when I've switched to the set containing all of those spells.

Yes, yes yes yes yes yes. It also helps other people in your pt when they don't have to see all that info about your macros and timers. It clutters the chat log and confuses some others as to when their own timers and such are up. It's a great line for those who put text into pt chat that would be better suited for just you. Switch it up guys ^^