How Gear Swapping Works: Simple Macros for the Simple Minded

[Zatias]

Hello again.

Thank you all for pointing out stuff I missed or should add. Put some of it into the original post, will add more when I have more time.

I would also like to give "credit" in the guide, to people who helped me with additions. What do you guys think? ;P I'm not one for stealing ideas XD

[Myrrh]

Ya, I'd like to really state one thing about macro usage. Please, please, please, for the love of god, do not fill your macros with /p crap. No one wants to hear your Naruto quotes, your stupid phrases for summons, ect. It's annoying and adds nothing. You want to enjoy that stuff? Put it in /echo like it was suggested.

[cidbahamut]

Ya, I'd like to really state one thing about macro usage. Please, please, please, for the love of god, do not fill your macros with /p crap. No one wants to hear your Naruto quotes, your stupid phrases for summons, ect. It's annoying and adds nothing. You want to enjoy that stuff? Put it in /echo like it was suggested.

This. So very much.

Your mages do not appreciate you spamming their chatlog with noise. They're already filtering out a ton of stuff so they can do their jobs properly, so why would you undermine that? We don't need to see what you're doing in the chatlog twice. The only exceptions would be for Stun rotations and announcing Pro/Shell.

I can't even begin to tell you how many people I've blacklisted simply to shut their /party macros up.

[Tamoa]

/p Provoke <insertmobhere>!
...
...
...
/p Provoke @ 15 seconds!
...
...
...
/p Provoke ready!



or the utsusemi /p macros...

Please. Don't. Just don't.

[Rayik]

Was in a xp ally with a PUP who kept spamming /p messages, but didn't even make any reference to what JA he was using. It was literally just him repeating himself in some character tone over and over. Over half the ally was telling him to stop, so he started whining, calling us whiners(irony). I really don't like to /blist people, but man, some are just asking for it.

So yeah, if at all possible, maybe in the guide have a special mention of just don't /p things and why. RP on your own time with friends, not in pick up groups.

[Rosina]

You guys are taking things way to seriously, and really have no idea how much better the guide can read w/o the clutter. You guys also know nothing about me, and really should keep the trashy comments to yourself. This is a forum about a video game not your personal blogs to "complain" about how other people play.

If you wanna help people, do it the right way. Take that condencending attitude down a notch. No one needs to read/ hear it. This is a video game, and most of you guys lost what that REALLY means. I personaly think gear swaping, number crunching and the like make this game more complicated then needed. If you guys reread 1/2 of your posts, you should notice how many insults you dish out daily. I personally have a hard time reading the guide. And I did try the tab + enter button on the spoilers, still don't work.

Assumption can be an insult. Like assuming gear swaping = playing your class. And no gear swap= lazy. I'm sorry but that is rude. Also comments like "go fail elsewhere" ruin the thread.

[Tamoa]

because I have the right to comment on the guide. And on the replies you guys give. Which in most cases are rude, condencending, full of a unfounded supriority complex that ruins the feeling of this being a game. The guide is a help and as I stated I honor good work. But honestly do not sit there and assume I started anything, you guys did. All i did was make suggestion to improve the readability of the guide. All i got was insults on for it. (repeatedly) And again do not contradict yourself, you obviousely care how I play if you keep insulting how everyone plays.

I haven't insulted you or anyone else on how you or anyone else play this game. I've stated a fact - by not gear swapping you're being less efficient at your chosen job in every aspect of it, be it spells, job abilities, melee damage, weaponskill damage, etc etc. And if you chose a lazy playstyle - which it seems that you do - don't insult those of us that find it fun to be efficient in this game.

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

[Kensagaku]

Calm down, Tamoa, you're going to get out the tonberry knife soon. D:

That aside, I agree with her, Rosina. I've tried to remain polite throughout this thread, pointing out the usefulness of gear swapping and its effects. No one is asking you to gear swap. And as Tamoa said, why are you even bothering to post in this thread if you aren't going to offer the same advice or even use the advice in the first place? All you did was come in here and start a war. Again. We're not looking for a critique on this guide's layout--you're the only one who seems to have a problem with it anyway--and that's all you're offering. If you're not going to help with the topic at hand, kindly leave and let us continue this thread so that we can help educate people who actually want to play the game well versus casually. There's nothing wrong with a casual playstyle, but there are those who want to take the next step. This guide is for them.

You guys are taking things way to seriously, and really have no idea how much better the guide can read w/o the clutter. You guys also know nothing about me, and really should keep the trashy comments to yourself. This is a forum about a video game not your personal blogs to "complain" about how other people play.

(1)If you wanna help people, do it the right way. Take that condencending attitude down a notch. No one needs to read/ hear it. This is a video game, and most of you guys lost what that REALLY means. I personaly think gear swaping, number crunching and the like make this game more complicated then needed. (2)If you guys reread 1/2 of your posts, you should notice how many insults you dish out daily. I personally have a hard time reading the guide. And I did try the tab + enter button on the spoilers, still don't work.

(3)Assumption can be an insult. Like assuming gear swaping = playing your class. And no gear swap= lazy. I'm sorry but that is rude. Also comments like "go fail elsewhere" ruin the thread.

I numbered them for easier reference in my reply.

(1) You're being a hypocrite here. By saying "Do it right" you're assuming that you are doing it right, and as a result are showing us a condescending attitude. If you're going to try and offer etiquette advice, try learning some yourself. A simple "a suggestion to help improve communication between players would be to watch out for a condescending attitude, intentional or not." sounds a lot nicer than "You're doing it wrong, do better."

(2) Advice you could take as well. I'm not saying I haven't gone without tossing out an insult offhandedly when I'm upset or annoyed; we're human, we make mistakes. I'm no exception to that rule.

(3) But it's not an assumption. If you cannot play your class properly (for example, a dancer healing at 80% efficiency, or a BLM whose nukes/enfeebles are always resisted because you don't want to change staves) then you are considered to be useless when it comes to a group dynamic. When you play with a group, you either meet that group's expectations or you leave and find a group who will Apoc-zombie and throw bodies at something until it rages or is taken. Making a gear swap macro is so simplistic as well, as this guide demonstrates; with three button presses, THREE at most, you can swap your entire gearset. Heck, you might not even need to swap all 16 pieces, just a few here and there for a weapon skill set, for example, or for a JA. By being unable to type a single line of code as demonstrated here "/equip head headitemhere" that proves a lot of laziness. If you're not bothering to put forth the effort to play your job well, then that is indeed lazy. No one's asking you to be the best and know every little detail, but we'd like to see people putting some effort in too or we're going to find someone else.

Also, guy again stop trashing on how other people play. (commenting on the above complaints on macro /p sayings) If it bugs you that much leave the group. You do act like whiners if you complain about silly stuff. I like those party comments to be honest. It makes the game feel more more like a game. I've seen very creative ones also.

Worry about yourselves and stop treating everyone else like trash, all because they do not play like you. Nothing is wrong with diversity. Also do not contradict yourselves be saying "we do not care how you play" You obviousely do if you're gonna make rude comments about it. Or about myself.

Only one thing to comment on in this post. I personally do not care how you play. You are on a different server than me, I will never interact with you. This has no effect on my gameplay whatsoever. Therefore, I truly do not care. But what I do care about is your influence on people who may see your posts and be from my server, and take them to heart. Because I may or may not have to cooperate with these players at some point, and if they have no modicum of skill and intellect because of what they read from you, then I have to suffer through dealing with them in the party and having them drag the rest of us down. Kicking out one bad player to improve the rest of the party's chances is much better than keeping him and making everyone else suffer, and as a result, your "teachings" here are going to get people kicked for poor skill and unwillingness to learn.

My suggestion is that if you want to be a unique snowflake, have at it. I encourage a person to enjoy the game. However, I also kindly ask a person being said snowflake to not join any of my parties lest it cause failures and wasted time. After all, to me, enjoying the game is doing well on beating monsters, and getting good gear, and being good comparative to others. Maybe it's not your style of enjoyment, but you're infringing on my style of enjoyment just as much as you claim I am yours.

[Kari]

Rosina, do you even have a 90 job?
I only ask because, your profile states 3 jobs that are 30 or under.
I could easily understand why you think gear swapping isn't important if you're not even high enough to have gear options.
For DD jobs especially, there's hardly any reason to swap for a good while.

If you actually do have a 90, your posts are that much more worthy of being trolled upon.

[Ertai]

because I have the right to comment on the guide. And on the replies you guys give. Which in most cases are rude, condencending, full of a unfounded supriority complex that ruins the feeling of this being a game. The guide is a help and as I stated I honor good work. But honestly do not sit there and assume I started anything, you guys did. All i did was make suggestion to improve the readability of the guide. All i got was insults on for it. (repeatedly) And again do not contradict yourself, you obviousely care how I play if you keep insulting how everyone plays.

You seem to love to fall back on the "This is a game I'll play how I want!" argument quite a bit. However, games have certain guidelines and rules and aren't just a free-for-all to interpret however you wish. The fact is that gear-swapping is a fundamental part of this game, and by not doing so, you're ignoring one of these rules or guidelines. If we were playing a team game of Yahtzee and I decided that I wanted to play with 4 dice instead of 5, I would be fundamentally gimping myself simply because, simply because I wanted to only have to count 4 dice instead of 5. It would be fully within everyone else playing's right to tell me to play properly.

Clearly this is a slight exaggeration, but you also keep saying that you can perform better than others who "use 5 dice". Sure, this might occasionally happen just based on pure coincidence, but the vast majority of the time, you will be outperformed. If you simply didn't claim to be good and only played by yourself (which is seeming more and more likely in all honesty) then I would most likely be able to overlook this. But you're posting misinformation on these forums by saying that gear-swaps aren't necessary to reach your full potential, when that is simply not the case. Sure, you go ahead and don't type a few lines into your macros one time because its too complicated. But this is how the game is set up. People reading this thread might see your comments and decide that hey, if this person performs at maximum capacity without gear-swapping, I can ignore the quality information in this thread. No. Don't play Yahtzee with 4 dice, and don't try to get others to do it, either.

On topic. Excellent beginner's guide to macros. The layout is excellent, also! I found it very easy to read with the spoilers not making everything completely cluttered and separating the information to make comprehension of the information much simpler.