Trying to figure out some macro stuff

[Trisscar]

Personally I think that DDs who feel that an axtra 1% dmg is worth swaping out for while a healer is trying to keep them alive only have themselves to blame when they get their face ate off.

But whouldn't you know? DDs are typically whiny bitches who apparently don't understand the headaches that a healer has to deal with.

So in order that I can have fewer headaches for the next time I called out on a job I don't particularly care for could someone help me how the <stal> commands work and how I use them in a macro?

Please keep it simple, and thanks for the assist.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

/ma "Cure V" <stal> or <stpt>

This puts an arrow next to the names on the party list, rather than selecting the target manually. That way no matter how many gear swaps you wont loose the target.

That said the DD is doing the right thing, getting the max out of your attacks is worth it, even only 1%. The issue is on SE's side with the dumb blink system loosing target.

[Trisscar]

/ma "Cure V" <stal> or <stpt>

This puts an arrow next to the names on the party list, rather than selecting the target manually. That way no matter how many gear swaps you wont loose the target.

That's it? Simple as that?

That said the DD is doing the right thing, getting the max out of your attacks is worth it, even only 1%.

I tend to disagree, mostly because 1% doesn't amount to much. Ayone who says differently is fooling themselves. It's their milk and they're gonna spill it though and someone is gonna have to clean up after them.

The issue is on SE's side with the dumb blink system loosing target.

What is up with that anyway?

[Daniel_Hatcher]

That's it? Simple as that?


I tend to disagree, mostly because 1% doesn't amount to much. Ayone who says differently is fooling themselves. It's their milk and they're gonna spill it though and someone is gonna have to clean up after them.


What is up with that anyway?

Yup!

If space permits it there is no point to do otherwise, small amount or otherwise, but hey, different strokes and all.

PS2 Limitations no doubt!

[saevel]

That's it? Simple as that?


I tend to disagree, mostly because 1% doesn't amount to much. Ayone who says differently is fooling themselves. It's their milk and they're gonna spill it though and someone is gonna have to clean up after them.


What is up with that anyway?

Because its much more then 1%. Changing anything in your head / body / hands / legs / feet slots will cause you to blink, those slots give lots of Haste and good TP stats, they also give amazing WS stats, rarely on the same piece of gear. Those DDs are killing the monster that is getting you your XP / Items, you want them to do as much damage as possible, just like they want you to be the best healer possible.

<stpc> works differently if your on PC then it does if your on console. On PC it doesn't let you use the up / down arrows to select a party member, you have to instead use the F1~F6 keys. <stal> always puts a cursor on the party list and you can use up / down to move it to the desires player.

[Trisscar]

If space permits it there is no point to do otherwise

Something I always struggle with, despite having maxed out space T.T

PS2 Limitations no doubt!

Harhar. Out of curiosity, are the PS2 limits really that bad? Why don't they ditch the PS2 for PS3 if so? It's not like PS3 is stupid expensive any more.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Harhar. Out of curiosity, are the PS2 limits really that bad? Why don't they ditch the PS2 for PS3 if so? It's not like PS3 is stupid expensive any more.

The code of the game is still PS2 as well, more adjustment then that need to be made.

[Jerbob]

I think people often fail to recognise how much of a hastle <stal> can be in its own right. It's just so slow, and painfully so. It's fine if you're a White Mage with one, possibly two people to take care of and you can be fairly relaxed about the whole thing - it eliminates the blinking issue fairly effectively then - but when you're taking care of small alliances with little or no support that lack of speed is a real problem.

It's not just moving the arrow around - and yes, you can pretarget, but if someone blinks (the initial problem!) then you've lost that pretarget anyway - but if there is graphics lag (as opposed to the insurmountable connection lag) then that arrow takes a split second to appear. By that time my arrow keys have bounced my camera all over the place and it's hugely disorienting. It slows me down.

On the whole I think it's better to have it than not, but the practicalities of it are unfortunately less than stellar. Perhaps these new interface targetting commands will help, but I'm not sure it'll reduce the feeling that, as a White Mage, my fight is with my keyboard rather than with any monster in-game - and that's before dealing with laggy multi-part macros.

[Crimson_Slasher]

Not saying it to pick on those who use keyboard/mouse to play this cause theres a lot, but i find a USB control is really very nice for this function. Also i wonder if possibly a revers J2K (Joy to Key) option might solve this to some degree, where you emulate in reverse, a directional pad designed explicitly for targeting upward/downward on that list. That or perhaps.... Maybe a change could be made allowing the player to click the character name in party/aliance list (With the mouse) during the cure target phase.

[Economizer]

It isn't just 1% more damage or they wouldn't be carrying the extra gear (also if it is just 1% extra don't play with them, they have terrible macro gear which is worse then having none).

But whouldn't you know? DDs are typically whiny bitches who apparently don't understand the headaches that a healer has to deal with.

This times a million but not everyone is like that fortunately.

Anyways <stal> is very useful for Alliance healing, although it is sluggish and generally sucks to use compared to Function key targeting after you select the spell.

Unfortunately the game client doesn't support these on alliance members through something easy like CTRL/ALT and then a Function key but personally I find it much harder to be effective as a healer cross alliance even when I'm targeting them via macros, due to party only spells and abilities.

Although knowing the limitations of the players you run with and having a strategy is very important I think that becoming familiar with the <stal> function is a good idea despite its limitations. Macroing a <stal> Haste, Cure IV, and Cure V macro is probably a good idea even if you only use them for alliance targeting.