In Game DoT Tracker

For many jobs you have to use DoTs and sometimes it can be hard to keep track of your DoTs so you'll forget to refresh them. Sometimes you'll be focused on your rotation or running out of aoes so you'll forget to look up to see if they wore off. Unfortunately, maximum upkeep of dots means maximum damage and lots of people forget to refresh them for a number of reasons. Now in many mmos there are add ons that would allow you to easily track them, however in this game addons aren't here yet (although in the future they will be from what I've heard). With that said, there is a way in the game to remind you when your DoTs wear off.

All you need to do is make a macro for your DoT that looks something like this.
First off, go to your filters and make sure the echo is on along with making it a color that really sticks out so you can see it going off without really having to pay attention to your chat log. The good thing about the /echo command is you are the only person that will see it so you won't clog up everyone else's chat log.

/ac "Demolish" <t>
/wait 18 (or however long the dot lasts)
/echo !!!!!!#####@@@@@### DEMOLISH !!!!!####@@@@###

This way, whenever a dot wears off you'll get a little reminder that your DoT has worn off.

Now there are some limitations to this. First off, you can only use it for one dot because you can only have one macro going off at once. So make sure you use it with a dot that you tend to forget to keep up, or one that is close to the timers of your other dots. Another limitation is you cannot have the echo play sounds to make it easier to recognize that the timer has worn off. Anyway, this isn't perfect by any means - and you can look at the enemy debuffs to see if your dot wore off but sometimes that can be hard if you have other group members with the same dots and sometimes you can just flat out forget to refresh it. But, try it out, see if it helps.

Actually, I ran into a problem - you can't run more than one macro at a time for different timers. So, I guess just put the macro on an ability that resembles the timer that's close to your other dots to remind of your other ones. Sorry, I should have tested that before posting. Then again, when you have a reminder for one of them, it will remind you of the other ones. Oh well.

Not to throw a wrench into your plans even further, but last I checked you couldn't send /tells in dungeons or raids.

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Originally Posted by Terk177

Not to throw a wrench into your plans even further, but last I checked you couldn't send /tells in dungeons or raids.

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You're right, I just tested this. Instead you get a tiny sound with an error that says 'cannot send tell' or something along those lines. I guess that's the best we can hope for when it comes to a reminder.

Wasn't there a way to make a system message or something only you could see? Could use that one.

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Originally Posted by Waliel

Wasn't there a way to make a system message or something only you could see? Could use that one.

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Not sure, I don't know a whole lot about the in game commands. Maybe someone knows how to do them and can shed some light on it. Maybe even how to do the system command with a noise attached to it.

You can use the /echo (or just /e) command to do display a text only you can see. I don't know if the sounds effects work with it, though.

Using macros is bad for everything but off GCD skills.

Also, they fixed it so all your personal debuffs are on the left of the debuff line(s) for the enemy.

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Originally Posted by Kevee

Using macros is bad for everything but off GCD skills.

Also, they fixed it so all your personal debuffs are on the left of the debuff line(s) for the enemy.

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^
This, and another trick I personally use is counting the GL rotations after each application.

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Originally Posted by Kevee

Using macros is bad for everything but off GCD skills.

Also, they fixed it so all your personal debuffs are on the left of the debuff line(s) for the enemy.

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I understand macros aren't the best way to go about using skills and I also know that your debuffs are on the left along with a green counter, however there are lots of people that are terrible at keeping their dots up and I was just trying to think of a way to make it easier for people to keep them up.

Anyway, I tried different setups and the best I could come up without having a noise (since you can't send tells to yourself or have the game play a noise with a /echo) is just make your echo chat color something that really stands out. Another thing you could do is when you are in a dungeon, make the chat window have large font so it sticks out when the echo goes off.

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Originally Posted by Alkor1

You can use the /echo (or just /e) command to do display a text only you can see. I don't know if the sounds effects work with it, though.

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Came here to say this. /echo works anywhere and is a different color than the /tell.

Edit: Also note that there is no sound with /echo. It only works in party with <se.2>

I thought about this a while back on my warrior to rotate defensive CD but the macro stops working if you use a second one so unless you only plan to use 1 DoT like Demolish. It's best to just look at the left side of the target bar. I have it situated right above my own buff bar so one glance gives me an idea of how my timers are doing.

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Originally Posted by Zer0mr

Came here to say this. /echo works anywhere and is a different color than the /tell.

Edit: Also note that there is no sound with /echo. It only works in party with &lt;se.2&gt;

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Greetings,

In patch 2.1 the various sound effects that can be played by entering the &lt;se.1&gt;-&lt;se.16&gt; text commands will work with “/echo” as well as alliance chat. :D

On the topic of <se.1> and such, can we get a <call> feature that's really loud like in XI, but limit it to like once every 5minutes in the event of someone being in your party being afk when the duty finder pops up and the like?

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Originally Posted by Camate

Greetings,

In patch 2.1 the various sound effects that can be played by entering the &lt;se.1&gt;-&lt;se.16&gt; text commands will work with “/echo” as well as alliance chat. :D

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You still can't run more than 1 macro at a time with echo or other countdowns because a 2nd macro cancels the counter on the first and last I checked classes have more than 1 dot.

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Originally Posted by Phafi

On the topic of <se.1> and such, can we get a <call> feature that's really loud like in XI, but limit it to like once every 5minutes in the event of someone being in your party being afk when the duty finder pops up and the like?

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<se.1> very quiet
<se.1><se.1> quiet
<se.1><se.1><se.1> better
<se.1><se.1><se.1><se.1> again louder you see where this is going?

Yeah thats pretty much a terrible solution for dot tracking. Any class with more then one dot can't use that as well as there are fights where you want to use the echo macros to track boss mechanics like on twin. SE themselves need to do a better job and give us tools to help us track them better.


Its kinda silly that such a half baked work around is being told to people like its a solution by the community team instead of saying yeah we know its bad and we are giving your feedback to the ui team about it.