how to make macros

this is my first mmo, and ive been playing for a while, but ive never understood how to make macros. ive looked online, but it doesnt make much sense to me. i main as a WHM, and doing brayflox, i always sleep the second boss when the add comes in, and i always say when i do it, so i have to type, taking away from my healing. i would like to be able to know how to make macros for things like this and when i tank or dps. i play on ps4 now, if that makes any difference in how its made

/macroicon "Sleep"
/ac "Sleep" <t>
/p Casting Sleep on <t>

This will put the sleep cooldown on the macro (you will still need to find the icon in the image list, this is just the timer), and sleep whatever you have targeted as well as let the party know you are sleeping so a BLM or other WHM doesn't waste their sleep. Another good one for WHM would be:

/macroicon "Swiftcast"
/p Rasing <t>
/ac "Swiftcast" <me>
/ac "Raise" <t>

Usually you would still use the Raise Icon, but this puts a timer for when Swiftcast is available and allow you to do a fast raise with one button. Then if swiftcast is not available you just keep mashing the button to skip the swiftcast line and cast a slow raise (or you can have the normal raise on your bar too). The /p line notifies your party so the other healer doesn't waste a swift raise too/ the person knows not to return. Sometimes you will see people put a jab/joke in the /p like "TIME TO WAKE UP, RAISING <t>" or "STUPID DD, learn to dodge" etc.

Important commands to remember when making macros:
/macroicon "Skill Name" This will make it so the macro's icon and cooldown time will be based off of the Skill you assigned.
/p Your message, <t> /p to talk to your party and tell just them what you are doing and <t> will say who you are targeting.
/ac "Skill Name" /ac is the action command, this is what makes you use a skill.
/pac "Pet's Skill Name" This makes pets use a command.
<t> Place this at the end of a command so it uses it on the whatever you're targeting. The general targeting.
<tt> Place this at the end of a command so it uses it on a target of who/whatever you're targeting. Good for healers who keep their Tanks targeted most of the time and want to add to the DPS.
<me> Place this at the end of a command so it uses it on yourself. Good for self buffs, group healing, or summoning pets.
/ wait #of seconds You'll need this if you're chaining skills that are on the global cooldown.

can you inturrupt your macros? several people ive run with have their dots marcoed for smn, can you interrupt the macro in the middle of the sequence, or do you have to let it finish before doing anything else? because i thought about having 2-3 spell sequnces for my black mage once i get max lv and i can figure out how much mp is required for the string of spells. while i do appreciate telling me the setup for the 2 above, but im still not entirely sure about some things. for skills, do you have to put quotations? how do you annotate pet actions? i have absolutely no clue how to do stuff like this.

Yes you can interrupt macros by moving.

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Originally Posted by Mimilu

/ wait #of seconds[/U] You'll need this if you're chaining skills that are on the global cooldown.

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do you have to iclude this for cast times, or is that already taken into account?

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Originally Posted by monochromicorn

do you have to iclude this for cast times, or is that already taken into account?

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The cast times are already taken into account, you just need to worry about the cooldowns.

i would like to thank you all for the help, i really do appreciate it. ive made the macros for WHM and 1 for my BLM, with your help, of course.

okay, correction, the macro for my BLM never gets past blizzard 3. it doesnt tell me whats wrong, or if anything is going wrong, so here it is, maybe someone can help me fix it

/macroicon "blizzard III"
/ac "Blizzard III"
/ac "Thunder II"
/ac "Blizzard II"
/ac "Fire III"

at the end of each line i had originally included <t>, but that didnt work, so i took it out

Please! Please!

If you are gonna use a macro to write something in party chat put a /wait 1 before, like:
/macroicon "Sleep"
/ac "Sleep" <t>
/wait 1
/p Casting Sleep on <t>

This way if you smash your button many times you won't spam the chat but only write in party chat once.
Your party members will appreciate :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by monochromicorn

/macroicon "blizzard III"
/ac "Blizzard III"
/ac "Thunder II"
/ac "Blizzard II"
/ac "Fire III"

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Try it like this:

/macroicon "Blizzard III"
/ac "Blizzard III" <t>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Thunder III" <t>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Blizzard II" <t>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Fire III" <t>

You need to put the /wait in between because of the global cooldown.

okay, so, i have evrything fixed, and it works fine, even added swiftcast before fire 3. i made sleep macros for repose/sleep. i realized each macro i make will need fine tuning, wich i can figure out as i make more.

thank you again for all the help

So why is it when I am looking on utube. reading some website's when you see the macro there using it look's like this
/ac skill <t>
/ac skill <t> there is no wait

It is only repeating a skill, or they don't know how to make macros

The /wait command only accepts whole seconds. If you do /wait 2.5, it will wait 2 seconds. Please, please, don't macro GCD skills unless there is a very good reason. In the OP, you list one of those really good reasons: you want to inform the party of the skill you're using. In that case, a macro is great. For WHMs, it's nice to tell the party when you're using Raise, Repose, and Stoneskin II. For BLMs, it's nice to announce Sleep. Another very good reason to write a macro is when you want to combine skills like the swiftcast-raise mentioned by someone else, but even that I personally don't agree with.

Macros are also great for non-combat things, like auto-blacklisting spammers, even those who friend you:
/flist deny <r>
/blist add <r>
And macros are great for crafting as they can automatically run through a rotation for you nearly as fast as you could do it yourself (though about 20% slower overall due to the fact that /wait and <wait.#> only accept whole integers).


The problem with macros is that normal skills do a thing called "queuing." If a skill's cooldown has 0.5 seconds or less left when you hit it, the skill will glow until the CD is done, and then it will automatically go off. This lets you use skills at full speed regardless of your ping to the server, and it noticeably increases your reaction time and damage. Macros do not queue. They can't, they don't know for sure what you are doing in them so they can't know the CD of the skill you're using. If you hit a macro before your cooldown is up, nothing happens. This adds 0.5-1.5 seconds to your cast times and totally negates any bonus from extra Spell Speed. Queuing is especially important for BLMs, who want to have their next Fire 1 half cast by the time the previous one hits. Timing is incredibly important to BLMs, especially at endgame, and you do not want to get used to doing things in a lazy and suboptimal fashion while leveling. It'll only hurt you later.


But, to answer your question anyway, what you want to do is use the <wait.#> syntax after a skill that has a cooldown if you want to do something afterward. Remember to use whole seconds, so you'd have to put in <wait.3> after, say, a Blizzard III. If you are macroing attack spells like this, know that it will increase your global cooldown significantly and hamper your ability to react to boss mechanics and MP regen ticks. So, it would be:

/macroicon "Blizzard III"
/ac "Blizzard III" <t> <wait.3>
/ac "Thunder III" <t> <wait.3>
/ac "Blizzard II" <t> <wait.3>
/ac "Fire III" <t> <wait.3>

With this macro, it would take you 12 seconds to cast all four spells. Without this macro, it would likely take you about 9 seconds to cast all four.

Also, as an aside, why are you casting Blizzard II there? That's a point-blank AoE snare useful for PvP only. Do you mean Blizzard I? Also, you don't want to use Thunder III in the rotation like that - you want Thunder I or Thunder II. III just takes too long to cast. Generally, for single targets as BLM, you want to do: Thunder II/III -> Fire III -> Fire I x5 (using any Firestarter procs after the following Fire I) -> Blizzard III -> Thunder I/II -> Blizzard I (if you used Thunder II, or if the first mana tick came immediately after Blizzard III, or if you have low Spell Speed, or if you didn't have enough mana after Blizzard III to cast Thunder I until the first mana tick, skip this Blizzard I) -> Repeat from Fire III. Also, if you get a Firestarter proc on your 5th Fire I (which should come after Blizzard III is mostly cast - don't interrupt it), definitely cast the Blizzard I, and immediately after, transpose before using Fire III so you spend the Firestarter proc while in Astral Fire I mode instead of Umbral Ice III (much more damage, and the slower cast time is irrelevant due to the Firestarter proc).


And, to interrupt a macro, there are two ways. One is to run another macro. You can only have one macro running at a time. If you hit a macro while a macro is running, the old one is canceled so the new one can activate. (This is really annoying when you accidentally blacklist an RMT while macro-crafting, interrupting the craft halfway through.) The other is to use the new macro stop text command. I don't recall the exact syntax, but it's something like /macrostop. Personally, I prefer my way of stopping macros: I have an "Abort Macro" macro that just does: /echo ***************** MACRO ABORTED ***************. When I hit the macro, that is displayed in my chat window and any macro that was running stops because I started a new one. /echo messages are only seen by you.

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

snip

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I never noticed I put blizzard 2, but on another note, this post is over half a year old when I was leveling blm and still healing, and was a dead thread, linked it for someone who was asking about macros and the posted, bringing it back to the "new post" section

. I do support macro usage to an extent. If you macro every skill you have in some way, it gets extensive due to animation locks and cool downs that shouldnot be there.

While leveling, I found it quite useful because that little drop in dps isn't a big deal in dungeons/fates, and it allowed me to focus more on introducing new skills into an already existing rotation/move set, after leveling is done, I don't think that macros should be relied upon because all dps is needed in 50 dungeons, because not everyone, regardless of item level, will provide decent dps. I've seen blm do 80 dps in 100 gear, utterly laughable. While my own blm dps is not too incredibly high, I parsed 375 on a dummy, haven't had a chance to be parse during trials where I wasn't new to it as dps

I cannot stress what Nyalia said enough. Do not macro your normal abilities like that. Especially if you are at all serious about doing any raiding. It's just bad practice. Macros are great for making things easier on players In a number of ways. As others have said by informing your party when you are doing anything they should know about. It can also be good for cooldowns when playing with a controller. Since you don't have as much hotbar space, you can put multiple CDs in one slot. If you don't put a wait command in between them, you just press it once to activate CD#1 and then do a spell and press the same macro again to activate #2 Since the first one is on CD, it will skip and go to the next action in the macro.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by monochromicorn

I never noticed I put blizzard 2, but on another note, this post is over half a year old when I was leveling blm and still healing, and was a dead thread, linked it for someone who was asking about macros and the posted, bringing it back to the "new post" section

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Gosh, I hadn't even realised it was that old, lol. Well maybe it will help newer players then.

Whoa, I totally missed the necro. Sorry about that! Someone posted in this thread so it came up in the new posts view. I need to pay closer attention to timestamps...

I think I know the answer, but does anyone know how to have more then one macro active at a time. You see I have macros that inform me when said move is off cool down, like this...

/ac jump
/wait 30
/echo jump

This informs me whe jumo can be reused, so that I don't keep checking my other crossbars ever few seconds. However, I noticed that when I use another, similarly styled macro it cancels the notification. Does anyone have any ideas on how this could be fixed?

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Originally Posted by Eloah

I think I know the answer, but does anyone know how to have more then one macro active at a time. You see I have macros that inform me when said move is off cool down, like this...

/ac jump
/wait 30
/echo jump

This informs me whe jumo can be reused, so that I don't keep checking my other crossbars ever few seconds. However, I noticed that when I use another, similarly styled macro it cancels the notification. Does anyone have any ideas on how this could be fixed?

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Nope, that's by design, I believe. I play with a controller as well and I'd go into HUD Layout and activate Hotbar 2 and put skills with long cooldowns on there so you always have them visible, regardless of which crossbar you're on.

For Blm honestly there isn't much need for macros. Some I use
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/micon "Convert"
/ac "Mana Draw" <me>
/ac "Convert" <me>
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If you pvp the above one is helpful as it doesn't require an extra slot assignment for pvp action Mana Draw. If I need mp I just hit This Convert macro, if mana draw is available I'll Mana Draw instead (which is better than convert because it doesn't reduce HP).

I also macro'd Blizz3 into
/micon "Blizzard III"
/ac "Blizzard III" <t>
/ac "Blizzard" <t>

simply because I was tired of level syncing in fates and having my easy 1-2-3 AF-UI layout messed up because Blizz3 isn't available at lower levels.

Can macro in for flare
/item "X-Potion of Intelligence" <me>
/ac "Flare" <t>

As someone else said, there is a much better method for seeing when actions are available. Instead of macros like
/wait 12
/echo Shoulder Tackle is ready

just take an unused hot bar, make it class/job specific (unshared), increase it's UI size, and place right smack in the middle of your screen. Put you actions that you want to keep visible (ie for blm swiftcast, raging strikes, and lethargy probably good idea) on that hotbar.

You don't use that hotbar to execute the actions, but by having it enlarged and dead-center visibility, you will always see the greyed-out dial of those actions (instead of having to search through your cross/hot bars) thus always knowing when they are available again. It can make your life a lot easier.

Especially for me and my warrior. By having internal release, berserk, unchained, and infuriate CDs easily visible I am constanly aware of when/whether I should sit on ability or use it.

(ie sit on my berserk for a few more seconds because unchained is about to be available)

Same situation with my Bard and all of it's off the GCD abilities + Raging Strikes.

edit: you want to avoid /wait macro's as much as possible. Any lag or connection hiccups are gonna fk it up

oh another I forgot.

/micon "Scathe"
/ac "Thunder III" <t>
/ac "Fire III" <t>
/ac "Scathe" <t>
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One button solution for dpsing while dodging aoe. Like when dodging Ramuh Thunderstorms be doing some scathe spam. If thundercloud or firestart procs are up, will throw those at the boss instead.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xenosan

For Blm honestly there isn't much need for macros. Some I use

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BLM should never use macros. No Spell/Skill Speed based class ever should. You say there isn't a need for them, but then have major parts of your rotation macroed, like Blizzard 3 and Flare.

Many of those BLM macros are significant DPS losses due to the non-queuing nature of macros. Your Blizzard one will slow down every rotation you do by 0.5-1.0 seconds, not to mention what it will do if you don't have the mana for Blizzard 3, but do have the mana for Blizzard 1. The cast time of Blizzard 1 under AF3 is so fast that you will not be able to cancel it in time, and when the Blizzard 1 goes off, it'll cancel AF3 without going into UI. You'll have to then wait for enough mana to cast Blizzard 1, use Blizzard 1, wait until enough mana to cast Blizzard 3, cast Blizzard 3, then go back into rotation, costing you a crazy amount of DPS.

The Convert one slows down double-flare by 0.5-1.0 seconds. Your Flare one will lower DPS more than increase it (the loss of spell speed from using a macro for every flare is significantly greater than the DPS increase from using the pot once every few minutes in AoE situations). The PvP one is just a really terrible idea - PvP is a place where you need to queue MORE, not less, due to stun/sleep.

I really hope you stack Crit and Det and have no Spell Speed gear, because if you do stack Spell Speed, then amplify the above DPS losses...

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Originally Posted by seekified

Nope, that's by design, I believe. I play with a controller as well and I'd go into HUD Layout and activate Hotbar 2 and put skills with long cooldowns on there so you always have them visible, regardless of which crossbar you're on.

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Sadly this doesn't work on PS3, but it's good to know when I get a PS4. Hopefully it will work on PS4.