Archer DPS; the Macro.

Hails,
I'm looking for thoughts on the following spammable macro (not macros in general).

/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Heavy Shot"
/ac "Raging Strikes"
/ac "Hawk's Eye"
/ac "Barrage"
/ac "Internal Release"
/ac "Blood for Blood"

The top two skills pop when available, if not, Heavy Shot goes by default. All the buffs pop as available, between shots, and constantly refresh themselves as they recycle.

Should I reorder the buffs?

I mean, if you are looking to just spam dungeons while watching netflix, by all means have fun. If you want to optimize dps in a raid environment like coil, I strongly urge you do not use this kind of macro because you have to weave your skills optimally which requires on-the-fly in a lot of cases. :)

I was using 2 macros:

/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Heavy Shot"

and

/ac "Raging Strikes"
/ac "Hawk's Eye"
/ac "Barrage"
/ac "Internal Release"
/ac "Blood for Blood"

on my "every day" hotbar. But I got lazy, and stopped doing my buffs in dailies, except on bosses. So I decided to combine them.

I have a "coil" hotbar where I can choose each skill unmacroed. That's too much effort for WoD runs, but not buffing is too lazy.

I used to have brd macros back when I was first learning to play the job. The dps difference when I finally dropped the macros was just... unreal. It's like one of those early episodes of DBZ where Goku takes off his training weights and is suddenly way stronger and faster. It really is THAT noticeable.

I'd recommend not using a macro. If you feel you must I would recommend still not using a macro.

There is absolutely no reason to use macros on bard. Not even for songs or Blunt Arrow.

Don't use Macro's as DPS. It is terribly inefficient and is just poor, poor dps potential. You are an anchor to any team you join if you are doing this.

The main problem with macro spamming in this game is that there is no guarantee that your abilities will execute in order.

The commands are not executed "simultaneously".

So if your GCD is coming up, Bloodletter just came off GCD, and you're spamming, you basically have a 1/3 chance of casting any of your abilities.

This is why you queue instead of spam. You could put it in a macro, as long as you timed it right with your ability queue it would more or less work. However, spamming will have unpredictable results.

I won't get into the whole debate about how "omg you're doing less dps" or "omg bard is so easy you can macro everything in one button" because its not productive. I will just point out the problems that you will run into with this approach, as noted above.

These types of discussions have been since day 1 lol, general consensus is its not really that useful and more of a gimmicky funny thing rather than an actual way to dps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by radioactive_lego

Should I reorder the buffs?

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For faceroll content, I don't think the order of the buffs will really matter all that much.

Like others have said...if you don't care about maxing your DPS then go ahead I guess. I don't macro in any skills at all, except Song + BV + "warning song is up" type macro.
I even have all my songs unmacroed just in case.
That's it. I just...see no point in attack macros. If you're still learning I still don't really suggest them unless you're having a lot of trouble. I pretty much have memorized my rotation so. Yeah. Sometimes I even play without the UI (depends on if I reaaaally need that Bloodletter proc right away).

TLDR just because you theoretically can put all your skills in one button doesn't mean you should.

I'll just leave this here....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Smells

/ac "Mercy Stroke" <t>
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Haymaker" <t>
/ac "Heavy Shot" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Repelling Shot" <t>
/ac "Blunt Arrow" <t>
/ac "Raging Strikes" <me>
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Barrage" <me>
/ac "Hawk's Eye" <me>
/ac "Quelling Strikes" <me>
/ac Mantra <me>
/micon "Heavy Shot"

/ac "Mercy Stroke" <t>
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Haymaker" <t>
/ac "Straight Shot" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Repelling Shot" <t>
/ac "Blunt Arrow" <t>
/ac "Raging Strikes" <me>
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Barrage" <me>
/ac "Hawk's Eye" <me>
/ac "Quelling Strikes" <me>
/ac Mantra <me>
/micon "Straight Shot"

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I know some of you guys remember that thread XD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ClaireAbigail

I'll just leave this here....


I know some of you guys remember that thread XD

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Reading that thread was a trip and a half, let me tell you

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

I won't get into the whole debate about how "omg you're doing less dps" or "omg bard is so easy you can macro everything in one button" because its not productive. .

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It's not a debate, its irrefutable that you significantly lower your DPS by using macros on GCD abilities. It can be easily tested and verified in game.

Sure, but thats not what the OP is asking. I find it an interesting idea to try to optimize the macro.

Ideally aside from straight shot it would actually not be so terrible if you don't spam it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

Sure, but thats not what the OP is asking. I find it an interesting idea to try to optimize the macro.

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OP asked for our thoughts on the spam Macro he/she created, I offered mine in that they should immediately cease the usage of macros for GCD abilities and that they are indicative of lazy/poor playing as a DPS. Instead of trying to optimize a bad/lazy idea, he/she could play competitively in all content and not become a burden to the rest of the team by not giving all his/her effort.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by radioactive_lego

/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Heavy Shot"
/ac "Raging Strikes"
/ac "Hawk's Eye"
/ac "Barrage"
/ac "Internal Release"
/ac "Blood for Blood"

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Well... Im just going to suppose this is for lazying around by yourself outside of any sort of important content or teamwork related stuff...
Not like I can give any actual suggestion tho... maybe leave IR at the end and move B4B before Hawks??

No one did it? Wow.

/p {Blunt Arrow} {Just used it} <se.1>

Don't even bother with macros unless it is just for announcements, like reminding people of mechanics, timers, and all that jazz. Ability macros should never be used as they hinder your numbers and queueing your skills manually is far better than spamming a macro like a button-masher.

...Then again, I'm pretty sure a fair number of BRDs followed Mr. Happy's BRD guide back in the day so I shouldn't be too hard on macro users. That's one black mark I'll never erase from my history, but at least I learned from it.

But yeah, drop the macros. They suck harder than an escort competing with a vacuum cleaner.

When it comes to BRD, macro is fine, just don't have a long list of commands, or it messes up, this is what I have:

Heavy Shot
/micon "Bloodletter"
/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "HeavyShot"

Venomous Bite
/micon "Venomous Bite"
/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Venomous Bite"

Straight Shot
/micon "Straight Shot"
/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Straight Shot"

Wind Bite
/micon "Windbite"
/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Windbite"

This is good for everything, just when it comes to other jobs the macro thing is a no no pretty much.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Solzan

When it comes to BRD, macro is fine,

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Not really.... no.

But. Those are probably the best macros to use if you're going to macro attacks and nothing is going to stop you.

I think, in all honesty, people keep saying to never macro because it's so terrible for your DPS blah blah blah and I totally agree (I don't macro anything except for my Aetherial Manipulation) but in reality if you're the type of player who has trouble keeping track of your rotation macro'ing things like others have suggested will probably help more than it hurts. Macro'ing is only bad if it's what lowers your DPS. If you do even worse without them using them wouldn't be bad.

I wouldn't macro all your abilities like that. Having one button even just for all your CD's isn't good. Even in fluff content. If you were going to macro anything on bard I would just stick to macro'ing Misery's End/Bloodletter to Heavy Shot and call it a day.

I would advise against macros. Having to multi-task greatly increases your situational awareness and it is invaluable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Solzan

When it comes to BRD, macro is fine, just don't have a long list of commands, or it messes up, this is what I have:

Heavy Shot
/micon "Bloodletter"
/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "HeavyShot"

Venomous Bite
/micon "Venomous Bite"
/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Venomous Bite"

Straight Shot
/micon "Straight Shot"
/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Straight Shot"

Wind Bite
/micon "Windbite"
/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Windbite"

This is good for everything, just when it comes to other jobs the macro thing is a no no pretty much.

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I like this a lot. I like keeping my buffs up too, but this seems pretty legit.

Side note: I see most of the people didn't read the OP. Thanks for saying on topic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skeith-Adeline

I would advise against macros. Having to multi-task greatly increases your situational awareness and it is invaluable.

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How exactly does multi-tasking increase your situational awareness? I sometimes watch Netflix while crafting - I cant tell you how many HQ opportunities I've pissed away because Matthew Murdock is a badass.

I feel that the explanations in this thread do a poor job of explaining the pros and cons of macroing your abilities as a bard.

I'll start off by saying, I don't use macros and in my opinion you're not going to be able to reach maximum dps as a bard with your abilities macroed. The main reason for this is that skills inside of macros are not buffered by the server so you cannot activate the ability until the server has reported that the other ability has ended. Any latency between you and the server then gets added to the delay between abilities, essentially increasing the delay between every gcd and ogcd.

This video demonstrates this nicely, https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=253&v=czzLF4IfFaM

Increasing this delay decreases dps and tp usage, so if you get rid of these macros you'll notice a nice improvement in dps but more need to manage your tp.

The advantage of the macros is that it is clearly easier to use, you don't have to focus as much on watching the cd on your off gcds and you can just focus on your dots / ss buff and let your buffs and bl use themselves, in addition to this you last a lot longer between invigorates so macros are definitely beginner friendly in many ways on bard.

The question you have to ask yourself is what do you prefer, optimal dps or ease of use. If you really want to get the most dps out of your class as a bard should definitely not use macros. If you're already in the habit of using them you can slowly work your way out of macros, first get rid of all the bl / ms macros on your gcds so those can be buffered properly, practice hitting bloodletter as soon as it comes up rather than letting macro'd button mashing do it for you. You can keep the buff macro for convenience since its not as huge a loss of dps, but it still will cause delays between your gcds if you try to weave two buffs between 1 gap between gcds and it will make it very difficult to land quad barrages (which is another important / difficult skill for bard dps). It will take hard work to really get to the point where you can take advantage of the gains you get by not using macros but if you want to maximize your dps it is a necessity.

dont use macro.

the only macro i use is for buffs. and i only press it if im moving otherwise i click my buffs in the order i want them to be.

please avoid using macros :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by radioactive_lego

I'm looking for thoughts on the following spammable macro (not macros in general).

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Let me elaborate: This is a thread for the comfortable macro user. I would appreciate debates or thoughts on the viability of macros go someplace else.

Thank you,

- Lego.

Ill say this again, when it comes to BRD, and when you do the macros properly, as in you keep the lines short, like the one that I have shown and not one big command line, it is fine, you will do great DPS and also you can use it anywhere. The way that BRD works its unique for that, however when it comes to other jobs, never use macros in that way. @Mr Yaah, the video you showed was that of MNK, and as I said you should never use macros that way for other jobs, also the delay thing you talk about I think does not apply to this, it more applies to macros if you do it like this /ac "abiltity" then next line /wait 1 then next line /ac "ability" which you have to do for other other jobs e.g. MNK(except BRD which you have no "/wait" line) and is wrong and does lower your dps alot, however if you are using the BRD macros they will go off immediately as if you was someone who does not use macros, also @radioactive_lego np glad to be of help.

This is why we can't have nice things. If you are going to be lazy and do crap dps just spam heavy shot over and over. No macro needed!

My DPS went up 30% when someone spent half an hour with me at a target practice dummy and parsed for me, based on how I was doing it at the beginning of the session using macros to try and prioritize skills, and at the end after I had removed those macros from my crossbars and was using GCD/Instant interweaving. And that 30% improvement was before I got the additional practice that made this innate so I'm sure my efficiency gain was greater than that. Also, I had the instant buffs stacked on the same button so I could spam them and save space- but I like knowing which are on CD and which aren't, since I can use all of them together, and then use Hawks Eye/Internal Release again while the rest are 1/2 way back to being available, and then use all of them again once I'm sure they're available.

Anyways, to OP's post– if you're not going to use your cooldowns at all, doing this is better than that at least. But it's not going to work the way you want with Heavy Shot anywhere but the end, since anything that comes before it would move on to the next item on the list if it's on cooldown, but Heavy Shot will never be on cooldown so the macro effectively would stop executing there. Anything that follows it will fail to execute because of Heavy Shot's GCD.

Re the /p Silence- Just used it! <se.1><se.2><se.3><se.4> type macros I'm glad to see less people using them in dungeons every 30s when Blunt Arrow comes off CD. I have a blunt arrow announcement macro that I only put on my crossbar for a few specific instances where it's important to use silence on something. Like if Trial Roulette gives me Chimera. Half the reason is because if someone else is going to fail at doing silence/stun when it's their turn and mine is on CD, I want people to know at least I did my job. Like when I say I'm going to silence Rams Voice, and then the party gets hit by one Dragon's Voice after another that no one stuns or silences, hey don't look at me. Used to use the macro for Dira in CT but now I just save Blunt Arrow for her big AOE's while the two other bards in the instance run off the pad when they see it coming, I don't need to announce it since she'll be dead well before silence is needed again based on our increased levels of damage.

I use macros on my bard, but no combined skills, as others have indicated. I have the basic song macros to notify teammates and other parties when playing foes, and the usual "stun" macro if I use blunt arrow, which is rare. But the main macro I use/have is my straight shot macro. Basically i have it set up to ping after 15 seconds so that I know to use the move again, and dont have to watch the icon on screen. This way the move is always up and I do my critical damage.

I would consider using Blunt Arrow in between GCD skills for when you aren't saving it to silence something. It's kind of like getting an extra Bloodletter instant to use in between GCD skills every 30 seconds- which is why I usually have the nonmacro version on my crossbar since no one wants to see/hear that every 30 seconds in battle.

Basically instead of Heavy Shot -> 2.5 secs -> Heavy Shot, you'd get Heavy Shot -> 1.25 secs -> Blunt Arrow -> 1.25 secs -> Heavy Shot, so in other words every 30s when it's available you get to use 3 attacks in the same window that you'd otherwise only get to use 2. If you were close to the enemy you could even follow that second Heavy Shot with Repelling Arrow, and then Heavy Shot, meaning instead of just 3 Heavy Shots, you get 3 Heavy Shots, 1 Blunt Arrow, 1 Repelling Shot, in the exact same timeframe.

Hey everyone, sorry for hijacking an old thread, but I wanted to share a macro I just tested to see if it worked (it does), and ask you what you think about it.

/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t> <wait.1>
/echo Bloodletter macro ended ! <se.7>

Basically, it's a macro that prevents you from missing any River of Blood proc without having to look at your hotbar. You click the macro once, and every second (for 14 seconds) it will check if Bloodletter is available and use it if it is. Meanwhile you just play as usual and reuse the macro when you hear the sound effect.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

This is suboptimal though, because it may used BL over your GCD abilities.

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It doesn't, it occasionally cancels a GCD ability's animation, but the ability is still used.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Buff_Archer

That macro with the chain of bloodletters wont do anything useful because you can't have one macro running in the background while you do other things. As soon as you hit any other skill it would cancel that macro... so the only way it would actually work would be if you pressed it and then stood there for 14 seconds waiting for it to go off in case it proc'd.

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Wrong, I tested it extensively before I posted this, and it did work (and still does). The macro is only aborted if you disengage a target (the sound will play and inform you to reuse it).

This is suboptimal though, because it may used BL over your GCD abilities.

Better to just make a macro of every ability and mash it.

You will never miss a BL if you simply wait for it between GCDs.

The only macro i use for BRD is a bloodletter on each normal rotation ability. Even then I always put the ability before bloodletter in the rotation. At the worst you double press the macro to make sure both cast. I.E.
/macroicon "Windbite"
/ac "Windbite" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
This ensures while i'm following normal rotation/priority that i pop out my bloodletter procs ASAP and i have noticed damage going through the roof for me as I am a little older player with reflexes that are not the best anymore lol.
This would be the simplest/easiest macro to use if you are having problems keeping track of bloodletter procs since they can happen extremely frequently sometimes.

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Originally Posted by Clarkamite

if you're the type of player who has trouble keeping track of your rotation go train on a training dummy as thats what their designed for.

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FTFY

Ps: Don't use macro's ever. Learn to play the game.

Honestly am I the only one who doesn't find it hard to watch the Bloodletter icon to see if it procs?
....like, just watch it? It's right there.

My eyes strain before my fingers do. I just have it bound to the most mashable button and hit it a few times between GCDs whenever nothing else has priority. I never end up watching it.

This is why you don't use macros

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=254&v=czzLF4IfFaM

That macro with the chain of bloodletters wont do anything useful because you can't have one macro running in the background while you do other things. As soon as you hit any other skill it would cancel that macro... so the only way it would actually work would be if you pressed it and then stood there for 14 seconds waiting for it to go off in case it proc'd.

Dont macro GCD abilities as a DPS. You will perform noticeably worse than a player that can press all the buttons manually due to the built in wait time with macro commands.

If you want to be taken seriously, don't use them for DPS.