DRK Macros

Ok so I never tanked before and so I picked up DRK I will like to know wat Macros are being used. Pls help!!!

INB4 Using macros for anything aside from swift cast + raise is pretty much a no go , unless you're tying in your pet abilities i.e Eos

Other than that as a Tank I dont think there is anything you can ''macro'' as certain defensive cool downs might be used situational and majority of fights you have to spread the use of your CDs.

I dunno I haven't played DRK but putting macros on attack skills and CDs are just bad

If you have not tanked before, I really don't think it's a good idea for you to start off with Dark Knight.
It would be better to start with Gladiator/Paladin.

Anyways, here are the macros I use (brought over from Paladin):
1. Provoke with Power Slash then Unmend (depending on the distance between you and your target, you will use the relevant skill accordingly).
2. Hard Slash with Bloodlust and Mercy Stroke (this helps with slight mitigation and damage and also allows you to use the slots for Bloodlust and Mercy Stroke for other skills.)

There's really only two things to Macro.

1. Provoke(Just so people know you provoked)
2. Living Dead(Just in case you do hit Walking Dead, Healers can get you up)

Anything more is just letting people know you're popping CDs

Short of macroing messages to important skills (already mentioned above), there's really not much by way of good reasons to use macros on DRK. While there is a massive and cumbersome skill bloat to work through, most of them tend to be so situational that you won't be activating most of them in the same way and order all the time. You're just better off learning to use each skill individually, really.

Sure there are macro's you will want as a tank. Macros saying you just used a certain CD. Macro's numbering mobs and Macro's after you just use provoke saying someone should watch their aggro or something like that comes to mind as necessary.

Do any of you macro all your defensive cool-downs like the WAR guide showed?

It seems like a decent idea, and I would rather not have every button on every bar filled.

I am mostly against heavy macro use as I feel fine control is more beneficial than the ease of automation from macros.

IMO as a tank you should mainly only have macros that are for callouts and information.
The ones that I use are:
- Provoke (macros together a party chat callout "Provoke used", the Provoke ability followed up by a ranged agro ability such as shield lob or unmend, all tank jobs should have a macro like this)
- Living Dead (macros together a party chat callout saying " Living Dead used", plays a sou lnd effect to drawn attention to the chat callout and activates the ability).
- Walking Dead state (does a party chat callout "Walking Dead state active" and plays a sound effect to draw attention to the callout)
- Tank Swap (does a party callout for "Tank Swap" and plays a sound.)

I play with a controller so I feel some stuff needs to be macroed or else it becomes unmanageable: I Macro In /ac "Blood Weapon" <me> /ac "Bloodbath" <me> /wait /ac "Blood Weapon" <me> /ac "Bloodbath" <me> . This is a great one because it saves you a button since you cannot use blood weapon in grit. Sometimes you blow a bloodbath when OTing but I dont mind that too much, and if you time your abilities right you can interrupt the bloodbath from going off.

I am thinking of doing: /macroicon "Low blow" /ac "reprisal" /ac "low blow" to save another button since those skills get woven in similarly. I have a 60% size icon for reprisal floating around on my screen to know when its up.

The main problem with macros is that the skills dont get queued in so when you press the button if you are not able to execute the action right then it can mess up

I also play with a controller. I use some macros situationally.

Power Combo Reprisal(I put Reprisal on every part of the combo, so I'll list just one and you can assume it's the same for the rest of it, just switch with the other skills)

/ft
/ac "Reprisal" <t>
/ac "Hard Slash" <t>

I find it very useful since I would like to use Reprisal once it`s available, also freeing 1 slot on my hotbar.
OBS: Pay attention to positioning since using Reprisal gets you stuck on place when using it. Keep that in mind when you are facing a boss that needs you to constantly move around.

Darkness

/ac "Shadowskin" <me>
/ac "Shadow Wall" <me>

Just so you can free more slot and use all mitigation you have. 1 press for Shadowskin and the second press for Shadow Wall when you get that momment "Oh crap"

Also I`m considering to making one using DA with SE for when I turn DS on, since SE rotation keeps my MP good and I would do some more DMG while replenishing HP.

How does the shadowskin / shadow wall work for you? I only use this type of macro when I dont think the order of skills is important since sometimes it picks one or the other. But in this case you wouldn't want it to waste a wall when skin is up. Ill give it a try though. Another one I use is /ac convalescence /ac awareness /wait /ac convalescence /ac awareness. There are very few times I would remember to use awareness otherwise, and it gives a bit of mitigation to convalescence which only buffs incoming heals but does not reduce damage.

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Originally Posted by Sephiren

snip.

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Macroing Shadowskin and Shadow Wall together in one button is the worst idea you can ever have...

I supose its fair if you want to free yourself 1 button for the Reprisal part, but you'll be mashing the button constantly if you want it to work properly O.o.

Also... Reprisal doesn't lock you in the ground. I can move freely around when I use it myself. And I don't have it macroed, I have every single skill on a button.

I also have my physical mitigation CDs macro'd to one slot. And no, you dont mash the button.
The game tries to cast the skills in the succession they're listed and skips the ones on Cooldown. And if there's no wait between the casts it will only cast one Spell, the first one available in the list.
I've arranged my CDs from shortest to longest - that way you can use you "inexpensive" CDs regularly and if the fight gets harder you can pop your stronger Cooldowns on top of or after that.

It's pretty much the only macro I use on DRK but I find it incredibly useful.

I keep Blood Weapon and Blood Price on the same macro, with Blood Weapon as the first action. In Grit, it just ignores the first action and I cast Blood Price. Outside of Grit, it casts Blood Weapon as the first action. I don't typically tie cooldowns together, but its unlikely for me to need Weapon if I'm tanking or Price if I'm not.

Ive got 2 macros that I use to help with skill bloat because I use a controller. /ac Shadowskin /wait .5 /ac Bloodbath These 2 skills share the same cooldown and I dont think Bloodbath is that good that it would ever be used on its own. The other macro is /ac Sole Survivor /ac Mercy Stroke, not having a wait command between these 2 moves means the first press puts Sole Survivor on, then I play the "see if I can time Mercy Stroke for the final hit " game. They are very non intrusive macros and free up just enough space on my crossbar for everything else. Hope this helps, I tried not using macros because I feel they can be a bit wonky at times, but combining a few cross class abilities like these with similar moves I do use, seemed to work out.

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Originally Posted by BlueThunder

Macroing Shadowskin and Shadow Wall together in one button is the worst idea you can ever have...

I supose its fair if you want to free yourself 1 button for the Reprisal part, but you'll be mashing the button constantly if you want it to work properly O.o.

Also... Reprisal doesn't lock you in the ground. I can move freely around when I use it myself. And I don't have it macroed, I have every single skill on a button.

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Why is it the worst idea? 1 press for Shadowskin and if its out and you need Wall, just press again and it will skip SS since its on CD and you will get SW. Don`t see why its the worst idea...

About reprisal, yeah, it does not lock me anymore, I guess it was some kind of bug or anything, works fine now.

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Originally Posted by Hurz

I also have my physical mitigation CDs macro'd to one slot. And no, you dont mash the button.
The game tries to cast the skills in the succession they're listed and skips the ones on Cooldown. And if there's no wait between the casts it will only cast one Spell, the first one available in the list.
I've arranged my CDs from shortest to longest - that way you can use you "inexpensive" CDs regularly and if the fight gets harder you can pop your stronger Cooldowns on top of or after that.

It's pretty much the only macro I use on DRK but I find it incredibly useful.

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That`s the point. Totally agree.

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Originally Posted by Sephiren

Why is it the worst idea? 1 press for Shadowskin and if its out and you need Wall, just press again and it will skip SS since its on CD and you will get SW. Don`t see why its the worst idea...

About reprisal, yeah, it does not lock me anymore, I guess it was some kind of bug or anything, works fine now.



That`s the point. Totally agree.

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This is exactly why I asked. I personally think it's a great idea and makes life THAT much easier.

Read through the old WAR guide post I mention and tell me his explanation doesn't make complete sense.

Ive been using /reprisal /low blow /wait /reprisal /lowblow its actually working great when they are both up its quick enough to get both skills in without affecting GCD

Gotta love these people saying "Hurr durr, macro's make you bad bro!"

No... no they dont...

For instance, I have Reprisal attached to every combo skill on my bar (Hard Slash, Spinning Slash, Power Slash, Syphon Strike, Souleater) This allows me to use reprisal immediately every time its up without wasting a slot on my bar for it. Since its off GCD and doesn't break combo's there is literally no reason for every DRK to not do this.

I also have Dark Arts attached to both Dark Mind and Dark Dance, since neither of these skills should really ever be used without the Dark Arts augment.

Maybe im playing wrong but sometimes If i have a big pull ill put reprisal on another target seeing as theres no point putting it on a target thats dieing fairly quick...... That could be a reason not to..

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Originally Posted by LurcherReno

Maybe im playing wrong but sometimes If i have a big pull ill put reprisal on another target seeing as theres no point putting it on a target thats dieing fairly quick...... That could be a reason not to..

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Not quite...If you have a big pull you will most likely focus on AoE Enmity, and in the case you`re targeting a mob that is dying fairly quick you`ll just change target...That really depends on what kind of play you like.

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Originally Posted by Sephiren

Darkness

/ac "Shadowskin" <me>
/ac "Shadow Wall" <me>

Just so you can free more slot and use all mitigation you have. 1 press for Shadowskin and the second press for Shadow Wall when you get that momment "Oh crap"

Also I`m considering to making one using DA with SE for when I turn DS on, since SE rotation keeps my MP good and I would do some more DMG while replenishing HP.

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What happens when you want to use Shadow Wall but not Shadowskin?

I have a pull macro. I find it's essential so that people know we're starting and can get their huton and whatever the heck they want up.

That said, I can justify having a voke macro, but I come from a school of players that had more raid awareness and I kind of expect players to be on that level still. Tank swaps are generally part of a strategy and come at specific times, so they shouldn't be a surprise. The same kind of holds true for Living Dead. The sound it makes is *very* distinguishable, and my healers immediately know it when they hear it. Like I said, I can justify the use of macros for these abilities, but I don't think they're necessary.

Aside from that, I'll make macros for fights to show PUGs how certain mechanics should be done for the group, like purple AoEs in Ravana EX. I used to use a lot of macros in FFXI and 1.0, but they were different games. This game's controls are much more streamlined, and as a tank I simply haven't had the need for them yet.

I've been combining convalescence, foresight and awareness together in a macro. I realize this is probably not ideal, but I am running out of comfortable key and mouse bind locations...

Provoke and Living Dead. Anything else is just going overboard.

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

What happens when you want to use Shadow Wall but not Shadowskin?

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I never had that situation, but in my oppinion if you need that 10% more then it means you need really precise mitigation, and in that case I'd not suggest using macros...

Good point tho.

It's generally a better idea to space the use of your cooldowns so that there's as little overlap as possible. Blowing Shadow Wall and Shadowskin at the same time on one pack means you have neither for the next, which can make things much hairier for your healer.

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Originally Posted by Borascythe

I've been combining convalescence, foresight and awareness together in a macro. I realize this is probably not ideal, but I am running out of comfortable key and mouse bind locations...

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While it's not recommended to combine most skills into macros in the first place, you should definitely never combine more than 2 at once. Most of the time, you can fit two oGCD animations in during a single GCD (there are some weird ones, especially older skills, that take a bit longer, but for the most part, this is the case). But if you end up combining three skill animations, along with the fact that the game won't queue up macros, meaning you have to deal with a delay regardless, you end up losing more GCD output than you should.

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Originally Posted by ScytheSniper

Gotta love these people saying "Hurr durr, macro's make you bad bro!"

No... no they dont...

For instance, I have Reprisal attached to every combo skill on my bar (Hard Slash, Spinning Slash, Power Slash, Syphon Strike, Souleater) This allows me to use reprisal immediately every time its up without wasting a slot on my bar for it. Since its off GCD and doesn't break combo's there is literally no reason for every DRK to not do this.

I also have Dark Arts attached to both Dark Mind and Dark Dance, since neither of these skills should really ever be used without the Dark Arts augment.

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Macroing spells together makes them unable to queue up, meaning you're losing potential DPS.

Using Dark Dance and Dark Mind without Dark Arts happens a lot
Also, what if you're late on a tank buster, really need that dark mind off now, and 15% will be enough to keep you alive. No wait, Dark arts -> Slapped/possibly dead -> Dark Mind

Macros make you less effective than pressing the buttons on your own. The extra delay on macro abilities gets noticeable very quick in higher content.

Also, you generally want to try to time your reprisal somewhat right to get it off to cover for heavy aoe or tank busters, you're essentially wasting reprisal by using macros.

I've tanked some pretty crucial content in this game and have never used a single macro and play on a controller. My personal opinion is that it's inefficient beyond notifications ie provoke, hallowed ground, or mechanics. It also limits your ability To certain degrees.

As far as starting tanking with dark knight I would recommend leveling a pally first honestly and at least getting the hang of it before moving onto dark knight. Dark knight while not like pally is a bit intricate and deliberate in its play style and I think trying to learn tanking in the game and dark knight as a class at the same time may be a bit crucial, but that doesn't mean it cant be done. Either way you will want some gladiator and marauder cross class skills if you plan on doing anything besides dungeons.

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Originally Posted by Sephiren

Power Combo Reprisal(I put Reprisal on every part of the combo, so I'll list just one and you can assume it's the same for the rest of it, just switch with the other skills)

/ft
/ac "Reprisal" <t>
/ac "Hard Slash" <t>

I find it very useful since I would like to use Reprisal once it`s available, also freeing 1 slot on my hotbar.

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Originally Posted by ScytheSniper

Gotta love these people saying "Hurr durr, macro's make you bad bro!"

No... no they dont...

For instance, I have Reprisal attached to every combo skill on my bar (Hard Slash, Spinning Slash, Power Slash, Syphon Strike, Souleater) This allows me to use reprisal immediately every time its up without wasting a slot on my bar for it. Since its off GCD and doesn't break combo's there is literally no reason for every DRK to not do this.

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Actually, yes, this is a bad thing to do if you care about your damage at all.

With normal skills, you can press the button when there's only about 20% of the GCD left, it will queue up the action send it to the server, and then as soon as the GCD is up on the server it will immediately execute the action.

However, macros do not let you do this. So what happens with your macros is you need to wait until the GCD is completely up. Then you press the button, and then when the server gets the message it will actually execute the ability. This slows how fast you execute skills in unison.

As a simple test, you can go hit a practice dummy and note how long your TP lasts. Now try just using the skills directly (no macro). You should notice that your TP drops quite a bit faster.

So sure, you can keep it that way, but I wouldn't be surprised if you're losing 15%+ of your potential DPS (and threat).

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Originally Posted by Giantbane

With normal skills, you can press the button when there's only about 20% of the GCD left, it will queue up the action send it to the server, and then as soon as the GCD is up on the server it will immediately execute the action.

However, macros do not let you do this. So what happens with your macros is you need to wait until the GCD is completely up. Then you press the button, and then when the server gets the message it will actually execute the ability. This slows how fast you execute skills in unison.

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I will test this when I get in game. But in all honesty, I do not think that Reprisal falls into this category because it is not on the GCD so the macro forcing the action to wait for the GCD to completely end is wrong, and I have seen it work in my favor every time because I can literally mash the ability (or just simply press the button again during the GCD) and Reprisal is cast immediately, no delay at all.

Lol its cus majority of the playerbase seems to be in this mindset that using macros makes you bad. Sure the macros aren't as effective as they are on other mmos like Rift for example. But made and used correctly you will be better than a player who fumbles around their full 2-3 hotbars to use their skills.

The key there is not fumbling around with your 2-3 hotbars to use your skills in the first place.

The key is that a smart macro user will always be more efficient at their job than someone who doesn't.

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Originally Posted by ScytheSniper

I will test this when I get in game. But in all honesty, I do not think that Reprisal falls into this category because it is not on the GCD so the macro forcing the action to wait for the GCD to completely end is wrong, and I have seen it work in my favor every time because I can literally mash the ability (or just simply press the button again during the GCD) and Reprisal is cast immediately, no delay at all.

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The issue of the delay is not your OGCD. Yes, both OGCD and GCD can be queued but the fact is, GCD is very important and should never be delayed. In an OT scenario your priority is DPS until you have to tank. In that scenario you will only be using delirium and soul eater. Having them on macro on with reprisal will make them unqueueable and add gaps to your GCDs making you have less actions total in a given time span compared to non macrod GCDs. PLUS, when OTing your reprisal won't proc, making the macro pointless.

However, in MT scenario, even if you think that not putting out maximum DPS (that you can possibly squeeze) is fine as long you're holding hate and mitigating fine. So maybe you think reprisal macro on all your combos would be fine but do remember that as a drk you dont need to use power slash all the time. Most drks can do just fine with one powered power slash at the start and rotate between DE and SE for a long long time until you see the need to power slash. Putting reprisal macro on SE/DE would eventually hamper you when you eventually have to switch to OT in 8 man boss fights and just putting reprisal on power slash combo defeats the point of having the macro at all (since you wanted auto reprisal but you only have it on the least used combo).

On the mitigation side, stacking them into one macro sounds fine..until you get to fight serious bosses that needs specific mitigation depending on the timing of the attack and the 'heaviness' of the attack. Some attacks MUST be countered with a heavy mitigation, some attacks have to be mitigated by a lower one. Sometimes the order should be swapped around (think of alternating heavy and medium strength tank killers every minute, attacks that keep increasing in damage such as akh morn and vulnerability stacks). There's also the chance due to latency that even if you order your /ac, the macro decides to pick which mitigation to activate randomly (trust me, this happens). Mitigation at harder content is one of the most important part of being a tank and you can't leave it to chance.

I'm not against macros and even use it when I can (mostly /chotbar change) but you have to make sure that the macro works on all situations and settings and does not fumble on its own at critical moments.

Speaking of Macros...

Is it possible to make a macro that alerts the group that Walking Dead (living dead proc) has poped and I need to be healed ASAP? I have a macro for saying I have used living dead, but cant find out if I can do one that annouces the actual pop

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Originally Posted by Timat

Speaking of Macros...

Is it possible to make a macro that alerts the group that Walking Dead (living dead proc) has poped and I need to be healed ASAP? I have a macro for saying I have used living dead, but cant find out if I can do one that annouces the actual pop

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I don't believe there's a way, since it's triggered upon getting critically hit and macros are unfortunately not that fluid. Only thing you can really do is just include something about watching out for the debuff in your Living Dead macro.

That stinks, I was hoping someone would know of a good Walking Dead macro. Ah well.

I have Shadowskin macro'd with Foresight, and Blood Weapon/Blood Price/Bloodbath macro'd together. I've definitely noticed the issues about not being able to queue them early, which stinks, but the button bloat is getting to be WAY too much.

If the only solution is to "get gud," then I'll be more than happy to stay bad, thanks.

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Originally Posted by Syfer22

That stinks, I was hoping someone would know of a good Walking Dead macro. Ah well.

I have Shadowskin macro'd with Foresight, and Blood Weapon/Blood Price/Bloodbath macro'd together. I've definitely noticed the issues about not being able to queue them early, which stinks, but the button bloat is getting to be WAY too much.

If the only solution is to "get gud," then I'll be more than happy to stay bad, thanks.

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Blood Weapon/Blood Price isn't a bad macro as you will use whatever is available, it's off GCD and isn't a tank cooldown so it's fine if you pop it half a second later. My only tip for you is to use modifiers for your keys if you're having problems having enough keys for abilities.

I don't have a Razer Naga or any other mouse covered in buttons as I just think they are uncomfortable, but it got to the point where i use modifiers for my Mouse4/Mouse5 keys. Look at your keys and think "Is there any way I can fit more abilities onto somewhat reachable keys?" Stuff like Grit isn't used that many times in combat and doesn't have to be on the best key, I've put mine on Shift + § (Nordic keyboard so it's next to the 1-button) Otherwise you always have Modifier + Q, E, R, F that can be reachable somewhat easily if you're using standard WASD. Also look at what skills you use a lot. I rarely use Dark Passenger for anything other than mass aoe packs, I can simply just click that ability with my mouse the times i'm going to use it.
Limit break is almost preferable to have clickable so you don't do the mistake of pressing it on accident.


Another note:
Foresight is getting to the point where it's not bad to use for physical fights, it is better than Dark Dance for any physical tank buster. I did tests before alexander on normal mobs and then went into alexander and looked at the numbers there too. For me foresight provides a 16% damage reduction on physical attacks. So foresight is not an ability you just pop because you were bored anymore, it's actually not bad.