My easy controller setup for WAR

Hello. Are all those bazillion new abilities cluttering your toolbars too? Are thinking, "Man how can I possibly play well on a controler?!"
This guide is for you. Note: this is my personal opinion, find what works for you. :D

I am using the DS4 as a reference, but you can substitute any buttons in the equivilant controller.

Firstly, if you havent already enable "Cross Hotbar" then enable "Expanded controls with L2 & R2".
Set both the R2+L2 and L2+R2 to hotbar "Left 2"
This allows for the pressing of both triggers to add a "third" cross bar,
bringing total slots to 24! plus its clencher resistant, you'll have a hard time screwin it up, trust me.

Second off, the macros: we're gonna make some compound mashcros to condense abilities

"Defense"
/micon "Foresight"
/ac "Vengeance"
/ac "Forsight"

"Healing"
/micon "Second Wind"
/ac "Thrill of Battle"
/ac "Convalesence"
/ac "Second Wind"
/ac "Bloodbath"

"Parry Time!"
/micon "Raw Intuition"
/ac "Raw Intuition"
/ac "Awareness"

"Off da Chainz"
/micon "Unchained"
/ac "Unchained"
/ac "Beserk"

"Toma-Stroke"
/micon "Tomahawk"
/ac "Mercy Stroke" <t>
/ac "Tomahawk" <t>


Part 3: The Face buttons
R2 + _
Circle: Heavy Swing
Cross: Skull Sunder
Triangle: Maim
Square: Butcher's Block

Up: Toma- Stroke
Right : Storms Path
Left: Storms Eye
Down : Parry Time!


L2 + _
Circle: Brutal Swing
Cross: Overpower
Triangle: Fracture
Square: Provoke (GLD cross class)

Up: Equilibrium
Right: Healing
Left: Defense
Down: Off da Chainz


R2+L2+ _

Circle: Inner Beast
Cross: Steel Cyclone
Tringle: Decimate
Square: Fell Cleave

Up: Holmgang
Right: Deliverance
Left: Defiance
Down: Infuriate

With this setup you can use most WAR abilities effectively with a controller.

i thought of swapping to a controller cause i only use 1234 on my keyboard anyway (plus combos keys like shift and such with them) and theres 4 buttons on the controller but does it really work as well as keyboard and mouse or is it just what the consolers are doign cause they dont have a better option
what is actually the best control for this game

I prefer the DS4, but the x360 controller is also a solid pick, reliable, comfortable and relatively affordable

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Originally Posted by nssixn6

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Why would you use featherfoot? Why are you putting multiple skills into macros? And why are you setting R2+L2 and L2+R2 to be the same hotbar?

I'll have to post my setup later, but i have condensed to 1 bar plus one half bar with no more than 2 cooldowns on a button. It does recquire some skill swaps via the /chotbar change macro set though. That /chotbar command is practically tailor made for WAR stance macro setups.

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Originally Posted by HoodRat

Why would you use featherfoot? Why are you putting multiple skills into macros? And why are you setting R2+L2 and L2+R2 to be the same hotbar?

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Read the Title, this is the super simple way of controller setup, that still allows for all possible WAR actions, in as few pallet swaps as possible, I never claimed the best, nor the most effecient, but pretty fool proof as far abilities go, don't take the nitty gritty to seriously

I'm using expended hotbar for ngc.

Defensive ngc on right side.
Offensive ngc on left side.

Then you wouldn't even need 2nd cross hotbar layer.

I just placed defience and delievel on 2nd crosshotbar.

Interesting! Kind of the theory of putting stuff together by themes.
I usually group my macros together by what cooldowns I want to group up for maximum synchronicity.

Vengebath
/macroicon "Vengeance"
/ac "Vengeance" <me>
/ac "Bloodbath" <me>

Foresvalescence
/macroicon "Convalescence"
/ac "Foresight" <me>
/ac "Convalescence" <me>

Berkternal Relerk
/macroicon "Berserk"
/ac "Berserk" <me>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>

Fell Beast
/macroicon "Inner Beast"
/ac "Inner Beast" <me>
/ac "Fell Cleave" <me>

Rawareness
/macroicon "Raw Intuition"
/ac "Raw Intuition" <me>
/ac "Awareness" <me>

And yeah, I use a controller too, necessitating a lot of this. It's not necessarily efficient, but it saves me more effort and time switching hotbars so it ends up being way more reliable.

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...jpg?1315930535

Why are you using macros ? It's bad, macro-ed abilities don't queue so you always eat a little delay when using macros. And macro-ing multiple abilities together is even worse.

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Originally Posted by Freyyy

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...jpg?1315930535

Why are you using macros ? It's bad, macro-ed abilities don't queue so you always eat a little delay when using macros. And macro-ing multiple abilities together is even worse.

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I use macro'd abilities, if you use them without a wait command its completely negligable. I have never seen delay in macros without waits that even merits notice. Especially considering how scripted fights are in this game.

It's either that or mash R1 and get lost in my own cross hotbars. which is a hundred times worse. if you don't put a wait timer on it it still requires 2 presses and takes the whole number only wait intergers out of the equation. It's unfortunately the only real option available for us controller users.

Even without a wait command, there is an actual delay in every macro compared to un-macroed. I had a Berserk macro before saying that I will be pacified and asking for a dispell if possible, but I deleted it because most of the time I had to hit the macro multiple times to get my char using Berserk. If I hit it a bit too early during the last animation it didn't work because ability queueing is disabled with macros. Without macros, I just have to hit the button once, and even if it's early and my char is still doing another animation, it will always do Berserk right after finishing it. And it's even worse with GCD abilities. You might not see it but there is an inevitable delay when you macro your GCD abilities. You have to wait to have your GCD finished for the game to confirm the use of the ability via macro, without macro the game confirms it if you hit the ability at 75% of the GCD and will use it as soon as the GCD is finished, thus having absolutely zero delay. I experienced it also with SCH when I had my embrace mouse-over macro-ed with Adloquium. My Adlos didn't start casting asap, it felt clunky. I removed the macro and made just a seperate macro only for mouse-over embrace which I put on a keybind that I can spam while doing other things and it's just better. It's a well-known fact. Macros are bad in this game, there is delay, even if it's slight, and it's hindering your character's efficiency.

Here's my setup:

Macros

Defiance:
/micon Defiance
/ac Defiance <me>
/chotbar change 1
/chotbar set "Inner Beast" 1 RD1
/chotbar set "Steel Cyclone" 1 RD3

Deliverance:
/micon Deliverance
/ac Defiance <me>
/chotbar change 1
/chotbar set "Fell Cleave" 1 RD1
/chotbar set "Decimate" 1 RD3

Vengeance + Foresight:
/micon Vengeance
/ac Vengeance <me>
/ac Foresight <me>

Internal Release + Bloodbath:
/micon "Internal Release"
/ac "Internal Release <me>
/ac Bloodbath <me>

Equilibrium + Second Wind:
/micon Equilibrium
/ac "Equilibrium" <me>
/ac "Second Wind" <me>

Raw Intuition + Awareness
/micon "Raw Intuition"
/ac "Raw Intuition" <me>
/ac Awareness <me>

Hotbars

Crossbar 1:

R2:
O: Heavy Swing
X: Skull Sunder
■: Butcher's Block
▲: Tomahawk
↑: Unchained
↓: Brutal Swing
→: Steel Cyclone/ Decimate ( due to macro hotbar swaps when changing stances)
←: Inner Beast/ Fell Cleave ( due to macro hotbar swaps when changing stances)

L2:
O: Convalescence
X: Mercy Stroke
■: Equilibrium + Second Wind Macro
▲: Provoke
↑: Berserk
↓: Internal Release + Bloodbath Macro
→: Raw Intuition + Awareness Macro
←: Vengeance + Foresight Macro

Crosshotbar 2:

R2:
↑: Defiance macro
↓: Deliverance macro

L2:
↑: Limit Break ( Someday... someday...)
▲: Sprint

R2 + L2 Quickhotbar:
O: Overpower
X: Maim
■: Storm's Path
▲: Storm's Eye
↑: Infuriate
↓: Thrill of battle
→: Fracture
←: Holmgang

This is the most condensed I could get it without sacrificing quick abilities for fast mitigation. With this setup I can still pull off 3x fell cleaves and decimates without any issue with all the proper cooldowns up. The swaps of deliverance and defiance allow the WAR job in particular to condense out 2 slots which allows for the minimal use of macro's.

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Originally Posted by Freyyy

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It's a lesser of two evils scenario with controllers is the problem. I don't have a desk setup in my living room to allow me to use a keyboard and mouse ( my wife would murder me in ways that make this game seem absolutely childish) so I have to use a controller.

My options are:
A: Using macros as intelligently as I can and keep hotbars minimal
B: Don't use macros and bloat the number of hotbars

On controller if you have multiple hotbars, the only way to track cooldowns on abilities off your hotbar is to bloat the screen with regular hotbars to see your cooldowns. Additionally the crosshotbar has to be tabbed with one button, so if you press it more than once... well time to tab back through again. Option B is arguably slower, especially in high pressure situations.

At least with A I have a natural and easy time finding the commands as I don't have to switch hotbars at all. Which, in turn, makes it faster and limits player error on my side. Until SE finds a way to condense skills or somehow make a better interface for controller players macro's are still the best option to limit player error.

Karate has helped me set up my Macros and I can say macro's are quite efficient for me and helped me become better for sure on the PS4.

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Originally Posted by Freyyy

it's hindering your character's efficiency.

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And if I were working at some kind of financial firm trying to make it to my next raise rather than playing a video game, I'd probably care! I don't though. So I smash macros and have fun. What a concept.

Also I've done raid content this whole time so it's obvs not enough of a problem to matter.

You can certainly macro off-gcd abilities if you arent too worried about losing a bit of dps from the pushback of GCDs. Certainly if you arent at the cutting edge of content it's fine to make a class easier to play.

However.. whilst some of those cooldowns can be macroed together for ease some of them really don't make sense to combo because they have totally different applications.

By all means combo Thrill of Battle and Convalescence for instance. "I'm low on health and need some health NOW". Same cooldown too, one press for each. That's fine. But Bloodbath too? That's something you should be using as either constant sustained healing on cooldown, or tied in with big DPS cooldowns to maximise it.

Likewise, Vengeance and Foresight are similar "reduce damage on me" but vengeance is something you generally want to save for big tankbusters whereas Foresight is something you want to pop liberally on trash or just to reduce minor damage.

By all means combo some skills together into one button press if they make sense, but be careful that you dont needlessly restrict the use of some of them and force yourself to not use things when you could because they come after a different skill in a macro.

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Originally Posted by nssixn6

"Toma-Stroke"
/micon "Tomahawk"
/ac "Mercy Stroke" <t>
/ac "Tomahawk" <t>

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This one really confuses me lol

First off, and most obviously, Tomahawk is a ranged move and Mercy Stoke is melee range.. Why? Furthermore, if you tried to MS a dying mob, it could possibly trigger Tomahawk which is going to interrupt any combo you have going. If you're going to make an MS macro put it with Heavy Swing. Not related, but it's kinda funny I have room for Mercy Stroke on every other class but Warrior. Thought about making it a macro but I don't like macros on weaponskills because of the delay, so I just go without :(

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Originally Posted by Sapphidia

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That's why I tend to put the cool down that "matters most" as the first press on a macro button. I actually rarely use the same button together with the exception of raw intuition and awareness, and i generally just do that accross 2 GCD's as awareness's timer is shorter anyway. If you look at the macro's that i wrote the cool-down with the most impact is first, followed by something that augments it, or something that I use in conjunction with a different skill. I have noticed less lag if i put them accross separate buttons then on the same button.

I won't lie though, it's highly disappointing the macros are hampered in such a way in a game with such a skill bloat issue.

Also, I'm not doing cutting edge content. I play maybe 3-4 days a week and generally get into a raid on the latter half of it's life. I probably won't be starting savage Alexander for another couple weeks because of kids, wife, job, school ( thats right kids... it never ends), gym, etc.

But, like I said above until SE finds a way to make xhotbars more visible and able to be used for vast amounts of skills. It's still the best option available for controller users.

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Originally Posted by HoodRat

Why would you use featherfoot? Why are you putting multiple skills into macros? And why are you setting R2+L2 and L2+R2 to be the same hotbar?

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I have the same setup for my drk/war/drg. By copying the extended, I can easily transition regardless if I was on the main R or main L buttons. Works great

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Originally Posted by karateorangutang

That's why I tend to put the cool down that "matters most" as the first press on a macro button.

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But it doesn't always execute in order. The few macros I use (foresight/awareness on tanks, bloodbath/second wind/foresight/keen flurry on drg) have that problem occasionally.

Vengeance in particular is an interesting CD. I pop it most often with Bloodbath because of the return heals (great tanking mobs), but it's an incredibly strong cd when paired with IB for big tank busters. If you aren't raiding then you don't have to worry too much about that at this point, but part of all this is finding the synergy between CDs. Foresight/Vengeance don't really have any synergy.

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Originally Posted by Kumori_Kumo

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You sound salty. I wasn't attacking you or the people using macros. It's just a well-known fact in this game that macros are generally bad (only SCH gets a high benefit from having some macros). Playing in an optimal way doesn't prevent you from having fun at all. It's even the contrary for me. But hey, if you get your fun by smashing macros, fine for you. I don't, and I don't recommend people to do that either.

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Originally Posted by karateorangutang

I play maybe 3-4 days a week and generally get into a raid on the latter half of it's life. I probably won't be starting savage Alexander for another couple weeks because of kids, wife, job, school ( thats right kids... it never ends), gym, etc.

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I wanted to answer to this too, in this game you can easily get into raiding while only playing 3-4 days a week and having a real life with kids, wife, job etc... There is a lot of statics that are only raiding 3-4 days a weak in the evening and only 2-3 hours per day. Just gotta find the right people. I personally got lucky to have a GF who's into gaming and while she's not playing FFXIV, she enjoys watching me playing and raiding and she even sometimes plays a bit with my char (not in raids tho). But if your wife isn't like that, you should find a static with schedules that will fit your real life ^^

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Originally Posted by whiskeybravo

But it doesn't always execute in order. The few macros I use (foresight/awareness on tanks, bloodbath/second wind/foresight/keen flurry on drg) have that problem occasionally.

Vengeance in particular is an interesting CD. I pop it most often with Bloodbath because of the return heals (great tanking mobs), but it's an incredibly strong cd when paired with IB for big tank busters. If you aren't raiding then you don't have to worry too much about that at this point, but part of all this is finding the synergy between CDs. Foresight/Vengeance don't really have any synergy.

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I still pop it with bloodbath, internal release is rarely on the same cooldown as it, so i don't have issues with it. I don't have IB on a macro at all since it has such a tighter timing schedule on it. Ive also never had them pop out of order. I know i have done macros with waits so that I can easily access the second part of the macro without activating the first, but with WAR that doesnt really seem necessary. Especially since alot of the time your trying to pair a percentage down incoming type CD with some other variety of CD to get the most eHP out of your CD's.

Again I realize this isn't the most optimal, but its still better than leafing through pages.

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Originally Posted by Freyyy

I wanted to answer to this too, in this game you can easily get into raiding while only playing 3-4 days a week and having a real life with kids, wife, job etc... There is a lot of statics that are only raiding 3-4 days a weak in the evening and only 2-3 hours per day. Just gotta find the right people. I personally got lucky to have a GF who's into gaming and while she's not playing FFXIV, she enjoys watching me playing and raiding and she even sometimes plays a bit with my char (not in raids tho). But if your wife isn't like that, you should find a static with schedules that will fit your real life ^^

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Yeah I run in a small group of about 5-6 of us that do raids. I played alot when 2.0 first came out and raided T5 pretty early, but life has changed now. We are gearing up for savage now and hope to be in there soon. Yeah but it's a scheduling conflict for alot of static groups that want someone there for a good 6 hour stretch. I'm pretty excited to get on there.

I am personally not a fan of macroing cool downs together and depending on how it's done, it could seriously hinder your flexibility in savage raid content.

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Defiance:
/micon Defiance
/ac Defiance <me>
/chotbar change 1
/chotbar set "Inner Beast" 1 RD1
/chotbar set "Steel Cyclone" 1 RD3

Deliverance:
/micon Deliverance
/ac Defiance <me>
/chotbar change 1
/chotbar set "Fell Cleave" 1 RD1
/chotbar set "Decimate" 1 RD3

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These 2 macros are good. The rest are doubtful or downright bad. They prevent you from playing Warrior to its full potential. Difference is that this has only 1 ability being used (/ac) while others have multiple.

Raw Intuition + Awareness sounds good initially, but then how do you get 3rd Fell Cleave under Berserk? .. I'm using Skill Speed and mashing buttons very carefully to just barely get that last Fell Cleave before Pacification. Even the slightest delay from Awareness going off could miss that big dmg hit.

Foresight and Vengeance together ... OK, but many times I'd rather have 1 up and the other starting after it fades. Example: a1 tanking oppressor in Deliverance and using the cooldowns to just make up a bit for the lack of Defiance. Using together would run you out of cooldowns real fast.

Condensing like this is giving up on being all that you can be.

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Originally Posted by RhazeCain

These 2 macros are good. The rest are doubtful or downright bad. They prevent you from playing Warrior to its full potential.

Raw Intuition + Awareness sounds good initially, but then how do you get 3rd Fell Cleave under Berserk? .. I'm using Skill Speed and mashing buttons very carefully to just barely get that last Fell Cleave before Pacification. Even the slightest delay from Awareness going off could miss that big dmg hit.

Foresight and Vengeance together ... OK, but many times I'd rather have 1 up and the other starting after it fades. Example: a1 tanking oppressor in Deliverance and using the cooldowns to just make up a bit for the lack of Defiance. Using together would run you out of cooldowns real fast.

Condensing like this is giving up on being all that you can be.

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No.

You misunderstand how macros work. If you don't put a wait on a macro then the server wont execute the line if another ability is on its animation lock. So for example when im getting my 3rd fell cleave and I hit my raw intuition macro the server will only execute raw intuition because the second line wont be able to execute because of the ping lockdown from the server, this frees me up to us the last fell cleave on command.

There is a TON of misunderstanding on how macro lines work. Yes macro's are absolutely awful if they use a wait command, but if they arent then you execute them as if they are two buttons.

The only thing I seem to be suffering on is the direct lag on a macro execution ( which is minimal). Other than that I tend to use internal release and bloodbath on seperate GCD's. Vengeance and foresight on different GCD's to maximize Cooldown uptimes, equiplibrium and second wind are all used on different GCD's. I also am easily able to use 2 cooldowns between GCD's before GCD uptime. I guess i'm having trouble seeing how this is so bad that its game breaking. I'd be willing to bet if I was to play with you, you would be completely incapable of seeing the difference.

That being said I have been working on ways to make a multihotbar setup more feasible. If i get one together i'll post it to improve the lives of us miserable PS4 controller users :p

Yea, between /chotbar set for Defiance and Deliverance and moving away from expanded L2/R2 being the same (I used to use this too to avoid confusing which one was pressed first) I've got room for everything but Mercy Stroke. Since the new DRG abilities basically forced me to get used to expanded being different on both sides it didn't take long to get accustomed to it on War. Only macro I use on War is Foresight/Awareness. I could make one for Mercy but just haven't. I also still copy IR and Conv on the expanded, so I could technically get rid of those and make room for mercy, but I haven't done that either lol

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Originally Posted by Sapphidia

karateorangutang is basically right - without a wait command, the macro is simply "try to do one of these in order". It'll execute the first, then if that's already on CD it'll do the next in line.

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It doesn't always execute in order, though. Regardless if it hasn't happened to you yet, it will eventually, guaranteed.

karateorangutang is basically right - without a wait command, the macro is simply "try to do one of these in order". It'll execute the first, then if that's already on CD it'll do the next in line. Depending on latency you can end up losing a tiny bit of dps due to global cooldowns working a bit slower (due to macros not queuing) but it's negligible.

Thus... it's fine for cooldowns that are always either popped in sequence (like Raw Intuition and Awareness), or are a priority system where it doesnt really matter which one you use (I guess you can say Thrill, Conva and Second Wind fall into this in a sense - push a button for a health injection).

Where these macros -suck- is when you have the second or third action in order being a cooldown that you might actually want to pop on its own without the ones infront of it. Key example being Vengeance into Foresight. Yes, in a lot of cases you can use this button for vengeance, and when you want damage mitigation and vengeance is on CD it'll be a foresight. BUT it prevents you using Foresight as a minor damage reduction cooldown spammed frequently in situations where you want to save the Vengeance for a tankbuster.

These macros CAN reduce the number of buttons you have to keybind with minimal efficiency loss but you have to make sure you don't tie up actions in the second half of a macro that you might want to pop more frequently than the stuff that comes before it. THAT'S where the major efficiency loss comes.

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Originally Posted by whiskeybravo

It doesn't always execute in order, though. Regardless if it hasn't happened to you yet, it will eventually, guaranteed.

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Wouldn't this get filed under negligible though? I've popped cooldowns hundreds of times this way and never had it happen, if you wait til halfway through the animation lock of a move the you're in the clear. If you popping it early, then that is human error and not the game's error.

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Originally Posted by Sapphidia

Where these macros -suck- is when you have the second or third action in order being a cooldown that you might actually want to pop on its own without the ones infront of it. Key example being Vengeance into Foresight. Yes, in a lot of cases you can use this button for vengeance, and when you want damage mitigation and vengeance is on CD it'll be a foresight. BUT it prevents you using Foresight as a minor damage reduction cooldown spammed frequently in situations where you want to save the Vengeance for a tankbuster.

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This is the one a wrestle with the most and is one of the ones I intend to get off a macro as soon as I can figure it out. I have some idea's but nothing has been really efficient yet.

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Originally Posted by karateorangutang

Wouldn't this get filed under negligible though?

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It's negligible til you die from it going off in the wrong order, which has happened to me on drg when I needed second wind but something else popped instead. Most of the time it works as intended, but not always. If it truly hasn't happened to you then commends, but it is a real thing and one of a few reasons why macros are generally disdained. I used to use them alot, particularly on war because there are a lot of abilities. I don't now and not once have I missed them. Even as simple as a provoke macro that spouts "hey I just provoked", which I used to use until it started wiping us back in t11 days. That's when I officially stopped using and recommending them xD Even the Defiance/Deliverance macros mess up occasionally and will turn the stance on but not swap abilities, or swap abilities without changing stances. It's annoying for sure but better than messing with 3 hotbars.. Button mashing FTW

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Originally Posted by karateorangutang

if you wait til halfway through the animation lock of a move the you're in the clear.

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#aintgottimeforthat

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Originally Posted by whiskeybravo

#aintgottimeforthat

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but you have time to die and get rezzed?

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Originally Posted by karateorangutang

but you have time to die and get rezzed?

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That's a slight misrepresentation but I'll entertain for a few seconds. It has a cascading effect. If I delayed anything on DRG, I don't get full potency of buffs, I could lose BotD from even a 1 sec delay at certain points, or even on WAR it might make it more difficult or downright impossible to land 3 FCs under berserk. Why risk all that when all it takes is getting used to a wider setup? If all it takes is a slight adjustment of pressing a button, that's the same as a slight adjustment of your hotbars to be better optimized. As in the provoke example, when you need to provoke you need it to go off immediately, not spam the button 5 times hoping it goes off in time. Again, I make due with just a few, but they still have their problems. And when you say "I've never had a problem in hundreds of attempts" I'm calling BS lol

Macros still suffer from animation lock, which is annoying. If you hit an attack, then hit foresight while the attack is animation locked, a normal ability will queue up foresight and just execute it after the attack is over. If the ability is in a macro it just gets ignored so you have to make sure you're not animation locked when you hit it. So there is a small loss in reaction time by using the macro. It can be a little problematic if things are hectic, you need to make absolutely sure you're not locked out when using the ability (or you just have to mash on it).

It's actually a really annoying property of macros and I wish SE could something about that. Maybe have a <queue> modifier or something for macro commands which would make it work like a normally pressed ability.

I only use 2 hotbars, including the half hotbars from R2+L2 and L2+R2 and I don't have to put all my skills in macros to have enough room. I don't understand the problem.

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Originally Posted by nssixn6

Second off, the macros: we're gonna make some compound mashcros to condense abilities

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NO! BAD OP! This is a terrible idea. Never do this.

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Originally Posted by whiskeybravo

That's a slight misrepresentation but I'll entertain for a few seconds. It has a cascading effect. If I delayed anything on DRG, I don't get full potency of buffs, I could lose BotD from even a 1 sec delay at certain points, or even on WAR it might make it more difficult or downright impossible to land 3 FCs under berserk. Why risk all that when all it takes is getting used to a wider setup? If all it takes is a slight adjustment of pressing a button, that's the same as a slight adjustment of your hotbars to be better optimized. As in the provoke example, when you need to provoke you need it to go off immediately, not spam the button 5 times hoping it goes off in time. Again, I make due with just a few, but they still have their problems. And when you say "I've never had a problem in hundreds of attempts" I'm calling BS lol

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Ok so to the point of my retort, that was simply my bad sense of humor at work and wasn't meant to offend. So allow me to entertain you for a minute.

We all know macros suffer from animation lock. I'm not arguing otherwise. It's tested and proven in the game engine. I too try to limit my macro's and make them in such a way so they are less hindering.

First off, I would never macro provoke or any ability that would be necessary to pull a mob from anyone else.
Secondly, animation can be overcome with simple timing. If your accustomed to playing games with tight twitch timing, this game as an absurdly large animation lock window. Its is literally more than a half a second, which is years in most game engines. Overcoming that is as simple act of timing your presses to not interfere with the queue, which honestly isn't that hard. Even with ping changes that only makes it easier as information is sent slower so it would happen even less.

That being said for some it could be a greater risk. I get that it doesn't work for everyone, but that doesn't mean it can't be the better option for some. I'd rather time a button than smash another button and look for abilities on the fly.

Additionally, 3 FC's is not a difficult feat. It's easy to achieve with a good 1.5 second grace window at the end. With Astro buffs it's even good enough to throw a fracture at the end. Honestly server ping is a bigger issue than macro's will ever be.

I should note that the order of the condensed macros is optimized for TFCing. If there isn't an add phase or tank swap coming up. Vengeance is wasted/burned for a Wrath stack. If big damage is coming I burn the RI/A macro.

My TFC is: HS,M,SE,HS,SS,BB, HS, Beserk, FC, M, SE, HS, RI/A or V, SS, BB, FC, Infuriate, FC, Frac, pac (or WP if bard sets up right)

As for the Mercy Stroke/ Tomahawk thing, it works because both action are context sensitive.
If gcd is still refreshing, Tomahawk is impossible, so it is ignored. If the the target is out of melee range, but below 20%, still on gcd, then nothing happens. If the target is below 20%, in melee range, then ms is used.

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Originally Posted by HoodRat

I only use 2 hotbars, including the half hotbars from R2+L2 and L2+R2 and I don't have to put all my skills in macros to have enough room. I don't understand the problem.

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This is what I was going to say... and I don't use extended cross bars.

Macros: generally bad, but a handful of exceptions.
Macros with 2-4 abilities on 1 button: Terribad. Stop. Dont. Please!

Unchained and zerk on 1 button? Gratz you can never use berzerk by itself when you need to because it will trigger unchained. Vengence and foresight? Now you can't use for sight without burning vengence for no reason.

Macros like this completely destroy your ability to use the right ability at the right time because it's a giant bundled mess in the name of 'convenience' and that's before we even touch the delay issues that have already been pointed out. Please don't encourage this kind of restrictive gameplay. All it does is limit you ability to play well.