Macros/Keyboard Macros/Gamepad

Hey guys,

I recently started to play the game again and struggle a bit with "stick to a class".
My Gladiator/Ninja and now Dragoon is 50 and it was fun so far.

The priority and rotations feel a bit clunky.
When I look what I get with 50+ as abilities for my Dragoon or Warrior, I really need 8 arms soon.

I mean it would be enough to press the 2-3 basic rotations every class has in a macro and use the priority off GCD abilities in between. But Macros get canceled, when I use a off GCD ability in them.

Now I have a Black Widow keyboard and have 6 macro keys which I could use and they're comfortable to reach (left from my CTRL/SHIFT).
In WoW, from where I come, software Macros are not allowed, because it is an automatism system which can lead to a permanent ban. Is there a statement from Square Enix to that? Is it allowed?

Other question is for gamepads. How you handle to play with them in the endgame?

Thanks in advance for your opinions and answers.

Abilities usually have a 2.5 second recast. And the /wait macro only lets you use 1 second increments so its a bit of a dps loss.
As for a controller, 2 cross hotbars plus the extended one (holding l2+r2 together) has more than enough room for everything.

Is it possible to not cancel a running Macro with a Off GCD ability?
Like I have a Macro which does True -> Vorpal -> Full Thrust and I want to fit in a Jump.

No idea on the macros, but I play on a gamepad and it's fine. A good gamepad player can be equal to a good KB+m player. For me, I can barely reach 6 keys (and adding on ctrl/shift/alt or whatever can be rough), whereas the gamepad gives me 32 at easy access without issue.

I suggest that you play with a gamepad and try out the crossbar hot bar style. I think you'll find it to be really user friendly. I prefer playing with a gamepad, but your preference may be different. However, playing with a gamepad, in my opinion, makes it extremely easy to access multiple hotbars and execute skills extremely fast without having to clutter your screen with numerous hotbars. Again, try out playing with a gamepad and see how you like it. No one can tell you what is going to be best for you. :)

As far as using your macro buttons on your keyboard...I don't see it as being a problem at all. It really wouldn't be any different than using macros created in game and placed on your hotbar, and as far as any 3rd party tools being against ToS....well, there are A LOT of people out there using parsers, as an example, and while technically that would be against the ToS, SE are aware of the use of parsers and they aren't going around with the banhammer. Also, SE have responded to the use of SweetFX, a 3rd party program that enhances the graphics of the game, and SE have stated that it's ok to use SweetFX and informed anyone who uses SweetFX (or any program like it) that they do so at their own risk.

Also, in regards to using your macro buttons on your keyboard, as far as I am aware it's ok to use them so long as you aren't using them to create scripts for the purpose of botting. I do hope that my response is accurate and has been helpful! Game on!

Hey thank you. I will try that.
I started the game actually with a game pad, but I was annoyed pretty fast back in the days. Maybe I should give it a shot again.

The Macro buttons can be used through the Razor software actually for scripts, because I can program them pretty good.
This is my whole problem with it. A Macro is basically just a stupid form of a script.
Blizzard for example doesn't allow it, because you do something automatically, which is intended to be a manual input. And they ban for that.
Maybe I try Gamepad first and tinker a bit in the afternoon with the in game macros first.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nexas506

Abilities usually have a 2.5 second recast. And the /wait macro only lets you use 1 second increments...

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You can macro /wait 1 to wait 1 second or /wait 2 to wait 2 seconds before the next command executes, /wait 3 for a 3 second wait etc. So, you are not limited to only a one second /wait using the /wait command, you simply have to indicate how many seconds you would like for the system to /wait before executing the next command. Also, I'm sure there is a limit on how long you can make the system wait, but I am unsure as to what the maximum amount of seconds are that you can add to the /wait command.

Edit: If I misunderstood, which I believe I may have, I apologize. I read "one second increments" and thought you were implying that the /wait command can only be used for a 1 second /wait only, but in rereading what you said, I believe you actually meant that you can add a longer wait time, but only in one second increments. Sorry if I misundersood. orz

My fav part with the gamepad is the easy movement and like someone pointed out having all your abilities right there.

Movement is big cus i play monk n yea..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MugenMugetsu

Edit: If I misunderstood, which I believe I may have, I apologize. I read "one second increments" and thought you were implying that the /wait command can only be used for a 1 second /wait only, but in rereading what you said, I believe you actually meant that you can add a longer wait time, but only in one second increments. Sorry if I misundersood. orz

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No worries. But i did mean that as multiples of 1. Full seconds only. No fractions. And i probably could have used a better word than increment.

I have both the PS4 and PC copy's of the game. I see people saying that a skilled ps4 player can be as fast as a KB and mouse. I use a Naga mouse and the Orbweaver keypad for play and the Blackwidow keyboard for typing. I just find it hard to believe that anything can be more efficient than the Keypad + Naga mouse combo. having 4 12-key setups available at any given time with the movement of my left pinky/right thumb is insane. I do use Macros on PS4 a bit because the cross hotbar is clunky in my opinion but I don't think I use any macros on PC.

Hi, and welcome to FFXIV!

First, there's no real need to "stick to a class" in this game - in fact, leveling alt classes and alt jobs will help you perform the others better, because you'll be able to understand what the various roles need from one another. And especially if you're enjoying them all, there really isn't a good reason not to keep going with them.

Regarding hotbars, that is definitely a problem this game has. Most jobs now have upwards of 25 actions, and you'll need quick access to all of them in an endgame setting (some have more, a few have less). Especially coming from WoW, where they just went through an effort at simplifying classes and cutting unused abilities arbitrarily butchering classes, it can be shocking to find a situation where you will fill up two 12-slot action bars and still not have enough room.

There are a couple of ways around this.

First, concerning macros, most people will advise against putting your rotations and combos on macros, and a subset of those will argue against putting multiple actions on a macro at all (unless it's something done pre-pull like Swiftcast + Stoneskin II, or Grit + Darkside). The reasoning for this is that the abilities all have independent uses, and you'll want to have them all readily available for when you need them, without having to first use an ability, or dig through a series of other abilities on a macro. Announcing abilities that require interaction is also handy; I've had a few healers thank me for announcing Divine Veil and Convalescence in macros, but in general, I don't keep multiple abilities on a single button if I can get away with it.

This leads us to the original problem: too many abilities, not enough keybinds.

As many have said, one option is to use a controller, as this will give you easy access to 32 abilities (and they're looking for ways to expand it to 48 and 64). This is accomplished primarily by switching between hotbars, which the 2.5s GCD enables pretty easily. You need to do some configuration tweaks to optimize it, but everyone I've known who plays it that way has sworn by it.

If you prefer a keyboard and mouse, though, the first thing to note is that action bars 1-3 are class- and job-specific, meaning that if you change jobs/classes, those action bars will change to how you'd configured them for that class/job. This gives you 36 slots that you can swap between for each job, which will help ease your keybinds slightly. The trick of using this is giving yourself easy access to all these action slots, and there are three ways I've seen it done:

• Hotbar Swapping - Similar to using a controller, this lets you rotate in your hotbars to your main hotbar as needed, so your keybinds are maintained, and you don't need to use any more modifiers. If you know your class/job, know how your hotbars are set up, and get comfortable, this is probably the most efficient way to access your bevy of abilities.
• Modifier Keybinds - If you use the default configuration for keybinds, hotbar 1 will be bound to your number row: 1-9 + 0, -, =. What many people do is assign a modifier to this sequence (or whatever sequence they have) for hotbars 2 and 3. For example, holding Shift will pick from hotbar 2, and holding Alt will pull from hotbar 3. This gives you a way to easily access all of your abilities, and shows them all on your screen, but has the downside of requiring more of your fingers and attention to accomplish.
• Big Abilities on Mouse - I've seen this UI increasingly commonly in tutorial videos on YouTube, and have adopted it myself. This method uses hotbars 1 and 2 in either of the above methods, but enlarges hotbar 3 and places it nearer the center of the UI than the other two. Users then put rarely-used, situational abilities on this hotbar, so they are close to the action, and easy to access via mouse click. I keep things like Hallowed Ground, Provoke, and my tank stances on this hotbar, so I have them close at hand, but am not at risk of accidentally using them before I mean to.

All in all, the UI has some pretty powerful tools to help players access their abilities with ease. It does seem a little daunting at first, but it can be extremely effective when used well. Best of luck with your setup!

One of the coleaders of Elysium (world firsts for raiding) plays on a gamepad, so I certainly wouldn't call it limiting. It is very unlikely to ever have a certain answer for which is the absolute best (you would need high end players to become totally proficient and both, then give opinions). However, either is clearly viable, so it's best to give both a good try and decide for yourself - the input method itself won't be nearly as much of an effect on your skills in game than other factors would be.