PLD MACROS - PS4

Hey all,

New to the forums, but have been playing FFXIV for awhile now and thought I'd share some MACROS that really made the experience more enjoyable for me. These really cleared up some space in my cross-hotbar, so if this is an issue for you give these a try!

MACROS

Paladin's Oath - used to switch between Sword Oath and Shield Oath with a single button.

/micon "Sword Oath"
/ac "Sword Oath"
/ac "Shield Oath"

Fast Blade

/micon "Fast Blade"
/ac "Mercy Stroke"
/ac "Shield Swipe"
/ac "Spirits Within"
/ac "Fast Blade"
/ac "Circle of Scorn"

Savage Blade

/micon "Savage Blade"
/ac "Mercy Stroke"
/ac "Sheltron"
/ac "Shield Swipe"
/ac "Spirits Within"
/ac "Savage Blade"
/ac "Circle of Scorn"

Rage of Halone

/micon "Rage of Halone"
/ac "Mercy Stroke"
/ac "Shield Swipe"
/ac "Spirits Within"
/ac "Rage of Halone"
/ac "Circle of Scorn"

MACROS


Riot Blade

/micon "Riot Blade"
/ac "Sheltron"
/ac "Shield Swipe"
/ac "Spirits Within"
/ac "Riot Blade"
/ac "Mercy Stroke"
/ac "Circle of Scorn"

Goring Blade - fracture is added as an additional DoT. If in an instance where Goring Blade isn't available, Fracture will come out instead. Fracture can also be used by inputting the MACRO again when the GCD timer is just over halfway recovered.

/micon "Goring Blade"
/ac "Goring Blade"
/ac "Mercy Stroke"
/ac "Spirits Within"
/ac "Circle of Scorn"
/ac "Goring Blade"
/ac "Fracture"
/wait
/ac "Fracture"

Flight of Blood - 90s Cooldown ATK buff

/micon "Fight or Flight"
/ac "Fight or Flight"
/ac "Bloodbath"

Holy Respite - 120s Damage Reduction Cooldowns plus Cover

/micon "Convalescence"
/ac "Convalescence"
/ac "Awareness"
/ac "Foresight"
/ac "Cover"

MACROS

Sentinel - 180s Damage Reduction Cooldowns plus Cover

/micon "Bulwark"
/ac "Bulwark"
/ac "Sentinel"
/ac "Cover"

Flash of Scorn

/micon "Flash"
/ac "Flash"
/ac "Circle of Scorn"

Hallowed Ground - The effects of Hallowed Ground are Shared with the target of Cover, pretty useful as a panic button if your healer is in trouble.

/micon "Hallowed Ground"
/ac "Hallowed Ground"
/ac "Cover"

Good ideas but the macro system is not intended for making macros for battle classes or jobs and will mess up your control over your skills
In general:
1) skills in macros are not queueing. You have to push the button perfect on the end of the GCD/animation lock to get the next skill off properly. This leads to button mashing and timeloss.
2) less control of what skill will really go off. This macros are working more like a checklist for skills you want to use and the first available will be used per button push. If you are unlucky you will see 3 oGCDs before your "Fast Blade" and "Rage of Halone" and up to 4 before "Savage Blade"

specific to your macros
3) never macro utility skills into a macro to spam it, some of this skills have to be used in specific situations in the harder fights:
- "Sheltron": extra mitigation for physical Tankbusters and hardprocing "Shield Swipe"
- "Spirits Within": Silence for specific mechanics in Extreme Trials and Raid content
- "Circle of Scorn": support for easier tank swapping, wastet on last seconds of a trash pull

Sorry, but since you have obviously never played any end game content, you wouldn't know these kinds of macro are useless.

sry but none of these would work in any content there is a Delay of macros in ps4

Thanks for the reply!

As the others have stated, I have yet to do much end game content, but could you inform me of specific Raids/trials where I need to use Sheltron, Spirits Within, etc. I plan on participating in these eventually and would like to do my job better.

spirits within should be use when its up its a dps increase but if a fight needs a slience use it. Sheltron should be use whenever unless you know your not going to take a big physical damage hit

Can you tell me which instances specifically these situations occur? I feel like I could just have a separate hotbar with those specific skills removed from the macro just for those specific raids/trials. Otherwise they are being used between GCDs whenever they are up like you suggested.

Macros have a bit of delay based on my experience, and once you play in a high level (savage raids, ex trials) you don't want that delay if possible. For example hallowed ground may have to be double weaved with another off gcd skill in order to not disturb your optimal dps rotation (something like fast blade > hallowed > fof > savage blade), and double weaving macro'd off gcds carries the risk of them not going off (which may either be fatal if it's a defensive cd, or a huge dps loss if it's offensive).

Another thing is that those 120s/180s buffs you grouped may actually be better used separately or together with buffs of different cd length. For example sentinel is sometimes used as a stand alone cd due to its strength, while bulwark and awareness are often used together since crit attacks can't be blocked/parried. Circle of scorn is also used in your single target rotation since it's off gcd, so you shouldn't macro it together with flash. And your sword/shield oath macro seems odd to me. If you're on sword oath and you use that macro, wouldn't it deactivate sword oath first before activating shield oath? That'd put an unnecessary 0.5s delay compared to activating shield oath immediately.

It's good that you did your own research about these macros but unfortunately in this game the most optimal play relies on little to no macro at all.

Oh dear lord... ... ... "How to play PLD totally wrong - The beginner guide".

Seriously, NEVER use macros for combos. And never mix different defensive cooldowns together (especially not the wrong ones). Paladin is extremely easy to play. In fact: you lose control over your actions by using macros.

For example: "Sentinel" is a strong mitigation skill. You should use it normaly without any other defensive skills. If you do, you just waste them. Your Shield/Sword Oath macro is totally useless.

I m playing with a Xbox 360 gamepad and I have no problem to put all skills in my 2 crossbars. Only 2 crossbars. Thats all you need. One crossbar for your attacks/offensive skills, the other one for your defensive skills. Where is the problem? Dont be lazy, play the game right!

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Originally Posted by aleph_null

Macros have a bit of delay based on my experience, and once you play in a high level (savage raids, ex trials) you don't want that delay if possible. For example hallowed ground may have to be double weaved with another off gcd skill in order to not disturb your optimal dps rotation (something like fast blade > hallowed > fof > savage blade), and double weaving macro'd off gcds carries the risk of them not going off (which may either be fatal if it's a defensive cd, or a huge dps loss if it's offensive).

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Not really sure what you mean here. You're saying I may need to pop a cool down between GCD skills, and that I might not be able to do so before the GCD timer ends if I have something like SW or SS MACRO into my GCD. Since I leave cool downs in a separate slot, I can manually pop these to insure they go off. In the off chance that my OGCD skills are up, worst case scenario I lose a few fraction of a second on my next GCD skill in my rotation

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aleph_null

Another thing is that those 120s/180s buffs you grouped may actually be better used separately or together with buffs of different cd length. For example sentinel is sometimes used as a stand alone cd due to its strength, while bulwark and awareness are often used together since crit attacks can't be blocked/parried.

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I wasn't aware crits couldn't be blocked or parried, good to know! Also these skills aren't linked by a wait command, so each skill comes out with each button press, so I can still use awareness and bulwark while saving foresight and sentinel.

Circle of scorn is also used in your single target rotation since it's off gcd, so you shouldn't macro it together with flash.

Not entirely sure if you are saying it should be in my single target rotation exclusively or that it is in mine personally, but I hardly ever circle of scorn out of my flash. Circle of Scorn only activates if I press that MACRO again while on GCD.

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Originally Posted by aleph_null

And your sword/shield oath macro seems odd to me. If you're on sword oath and you use that macro, wouldn't it deactivate sword oath first before activating shield oath? That'd put an unnecessary 0.5s delay compared to activating shield oath immediately.

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The Oath MACRO switches between the two instantly, not really sure why it works, it just does.

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Originally Posted by kashi11

Since I leave cool downs in a separate slot, I can manually pop these to insure they go off. In the off chance that my OGCD skills are up, worst case scenario I lose a few fraction of a second on my next GCD skill in my rotation

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This is the order things have to happen for a cooldown to work.

1. You push the button.
2. You gain the buff.
3. The mob's cast bar reaches 100% and disappears.
4. You take reduced damage.

If you macro your cooldowns, you're more likely to get into the following situation.

1. You push the button.
2. The mob's cast bar reaches 100% and disappears.
3. You gain the buff.
4. You take the full damage.
5. Your cooldown fails to reduce the damage from the one hit you really needed it to work on.

The buff has to take effect before the cast bar completes. Those fractions of a second can be the difference between a 14k hit and a 20k hit with a wasted cooldown.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

If you macro your cooldowns, you're more likely to get into the following situation.

1. You push the button.
2. The mob's cast bar reaches 100% and disappears.
3. You gain the buff.
4. You take the full damage.
5. Your cooldown fails to reduce the damage from the one hit you really needed it to work on.

The buff has to take effect before the cast bar completes. Those fractions of a second can be the difference between a 14k hit and a 20k hit with a wasted cooldown.

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So basically your saying if I need say Sentinel, then my macro which has bulwark first, would have to go through using bulwark which has an animation lock before sentinel can be used. But if Bulwark is on CD then sentinel comes out instantly? or does the system reading through the macro lose too much time?

Pretty much that, not to mention it may skip a line as well so you could use your macro and even if Bulkwark is on CD it will read that, say it's no available and then skip the line to use Senitel.

Also you should never have the need to remove any skills from your hot bar as you should be able to comfortably fit them all onto your hotbar with no issue. If you like I can show you a video of my set up with macros that I use for my PLD,DRK an WAR and they are instant and in no way a DPS loss if anything it makes playing the 3 tank class's easier.

To be honest, you'll hardly notice any difference between no macro and macro now at level 58. However, like everyone has said, macro is extremely bad for combos and cds. Just don't get into the habit of using them so that your life in the end game will be much better.

Macros were programmed to intentionally be worse than manually executed moves. Not just combos but for oGCD abilities as well. They cannot use the skill queue that helps you use one ability after the next. So if you were in the middle of something else, a macro simply will execute at all if it's poorly timed.

In all honesty, maybe outside fishing, and some crafting, you shouldn't use macros at all.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Macros were programmed to intentionally be worse than manually executed moves. Not just combos but for oGCD abilities as well. They cannot use the skill queue that helps you use one ability after the next. So if you were in the middle of something else, a macro simply will execute at all if it's poorly timed.

In all honesty, maybe outside fishing, and some crafting, you shouldn't use macros at all.

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What's the skill queue and how does it work? And are you sure MACROS aren't cued? I played around with a MACRO before that allowed me to use 3 different abilities depending on when I executed the MACRO during the GCD timer. Unless Skill Cue lets me input, Fast Blade, Savage Blade, Rage of Halone, before Fast Blades GCD timer and execute all 3 I don't understand. With timing a MACRO will execute during lock stun and finish reading on the correct skill with about the same speed as me manually switching hot bars to execute a skill.

Alot of you are very closed minded to macros , Ive been using similiar macros since this game launched as PLD and clearing end game content with them. I dont macro things to combos however but to the OP believe me when I say your on the right track and take these negative comments with a grain of salt!

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Originally Posted by kashi11

What's the skill queue and how does it work? And are you sure MACROS aren't cued?

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The skill queue allows you to hit press the next action early basically.

it means that you can press rage of halone before the gcd has finished on savage blade and rage of halone will go off soon as savage blade finishes because it was queued

or if you use bulwark and awareness cooldowns together for example you can press both manually right after the other instantly. and the second skill will activate right after the first because its queued.


if you put them both in a macro then only one skill will go off unless you press that macro repeatedly or add in a delay. For Example

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Originally Posted by kashi11

Flight of Blood - 90s Cooldown ATK buff

/micon "Fight or Flight"
/ac "Fight or Flight"
/ac "Bloodbath"

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Press that macro once and at best only one skill will go off because the macro system can't queue the second one. theres also a chance that the second one won't go off if the first is on cool down because of latency even if you press the button twice. which ultimately leads to having to repeadly hit the button multiple times

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Originally Posted by kashi11

What's the skill queue and how does it work? And are you sure MACROS aren't cued?

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Yes 100%. There was even a developer post explaining why they decided on this. They do not want automatic play, they want players to be there, controlling the aspect of the fight move by move.

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Originally Posted by kashi11

The Oath MACRO switches between the two instantly, not really sure why it works, it just does.

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Doesn't that actually show that the macros may skip lines for some reasons, making it not very reliable for crucial skills? I've had bad experience with macroing defensive cds before so I never went back.

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Originally Posted by Hammerhorn

Alot of you are very closed minded to macros , Ive been using similiar macros since this game launched as PLD and clearing end game content with them. I dont macro things to combos however but to the OP believe me when I say your on the right track and take these negative comments with a grain of salt!

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People can clear contents as pld while sitting in shield oath 24/7 and rotating 1-2-3 halone combo from the start until the fight ends. That doesn't mean it's a good way to play the class. I'm saying that when you play at a high level the delays and reliability issues related to macros make them undesirable. Unless you can prove me wrong, by showing parse/video of someone performing really well in end game raids with macros (in which case I'll stand corrected) I'm quite convinced it's impossible to play optimally with those macros.

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Originally Posted by aleph_null

People can clear contents as pld while sitting in shield oath 24/7 and rotating 1-2-3 halone combo from the start until the fight ends. That doesn't mean it's a good way to play the class. I'm saying that when you play at a high level the delays and reliability issues related to macros make them undesirable. Unless you can prove me wrong, by showing parse/video of someone performing really well in end game raids with macros (in which case I'll stand corrected) I'm quite convinced it's impossible to play optimally with those macros.

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Once I hit 60 I'm going to test my DPS via Stone Sky Sea. Test what numbers I'm putting out MACRO vs non-MACRO. I'll probably make the switch, I just the time delay from MACROS can't be that bad in comparison to manually switching/cycling crosshotbars. If I lose .2 seconds on a MACRO I could easily loose similar time switching between bars, unless I am playing flawlessly.

You won't lose time since every gcd is 2.5s (or around 2.4 at medium skill speed at lv 60), you can press a gcd, switch and press the second gcd maybe 0.5-1s before your actual gcd cycle is complete, and that 2nd gcd will come out exactly when the 1st gcd completes, that's what people meant by "queuing gcds."

Yes of course it's better to test it yourself to see if you're happy with the performance of macros. Personally I probably haven't spent as much time as you when it comes to testing macros so take my comments with a grain of salt, like what the other person posted earlier.

On a lv 60 PLD, Fracture is a dps-loss 99% of the time and only makes PLD's TP sustain in raids so much worse, it's best you just ditch fracture from your crossclasses entirely.
For a short breakdown, Fracture, if ticking for the full duration, is 220 potency per GCD, Royal Authority combo is averaged down to 230 potency per GCD (150+200+340 divided by 3) and Goring Blade combo comes down to 306 potency per GCD (150+230+540 divided by 3), so using fracture has no benefit at all once you hit lv 60.
Until then, spamming goring blade is actually your best dps option( at 226 potency per gcd), even above using fracture, even if it means clipping your Goring Blade dot.

On another note, Hallowed Ground does NOT work with cover. It negates any damage you receive, but any damage that hits your cover target will bypass hallowed ground. Any other cooldowns like Sentinel or rampart do work with Cover however, hallowed ground not counting for cover is just one thing the devs did to avoid cheesing mechanics.

Otherwise, using a macro has some reliability issues and has been proven to not be queueable at all. So everytime you use a macro on a GCD skill like savage blade, you get an additional ping towards your usual 2.4~2.5 GCD. Essentially, the worse your ping, the worse are your macros, so mileages may vary. It also means that macros are that much more susceptible to lagspikes and other internet issues.
It is workable, people will still live in dungeons, but entirely unoptimal if you ever care about your performance and a bad habit to get accustomed to, to boot.
Later on in high end raids, there are occasions, where you might want to use Bulwark for the first tankbuster, and sentinel for the second, just convalescence afterwards and sheltron + foresight for the last one, so having direct access and control to all your individual defensive cooldowns and when you want to use each one specifically, can directly make you a better tank controlling the battle.
With the macros as you have now, you cant really control which Cooldown you want to use specifically, except if you want to pop absoluty everything (which is bad).
Take for example your sentinel macro. What if you want to use only bulwark, but not sentinel, because you will need sentinel for a different tankbuster within the next 30 seconds?

The same also applies to offensive OGCDs like Circle of Scorn or Spirits within. Sometimes you want to save them for specific moments within the next 20 seconds instead of blowing them alltogether as soon as they get ready to use, like for example, an add pack popping up really soon, or a casted skill being interruptible by Spirit within's Silence effect.

If you want some video proofs on how macros delay your skills in combat, look at this:
https://youtu.be/czzLF4IfFaM?t=4m18s
It's a monk video, but the same concept of how macros delay your skills applies to paladin as well. And you can easily see, that the macro monk is almost 1 whole GCD behind the no macro monk in the first 30 seconds already. Apply that to longer 10 minute fights, and you look at one guy doing 10~20 attacks or more than the macro guy, just because he doesnt use macros.

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Originally Posted by Thoro39

On a lv 60 PLD, Fracture is a dps-loss

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I only use Fracture in duty roulette at lvls when it's still a slight DPS increase, otherwise I just ignore the skill and it never gets used.

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Originally Posted by Thoro39

On another note, Hallowed Ground does NOT work with cover.

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Good to know.

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Originally Posted by Thoro39

...you might want to use Bulwark for the first tankbuster, and sentinel for the second, just convalescence afterwards and sheltron + foresight for the last one.
What if you want to use only bulwark, but not sentinel, because you will need sentinel for a different tankbuster within the next 30 seconds?

also applies to Circle of Scorn or Spirits within.

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With 1 button push I only use the CD at ether top of the list, 2nd press activates the next. I can hit the MACRO once for bulwark, and again to use sentinel when its needed.

As for CoS or SW, I can make a hotbar for those specific raids with them removed from the MACRO.

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Originally Posted by kashi11

With 1 button push I only use the CD at ether top of the list, 2nd press activates the next. I can hit the MACRO once for bulwark, and again to use sentinel when its needed.

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And what about, for example, when you want to use Sentinel but not Bulwark, e.g. for a magical tankbuster?

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Originally Posted by kashi11

Flight of Blood - 90s Cooldown ATK buff

/micon "Fight or Flight"
/ac "Fight or Flight"
/ac "Bloodbath"

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Originally Posted by Dzian

Press that macro once and at best only one skill will go off because the macro system can't queue the second one. theres also a chance that the second one won't go off if the first is on cool down because of latency even if you press the button twice. which ultimately leads to having to repeadly hit the button multiple times

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Actually if the first is on cooldown, it only takes 1 button push for the second to go off, it skips past it.

Fracture is a very minor dps gain if during a certain phase of the fight the number of gcds you can land on the boss is 3n+1 before you have to disengage and do something else. For example if you have exactly 7 gcds before you have to disengage from the boss, you should do 1 goring blade combo, 1 royal authority combo, and fracture, instead of fast blade on that 7th gcd. Note that if the boss disappears most of the time your dots don't tick until it appears again, so you should use fracture only if you have to disengage but the boss is still targetable and taking damage. I'd say it's not really worth the hassle since the gain is very small. I'm not completely sure about this though, so take it with a grain of salt. :p

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Originally Posted by aleph_null

I'd say it's not really worth the hassle since the gain is very small. I'm not completely sure about this though, so take it with a grain of salt. :p

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It's technically true (e.g. it's technically a DPS gain if you leave it running on A10S when swapping out) but it's such a minor gain that it's definitely not worth the hassle.

Fracture is a dps gain in A10s during Steam roller if you can get it on before you need to move to avoid death since your going to be move for at least a tick which is 20

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Originally Posted by Jukebox12

Fracture is a dps gain in A10s during Steam roller if you can get it on before you need to move to avoid death since your going to be move for at least a tick which is 20

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...Unless you've got a combo going, because it will force you to reset from Fast Blade.

Not to be mean, as you said these made your experience more enjoyable, but I'd urge to listen to what everyone here has said - unfortunately macros just aren't that good, and in the long run you will be better off just learning to manually activate CDs.

They are oGCD, and you can't really afford to lose this functionality. When a big hit's coming, you need your defensive buff right there and then, waiting up to a couple of seconds isn't really an option, not to mention the fact, as others have said, in a macro you can't even rely on them even going off. An unreliable CD is about as good as no CD.

Also, every situation is different, and what CD(s) you need each time will be different. You can't really say "I'll always use rampart and sentinel together" as sometimes you'll only need one, and the other one a little while afterwards, for example.

Lastly, Cover won't work in your macro, as you have no target

I think it was in this thread someone mentioned expanding the cross hot bar with the double tap L2/R2. So I'm actually adjusting my Cross hot bar. I'm leaving macros on 1 and no macros on 2. That way I can adjust manually and as needed between the 2.

Personally Play u'r class how u want, as long as u'r holding arrgo & Mitigating taken dmg as much as possible you should be good for all but End-game Savage raids at bare min ilv requirments. Heck I've used Marco's for PLD since 2.2 SoC+Flash/Provoke+Shield lob (on a 1sec wait timer for use while moving & Provoke NEEDS a follow-up arrgo move, Halone is usually not at combo point when I need it) & Bulwark+Awarness/Convo+Forsight (no wait timer just press->press) granted those are my only PLD Marco's & I've fought quite a few bare-min ilv's fight with them, nothing end-game but it feals the same if u'r ilv is so damn low, & won with amazing timed CD use on my end... best part... PS4 player

Sure Marco's can slow u down... if u don't adapt around it (I use 1 as MNK... only cause I wanted featherfoot before bloodbath at the time & none as MCH but use <tt> ones as WHM for DPS moves... thou I do plan to remove the MNK macro soon as I rarely need featherfoot)

& Cover works with Hallowed ground just Cover only works in transfering Physical dmg NOT magical (so used as such does not save the "Cover'd" one from say a BLM's Fire 4)