Why can't I manage all these buttons

Hey all.

As I am new here. I was wondering if there was a way to make macros that use Abilities in order with the rotation?

I have issues with coordination. Like I know Alt and shift are there but trying to use them while also hitting my ability buttons and moving is honestly Quite difficult for me.

I was wondering if there is a way to reduce say a 3 button rotation thats the exact same every time down to a single button?

You could use something like what I use for menu bars, which copies entire hotbars over top of my main one. I set all my desired actions on hotbars 7-10 (using jobs like BTN, MNR, etc to keep it easy to remember where they are) and then use a copy command from a macro to copy them to hotbar 6 whenever I want to display a specific set. Hotbar 5 is my "main menu" that has all of the swap macros. This could be adapted to work for your main hotbar to swap several skills as they cycle through a comba, but it would be a lot of work and comes with several drawbacks. E.g. if you got off track in your combo it would take extra button presses just to get back to the start of it. There also isn't a way to copy single hotbar skills, you have to copy the entire bar. So whenever you wanted to make a change to your hotbar you would have to go into your stored ones and make the changes there, making sure to change every single hotbar to include the same static skills. While I make great use out of this for keeping my non-combat hotbar with a very small footprint, I wouldn't really recommend it for combat hotbars. If you do decide to do it, here is a video I used to help me wrap my head around it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYToDRSELLI

I don't know the details of your coordination issues, but I suspect you might get better use out of a mouse or other controlling device if that's affordable for you. There's usually enough buttons on one of those to cover all of your needs without needing to do alt- or shift- versions of things.

Macros for abilities are generally a bad idea, especially for combos. There are a couple of reason. For one, they don't queue so it causes a delay between one button press and the next, where normally your next ability starts as soon as your current one ends. Second, the global cooldown is 2.5 seconds, but macros only work in full second increments so you would be waiting 3 seconds between each weaponskill used. That considerably slows down combat and lowers your damage output.

My suggestion if you have issues with the coordination, is perhaps trying to use a controller. It may sound counterintuitive, but with the extended crossbars, it gives you various options to access extra abilities.

The main controller hotbars are just set to L2 or R2. You can additionally set abilities to holding both buttons together (holding L2+R2 for instance, opens another hotbar set). You can also set abilities to a hotbar accessed by "double tapping" L2 or R2. You also have the option to rotate through hotbars by hitting R1. It may sound like a lot, but your thumb never needs to leave the analog stick, so it doesn't interfere with movement whatsoever.

I have to second using a controller. I find it a lot easier to remember the muscle memory for commands when it's shoulder buttons and a face button or dpad, and with all the extended options available I don't like for space for actions.

I am on ps4 and use the controller and a keyboard.. I use the keyboard for longer cds and other stuff, and the controller for main rotation stuff.. I find swapping on the controller a pain because it's so easy to cycle too fast.

I strongly advise against playing your class by stringing together commands with macros unless you are crafting. Having trouble with commands is normal for new players and you will improve with practice.

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Originally Posted by AnnaUK

I am on ps4 and use the controller and a keyboard.. I use the keyboard for longer cds and other stuff, and the controller for main rotation stuff.. I find swapping on the controller a pain because it's so easy to cycle too fast.

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You can hold down R1 and manually select which hotbar you want instead of fast cycling.

Also, are you using the extended cross hotbars? You should be able to fit all of a job's abilities if you use them, especially in 5.0.

Yeah I know - but I just couldn't get on with it.. the way I have it works great for me.

Have you considered investing in a gaming keyboard where you could assign a number of keystrokes to one button. Not sure if that is what you are looking for but it would mean instead of doing say Alt + 1, you would only have one button press.

Logitech g13

Hello, Happles, and welcome to Final Fantasy XIV!

It sounds like the issue you're having is that the controls for moving your character require the same fingers as the controls to use your combat actions. As such, you may find it helpful to get used to the wide variety of ways we have to move our characters. Depending on which hand you need to use for the combat actions at any given moment and precisely what sort of movement you're doing, using different movement controls may make your life significantly easier.

The most common way to move your character with a keyboard is with the W, A, S, and D keys. And most of our movement, of course, is forward. So I'm guessing you're pressing the W key to move forward more than anything else.

There's also the auto run function. This allows you to press and release a single key to have your character continuously run forward till you interrupt the movement by pressing the key again or use your regular W/S forward/back keys to interrupt it. I think this defaults to the Number Lock key. I personally remapped this to the R key, but that's just what I'm used to. You can set it to whatever you like.

Lastly, the mouse can be great for finely tuned movement even while you're pressing any keyboard keys (which is especially easy when the keyboard keys you are pressing is with the opposite hand). You can hold both the left and right mouse buttons at the same time to have your character run forward. As soon as you release them, your character stops. I also have mine set to have right drag turn my character while running in this fashion. There are options to have your character stay on course and rotate the camera or to turn with the camera, too.

If you have difficulty with modifier keys, you might try setting a couple buttons that cycle your hotbars. There are a whole lot of hot bars available to you that you don't actually use. More specific to my point, if you have certain bars set to be shared, you can use the job-specific bars of those numbers for storing bars. For example, if you are sharing bars 7,8,9,10, then you can store things on PLD bars 7,8,9,10 in an invisible space. Then a macro like this would allow you to cycle through them:

Code:

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/hotbar copy pld 1 pld 10
/hotbar copy pld 7 pld 1
/hotbar copy pld 8 pld 7
/hotbar copy pld 9 pld 8
/hotbar copy pld 10 pld 9

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Set up bar 1, and put that macro on it somwhere. Then press it.
Then set up the next bar, and put that macro on it in the same place as on the first bar. Then press it.
Repeat for the third and fourth bars.

You can also do one in the opposite direction:

Code:

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/hotbar copy pld 1 pld 10
/hotbar copy pld 9 pld 1
/hotbar copy pld 8 pld 9
/hotbar copy pld 7 pld 8
/hotbar copy pld 10 pld 7

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In re: "there are already keybinds for this" -- yes, but they cycle through all your bars and include shared bars. This will cycle through only four bars, and they will always be bars specific to the job.

Thx all. I have a Steel series mouse with a few extra buttons so I have 2 of them put to shift and alt now. Now I just gotta get in the habit and remember them now thx.