AST: Little help with Horoscope

I'm having some issues in making smart use of this Action, looking for tips or something.
My problem is that after you use Horoscope and then you power it up with Helios or Aspected Helios, you have ~30 seconds to use the action again.
If you don't, you basically "waste" it.

More often than not I find myself in the situation where I "pre-charge" it, with the intention of using it before the 30 seconds expire, but I'm having issues in looking at the part of the screen (up) where my buffs are, and then look between the plentiful icons for the Horoscope one and see how many seconds are left.
This procedure requires too much attention and too much time, some times fights are so frantic I really can't allow myself to do that, and as a matter of fact I end up wasting Horoscope more than I'd want to.


So... can anyone suggest a way to have another way to check on screen how many seconds are left? I'm not too good with customizing FFXIV's UI so I'm not sure if there's a way to achieve this or not.

I feel like Horoscope is not necessarily a powerful/necessary tool, but it costs no mp and it's fun, so I'd love to be able to make a more "proper" use of the action.



Thanks for any incoming suggestion about it.

Perhaps you could set yourself a macro as a reminder to check your buff timer. Use the /echo chat option so it only can be seen by you (to avoid annoying anyone else) for it to show up in the text log. To be fair though, I think Horoscope should have the same treatment as SCH's Excog and go off automatically once the timer runs out if you don't do it manually, would probably help a lot than forgetting about it.

Going off automatically just like Excogitation or Earthly Star would be fantastic, but I guess SE have different opinions about it.
Anyway, I'll try to dig some info on making an /echo macro that won't hurt too much my spellcasting.
Thanks!

It sounds like your HUD needs rearranging. If you're having trouble keeping track of all the information available because you have to move your eyes long distances and find the correct icon in your buff bar, the information is too spread out or too small. Fitts's Law says the difficulty of using an interface increases proportionally to the distance between interface elements, and difficulty increases as element size decreases.

Thank you Rongway, but I'm not sure what I should do next, following your post.
Was it meant to help me, to give me a direction or to simply point a finger at me saying "you're doing it wrong"?

I'm using the default FFXIV UI btw.

Put your own buffs somewhere where you can see them better. I have my own buffs, enemy debuffs and my own debuffs fairly close together, one row for each and close to other important elements so I don't need to constantly look up, down, back up again etc.

Open the HUD menu and click on the element for your buffs. You can split it into three groups, which I would recommend because it displays less interesting buffs like buff food in a seperate element. Group 1 (Status Info Enhancements) is the one that displays your own buffs. I increased it to 180% iirc and put it somewhere near my hotbars where my minimap, HP/MP and cast bar is. So whenever I look slightly down I see my cooldowns, my buffs, my position on the minimap, my HP/ MP and cast progress at a glance.
Buff icons are tiny on 100% so I recommend setting them at least to 160% so you can easily see the number of the timer through effects.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Monsalvato

Thank you Rongway, but I'm not sure what I should do next, following your post.
Was it meant to help me, to give me a direction or to simply point a finger at me saying "you're doing it wrong"?

I'm using the default FFXIV UI btw.

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I'm suggesting that you make the buff bar larger and move it closer to wherever your visual focus is--whether that means moving it closer to the party list or your action bars. Also, if you haven't split it into three parts, that would be a good change too so that you can move unimportant buffs like FC Actions and food off to the side. To do that, select the Status Info HUD element, open its UI Element Settings (gear button), and Split Element into 3 Groups.

Increase the sizes of the Status Info (Enhancements) and Status Info (Enfeeblements) elements and move them closer to your visual vocus (where your eyes tend to spend the most time). Status Info (Other) is generally unimportant--that's where things like FC buffs and food go, so it doesn't need to be in a prominent place. That way you can keep track of everything without having to move your eyes back and forth / up and down long distances.

I'm sure this group splitting and size increasing process will help tons, thanks folks!

planning how you'll use horoscope goes a long way too. if youre familiar with a fight you can think along the lines of "ill use asp helios for this incoming damage and set off horoscope for the next" and you don't need to pay that much attention to your buffs


setting off an uncharged horoscope is also good enough for small damage; its basically fey blessing

I'm curious why the time remaining on the buff matters. If the Aspected Helios / Helios you use to upgrade it doesn't top everyone off, use Horoscope, else wait for the next raidwide. After a raidwide check if it's still active. It has a different icon on your hotbar when it is. If it's active, use it before your other oGCDs. If it's not then there was at least 30 secs since the last set of damage and you didn't need it.

I almost always use it for 200 potency or upgrade it prepull because both varieties of Helios tend to be unnecessary with how many oGCDs heals AST has.

Good news, you don't need to worry anymore, it auto detonates