Getting the fairy to heal a highlighted player.

[Raestloz]

Wait… you use macros for that? I\\'m on console and I NEVER use macros. For anything. I\\'ve never used macros in any games I\\'ve played. I\\'m not too fond of the "click this and afk" method of playing. Seems too boring.

You use macros to do several things at once to take the load off your brain and give it more time to do things that actually matter, like looking at the party list AND the battlefield at the same time.

Like, say, you wanna scream "I'm casting Raise on YOU there! Standby!". You macro that thing to your Raise command. Unless you wish to manually type all of those all the time with names like Heischield Schwertliete begging to be mistyped and taking too much time to type

[MrDiezel]

snip

You are heavily misconstruing the use of macros. Its not for being lazy, its for usefulness and practicality. Especially with a controller.

Im glad OP asked this question. Noticed this yesterday, decided to just heal highlight target myself, have my pet heal hard target. But a solution has been given!

[A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider]

You use macros to do several things at once … to do things that actually matter, like looking at the party list AND the battlefield at the same time.

Say, you wanna scream "I'm casting Raise on YOU there! Standby!". You macro that thing to your Raise. Unless you wish to manually type all of those with names like Heischield Schwertliete taking too much time to type

Hm. I always look at the battlefield, party list, enemy HP, tank's target HP and so on. I don't feel there's a need to type/chat that you're raising someone when you can just do the action instead. Yes, I observe if anyone else is using raise/rez to make sure I'm not casting on their target so I don't waste MP double-raising.

I type and controller, switching on and off. Only do it when necessary. Nothing like trying to say something and seeing tank wipe cause I wasn't healing. ¬_¬

On topic: I don't seem to have a problem with the fairy. Perhaps if you had videos of your playthrough?

[LoganNinefingers]

On topic: I don't seem to have a problem with the fairy. Perhaps if you had videos of your playthrough?

You won't be having the OP's problem if you aren't using macros - there was a simple fix (with feedback that it's working now) explained in the first two replies anyway.

A point MrDiezel made is that you seem to be misinterpreting the word "macro" - in some games macros can be used for the AFK playstyle you mentioned, but this isn't the case in any FF game (without the use of third party tools), and is not what we're talking about here. As a side note, the closest official implementation of AFK-play was the Gambit system in the FFXII family, which may be what you're thinking of?

What we're discussing here is the use of the in-game Macro feature (there's even an active-help entry for it), which allows you to activate one or more text commands from a single click on your hotbar. These can include Chat, Actions, Emotes...whatever!

As Raestloz mentioned, a common example is the good ol' swift-raise button:

/p {Casting spell} {Raise} -> <t>
/ac Swiftcast <me>
/wait 1
/ac Raise <t>

If you place this macro on your hotbar, a single click will then announce to your party that you're going to raise your target, use swiftcast, then cast Raise one second later.

Pressing a single button is obviously much quicker than pressing two buttons, let alone typing out a warning ANDpressing two buttons, so there's clearly a non- AFK-play use for these.

Tanks can use them to announce it's swap time, healers can have a button to say MP's low, please sing Ballad, Bards can use Blunt Arrow and announce the monster should be Silenced all in a single click.

The OP was simply using a macro for a one-click big heal, trying to use both Embrace and Physick on the same target, rather than clicking two buttons in succession. As it's an in-built function, this kind of macro use is clearly not cheating or the mark of a lazy player, but rather speaks of players seeking to play more efficiently and free up more time to be attentive to the battle, which can only be a good thing.

[EvianEverdeen]

I see a lot of people using /wait or /wait 1 in their macros. Most instant cast spells (like Swiftcast) can be used with /wait 0.5. Pump it out faster!

[A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider]

SNIP

A point MrDiezel made is that you seem to be misinterpreting the word "macro" - in some games macros can be used for the AFK playstyle you mentioned, but this isn't the case in any FF game (without the use of third party tools), and is not what we're talking about here. As a side note, the closest official implementation of AFK-play was the Gambit system in the FFXII family, which may be what you're thinking of?

Yeah, probably just used to the whole gambit system. Which I hated. Hence why I never went through all of FF12. ¬_¬

[EvianEverdeen]

Yeah, probably just used to the whole gambit system. Which I hated. Hence why I never went through all of FF12. ¬_¬

You need to look into some macros though, especially being a console player. I am one myself. Trust me, it will make your job easier and your healing more efficient. At least make yourself a macro for a swiftcast res and a swiftcast pet. It make take you hours of researching macros, reading about them, then actually playing around with them, but it will all be worth it in the end.

[A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider]

snip-

It probably would, but I prefer not using them. If feel if I can't do my job as is, then I shouldn't even be playing the job. Same goes for any other class/job I play. But that's just for my own mindset against me. If you want to use macros, that's your prerogative. To me, how you operate isn't as important as just doing the job. Admittedly, I'm still learning the healer classes/jobs, but I'm liking them. Certainly they're the hardest to perform as.

[EvianEverdeen]

It probably would, but I prefer not using them. If feel if I can't do my job as is, then I shouldn't even be playing the job. Same goes for any other class/job I play. But that's just for my own mindset against me. If you want to use macros, that's your prerogative. To me, how you operate isn't as important as just doing the job. Admittedly, I'm still learning the healer classes/jobs, but I'm liking them. Certainly they're the hardest to perform as.

With all of that being said, I'm guessing you don't have Swiftcast nor even know what Swiftcast is?

[A_Magical_Unicorn_Rider]

I've got it, use it when I need to. When I didn't have it, some complained so I went and got it. Currently working on Stoneskin as sometimes when I tank, WHM (usually the WHM) won't SS anyone other than themselves, so I figured since Pally can use it, I might as well help out. And yes, I utilize both Swift and Surecast.

And I tend to pay more attention to what the healers are doing when I'm tanking. Seems like being a meatshield has become a lot easier with i100 gear, so I have downtime to observe what other players are doing. Only place I can't tend to do that as well is CT, if I'm ever in there.