how to make macros

[Nyalia]

The /wait command only accepts whole seconds. If you do /wait 2.5, it will wait 2 seconds. Please, please, don't macro GCD skills unless there is a very good reason. In the OP, you list one of those really good reasons: you want to inform the party of the skill you're using. In that case, a macro is great. For WHMs, it's nice to tell the party when you're using Raise, Repose, and Stoneskin II. For BLMs, it's nice to announce Sleep. Another very good reason to write a macro is when you want to combine skills like the swiftcast-raise mentioned by someone else, but even that I personally don't agree with.

Macros are also great for non-combat things, like auto-blacklisting spammers, even those who friend you:
/flist deny <r>
/blist add <r>
And macros are great for crafting as they can automatically run through a rotation for you nearly as fast as you could do it yourself (though about 20% slower overall due to the fact that /wait and <wait.#> only accept whole integers).


The problem with macros is that normal skills do a thing called "queuing." If a skill's cooldown has 0.5 seconds or less left when you hit it, the skill will glow until the CD is done, and then it will automatically go off. This lets you use skills at full speed regardless of your ping to the server, and it noticeably increases your reaction time and damage. Macros do not queue. They can't, they don't know for sure what you are doing in them so they can't know the CD of the skill you're using. If you hit a macro before your cooldown is up, nothing happens. This adds 0.5-1.5 seconds to your cast times and totally negates any bonus from extra Spell Speed. Queuing is especially important for BLMs, who want to have their next Fire 1 half cast by the time the previous one hits. Timing is incredibly important to BLMs, especially at endgame, and you do not want to get used to doing things in a lazy and suboptimal fashion while leveling. It'll only hurt you later.


But, to answer your question anyway, what you want to do is use the <wait.#> syntax after a skill that has a cooldown if you want to do something afterward. Remember to use whole seconds, so you'd have to put in <wait.3> after, say, a Blizzard III. If you are macroing attack spells like this, know that it will increase your global cooldown significantly and hamper your ability to react to boss mechanics and MP regen ticks. So, it would be:

/macroicon "Blizzard III"
/ac "Blizzard III" <t> <wait.3>
/ac "Thunder III" <t> <wait.3>
/ac "Blizzard II" <t> <wait.3>
/ac "Fire III" <t> <wait.3>

With this macro, it would take you 12 seconds to cast all four spells. Without this macro, it would likely take you about 9 seconds to cast all four.

Also, as an aside, why are you casting Blizzard II there? That's a point-blank AoE snare useful for PvP only. Do you mean Blizzard I? Also, you don't want to use Thunder III in the rotation like that - you want Thunder I or Thunder II. III just takes too long to cast. Generally, for single targets as BLM, you want to do: Thunder II/III -> Fire III -> Fire I x5 (using any Firestarter procs after the following Fire I) -> Blizzard III -> Thunder I/II -> Blizzard I (if you used Thunder II, or if the first mana tick came immediately after Blizzard III, or if you have low Spell Speed, or if you didn't have enough mana after Blizzard III to cast Thunder I until the first mana tick, skip this Blizzard I) -> Repeat from Fire III. Also, if you get a Firestarter proc on your 5th Fire I (which should come after Blizzard III is mostly cast - don't interrupt it), definitely cast the Blizzard I, and immediately after, transpose before using Fire III so you spend the Firestarter proc while in Astral Fire I mode instead of Umbral Ice III (much more damage, and the slower cast time is irrelevant due to the Firestarter proc).


And, to interrupt a macro, there are two ways. One is to run another macro. You can only have one macro running at a time. If you hit a macro while a macro is running, the old one is canceled so the new one can activate. (This is really annoying when you accidentally blacklist an RMT while macro-crafting, interrupting the craft halfway through.) The other is to use the new macro stop text command. I don't recall the exact syntax, but it's something like /macrostop. Personally, I prefer my way of stopping macros: I have an "Abort Macro" macro that just does: /echo ***************** MACRO ABORTED ***************. When I hit the macro, that is displayed in my chat window and any macro that was running stops because I started a new one. /echo messages are only seen by you.