What would it take for us to get a proper macro system?

[Xandos]

There are so many reasons I used macros in WoW. One was for easy rotations for classes that had them, the pally 69696 rotation was one of them.

The biggest reason for me though was cleaning up buttons on the bars. My warrior had a macro that read what stance i was in(battle, berserk, defensive) and also read if I had a shield equipped. This single macro then was able to hit the appropriate tank or dps cooldown based on all of these factors. Instead of having two or three buttons on my bars all of the time for me to manually click I was able to shave that down to 1 button AND make sure that I didn't accidentally hit the wrong cooldown.

Another reason I used macros was to have multi use buttons for a single spell. I'm a clicker by nature(don't hate me!), so I made left click cast a spell on my target, right click cast on my focus target, and utilizing the already built in feature pressing Alt and left click casted the spell on me regardless of targets. Again all of this was able to be done with a single hotbar space.

The WoW macro system used the Lua scripting language and was extremely flexible. It allowed people that could utilize it to focus more on their positioning and mechanics than staring at their UI or fingers. You need to have solid knowledge about your class to properly design these macros though. I think a better macro system in FFXIV could increase the skill ceiling for some players while not increasing the skill floor for all players.

[Feidam]

The biggest reason for me though was cleaning up buttons on the bars. My warrior had a macro that read what stance i was in(battle, berserk, defensive) and also read if I had a shield equipped. This single macro then was able to hit the appropriate tank or dps cooldown based on all of these factors.

This seems like a great example of what their macro system is trying to avoid. That macro you used may have cleaned up your hot bar but it also removed you actively thinking about it too. It automated play based on what gear you had equipped. You no longer had to think about what you were doing with those skills as the macro "thought" for you. You just pressed that one button and got the desired effect by the macro checking the current conditions.

We have a difference of opinion here as this type of play doesn't improve a players personal skill level. It removes some it since they do not have to think about what to do. It may boost a players performance though which is a different thing all together. I'm glad their macro system doesn't allow this type of play.

[dragonseth07]

snip

You are putting WAY too much stock in keeping buttons separate.

I use macros to change my spells on my bars when I go into Defiance and Deliverance, swapping the exclusive abilities. Does this make me worse somehow? Heck no.

[Feidam]

You are putting WAY too much stock in keeping buttons separate.

I use macros to change my spells on my bars when I go into Defiance and Deliverance, swapping the exclusive abilities. Does this make me worse somehow? Heck no.

Except the poster didn't just swap bars. He had a macro activate abilities based on which gear he had equipped. Totally different scenario than just swapping bars. My stock was put on the fact the macro activated the appropriate CD for the gear equipped.

If you swap bars and then you activate your abilities yourself I see nothing wrong with that.

[dragonseth07]

Except the poster didn't just swap bars. He had a macro activate abilities based on which gear he had equipped. Totally different scenario than just swapping bars. My stock was put on the fact the macro activated the appropriate CD for the gear equipped.

If you swap bars and then you activate your abilities yourself I see nothing wrong with that.

But there's no difference! There's no difference between me swapping bars with a macro when I turn on Deliverance or if I could code an if/then macro to use either ability based on stance. It's the same: I press X and the correct ability goes off.

[Niwashi]

But there's no difference! There's no difference between me swapping bars with a macro when I turn on Deliverance or if I could code an if/then macro to use either ability based on stance. It's the same: I press X and the correct ability goes off.

There's a difference in how involved you can make the logic. You can do it for one thing (possibly two if you want to get really involved) by swapping bars around. You can basically do it for everything by having what amounts to a programming language in the macro system.