Quote Originally Posted by Hercub View Post
I'm a relatively new player, but you are presenting a valid concern. Completely valid. I'm not very techi but I believe there are things like Macros in this game. I don't know how to use them at all, but that might be the solution. So, can anyone explain macros? Please explain like we are five.

I, myself, am concerned because I already have six hot bars running and all the skills are valuable. Thanks to anyone who replies.
Macros shouldn't be used for most combat for several reasons.
  • They slow you down because they block the action queue system. Unmacroed actions can be pressed up to a second in advance, and will execute when the current action is finished. Macros must be activated after the current action finishes.
  • They slow you down because waits can only be whole seconds. If you try to wait partial seconds, the system rounds to a whole number. If your GCD is 2.1s long, you have to use a <wait.3> to make a macro execute actions in sequence. This means you'll only take 70% as many actions as you could. This is a huge loss.
  • If a sequence is interrupted, you need the next action somewhere on your bar anyway, since you can't start from the middle of a macro.

The exceptions are macros targeting secondary targets for buffs, heals, and raises, which allow you to do things like raise "whoever is dead" without specifically targeting them, or quickly manashifting a healer without changing targets; and macros for ground target AoEs, which will center them on the designated target and are faster than pressing the button, placing the cursor, then pressing the button again.


tl;dr: don't use macros for combat actions.