5.3 A response to the AST "balance" changes

[Sebazy]

Remember how SCH got a bunch of clunky 'mechanics' added to it's core kit to prevent it from wanting a long countdown for it's optimal opener?

This is just embarrassing at this point.

I really don't see what people are saying about AST being annoying because you have to change targets to give people cards... can't you just set up a macro for each party member on the list?

Remember that macros don't queue properly. You risk stalling your GCD quite significantly. Back in ARR I used to macro embrace to ruin and cure, that cost me as much as a full GCD per minute.

[Doozer]

Remember that macros don't queue properly. You risk stalling your GCD quite significantly. Back in ARR I used to macro embrace to ruin and cure, that cost me as much as a full GCD per minute.

It's literally just one skill. I haven't ever had any issues with playing a card and continuing what I'm doing. It doesn't have a 'wait' or anything in it, it just gives a card to a party member based on which one I click. I have one macro for one tank, one for the other, one for the other healer, etc. etc.

I can't check right now because of maintenance obviously, but I believe it's just

/ac "Play" <1>

or something to that effect. There's no delay in it.

[Sebazy]

<snip>

The wait isn't the issue in this case, it's that macros will always trigger later than a directly hot keyed ability.

In your case, single weaving this will probably be fine. Double weaving may have you locked for a number of extra frames though. I'm not sure how tight the timing is for weaving off the nuke as I'll openly admit I've not been bothering with AST since 5.0.

[Doozer]

The wait isn't the issue in this case, it's that macros will always trigger later than a directly hot keyed ability.

In your case, single weaving this will probably be fine. Double weaving may have you locked for a number of extra frames though. I'm not sure how tight the timing is for weaving off the nuke as I'll openly admit I've not been bothering with AST since 5.0.

I have never had timing issues or skills triggering later than normal.

[Sebazy]

I have never had timing issues or skills triggering later than normal.

You will have. Rather you likely just won't have noticed if you're not optimising things as you state. It's not a huge jarring pause but it can add up.

Please don't take this as me saying that macros are unacceptable. But rather that people should be aware of the price of using them.

[Deceptus]

You will have. Rather you likely just won't have noticed if you're not optimising things as you state. It's not a huge jarring pause but it can add up.

Please don't take this as me saying that macros are unacceptable. But rather that people should be aware of the price of using them.

The macro wait time doesn't seem like much but it does result in multiple GCD's lost over the length of a fight.

In low tier content ultimately it doesn't matter. I've out DPS'd people as a tank using a lazy AoE macro as sad as that is.

[NozomiHoshiaki]

It's literally just one skill. I haven't ever had any issues with playing a card and continuing what I'm doing. It doesn't have a 'wait' or anything in it, it just gives a card to a party member based on which one I click. I have one macro for one tank, one for the other, one for the other healer, etc. etc.

I can't check right now because of maintenance obviously, but I believe it's just

/ac "Play" <1>

or something to that effect. There's no delay in it.

Every oGCD (off global cooldown) skill/ability has a buffer window of roughly 0.5 seconds, macros have no buffer window which means you are most likely clipping into that window you have to do oGCDs while keeping your GCD rolling, each oGCD has a window where no actions can occur, as far as I know, your GCD has a time after the GCD finishes where an oGCD is delayed, I think by roughly 0.7s, each oGCD after that also has 0.7s cooldown so you can get 2 weaves of oGCDs before keeping your GCD rolling, leaving room for 2 weaves after any instant cast GCD.

Using macros for weaving Play or Minor Arcana would most likely make you clip because of not being able to buffer the next oGCD, resulting in non-optimal gameplay. That isn't even to mention that using macros for Play and Minor Arcana is essentially impossible on Controller because of the limited amount of hotbar space you have.

[Doozer]

Every oGCD (off global cooldown) skill/ability has a buffer window of roughly 0.5 seconds, macros have no buffer window which means you are most likely clipping into that window you have to do oGCDs while keeping your GCD rolling, each oGCD has a window where no actions can occur, as far as I know, your GCD has a time after the GCD finishes where an oGCD is delayed, I think by roughly 0.7s, each oGCD after that also has 0.7s cooldown so you can get 2 weaves of oGCDs before keeping your GCD rolling, leaving room for 2 weaves after any instant cast GCD.

Using macros for weaving Play or Minor Arcana would most likely make you clip because of not being able to buffer the next oGCD, resulting in non-optimal gameplay. That isn't even to mention that using macros for Play and Minor Arcana is essentially impossible on Controller because of the limited amount of hotbar space you have.

You're barking up the wrong tree if you think I care about 0.7 second optimization or whatever. I don't do Savage/Ultimate because I find it too repetitive and boring. So I don't think I really need to optimize things down to fractions of seconds. There is more to the game than Savage and Ultimate, you know that right? Either way, I don't have issues with skills 'clipping' or anything. I don't just mash buttons like a baby.

And, I like that you ignored my first post saying how I was aware of it not being useful for controller users. Read everything I say on the subject before responding to me, please. You're just wasting your time.

[NozomiHoshiaki]

You're barking up the wrong tree if you think I care about 0.7 second optimization or whatever. I don't do Savage/Ultimate because I find it too repetitive and boring. So I don't think I really need to optimize things down to fractions of seconds. There is more to the game than Savage and Ultimate, you know that right? Either way, I don't have issues with skills 'clipping' or anything. I don't just mash buttons like a baby.

And, I like that you ignored my first post saying how I was aware of it not being useful for controller users. Read everything I say on the subject before responding to me, please. You're just wasting your time.

That was an aggressive response, one of which I did not expect. I merely provided information about how the systems work, and macros are unbufferable, if you don't care about savage content then yeah, you probably don't care about this change to AST whatsoever, nor do you have any issue using macros for combat despite them being far worse the majority of the time compared to having bufferable actions.