Evidence that Macros Do NOT Cause GCD Delay or Lost Casts

[LilimoLimomo]

I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I am curious.

I get that an optimal player will be better without macros

With respect, this isn't true, and that's part of what I'm trying to communicate with this post. Because people have different strengths and weaknesses, and they may be optimal at some things will less optimal at others. So a player who is optimal at pressing their macros in the proper window but less optimal at finding space for and pressing 32 different buttons will do better with macros. But a player who is less optimal at pressing buttons in the proper window but more optimal at finding space for and pressing 32 different buttons will do better with normal actions. Neither of these setups is innately better than the other, both can be used to do all the content in the game. Also, it's worth saying this isn't black-and-white. A truly optimal player will recognize the places where macros can up their game and use macros for that, and they will recognize the places where normal actions can up their game and use macros for that.

but is there a point where a bad player can play “good enough” with macros?

It will depend on where we place the goalposts for the definitions of "bad player" and "good enough", but generally speaking, the answer is that it can. Will it? That depends on why the player is "bad". To offer just one example, I'm a controller player, and for the way my brain and body works, I would be bad at the game if I had to find a place on my controller for 32 different buttons and remembering where they are all tucked away (since the crosshotbar can only visually display 16 buttons at a time). I've tried a variety of different options in the game to try to make that work and it just doesn't for me; I know what move I want to use at the proper time, but the controller simply doesn't provide easy, intuitive access to that many different moves. Macros absolutely help me play at a higher level by allowing me to better customize my control layout so that the buttons I already want to press are readily available when I want to press them.

And are certain jobs more receptive/forgiving of macro-use?

I think this ends up coming down to personal preference, especially since there are so many different kinds of macros to make. Every class I play tends to have at least 5 macros, though.

Like Ninja jitsu presses are much faster by hand, I would think.

Because the cooldown on Jin, Ten, and Chi are so rapid, in my opinion these actions are actually great for macros; because you want to press these sequences of buttons with a quick rhythm, the shorter activation window of macros will generally be less of a downside. So you can, for example, make a macro that casts Chi when used with GCD available, but instead casts Mug when the GCD is unavailable. Thus, you have 1 button that can do 2 different things depending on the context in which you press it, reducing the number of necessary buttons on your hotbars by 1:

/macroicon "Chi"
/macroerror off
/ac "Chi"
/ac "Chi"
/ac "Chi"
/ac "Chi"
/ac "Chi"
/ac "Chi"
/ac "Mug"

But putting oGCDs (like assassinate) on GCDs so they fire when the GCD isn’t ready yet is better than the bad player just not using the oGCDs at all… right?

100%! ^^