Evidence that Macros Do NOT Cause GCD Delay or Lost Casts

[Dysvalence]

I use macros extensively and it's great to see a writeup like this but there's a few additional things I'd add:

1] IME macros are not super reliable with fast keyboard inputs- I use all 10 hotbars and exp crossbars for extra space and toggle them constantly but have dedicated on/off keys because occasionally one gets stuck out of sync with the others, and not from cancellation. I also don't use hotbar copying for branching menus because it broke too often, especially when I had a macro to commit changes to a backup hotbar for basic version control.

2] Not everyone has a stable framerate so pseudobuffering is inconsistent

3] Sometimes I repeat multiple different things to give some extra reliability to anim lock conditional logic; inline waits are good for cramming more stuff in

4] Single weave macros have fixed weave timing- some jobs want to early or late weave specific ogcds, and occasionally change between the two

5] IME macros increase button usage and haven't ever saved space for me. Like many others, I mostly use ogcd ground placement or mouseover macros. But most of the time I'll still need the non macroed version for early/late/double weaves or other stuff; on ground placements I also have both macro to self, and macro to target. For dashes to allies like icarus etc, I have regular and mouseover macro versions, and for PVP I'll often have all of these, especially bishop and southern cross. Ultimately this turns one button into two or three and at best there's no net change with non macroed versions going to click only space.

6] In trusts/duty support, the hard clipping loss from waits is worth it if you use macros to AFK during trash packs. Target of target <tt> on each line then targetting the tank even removes the need to manually target things. Great for glam farming. BLM is prone to getting jammed on swaps between AF and UI if something dies early but disproportionately benefits from sps tuning

7] Not a fan of using it for saving keystrokes in combat; interrupts, losing uptime, or panic triple weaving mits makes things really weird. People who need macros are more likely to do this, and recovering typically needs raw inputs and the ability to play without macros in the first place. IMO it's an active detriment to self improvement and is frequently a crutch for poor hotbar layout, but I'm also of the opinion that jobs that have static rotations suitable for extensive macro automation are poorly designed and uninteresting.

[LilimoLimomo]

I also don't use hotbar copying for branching menus because it broke too often, especially when I had a macro to commit changes to a backup hotbar for basic version control.

This is interesting, I've never had this feature break for me. Maybe it's because I always put the copycrosshotbar command in the first few lines of the macro? Or maybe somehow the non-cross hotbar version works differently? I'm not sure if I understand what you mean by "commit changes" in the context of macros...though that does make me want a Github for macros! ^^

2] Not everyone has a stable framerate so pseudobuffering is inconsistent

Definitely, this is one of the aspects that make it important to understand your own subjective needs, not only of your human body but of the device your game is running on.

5] IME macros increase button usage and haven't ever saved space for me.

Interesting, so you like to have multiple versions of the same ability, so you can take advantage of the different behaviors depending on your dynamic needs. I've never heard of that before, but that's cool!

Perhaps it's because I'm on controller and thus don't use mouseover macros that macros have only ever reduced my button bloat?

6] In trusts/duty support, the hard clipping loss from waits is worth it if you use macros to AFK during trash packs.

Sometimes if I'm out doing FATES with my spouse as a healer, I'll make an /ac Stone <tt> <wait.3> macro because repeatedly casting Stone is so dull, plus it lets my arthritic hands rest. Not my preference for "real fights", but nice when it's casual.

[Dysvalence]

Maybe it's because I always put the copycrosshotbar command in the first few lines of the macro? Or maybe somehow the non-cross hotbar version works differently? I'm not sure if I understand what you mean by "commit changes" in the context of macros...though that does make me want a Github for macros! ^^

I wanted to use fast input sequences like fighting game combos or NIN mudras, especially for jobs/settings changes, and this meant coordinating where stuff was on different bars to minimize finger movement, so when making changes I was effectively testing all the bars at once. It'd be too easy to accidentally wipe any changes I made if I didn't update the bar I stored it on when switching, so I used to have a separate macro for each bar pairing to save any changes I made before copying the new one in. But this would then make it hard to keep track of overall changes and revert things if I didn't like it, so I had a second layer of backups for all the saved bars that I could revert from, and write to when I liked the changes I had. I doubt I was doing frame perfect inputs fast enough to frequently interrupt a 2-3 line macro without waits in the middle of execution, so I suspect the game was ghosting lines in the middle of saving changes to files on drive storage, though I don't have any hard evidence to actually back this up.

Wasn't fun to maintain this mess even without the reliability issues so now I just use a lot of keybinds and deal with stretches, including adding some duplicates to cut down on finger movement for really important things like vpr weaves.

You might be onto something with having it early in the macro- the one I use to toggle visibility all 10 bars+crossbars and some other UI elements only fails on something in the second half, even if the rest of the macro before and after works fine.

And yeah a macro github would be amazing.

Perhaps it's because I'm on controller and thus don't use mouseover macros that macros have only ever reduced my button bloat?

Maybe, though it could just be that I hate target switching in XIV and want nearly everything on keybinds because I came from older shooter games lol. I doubt the average kb/m user cares about being able to toggle /mountbgm while joining a hunts party, flying through tight spaces, and switching jobs all within 2 seconds.