Evidence that Macros Do NOT Cause GCD Delay or Lost Casts

[Shurrikhan]

I'm curious, how are you clipping with a non-GCD action? In my personal experience, I find that with oGCD's I generally don't even need the repeated lines because the timing of when you can press them without action loss is a lot more flexible than GCD's.

The only reason for an oGCD to be less likely to clip than a GCD action is that you can theoretically fit multiple oGCDs into a single GCD gap. I.e., it's not that the individual actions clip any less (they clip identically -- or more, for lesser ability to queue), but simply that you have more room than you could not otherwise use. Try to fit in one oGCD more, though, and you'll likely end up delaying not only oGCDs but also the following GCDs, since they both share the same animation locks; the GCD cannot start until the minimum on-use delay of the previous action has passed.

Altogether, you have skills that...

1. Neither respect nor incur animation locks. (Certain "Commands")
2. Respect but do not incur animation locks. (Certain "General Actions")
3. Respect and incur animation locks. (Other among certain "General Actions")
   
4. Respect and incur animation locks and (shared near-)unique cooldowns. (Flood, Holmgang, Assize -- and Senei/Guren -- etc)
5. Respect and incur animation locks and share a SkS-scaled cooldown with an entire class of abilities. (Weaponskills)
6. Respect and incur animation locks and share a SpS-scaled cooldown with an entire class of abilities. (Spells)

While 1-4 are all "oGCDs", the term is usually used only to describe the Group 4, with "GCDs" being Groups 5 and 6. Groups 2-6 can delay all but Group 1. It's just a matter of what space you'd have spare.

[LilimoLimomo]

The only reason for an oGCD to be less likely to clip than a GCD action is that you can theoretically fit multiple oGCDs into a single GCD gap. I.e., it's not that the individual actions clip any less (they clip identically -- or more, for lesser ability to queue), but simply that you have more room than you could not otherwise use. Try to fit in one oGCD more, though, and you'll likely end up delaying not only oGCDs but also the following GCDs, since they both share the same animation locks; the GCD cannot start until the minimum on-use delay of the previous action has passed.

Altogether, you have skills that...

1. Neither respect nor incur animation locks. (Certain "Commands")
2. Respect but do not incur animation locks. (Certain "General Actions")
3. Respect and incur animation locks. (Other among certain "General Actions")
   
4. Respect and incur animation locks and (shared near-)unique cooldowns. (Flood, Holmgang, Assize -- and Senei/Guren -- etc)
5. Respect and incur animation locks and share a SkS-scaled cooldown with an entire class of abilities. (Weaponskills)
6. Respect and incur animation locks and share a SpS-scaled cooldown with an entire class of abilities. (Spells)

While 1-3 are all "oGCDs", the term is usually used only to describe the Group 3, with "GCDs" being Groups 4 and 5. Groups 2-5 can delay all but Group 1. It's just a matter of what space you'd have spare.

Yep, I'm on the same page with you. My best guess was that the clipping might be occurring when trying to fill the GCD gap past its capacity with oGCD's. But I also didn't want to go forward assuming that was the situation, as I know so little about the context of their usage, meaning that other explanations could be plausible. Plus, there have been enough times in my life where I've written a lengthy response based on an assumption that turned out to be false, and that wastes both my time and the time of anyone who reads it! Hence the request for more details, with a bit of my thought process on the side to hopefully explain how I might be thinking about the issue differently than them.

Regardless, I appreciate the way you framed the whole issue of oGCD usage and the potential for clipping; it was a really efficient and effective way to communicate about a topic that I'm used to seeing discussed in much more abstract ways!