Cross Hot Bar Set-Up help

[Ehayte]

Hi guys,

I have little to no problems doing anything and everything with a PLD with a single X-HB and a couple overflows on a second. I am starting to bring WAR to end game content (Titan+) and I know I am using the abilities I need to use, but with the excess of weaponskills WARs have, I can't fit everything neatly on 1+ bars. Right now I am just sacrificing efficiency for the sake of being new, this is what I came up with quickly as being "ideal" which would require me to re-train muscle memory.

Grrr..having a hard time formatting this so that it looks intelligible. I'll have to do with the following, if anyone would be so kind as to bare with me:

HOTBAR #1
R2-Cross = Heavy Swing
R2-Cirlce = Sunder
R2-Triangle = Over Power
R2-Square = Maim

R2- D = Infuriate
R2- R = Unchained
R2- U = IB
R2- L = Steel Cyclone

L2-Cross = Butcher's Block
L2-Cirlce = Storm's Path
L2-Triangle = Holmganh
L2-Square = Storm's Eye

L2-D = Flash
L2-R = Brutal Swing
L2-U = Tomahawk
L2-L = Mark Target "X"

HOTBAR #2

R2-Cross = Heavy Swing
R2-Cirlce = Sunder
R2-Triangle = Provoke
R2-Square = Butcher's Block

R2- D = Feather Foot
R2- R = Conval
R2- U = Foresight
R2- L = Thill of Battle

L2-Cross = Blood Bath
L2-Cirlce = Vengeance
L2-Triangle = Berserk
L2-Square = Internal Release

L2-D = Chocobo
L2-R = Mercy Stroke
L2-U = Defiance
L2-L = Tank Food

Any tips? Input would be greatly appreciated...I would prefer to use 2x hot bars instead of stacking CDs on macros, as I do now...I feel like its sloppy and and I feel as in control.

[armandojc3]

Nothing wrong with a few macros, Mercy stroke for example should be added to your main combo so it fires on their cooldown, its a great ability you should not think about. Bloodbath is usually best when your DPS is at its highest so you can macro those too. Im being vague here because it depends on your style and content but trust me, macros is the answer here, being a warrior is hard enough and trying to keep track of so many abilities and options only makes it harder when it doesnt need to be.

Of course dont macro anything on main GCD, thats a common noob mistake.

[Ehayte]

Right now I have Conval/FS macroed, I have BB/Veng macroed, I have Internal Release/Berserk macroed, I have ToB/2nd Wind macroed. I don't think I could comfortably condense any more than that, and it still leaves Mercy Stroke, Holmgang, Steel Cyclone, Unchained, Defiance, and Storm's Eye (or whichever one is the heal) off of my main XHotBar. That is an uncomfortable amount of skills that I have to swap down to a second bar to use if I am not regularly swapping between bars for defense/offense.

[armandojc3]

Right now I have Conval/FS macroed, I have BB/Veng macroed, I have Internal Release/Berserk macroed, ....

well if thats the case then you should not need to swap very much bro

Something else i do is that i follow a certain logic for my main 2 bars

BAR 1: tanking/enmity abilites + buffs
BAR 2: dps abilites + buffs
BAR 3: Utility (chocobo, armory, sprint, linkshell, food, etc) pretty much what i use outside of battle

Both bar1 and bar2 have my main buff and healing macros so i dont need to swap unless im switching from dps to tank or viceversa

Now here is the charm: bar 2 only shows up when weapon is unsheathed and bar 3 only shows up when weapon is sheathed. bar 1 being always there. this can be set in the xbar menu. if you clutter battle and utility in two bars as you are now its too much indeed.

i even have a 4th bar that only shows up when i manually call for it with all my classes so i can swap faster from tank to dps or gathering/crafting etc. Also bar 3 is shared in all my classes whereas bar 1 and 2 are class especific.

my 2 cents

[Soulburn32]

I can't really help you but my main school of thought is:

Action/Attack/Often used skills on the buttions.
Buffs/Not used as often skills/OGCD skils on the DPAD

I tend to do like you did and put Defensive cooldowns on my 2nd x-bar.

If you make it so when your weapon is drawn you only switch between the 2 bars when hitting R1 i think you could get comfortable constantly switching between the 2 if you practice.

[Artair]

Here's mine:

R2 set 1:
Circle:- Heavy Swing
Cross:- Skull Sund.
Square:- Maim
Triangle:- Butchers

Right:- Overpower
Down:- Brutal Swing
Left:- Macro (Mercy Stroke, Fracture, Tomahawk) Fire's them depending on situation/range (no waits)
Up:- Storm's Eye

Logic: Main combo's in easy to reach places, stun is ALWAYS R2+down for me, R2+right is always AoE and R2+Left is always my ranged attack (on any job i play, so i never forget).

L2 Set 1:
Circle:- Defender Macro (Featherfoot, Awareness, Bloodbath,) No waits
Cross:- Inner Beast
Square:- Internal Release
Triangle:- Berserk (Macro'd in a /p "could use an Esuna or leeches in 5", after a /wait 15)

Right:- Healing Macro (Thrill of Battle, Convalescence, Second Wind) No waits
Down:- Unchained
Left:- Infuriate
Up:- Vengeance

Logic: Defensive CD's grouped together in the order I like to use them in (if they are set etc.) using bloodbath /macroicon. All share a common recast so you can judge the time remaining until they are up again based on the bloodbath /macroicon time I didn't want to group Berserk and IR together as I like to keep an eye on both timers and they share diff recasts, so I can't judge based on a single /macroicon, when they are available.
Healing macro is simple, hit once for ToB, again for Conv, and a third time for Third Wind if it's set. Vengeance is on up, to match the position on Berserk for off GCD wrath.

R2 set 2:
Circle:- Empty
Cross: Empty
Square:- Lolgang (because... Just because)
Triangle:- Empty

Right:- Macro (Steel Cyclone, with a /chotbar change 1 after it to auto switch back to bar 1) Standard AoE placement for muscle memory.
Down:- Brutal Swing (because you deserve to be slapped for missing a clutch stun because you were on the wrong bar!)
Left:- Macro (Provoke with a /chotbar change 1 after. This puts you back on bar 1 and pressing the same button again will do a Tomahawk! Nifty!)
Up:- Flash

Logic: I keep the circle/cross etc keys blank so I don't accidentally think I'm on bar 1, that's pretty much it. The rest was explained above.

L2 set 2:
Square/Triangle:- Empty
Cross:- Inner Beast (Don't wanna miss an emergency self heal because you were messing around on the wrong bar)
Circle:- Foresight with a /chotbar change 1 (same place as other def cooldown macro)

Right:- Healing Macro (same one as on set 1), again, don't wanna miss emergency heal because you were on the wrong bar
Down:- Empty
Left:- Empty
Up:- Defiance Macro (/chotbar change 1 after it to switch you to your proper bar without messing about tapping R1)

Pretty simple, mostly making good use of /chotbar change 1 on my off bar (pretty much everything on bar 2 switches back to bar 1 after use, besides flash,, brutal swing and healing macro) and keeping things well ordered. Hope some of that helps

[Ehayte]

Snip

Thank you very much for taking the time to do that. I hadn't thought of so actively applying the chotbar change macros...it definitely has my brain going on some interesting applications. My mind immediately goes to tiering my hot bars, with 3 different heavy swing macros that each change to different hot bar chains that allow me to hit R2+X 3 times in a row to do heavy+Sunder+BB, or R2+O to do heavy+Main+Storm's Path, while keeping some or most of my other buttons consistent... hmmmmmmmmmm