Quote Originally Posted by BatHead View Post
I have a question. how essential are macros? Can I get away without using them?
Partly it depends on the class and your control scheme. Between my Warrior and Monk, I only have one macro: to announce when I'm using Provoke on Warrior. And honestly, that's not necessary for like 90% of fights.

On my healers, I use target-of-target macros for my damage spells so I can keep my party members targeted and still toss out some damage when I'm not healing. I could just switch targets back and forth; the GCD really does leave enough time. But it's so much less hassle not to have to.

But I'm using a razer nostromo and a logitech g600 mouse, so I have keybinds like crazy, and I don't have trouble hitting the things I need when I need them. Under a more limited control scheme, or with other constraints, macros might be more worthwhile.

I look at it like this: If you can do it (whatever "it" is) reliably and accurately without a macro, you're probably better off that way. If you can't get it right for whatever reason, and a macro helps you get it right, macro it up.

Macros do a bit more than just combat stuff, though, too. I've got macros to swap around hotbars just to save space (I have 3 hotbars for the gear sets for all jobs, but only 1 hotbar visible at any time), one to hide/display HUD elements (I really don't need to see my duty list or inventory grid or gil or XP bar when I'm fighting a boss), etc. Again, not essential, but daggum handy.