BLM macros

[Brabus]

I use a gamepad and only have 16 visible slots, I can access other 16's easily by right shoulder button. I personally wouldn't use macros on blm and I don't. lets say you make a macro that combines several spells and abilities. What if you get interrupted. Your macro set would be thrown out and as it cycles you cant do anything until its completed. If your cycle is 20 seconds long including spells then your stuffed. Also during this time if you come under attack and need to use defence spells once again the original cycle is still running causing you more grief.
Macros can make life easier but with blm where you cant do much in the way of spellcasting while moving then its going to hurt. Also, lets say you go through a cycle and fire 3 procs, your not going to be able to use that due to the macro cycling.
Hope it helps

[lacrimosaangel]

Snip

Oh gosh no, I didn't mean to insinuate that I'm relying on them, I still like to do things myself and do not - under ANY circumstance - use them for any of my fire/blizz skills, I just seem to find that a LOT of the time when I use flare manually, I mess up the timing with transpose and miss the umbral/astral switch. The number of times this has happened has led me to think that perhaps I would be better off just testing a macro.

My X-bar set up:

Fire I, II, III, Blizz III
Scathe, Thunder I, II, III
Sprint, Physick, Convert, Transpose
Virus, Flare, Sleep, aetherial

and then on bar 2 I have my other buffs/debuffs etc. But I don't like using convert for mp gain unless I REALLY need to, I don't like having to rely on healers to get that hp back up, especially as most of the healers I've found in parties are too busy focus healing on tanks!

[Garotte14]

My X-bar set up:

Fire I, II, III, Blizz III
Scathe, Thunder I, II, III
Sprint, Physick, Convert, Transpose
Virus, Flare, Sleep, aetherial

and then on bar 2 I have my other buffs/debuffs etc. But I don't like using convert for mp gain unless I REALLY need to, I don't like having to rely on healers to get that hp back up, especially as most of the healers I've found in parties are too busy focus healing on tanks!

Just some tips and words of advice. You don't need Thunder 1 and 2 on your hotbar. You only need to use one of them so pick one and get rid of the other one. There is no difference in dps. I prefer the Thunder 1 > blizzard 1 combo, and if I get a quick mana tick while casting thunder I can just skip blizz 1 and go back into Astral Fire, but thats just me. Secondly you really have no need to have Physick and Sleep on your main hotbar. You can't really sleep anything post 50 and if you have to heal in emergencies, you can just switch to your second hotbar. Free up those spaces. Virus also has a cooldown so its good to put that on expanded hotbar. Plus your Virus is weaker so if you have a SMN or SCH, let them use it.

As far as flare is concerned, you shouldn't be using flare on a single target unless you have convert available. Use Flare in AoE situations with multiple targets. Fire III > Fire II until low > Flare > Transpose > repeat until everything is dead. Flare > Transpose on a single target is a dps loss. Swiftcast should be used for movement. Its on a short cooldown so make use of it. Swiftcast > Fire I while moving is far better than Scathe. Anything is better than scathe really. Scathe should only be used if Swiftcast and Aethrial Manipulation are unavailable and you have to move longer than 2 seconds. Point being is, you are given the tools to succeed. You just need to practice and learn to use these tools properly.

[Skvimpan]

Short answer: bad idea.

To elaborate:
Flare macro:
- You loose a lot of time for each action
- There is no reason to use Raging strikes for one flare followed by an transpose UI phase. it should be used in the beginning of an AF rotation.
- You dont always want to use transpose after flare, more often then not flare is followed by convert or mana pot.
- /p chat when using skills is annoying as fk

Defense macro:
- Mana wall and ward has completly different usage, should never be used at the same time.
- Apoc with <tt> is a bad idea since this skill is often used to keep ppl not fully healed or with ress sickness alive during big aoes or big unavoidable damage, if you try to use it on a healer it will cast it on whoever they have targeted i'd assume.

Debuff macro:
- Lethargy is more or less only useful in 3 cases that i can think of, t11, t5 dreads and pvp. better to just use virus as it is and have lethargy on an less convenient button.
- Dont understand why thunder is here, it should be used in UI and not whenever you use virus. (edit: didnt see that you mentioned that you only use this one during UI so nvm)

Run macro:
- Again, /p stuff is annoying
- i would recommend using <mo> macro for AM but i guess that wont work for you as a console player. so yea, this macro is basically just you spamming chat with an star trek reference while using AM

I main BLM and only use two macros, one is for AM on mouseover and the second one is Eye for and eye on target followed by targets target. this allows me to give it to OT before tankswap/akh morn/whatever but still allows me to use it without switching target when i just want to use it on mt. same can be done with apoc

[Garotte14]

No. So much wrongs! Please don't do any of this. I will be happy to give you lessons and teach you the ways of the BLM, but no, just no, to all of this. First let me just start off saying you shouldn't have any problems with having room on 1 hotbar + expanded. I just rearranged my hotbars for the new skills and I can still make it work. You probably have abilities on your main hotbar that don't need to be there and can be moved to hotbar #2. Its good to have CDs such as Manaward and Apoc on the expanded hotbar since you use them situationally. Putting additional hotbars vertically and horizontally next to your main hotbar is helpful as you can put those Unseen CDs on them so you can see your timers. And while I'm on that, Manward, Manawall, Apoc, Lethargy, Virus, Eye for an Eye are all utilities. They all have their own purpose and you don't use them together. Manaward is magic defense for yourself, and Manawall blocks two physical attacks. You're not taking magic and physical damage at the same time, so why would you use them together. If you have a party member that just rez'd and has weakness and a big magic attack is coming, Apoc them. But you just wasted your manawall and manaward because you wanted to Apoc a party member. Or maybe you just rez'd and that same magic attack is coming, now Manaward should be used, not Manawall or Apoc. Get my point?


On another note your rotation should be Fire III > Fire I x 5 > Blizz III > Thunder 1 or 2 depending on your piety and or preference > Blizz 1 if you have high SS and/or need to wait for another mana tick before going back into Astral Fire. Raging Strikes is mostly used in conjunction with Convert since they share a CD timer. So you would use it like, Fire III > Raging Strikes > Fire I x 5 > Swiftcast > Flare > Convert > Fire 1 > Blizz III.

You really shouldn't use any moacros to string together abilities. It lowers your DPS, and gives you no control over what your doing. Its just bad. Period. You use macros for other purposes. I for one use two macros as a controller player. A Face Target Macro which helps against moving targets to prevent interupts and an Aetherial Manipulation macro which I link with Party member #2 (healer) since I can't really do a mouseover macro and healers usually are standing outside of danger.

Please don't get into the habit of using macros. This won't make you a better player. I promise that.

[drizzle234]

On another note your rotation should be Fire III > Fire I x 5 > Blizz III > Thunder 1 or 2 depending on your piety and or preference > Blizz 1 if you have high SS and/or need to wait for another mana tick before going back into Astral Fire. Raging Strikes is mostly used in conjunction with Convert since they share a CD timer. So you would use it like, Fire III > Raging Strikes > Fire I x 5 > Swiftcast > Flare > Convert > Fire 1 > Blizz III.

Please don't get into the habit of using macros. This won't make you a better player. I promise that.

Well put Garotte! I play on PC but use controller when playing dps. There is plenty of space on the cross bar, especially if you use use R1+L2 setup. Could also just have less used cds,spell,etc on another cross bar and switch with r1.

Macros are for those who don't understand their class which is obvious by the rotation mentioned in the original post.

[Skeith-Adeline]

Macros eww... the only Macros I use on my BLM is




/micon "Limit Break"
/action "Limit Break"
/p I shall make free the colors of the sky and rend thy soil beneath thine feet. Know annihilation! <se.8>

[Maero]

Absolutely only macro i ever use on blm is for Aetherial Manipulation as i just find it easier on PS4 to use a macro for that.
It really is a dps loss in general using macros for any of the dps classes. With that said however it is entirely up to you and you alone.
And true PS4 (and PS3) has more spaces but i have always had issues using more then 2 crossbars so i stick to just using the 2.
That and the fact that 2 crossbars are plenty for blm
Only class i really use macros for is scholar and no i do not claim to be an excellent scholar, lol

[Woggers]

As most people said macros on a BLM is a HUGE mistake. You are hurting only your own DPS and will likely lead to people raging on you. You should be manually hitting each skill. Even on a PS4/3 Do Not use Macros!

Only time macros are good for BLM is for AM, EfaE, and maybe Virus.

[Maero]

it is because delays in macros and other such things can potentially happen using macros.
And this is just not for blm but all dps classes.
I have always liked to manually press actions myself however if it works for you then like i said it's up to you.
If there is a scholar in the group i avoid using Virus usually, one reason being to avoid stepping on their toes, haha