BLM macros

[lacrimosaangel]

AM macro is actually a good call. I'd have the macro target your healer to save you time targeting.

Also, don't just always virus/lethargy during your umbral phase. No offense, but I have no idea where you got the impression that that was standard.

Thank you ^_^ I have it set to <3> because my party list is organised in a way that the healer would be n.3 on the list... unless there is a direct macro command for healer rather than party member number?

Oh no, I didn't mean to insinuate that virus/lethargy during umbral was normal, it's just worked out that more often than not, that's when the cooldown finishes and I'm able to use them as I like to keep them active through the whole fight where possible, but don't want to mess up my rotation! I will see how I get on with slotting it inbetween blizz spells though, thanks!

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Thanks ^_^ I wasn't sure about the defensive one, tbh, I rarely, if ever use those skills (except manaward during some trials) So I just threw them together experimenting with things, I will let that one go and use them individually as and when I see the need.

You know you have access to another 16 spaces? R2 + L2 and L2 + R2

Yep, I'm using them, but again, I'm finding that sometimes I need access to my expanded in microseconds and hitting the wrong L2/R2 combo or my finger slipping can mean the difference between getting hit by AoE or not! I still use it, but for my Flare rotation eg.. I have each set of 4 attributed to particular "groups" of skills and the flare rotation would mean accessing 3 groups of skills - too many button pushes!

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Noted, thanks ^^ I'll take the party commands out, though tbh, I party a lot with my FC and we're always messing around!

I use transpose after flare always as it's the quickest way to gain mana back to restart my rotation, I don't like relying on pots as they generally have such a low mp regain and I'd still end up either spamming blizz I or waiting for mp regain..

As for how fast it is, I played around with the flare macro and to be honest, the way it is set up is the same order I would cast the spells manually, and I don't really understand how it could be seen as wasting time, when it is MUCH faster than I could do it myself? when manually accessing all the skills, it takes a good 2-3 seconds more than this macro does?

[Garotte14]

I understand where you're coming from, but you're issue just sounds to me like you are relying on macros to do the work which is in turn not allowing to get better and faster at doing it manually. You practice at it and then it becomes muscle memory and you will be much faster than any macro. I also think you are over complicating your hotbars. You should have on your main hotbar fire 1, 2 and 3, transpose, thunder 1 or 2 (depending on which you use) and thunder 3, swiftcast, flare, blizzard 1 and 3. That's it. Those are the abilities you are constantly using in your rotation, single target or aoe. You don't need an aoe hotbar and a single target hotbar and then a buff hotbar and all these macros. I just gave you 10 skills. That leaves 6 on your hotbar to put whatever you want on there. The rest of your skills have cooldowns and you use them situationally. You still have 8 or 16 more slots on your expanded that you can put buffs/debuffs in. My only point is we are honestly trying to help and I think you just need to get in there and start practicing. You'll be far better off in the long run.

[m3eansean]

DPS macros are bad for GCD abilites, please do not use them if you are serious about your DPS output. You will always put out much lower DPS than a person who can manually perform the skills.

It is like this by design.

[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]

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Hehe, 20 seconds?! Woah no way, like I said, the flare macro is ONLY for flare, which I use ONLY when swiftcast is available and usually only after I've done 2-3 of my regular rotations - the macro lasts less than 5 seconds, and is quite a bit quicker than inputting it myself! I'd never use it for standard rotations, just Flare ^_^ Wouldn't use it for fire/blizz either and the only reason thunder was at the end of the other one is so that the procs could tick and I could slot them into my usual rotation without worrying about having to stop my rotation to cast it ^_^


Thanks for all the tips about the party list, I've got the AM set up so that it goes to <4> now (healer in 8 man party) as I have never found that I need it in a 4 person duty

[lacrimosaangel]

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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.

[lacrimosaangel]

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I have just taken T1 off the hotbar and now have T2 and T3.

Sleep and physick are still on the bar because I'm not done with the story yet and with the instanced, I have needed to heal.. I find sleep > physick etc to be useful for that, but when I'm done with the solo stuff, I will remove it (especially during sapsa before Levi, hoardes of ixal... booo

Also, I never use flare on single target O_O I don't quite know where that has been coming across in my posts, but The rotation above F3>F2>Flare>etc is exactly what I've been doing for mobs, but I want the swiftcast in there before flare because of the absolutely horrid cast time ^^

Scathe is on there mainly because in small mobs/1hit ko, by the time the spells have cast, they're either dead or you are because of multiple AoE. Sometimes, I find I'd rather use Scathe to do Some albeit abysmal damage than stand like a lemon I don't have a SCH or SMN either

Thank you ^_^