instant actions inside macros don't queue up?

[Andy22]

If i use a GCD skill and directly afterwards trigger a instant skill, the instant skill will automatically queue up and reliably trigger a second later.

If i put the same instant skill inside a macro via /ac "my skill" and do the same chain the macro fails to queue up and nothing happens. If inside a macro it seem the same skill now needs to-be triggered at least 1.5s after any GCD skill and no queuing happens?

I tried to safe precious controller crossbar space, by having multiple instant skills inside a macro, but the macro does trigger so unreliably because of this difference that its rather problematic to use.

So why does the instant skill outside a macro queue up and trigger reliably, but doing the same inside a single line macro works differently? This is not explained anywhere in the macro system or guides?

[AskaRay]

Macros do not queue... I've never read the macro guide, actually, but that's why using macros for DPS attacks is bad (since you cannot queue them up like that).

I also use a controller, and... I don't use macros for my DPS classes (I do for healing but those are for different reasons). So far, on my main I use two crossbars + the extended crossbar (bot LT->RT and RT->LT set to the same set so it's only eight extra buttons, but it's enough for me).

[Ashelia_Ferron]

They don't queue because the macro is attempting to do all the actions at the EXACT same time.

Yes you can queue actions normally but there's still a small delay between the time you press one action and the time you press another. If you were to press both actions simultaneously or VERY shortly after one another, only one would go off. I've tried inputting BotD and Internal Release one after another and if I press IR too early it won't register so I have to wait half a second.

Which is where macros fail because the shortest delay you can do is 1 second.

The best thing I'd say to do is put the instant actions you want to do on the same macro, and then just spam the macro button to make it do all of them (that's what my friend does and he claims it works)

[seekified]

Avoid using the macro system for anything other than informing your party of when you're popping tactical skills.

If you're short on space on your crossbar, enable Extended Crossbars in Character Config, it's a lifesaver. Only job I've come across that struggles fitting everything in main + extended is SCH and only because of pet actions.

[AskaRay]

Avoid using the macro system for anything other than informing your party of when you're popping tactical skills.

If you're short on space on your crossbar, enable Extended Crossbars in Character Config, it's a lifesaver. Only job I've come across that struggles fitting everything in main + extended is SCH and only because of pet actions.

SCH I'm seriously going to end up with three full crossbars + the extended I use.
Ridiculous? Yes, but I've gotten used to it (it is, in fact, the most keybinds I have for any job though)

[Andy22]

So here is what was really confusing to me as new player and should be made more clear in the beginner guides or ingame tutorials. The main problem is inconsistency and expected behavior.

1) The first thing a new player noticed is that skills do not seem to queue up, since there is no visual queue UI indicator or sound. This is mostly done with quickly, naively testing to queue up a second skill after you just triggered a skill.
Problem: Without further testing you only notice much later (depending on ping+attention) that in fact there is a "mini" queue mechanic that lets you start a new skill 500ms before the old GCD is done. This "mini" queue system is not mentioned explained at all.


2) Instant skills seem to execute/queue up fine no matter how quickly you trigger them after a normal GCD skill. They do however execute delayed by 1s, depending on the current running GCD skill animation.
Problem: The queuing is not reported to the player in any way, since the icon cool-down starts after the skill did its animation.
Here a indicator would help that actually informs you about the successfully queued action. So the golden hot-bar highlight could stay visible until the skill can be executed/animated, so it becomes more clear that there is something queued up. This also would clear up that only one instant action can be queued up, so if two instant actions would be triggered the golden highlight border would only stay active on one skill not two to clarify this.


As mentioned in my OP, going from the above observations on how skills trigger in general its really confusing that doing the exact same actions inside a macro results in a different outcome. This mechanical difference should be highlighted somehow or if possible both systems should behave in the same way.

To clarify i'm not advocating for macro use to replace manual interactions, but if i hit a macro button the first action inside it should execute in the same reliably way than having the action in a hotbar.