My easy controller setup for WAR

[Kumori_Kumo]

Interesting! Kind of the theory of putting stuff together by themes.
I usually group my macros together by what cooldowns I want to group up for maximum synchronicity.

Vengebath
/macroicon "Vengeance"
/ac "Vengeance" <me>
/ac "Bloodbath" <me>

Foresvalescence
/macroicon "Convalescence"
/ac "Foresight" <me>
/ac "Convalescence" <me>

Berkternal Relerk
/macroicon "Berserk"
/ac "Berserk" <me>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>

Fell Beast
/macroicon "Inner Beast"
/ac "Inner Beast" <me>
/ac "Fell Cleave" <me>

Rawareness
/macroicon "Raw Intuition"
/ac "Raw Intuition" <me>
/ac "Awareness" <me>

And yeah, I use a controller too, necessitating a lot of this. It's not necessarily efficient, but it saves me more effort and time switching hotbars so it ends up being way more reliable.

[Freyyy]

Why are you using macros ? It's bad, macro-ed abilities don't queue so you always eat a little delay when using macros. And macro-ing multiple abilities together is even worse.

[karateorangutang]

Why are you using macros ? It's bad, macro-ed abilities don't queue so you always eat a little delay when using macros. And macro-ing multiple abilities together is even worse.

I use macro'd abilities, if you use them without a wait command its completely negligable. I have never seen delay in macros without waits that even merits notice. Especially considering how scripted fights are in this game.

It's either that or mash R1 and get lost in my own cross hotbars. which is a hundred times worse. if you don't put a wait timer on it it still requires 2 presses and takes the whole number only wait intergers out of the equation. It's unfortunately the only real option available for us controller users.

[Freyyy]

Even without a wait command, there is an actual delay in every macro compared to un-macroed. I had a Berserk macro before saying that I will be pacified and asking for a dispell if possible, but I deleted it because most of the time I had to hit the macro multiple times to get my char using Berserk. If I hit it a bit too early during the last animation it didn't work because ability queueing is disabled with macros. Without macros, I just have to hit the button once, and even if it's early and my char is still doing another animation, it will always do Berserk right after finishing it. And it's even worse with GCD abilities. You might not see it but there is an inevitable delay when you macro your GCD abilities. You have to wait to have your GCD finished for the game to confirm the use of the ability via macro, without macro the game confirms it if you hit the ability at 75% of the GCD and will use it as soon as the GCD is finished, thus having absolutely zero delay. I experienced it also with SCH when I had my embrace mouse-over macro-ed with Adloquium. My Adlos didn't start casting asap, it felt clunky. I removed the macro and made just a seperate macro only for mouse-over embrace which I put on a keybind that I can spam while doing other things and it's just better. It's a well-known fact. Macros are bad in this game, there is delay, even if it's slight, and it's hindering your character's efficiency.

[Kumori_Kumo]

it's hindering your character's efficiency.

And if I were working at some kind of financial firm trying to make it to my next raise rather than playing a video game, I'd probably care! I don't though. So I smash macros and have fun. What a concept.

Also I've done raid content this whole time so it's obvs not enough of a problem to matter.

[Freyyy]

snip

You sound salty. I wasn't attacking you or the people using macros. It's just a well-known fact in this game that macros are generally bad (only SCH gets a high benefit from having some macros). Playing in an optimal way doesn't prevent you from having fun at all. It's even the contrary for me. But hey, if you get your fun by smashing macros, fine for you. I don't, and I don't recommend people to do that either.

I play maybe 3-4 days a week and generally get into a raid on the latter half of it's life. I probably won't be starting savage Alexander for another couple weeks because of kids, wife, job, school ( thats right kids... it never ends), gym, etc.

I wanted to answer to this too, in this game you can easily get into raiding while only playing 3-4 days a week and having a real life with kids, wife, job etc... There is a lot of statics that are only raiding 3-4 days a weak in the evening and only 2-3 hours per day. Just gotta find the right people. I personally got lucky to have a GF who's into gaming and while she's not playing FFXIV, she enjoys watching me playing and raiding and she even sometimes plays a bit with my char (not in raids tho). But if your wife isn't like that, you should find a static with schedules that will fit your real life ^^

[karateorangutang]

I wanted to answer to this too, in this game you can easily get into raiding while only playing 3-4 days a week and having a real life with kids, wife, job etc... There is a lot of statics that are only raiding 3-4 days a weak in the evening and only 2-3 hours per day. Just gotta find the right people. I personally got lucky to have a GF who's into gaming and while she's not playing FFXIV, she enjoys watching me playing and raiding and she even sometimes plays a bit with my char (not in raids tho). But if your wife isn't like that, you should find a static with schedules that will fit your real life ^^

Yeah I run in a small group of about 5-6 of us that do raids. I played alot when 2.0 first came out and raided T5 pretty early, but life has changed now. We are gearing up for savage now and hope to be in there soon. Yeah but it's a scheduling conflict for alot of static groups that want someone there for a good 6 hour stretch. I'm pretty excited to get on there.

[karateorangutang]

Here's my setup:

Macros

Defiance:
/micon Defiance
/ac Defiance <me>
/chotbar change 1
/chotbar set "Inner Beast" 1 RD1
/chotbar set "Steel Cyclone" 1 RD3

Deliverance:
/micon Deliverance
/ac Defiance <me>
/chotbar change 1
/chotbar set "Fell Cleave" 1 RD1
/chotbar set "Decimate" 1 RD3

Vengeance + Foresight:
/micon Vengeance
/ac Vengeance <me>
/ac Foresight <me>

Internal Release + Bloodbath:
/micon "Internal Release"
/ac "Internal Release <me>
/ac Bloodbath <me>

Equilibrium + Second Wind:
/micon Equilibrium
/ac "Equilibrium" <me>
/ac "Second Wind" <me>

Raw Intuition + Awareness
/micon "Raw Intuition"
/ac "Raw Intuition" <me>
/ac Awareness <me>

Hotbars

Crossbar 1:

R2:
O: Heavy Swing
X: Skull Sunder
■: Butcher's Block
▲: Tomahawk
↑: Unchained
↓: Brutal Swing
→: Steel Cyclone/ Decimate ( due to macro hotbar swaps when changing stances)
←: Inner Beast/ Fell Cleave ( due to macro hotbar swaps when changing stances)

L2:
O: Convalescence
X: Mercy Stroke
■: Equilibrium + Second Wind Macro
▲: Provoke
↑: Berserk
↓: Internal Release + Bloodbath Macro
→: Raw Intuition + Awareness Macro
←: Vengeance + Foresight Macro

Crosshotbar 2:

R2:
↑: Defiance macro
↓: Deliverance macro

L2:
↑: Limit Break ( Someday... someday...)
▲: Sprint

R2 + L2 Quickhotbar:
O: Overpower
X: Maim
■: Storm's Path
▲: Storm's Eye
↑: Infuriate
↓: Thrill of battle
→: Fracture
←: Holmgang

This is the most condensed I could get it without sacrificing quick abilities for fast mitigation. With this setup I can still pull off 3x fell cleaves and decimates without any issue with all the proper cooldowns up. The swaps of deliverance and defiance allow the WAR job in particular to condense out 2 slots which allows for the minimal use of macro's.

snip

It's a lesser of two evils scenario with controllers is the problem. I don't have a desk setup in my living room to allow me to use a keyboard and mouse ( my wife would murder me in ways that make this game seem absolutely childish) so I have to use a controller.

My options are:
A: Using macros as intelligently as I can and keep hotbars minimal
B: Don't use macros and bloat the number of hotbars

On controller if you have multiple hotbars, the only way to track cooldowns on abilities off your hotbar is to bloat the screen with regular hotbars to see your cooldowns. Additionally the crosshotbar has to be tabbed with one button, so if you press it more than once... well time to tab back through again. Option B is arguably slower, especially in high pressure situations.

At least with A I have a natural and easy time finding the commands as I don't have to switch hotbars at all. Which, in turn, makes it faster and limits player error on my side. Until SE finds a way to condense skills or somehow make a better interface for controller players macro's are still the best option to limit player error.

[FolkenVanel]

Karate has helped me set up my Macros and I can say macro's are quite efficient for me and helped me become better for sure on the PS4.

[Sapphidia]

You can certainly macro off-gcd abilities if you arent too worried about losing a bit of dps from the pushback of GCDs. Certainly if you arent at the cutting edge of content it's fine to make a class easier to play.

However.. whilst some of those cooldowns can be macroed together for ease some of them really don't make sense to combo because they have totally different applications.

By all means combo Thrill of Battle and Convalescence for instance. "I'm low on health and need some health NOW". Same cooldown too, one press for each. That's fine. But Bloodbath too? That's something you should be using as either constant sustained healing on cooldown, or tied in with big DPS cooldowns to maximise it.

Likewise, Vengeance and Foresight are similar "reduce damage on me" but vengeance is something you generally want to save for big tankbusters whereas Foresight is something you want to pop liberally on trash or just to reduce minor damage.

By all means combo some skills together into one button press if they make sense, but be careful that you dont needlessly restrict the use of some of them and force yourself to not use things when you could because they come after a different skill in a macro.