downside to Tetragrammaton in macro with Cure II?

[kasplat]

I just got my White Mage to 60 and for the first time have run out of space for all my main healing abilities on my main hotbars. Since Tetragrammaton is like Cure II, but costs no mana and instant cast off GCD, I figure it might make sense to just do a macro like:

/micon "Cure II"
/ac "Tetragrammaton" <t>
/ac "Cure II" <t>

If Tetragrammaton is on cooldown, the line gets ignored. I can still see the Cure II "crawling ants" around the icon if it is a mana freebie and I save a space on the hotbar.

The downside is that I lose an instant "oh sh*t" cure, but since it is only like Cure II I don't know how often I would use it in that capacity. My order would probably still be Benediction, Swiftcast, Cure II anyway.

If I don't macro up, then I think I'll move Eye for an Eye onto my L2 + R2 hotbar since that is only every 3 minutes and it isn't critical to have up every possible time.

[LeeraSorlan]

Do you have mount/emote etc on ur hotbar?

Unless you have stuff u barely use, repose or something, stone 1 etc then you should have space for tetra in just two hotbars.
Macroing any ability is generally a bad idea, especially so with GCD Cures

To go into further detail. If you macro a skill, you cant que it up ahead of time (pressing the skill just before its ready will que it up and use it when it is ready )
Without that, you will use it after the skill is done, which can waste u (altho minimal) time. This is even more noticeable on something on the GCD rather than oGCD

[Risvertasashi]

I definitely would not recommend this. Macros prevent queuing--for example, if Cure II has almost finished casting and then you hit Tetra (both unmacro'd), Tetra will go off as soon as the spellcast is done.

Now that aside, this is one of those things where you really do want finer control over where your potency is going. Tetra's a whole lot more powerful than the SCH fairy.

[kasplat]

Thanks for replies.

All of my offensive skills are on R2 + L2. I had to move all my mount stuff to a separate bar a couple of levels ago. I should probably swap Repose with one of my mounts as I think I probably get to use Repose once in a blue moon with a bad tank in a low-level dungeon.

I think what I'll do is adjust my bars just a bit and see if I can get myself to weave Tetra in regularly or get a feel for emergency use as I start level 60 content.

[F_Maximillian]

What you can do (though this takes a bit of getting used to) is what I do. Using a cleric stance hotkey to switch between healing and offense bars. this allows you to easily switch between 2 bars plus use your L2->R2 and vice versa giving you access to three rows easily. Downsides being that the hotbars will switch even if you didn't successfully toggle cleric but once you adjust it isn't bad.

[Sleigh]

Tetra's tricky. It's used for MP management and free oGCD burst healing, mostly for DPS purposes, but it's also a phenomenal life saver if you're actively healing and need to save someone who just failed a mechanic, or a tank who's gotten just a little too low. I wouldn't recommend forcing it into such a forced spot on your bar, since needing a C2 =/= wanting to Tetra in every situation (even if often you do).

[Aika_Nakamura]

Please do not do that. I beg of you.

[Phileas]

Tetra should be treated similar to benediction in that it is a life saver and mana saver. In a macro you cannot queue it with other actions at critical moments.

[Urthdigger]

What I do is I have two hotbars only accessible when my weapon is sheathed (used for out-of-combat buffs that last a long time, like food, protect, stoneskin, mounts... stuff I shouldn't be using midfight) and two hotbars accessible when my weapon is out that have ONLY things I use mid-combat, with one hotbar focused on heals and the other on DPS. Currently able to fit everything I need on there that way.

[Whiteroom]

I always save tetra for the insta heal after dpsing. It allows you to get the most out of cleric stance. If it's always on cooldown from this macro, thats not an option.

I also noticed my /ac macro I had for defensive CD on WAR was failing a bit in 3.0, don't know if there is an issue right now.