macro basics

[Niwashi]

I do know of several games that are really difficult to play well without them.

SE doesn't want FFXIV to fall into that category. They've done some things with the macro system (like limiting the /wait function use whole seconds only and not fractions of a second) specifically for the purpose of making it inefficient to use macros for your main combat combo chains. There's some useful macros for notifying your teammates of what you're doing, or for selecting an appropriate target (for instance, use a given skill either on your target or your target's target, depending on whether you have a friend or enemy targeted), but using them for taking one action, waiting, then taking another action will come out slower than if you did those actions directly.