Making a targeting macro for Shadow Flare a good idea or no?

[Renryuu]

Hello, so I decided to stick with my Smn and was wanting to asking one last thing if you all do not mind. I know it's possible to make a macro so that instead of having to manually place Shadow Flare, it'll be placed where your current target is at and I was wondering if this was a good idea to use the macro or not?

[DiabolicMike]

I dont particularly enjoy using the ff macro system for battle content because they can get janky with wait times and what not. That said I do something similar to this. If you have a program to make keyboard macro's out of game (for me razer synapse) you can create a macro that puts the shadow flare down where your cursor is (I also use this for mch turrets).

That said if there is a way to make a macro like you want in game (might be doable, not sure), Im not sure it would be terribly beneficial. Certain fights you might want to place it pre-pull so no target. Also if there is a fight break and you know where they coming back, same thing.

[Ragology]

I dont particularly enjoy using the ff macro system for battle content because they can get janky with wait times and what not. That said I do something similar to this. If you have a program to make keyboard macro's out of game (for me razer synapse) you can create a macro that puts the shadow flare down where your cursor is (I also use this for mch turrets).

That said if there is a way to make a macro like you want in game (might be doable, not sure), Im not sure it would be terribly beneficial. Certain fights you might want to place it pre-pull so no target. Also if there is a fight break and you know where they coming back, same thing.

If no target is selected then the shadowflare can be placed freely like normal (one click to get the cursor out, another click to place it.) Having a target is what causes a single button click to auto place it beneath a target.

[Rongway]

You can macro it to achieve the autotarget effect while still allowing ground targeting when no target is selected.

Shadow Flare:
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare) <t>
/ac (Shadow Flare)
/micon (Shadow Flare)


Mind line 14.


As far as the merits of such a macro, recall that the most compelling argument against macroing attack abilities is that macroed abilities cannot be queued, and therefore macroing attacks results in an accumulation of lost milliseconds as the fight continues. A ground target ability cannot be queued either; when you spam the button during the GCD, you're not queuing the ability but rather the invocation of the ground target reticle, which you must then click onto your target location a second or two after the circle appears. This macro will perform that placement much faster than you can, and still allow you manual placement when no target exists.

[Ragology]

This is incorrect. The behavior of a ground target ability when using a plain ability button is to invoke the ground target reticle. You must macro it to achieve the autotarget effect.

mmhm, I'm talking about the macro. I don't think an unmacroed ground target skill works the same way. Was just helping out Diabolic Mike since he wrote

"Certain fights you might want to place it pre-pull so no target."