32 Button Scholar - Complications?

[Steady]

But that's not what happens in a priority macro, so no lag exists. It's more of an IF/Then equation. If Energy Drain goes off, Aetherflow can't because there is no delay. Now if I had a macro that said " /wait 0.5 " I would understand. But if the command reads to abilities at the same time and defaults to the 2nd line when the first line is unable, then I don't see if there is a complication.

Not trying to sound difficult mind ya, just want to understand why. The only "long" macro I have is for my Eos/Selene summons, due to the ability swaps on my hot bar. But considering they rarely die or get swapped mid fight, it's not really an issue. and if Eos was out and I resummon Eos, there's no swap to take place. So again, no lag. Unless I'm misunderstanding something?

And the purpose of joining them is to limit to 32 buttons. Which is two 16 button action bars to be used with Controller. You might not see the point, I just fail to see the detriment, other than not being conscious of goings on and activating aetherflow by mistake due to GCD on Energy Drain.

I do follow you on the linking Embrace/Adlo.. I'm just not sure I would know a time where I'd cast Embrace over a SCH heal anyhow? But I'm no expert, obviously.

[Cynfael]

Snip.

The first part was just to explain where the comments on lag come from in regards to DPS macros why they are not well regarded.

I can understand what your aim is with the AF/ED macro, and correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you accidentally activate your AF if you attempted to use ED and failed due to a lost or suddenly repositioned target? Obviously the goal is to keep AF on CD as much as possible, but there will be situations with overlap where you may want to use your stacks in a specific way right before refilling.

Also, there is a great deal of benefit in being able to manually direct Embrace without needing to initiate any cast of your own or even to hard-target. You can force the fairy to top off DPS while you remain focused on the tank; you can keep the tank topped while you DPS; and so on.

[Steady]

Stuff you said

I follow that logic. I recall a monk talking about trying to macro in the different stance moves in a single button with Dragon Kick at the end, and it being debated why that wasn't ideal. Though I'm not sure that'd be such an issue.

To be honest, I use Energy Drain pretty infrequently so far (though still leveling), and I acknowledge it's not without it's hiccups the solution to free up a button. So yes, if for any reason Energy Drain couldn't go off, it would default to Aetherflow. That includes having no target, GCD Timer not being refreshed, or no Aetherflow stacks.

The only unfortunate thing about taking embrace away is finding a button space for it. It's been suggested combining Rouse with Eos's Whispering Dawn, to free up a space. The only downside would be you can't reference a macro in a macro, so I'd hafta manaully remove it to replace with Selene's set, while currently I summon them in with action bar swaps. Other options would be taking another ability away, but I don't know of any I don't use.

[Pixelmancer]

I don't see how any class can be played with only 32 buttons. I play mainly WHM and I use controllers too. I have to do some bar switching with RB once in a while to get to my less frequently used stuff.

If you want a hotbar saver, it is so worth getting a 3rd, uncyclable hotbar. This is a 3rd hotbar which you can only access by holding down r1 / l1 and selecting manually, instead of tapping the triggers. It's so useful for putting abilities like summon / summon 2 , teleport, mounts, dissipation, obey etc which you don't cast often but want to be readily available.

Ever since I started using it I can't imagine playing without it. It's not only a hotbar saver but a huge QoL improvement too.

Yep, that's what I use mine for. I have chocobo commands, protect, stoneskin, stoneskin 2, food, mind potions, raise, etc. It doesn't take long to get to. Even with raise on it I'm still usually the first one to raise people in combat.

[Dzian]

Don't need to make your macros for scholar. Here's my layout from another thread not so long ago



Uses 2 sets of the cross hotbar plus the expanded one for all pet actions.
And as you can see many of my skills are the same on both sets.

Plus even a few empty slots so space should never be an issue

[Steady]

Dzian,

Your macros are identical to my current macros. However that 3 macro bars, and likewise more than 32 buttons. I've tried using the W bar, but the only thing it does is add an additional action bar to toggle to. I want to be able to toggle between 2 action bars.. if the W bar worked in a way that allowed me a third one that it didn't toggle too, perhaps that'd be an option. Infact, I had great hopes for the W bar, but I haven't found a way to put actions on a bar while simultaneously not having to toggle to that bar. (aside from purposeful toggle)

[Rawrz]

You don't want that macro because although macros don't queue, each line will try to trigger at a rate dependent of your frame rate. It could skip energy drain and go straight to aetherflow during frame rate drag or while you're casting another skill.

Bio is cast
Bio animation /ac "Energy Drain" <t> fails
/ac Energy Drain <tt> fails. Invalid target (yourself)
/ac aetherflow succeeds.

If you really wanna continue replacing your hotbars, including macros, use chotbar copy from your ACN as a hotbar bank.
/chotbar copy sch 1 acn 1
That copies your first sch hotbar to your first arcanist hotbar. After you've made copies reverse it to place your fairy dependent hotbars.
/chotbar copy acn 1 sch 1
I did this at first, but eventually switched to /chotbar change.

Dissipation is at best lukewarm crap.

If you say so. :]

[Dzian]

I don't use the w hotbar. The pet commands are on the expanded so it's just press both l2 and r2. To bring it up. It's not a hot bar you have to swap to. If your holding down r1 while tossing psychics and adlos for example pet commands are just a quick tap of l2 away don't even need to let go of r2 to get them.

[FoxyAreku]

No offense of course, but most of these are terrible, and I recommend just changing up your setup so you can reach each ability manually.

Eliminating the pet bar

This is very, very bad. Especially if you use Eos, Eos on sic is pants on head stupid. Even selene is only slightly better, what with her using esuna on things like rez weakness. Place the pet bar somewhere and use her abilities manually.

Linking Embrace casts to Adlo and Physick

This is okay, but I don't like it, as all it does is waste your pet's cast in the very common situation where an adlo/physick was more than enough to top off that person.

Merging Ruin I and Broil in a cast Broil first macro. (which defaults to Ruin 1 when Broil can't be cast due to level sync)

Remove this, macros can't be queued, so you will have lag every time you cast broil if you keep this which will result in a massive DPS loss overall.

Merging Energy Drain and Aetherflow (which defaults to Energy Drain when stacks are available, so long as Energy Drain ain't on cooldown).

This is really gross...you want these skills separated. Otherwise I can see you wasting aetherflows because you tried to use energy drain too soon a second time. Good Scholars use energy drain VERY OFTEN at endgame for extra dps output, so you don't want to take that risk. Also everything Rawrz has said is correct here.

And while I haven't yet gotten Emergency Tactics or Dissipation, my plan at the moment would be to not use Dissipation, and possibly swapping Selene Eos macros prior to fights based on which would be more appropriate. (I.e having only one Fairy Summon on at a time).

Dissipation is a good skill, it's saved the day for me many times. It's the ultimate "Oh %$#@" button, giving you extra aetherflows, and it is the closest thing we scholars have to a DPS opener, giving us 3 more energy drains on pull. Axing it is a mistake.

I have raided as a scholar since the first binding coil, clearing almost every fight to come out since as one, and the only macro I have ever used is Eye 4 an Eye>Deployment Tactics, and even that I got rid of recently because it made it difficult to spread the adlo quickly. Macros are to be considered training wheels as you get used to a class at most, never something you permanently use. If I was ever raiding with a scholar that uses all the things you've mentioned, I would ask them to stop or even replace them, as you will never be able to play this class optimally with this setup.

Now if you don't plan on raiding as a scholar and just wanna do dungeons on it, by all means carry on. This is just my two cents.

Dissipation is at best lukewarm crap.

Dissipation has been one of the best raiding tools for scholar since gordias. You may want to re-evaluate.

[Steady]

My summon macro for both pets includes OBEY. I actually have to manually switch them back for sic for the random low level dungeon where it's almost pointness to try to control her and you can just DPS the whole thing.

Still not clear how a priority macro causes lag when I can't visibly see it. If anything it would lag Ruin 1 in capped content since the priority falls on Broil, which would only be capped content anyhow. I spose I can take a timer, spam it for 60 seconds with and without and see for myself.

Again, I suppose I have a hard time seeing myself "wasting Aetherflow" in this manner.

Perhaps I should have stated up front. I main Warrior. I have no interest in Maining Scholar. Frankly speaking.. I'm trying to make Scholar tolerable, as having more than 32 buttons is INtolerable to me. I don't hate the job because if has 3-4 action bars worth of abilities.... I hate PLAYING the job with that many action bars. So My object was to create a solution that makes this job fun for me to play in contrast to WHM which doesn't have these issues.

So my intention is to do fairly casual content, and try to make this job enjoyable for me, the dumb Roe who raids with an AXE and likes fewer buttons. :P

At any rate, sounds like in summary, the Scholar Purists are in agreement that anything other than having each button individually accessible is blasphemy, and if you can't handle 64 buttons, then GTFO. Sound bout right? :P