32 Button Scholar - Complications?

[Steady]

Heyo,

So I've been leveling scholar and trying to use every trick in the book to utilize macros and ability swapping on a 32 button action bar to make it not only work well, but not suffer terribly as a result.

A few trades I've done so far that seem harmless is

Eliminating the pet bar
Activating Summons while action bar swapping Eos/Selene Abilities (minus Embrace)
Linking Embrace casts to Adlo and Physick
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)
Merging Energy Drain and Aetherflow (which defaults to Energy Drain when stacks are available, so long as Energy Drain ain't on cooldown).

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).

My Scholar friend tells me my macros are going to make complications in any end game, particularly he referenced the priority macro for Energy Drain/Aetherflow.

My macro simply reads.

/micon "Energy Drain"
/ac "Energy Drain" <t>
/ac "Energy Drain" <tt>"
/ac "Aetherflow" <me>

And the result is one button that casts Energy Drain first whether I'm targeting or the person I'm targeting is targeting it... and Aetherflow if Energy Drain is on cooldown or no stacks are available.

He seems to think this would interfere with other macros, in particular the Embrace + Physick/Adlo macros.

I've stood infront of our dummy and spammed these buttons, and fail to see any issue.

Any further suggestions, or concerns with where I'm at so far? At the moment with crossclass abilities Aero, Stoneskin, Swiftcast, Cleric Stance, and Protect, I'm using exactly 32 buttons and have access to all other abilities. (Though haven't yet found a good place to put "Run".

Appreciate your input !

P.S. I currently don't use placement macros, as I'm not sure where I'd put them in my setup... which means my Fey Illumination, and such abiltiies, generally get the Medica II treatment, where I run in, my fairy follows me, and we activate.

[Lambdafish]

Does this not also cast aetherflow in a situation where you have full stacks and aetherflow is off cooldown?

[Steady]

Does this not also cast aetherflow in a situation where you have full stacks and aetherflow is off cooldown?

No, it casts Energy Drain first. The only time it casts Aetherflow would be if Energy Drain is on cooldown, OR if Aetherflow stacks are not present and it cannot cast Energy Drain. So you do need to be conscious of not spamming Energy Drain if it's cycling it's cooldown.

[Rawrz]

At first that Aetherflow macro is fine, but you'll want more control later, so axe it. Pressing too quickly can cause line skips and activate Aetherflow instead of energy drain. I did the same thing.

Dissipation is a god send, you just have to learn to love it's bitter flexibility. Don't forget you can add an extended hotbar. For flexibilities sake I have it set to the same hotbar, so only 8 slots.

I divided mine up into 5 hotbars.

1) Eos DPS
2) Eos Heal
3) Selene DPS
4) Selene Heal
5) Rarely used skills/ Extended

You'll also want to interchange Stoneskin and Blizzard II, depending on the content.

[Lambdafish]

No, it casts Energy Drain first. The only time it casts Aetherflow would be if Energy Drain is on cooldown, OR if Aetherflow stacks are not present and it cannot cast Energy Drain. So you do need to be conscious of not spamming Energy Drain if it's cycling it's cooldown.

If it works for you I guess you can use it. Macros do slow down the time it takes to cast skills, and some people frown upon them, citing them as unoptimal. My view however, is that as a healer, your DPS skills can get away with not being optimal.

Personally I use a macro for every single healer DPS skill that causes it to target the <tt> and if that is unavailable, then choose <t>, meaning that I can DPS without clicking away from the MT, and while this is not optimal, it is far safer for me to do as a healer (and works great for skills like gravity)

[Steady]

I'm not interested in more than 2 action bars (i.e. 32 buttons) which is why I generally have avoided SCH, DRG, SMN, MCN which are button heavy jobs. I play on controller, 3 is too much as inevitably . Frankly, I'll stop playing the class before I add another 16 button bar. The W bar, which I was hoping was a godsend, still requires you to use a 3rd bar, which you cannot avoid toggling to, so far As I can tell as your cycling through action bars.

I'm not clear on why the Aetherflow/Energy Drain macro is an issue. And when I asked my friend to explain, he simply assured me it was and dismissed me. I generally play Warrior, which fits well into the 32 button restriction. (I action swap macros for stances).

[Steady]

If it works for you I guess you can use it. Macros do slow down the time it takes to cast skills, and some people frown upon them, citing them as unoptimal. My view however, is that as a healer, your DPS skills can get away with not being optimal.

Personally I use a macro for every single healer DPS skill that causes it to target the <tt> and if that is unavailable, then choose <t>, meaning that I can DPS without clicking away from the MT, and while this is not optimal, it is far safer for me to do as a healer (and works great for skills like gravity)

I can't say I've ever had a priority macro cause lag? There's no delay, and it activates immediately.

[Cynfael]

As a general rule, macros that put additional abilities on cooldown (often unnecessarily) are undesirable.

For example, macroing Embrace to your main heals makes split healing clunky and forces Embrace when you may not even need it. Much better to consider a mouseover macro specifically for Embrace so that can use it at any time and regardless of whatever other action you're performing.

Also, I would not bind Energy Drain and Aetherflow together. I see no advantage and a lot of potential headache.

[Cynfael]

I can't say I've ever had a priority macro cause lag? There's no delay, and it activates immediately.

The lag issue is when you use macros to chain successive actions. Unless they've made changes recently, macros round to full seconds, meaning that manually queueing your DPS skills is always a gain over letting a macro do it, and that the benefit is greater over time.

[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.