How important are macros?

[VKhaun]

I'm a new player and I'm finding macros very helpful to reduce the number of buttons I have to manage.

I make macros that do individual on-GCD skills and add all my "use it whenever it's up" off-GCD stuff to the same buttons. Instead of wait commands I just put in the raw list of skills and tap the key repeatedly. Doesn't slow me down because I put the on-GCD attacks high in the list, usually first or below things with long timers so they're typically done immediately whenever the global cooldown is over. Usefulness varies by class. Black Mage I don't find a lot of opportunity for macro's like this but Bard has a laundry list of junk on the Heavy Shot button.

Example from DRG:
/macroicon "Chaos Thrust"
/ac "Blood For Blood"
/ac "Chaos Thrust"
/ac "Dragonfire Dive"
/ac "Haymaker"
/ac "Mercy Stroke" (Might not want to macro this if you need the finishing blow for healing when solo...)