Mouseover healing macros - some problems

[Taika]

Mouseover macros give two main benefits:
1. You have half as many key presses to complete an action, since you only have to press the ability instead of clicking to target then activating the ability
Depending on the player and the situation this can more than make up for the minor lag delay, especially with OCD heals.

Except you're targeting the target of your next action while you're casting your previous one: if I have to heal someone after casting Stone, I target the healing target during Stone cast and queue the heal instead of waiting until the Stone is finished to target the healing target. You do have to make more clicks though, that is true (but since you're hovering your mouse to target anyway, it's not significant extra effort).

2. Allows you to heal as needed while keeping something targeted. Given how important healer DPS is in FF14 and how god awful the tab targeting in this game is (had
a hard time believing you could do worse than wow...) and how finicky click targeting can be, not having to reacquire your target after each heal is amazing.

I don't see how click targeting is more "finicky" than mouseover (I know I did more mistakes with the latter, but that's probably just me ) and I don't see switching targets for different abilities as a hassle, but I can understand why someone would prefer not to do that. I still don't think it would objectively lower your healing efficiency though.

[Isrea]

Except you're targeting the target of your next action while you're casting your previous one: if I have to heal someone after casting Stone, I target the healing target during Stone cast and queue the heal instead of waiting until the Stone is finished to target the healing target. You do have to make more clicks though, that is true (but since you're hovering your mouse to target anyway, it's not significant extra effort).

If you are only casting on the GCD, I agree, but when you add in OGCD abilities it makes more of a difference. For example Bio, Shadow Flare, whoops tank stood in the bad, emergency Lustrate, slightly delayed Miasma... Even without the Shadow Flare thrown in there, having to retarget multiple times in one GCD can get a bit frantic, particularly if you are trying to reaquire the right target in a multiple mob pack.

I don't see how click targeting is more "finicky" than mouseover (I know I did more mistakes with the latter, but that's probably just me ) and I don't see switching targets for different abilities as a hassle, but I can understand why someone would prefer not to do that. I still don't think it would objectively lower your healing efficiency though.

I don't find clicking party frames finicky, it's targeting mobs. I find that often mobs have deadzones where clicking on them won't target them (for example you seem to have to click on the bottom half of Susano), which makes it quite frustrating to target the right one when a pack of mobs is moving and overlapping, players are in the way, and tab targeting insists on going to everything out of range that hasn't been aggro'd yet instead of cycling through the mobs you are actually fighting.

Honestly, I agree with what has been said a couple times already. The big problem is that macros in FF14 are embarrassingly poorly implemented. The lag issues, the lack of modifier macros functions, and other basic things blow my mind. It's a real testament to the quality of the story and content in this game that I bear to play it at all with how terrible the macros and UI are.

[Taika]

I don't find clicking party frames finicky, it's targeting mobs. I find that often mobs have deadzones where clicking on them won't target them (for example you seem to have to click on the bottom half of Susano), which makes it quite frustrating to target the right one when a pack of mobs is moving and overlapping, players are in the way, and tab targeting insists on going to everything out of range that hasn't been aggro'd yet instead of cycling through the mobs you are actually fighting.

I think the best way to target monsters is to click them from enmity list, similarly to targeting party members from party list. But I at least tend to tab target too much. With single enemy, tab targeting is not an issue of course.

Honestly, I agree with what has been said a couple times already. The big problem is that macros in FF14 are embarrassingly poorly implemented. The lag issues, the lack of modifier macros functions, and other basic things blow my mind.

Yup. Someone said earlier in this thread that mouseover macros would be the optimal way to heal in this game. Without all these issues, it could be, but right now they're giving more trouble than they're worth, to me at least.