Help needed with a DRG macro

[Monsalvato]

Hello, would apreciate any help with this given how I'm not very knowledgeable with macros.
I want to make a Macro for my DRG but I'm not even sure if it's possible.
Here's what I have atm

/micon "True Thrust"
/ac "True North" <me>
/ac "True Thrust" <t>

The concept of this macro is simple.
If True North is off the cooldown the first time I press the button then True North will be used.
Second time I press the button (or first time if True North is on CD) then "True Thrust" will be used instead.

I've applied this logic to other cooldowns/other jobs and it works perfectly.
The problem I'm having here is that True North is an ability with charges.
So if I have 2 charges up what's gonna happen is that True North will be used 2 times in a row.
I was wondering: is there any way I can avoid this? Or should I just give up the idea of macroing True North before the other action?


Thanks for any useful insight on the issue :-)

[shao32]

you shouln't be using macros at all in the first place due the delaying problems they cause (intended desing from the devs) the only time i recomend you using macros is on skills that required ground targeting, for the rest it's better learn how to play without them, it's way more responsive.

[Canadane]

You shouldn't be using macros for battle at all, to be quite honest. They are deliberately designed to be less effective for it.
To answer your concern yes True North will be used again next time you press the button.

But here's the thing, you can't queue up a macro like you can skills directly. The invisible skill queue that allows oGCDs to function and GCDs to fire as soon as they're able to is not used when executing a macro. You'll probably hit the button multiple times before even getting it to work, it wouldn't be as fluid as simply pressing the buttons manually.

[Monsalvato]

I mash buttons regardless, so "having" to hit the button 4 or 5 times is no big deal, I do that anyway.
I want to use it as a macro simply because there's way too many actions to take care of, they are cluttering the buttons on my controller and stuff that's not on the front Cross Bar is harder to access and makes the game less fun for me to play.
But it's okay, if you guys say there is no feasible way to do this, I'll simply leave it be.

Thanks for your response!

[Renkei]

I'd avoid it completely, the only ability you can really macro is Dragon-sight and even that isn't optimal, Drg has a lot of double weaving going on so i would recommend optimizing your hot-bar to make space for it, I play DRG with 1 and a half bars perfectly fine but i have to put my self heals on macros which is considered fine (I'm Rank 8 self healing lol) your self heals are the only trim-able abilities.

[Monsalvato]

the only ability you can really macro is Dragon-sight

Personally I disagree.
I apply the same logic I described in the first post to Full Thrust and Life Surge, works like a charm.
Each time Life Surge is off the cooldown it will be used right before I use Full Thrust.
Love it, and it's one less button for me to check/manage, making the actions flow simpler and more streamlined.
It's because I'm liking this so much I wanted to do the same with True North as well ^^

[Canadane]

Personally I disagree.
I apply the same logic I described in the first post to Full Thrust and Life Surge, works like a charm.

Again you'll be losing uptime in small amounts over time when using macros. This isn't something that can be debated, they are intentionally programmed this way.
Now you may not be aiming to be doing Ultimate level content and such and just wanna get by with the effort you have, but it's important to know to downsides to the options available.
I'm glad you're liking it, it may be a little easier with the number of skills you have. It's good to enjoy the way you play, but also understand you'll be met with a lot of opposition in good faith for people trying to help you.

[SpiritualOcean]

I mash buttons regardless, so "having" to hit the button 4 or 5 times is no big deal, I do that anyway.
I want to use it as a macro simply because there's way too many actions to take care of, they are cluttering the buttons on my controller and stuff that's not on the front Cross Bar is harder to access and makes the game less fun for me to play.
But it's okay, if you guys say there is no feasible way to do this, I'll simply leave it be.

Thanks for your response!

If you’re going to jam on the macro, you can do it with a /wait command.

/ac True Thrust <t> <wait.1>
/ac True North

Since you’re jamming it, it won’t use true north until after it waits one second. And it won’t wait one second until after you execute True Thrust. So you won’t use both charges. And you don’t need True North before True Thrust anyway. After is fine.

Because you use True Thrust a LOT, you might consider pairing this with Disembowel, instead. You’ll have less drag on your rotation.

Echoing others, I wouldn’t do it myself. But I think this will work the way you want it to, if you’re going to mash the macro repeatedly.

[Rongway]

Enough people have explained why you shouldn't macro this, so I'm going to talk strictly about how to work the macro system without judgement as to whether you should.

The first logic flaw in your macro is that you have put the oGCD action first.

Any macro that performs combat actions should list GCD actions first. The reason for this is that if you put oGCDs first, they will all execute and expend all charges before the macro reaches the GCD line. You want to be able to press this macro and use a GCD immediately if available so that you don't delay your GCD to use all the oGCDs first. Here is the ideal priority order for a do-everything button:

1. Restricted GCD actions -- actions on the GCD that are not always available because they require procs or resources.
2. Always-available short-range GCD action -- a single short-range GCD action. You can only use one, because if they're all always available, the first one is the only one that will ever execute.
3. Always-available long-range GCD actions -- you can have multiple long-range actions but they must be in order of shortest range to longest range. If you list the longest range action first, it will always take priority over the shorter range actions.
4. Always-available 0-range or no-target GCD action -- a single GCD action that has no range requirements
5. oGCD actions -- these should at the end because you don't want to delay the GCD by blowing all your oGCD charges first.

If you put restricted GCD actions after always-available GCD actions, you will never use the restricted GCD actions because the always-available GCD actions will always be available. If you put the GCDs after the oGCDs, you will sit there spamming oGCD actions until they're all gone, then finally move on to GCD actions.

If you want the True North effect before using True Thrust, you will first have to trigger the GCD with some other action so that you can press the button while True Thrust is locked out. This is an unavoidable requirement of correct macro ordering.

[ForteNightshade]

Personally I disagree.
I apply the same logic I described in the first post to Full Thrust and Life Surge, works like a charm.
Each time Life Surge is off the cooldown it will be used right before I use Full Thrust.
Love it, and it's one less button for me to check/manage, making the actions flow simpler and more streamlined.
It's because I'm liking this so much I wanted to do the same with True North as well ^^

It actually does not. GCD will always drift if placed in a macro. This will inevitably cost you an entire usage of the ability as the fight progresses. There is also a chance either ability will not execute at all, thus your Life Surge won't even proc. This is because unlike pressing a GCD normally, macros don't queue. No matter how you slice it, either macro you're purposed will cause you to lose damage over time.