Are there any combat macro's that actually work?

[DixieBellOCE]

I wanna try out Reaper, it just has too many abilities to keep track of lel.

Also, because, drip.

Wanted to macro Gibbet and Gallows together tbh

And soul sow to harpe

Shirk macros are great for tanks, you can just have it set to /ac 'Shirk' <2>
and it will always shirk the other tank

other than that, macros are completely worthless in this game.

[dspguy]

Shirk macros are great for tanks, you can just have it set to /ac 'Shirk' <2>
and it will always shirk the other tank

other than that, macros are completely worthless in this game.

They have their place - possibly for some oGCD stuff when you wouldn't be double weaving. And shirk is a great example. Another one might be the self-teleport abilities like BLM and NIN. Nascent Flash is another. I have one for party member #2 (either the healer in 4-man or other tank in 8-man) with another that lets me mouseover. Comes in handy when someone messes up some mechanic and I can heal them back up without the healer wasting any GCD.

However, I don't think they have much use for anything that uses a GCD - outside of swift-cast raise. And that's mostly for the group-chat to let them know raise is being cast. Not because macro-ing the oGCD and GCD together makes any sense.

[Remolia]

MO for healing spells. MO for Rescue. MO for Provoke. MO for Esuna.

Macro to swap targets between focus and current target.

[Meowdyj]

Healing macros are a godsend. Some examples are

/merror off
/ac “Aquaveil” <tt>
/micon “Aquaveil“

Casts Aquaveil on highest enmity tank. Same can be done with Divine Benison or Sage shields.

/merror off
/ac “Liturgy of the Bell” <t>
/ac “Liturgy of the Bell” <tt>
/ac “Liturgy of the Bell” <me>
/micon “Liturgy of the Bell”

Ground target abilities, casts Bell on the target, tank or yourself. Manual placement of these is often not necessary. Just keep in mind that abilities like healer bubble you want to place on tank or target instead of yourself.

Combat macros that delay your rotation however? Don't do it. Reaper can perfectly fit single target and AoE rotation on two separate hotbars.

[UkcsAlias]

Ground target abilities

For me these are the only macros that are reliable enough. Since macros cannot be queued and requires the GCD to allow casting, the only way i consider a macro valuable is if they are still more efficient than a manual cast. And in this case, they generaly are because the manual placement often takes more time than the loss of GCD portion.

Even for reviving, the macros are often disruptive. Since by the time you chatted your revive target, the abilities are often already queued anyway, and you are often still later than the other healer. The most reliable way around this is still just communicating (before the fight) with the other healer who is going to do the revives first, and which order they will use in case of multiple deaths (top first or bottom first). This avoids most overlap in casting.

I usualy just use macros for crafting as they are a lot more timing reliable and can save a lot of clicking (things like a HQ quick synth, or for specific crafts that require a bit more abilities in between).

[AnnaUK]

My Bard macros - everything else is on it's own button:

/macroicon "Heavy Shot"
/macroerror off
/actionerror off
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Straight Shot"
/ac "Heavy Shot"
/ac barrage
/ac "empyreal arrow"
/ac "bloodletter"
/ac sidewinder
/ac "refulgent arrow"

/macroicon "venomous bite"
/macroerror off
/actionerror off
/ac "venomous bite" <wait.3>
/ac "Windbite"

/macroicon "Quick Nock"
/macroerror off
/actionerror off
/ac "Rain of Death"
/ac "empyreal arrow"
/ac "Shadowbite"
/ac "Quick Nock"
/ac sidewinder

Summoner - same again anything missing on it's own button

/macroicon "Summon Ruby"
/ac "Gemshine"
/ac "Gemshine"
/ac "Summon Ruby"
/ac "Summon Topaz"
/ac "Summon Emerald"

/macroicon "Energy Drain"
/ft
/ac "energy drain"
/ac "fester"

/merror off
/ac "Gemshine"
/ac "Dreadwyrm Trance"
/ac "Summon Garuda"
/ac "Summon Ifrit"
/ac "Summon Titan"
/ac "Gemshine"
/ac "Ruin"
/ac "Astral Flow"
/ac "Energy Drain"
/ac "Aethercharge"
/ac "Enkindle Bahamut"
/ac "Fester"
/ac "Lucid Dreaming"

[Saraide]

My Bard macros - everything else is on it's own button:

/macroicon "Heavy Shot"
/macroerror off
/actionerror off
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Straight Shot"
/ac "Heavy Shot"
/ac barrage
/ac "empyreal arrow"
/ac "bloodletter"
/ac sidewinder
/ac "refulgent arrow"

/macroicon "venomous bite"
/macroerror off
/actionerror off
/ac "venomous bite" <wait.3>
/ac "Windbite"

/macroicon "Quick Nock"
/macroerror off
/actionerror off
/ac "Rain of Death"
/ac "empyreal arrow"
/ac "Shadowbite"
/ac "Quick Nock"
/ac sidewinder

Summoner - same again anything missing on it's own button

/macroicon "Summon Ruby"
/ac "Gemshine"
/ac "Gemshine"
/ac "Summon Ruby"
/ac "Summon Topaz"
/ac "Summon Emerald"

/macroicon "Energy Drain"
/ft
/ac "energy drain"
/ac "fester"

/merror off
/ac "Gemshine"
/ac "Dreadwyrm Trance"
/ac "Summon Garuda"
/ac "Summon Ifrit"
/ac "Summon Titan"
/ac "Gemshine"
/ac "Ruin"
/ac "Astral Flow"
/ac "Energy Drain"
/ac "Aethercharge"
/ac "Enkindle Bahamut"
/ac "Fester"
/ac "Lucid Dreaming"

It is highly recommended to not do any of this.

[AnnaUK]

Works fine for my needs. Guess this guy manages too!

https://www.famitsu.com/news/202208/20272583.html

[Saraide]

Works fine for my needs. Guess this guy manages too!

https://www.famitsu.com/news/202208/20272583.html

"24 players can only play FATE and Mob Hunt, and 8 players can clear treasure chests and normal raids. I once challenged "Crystal Tower: Labyrinth of the Ancients" with 24 people, but it's still difficult..." (google translate)

Yea works fine, totally, you're not sandbagging every group you're in. Surely.

[Liam_Harper]

Combat macros get a lot of hate in this game (understandably so, the system is terrible), that often people will just outright state "never use them" without really knowing why or how big of a loss it really is. They just parrot what they saw on the Balance and feel smart.

Macro'ing oGCD's is generally fine. Things like mouseover heals, ground target macros, shirk macros, they all work fine.
Always repeat the /action line in your macro as many times as possible. This repeats the command multiple times and increases the chance it goes through. Macro speed actually depends on framerate, so if you run at a high fps, capping it to something lower will increase this window.
These oGCD macros are generally weaved between GCD's so lack of queuing isn't an issue, but they're still macros and might have their moments they don't go off. As always try playing without them first and if you find a macro increases your performance, no reason not to.
I use mouseover heal macros myself, they very rarely fail for me and I've had no issue with them in Savage.

GCD macros don't queue which is why they aren't recommended. You have to mash them and if you try to tie an oGCD to them (Let's say... Hakaze + Shinten), you'll only get a single weave in addition to lack of queuing.
How much do you really lose though if you macro a GCD? Let's say a taboo macro like macroing Glare to hit the boss so you can target the party. Probably a few percent, 5% at most. Not the end of the world to be honest and most players lose more uptime dropping rotation on mechanics, fumbling buttons, not using pots/food/materia.
I'd really ask yourself "can I learn to play without if I really tried?", if it's worth having to mash the button more and how often does it fail or misfire? If it still works fine for you and helps you focus better on other things, it's ok. It won't hold groups back at all by itself unless you're min ilv or week one raiding. Just understand the downsides and don't overuse it, one or two buttons is plenty, more means heavy losses.

One macro to absolutely avoid is trying to string multiple different buttons together. Yes, this includes the community accepted Swiftcast + Raise, but also things like macroing Mudra or GCD combos. This is because macros with a <wait> command have a minimum wait time of 1 second. It doesn't matter if you type <wait0.00001>, it'll delay for 1 second between each action. This, combined with no queuing, does add up to sizable losses. These macros are also prone to disruption. If you're struggling with gameplay you're better off finding other ways to simplify your rotation that would result in smaller losses or consider a different job.

Yea works fine, totally, you're not sandbagging every group you're in. Surely.

I've tested it myself and the infamous One-Button-Summoner actually works, landing high purple logs in Normal and uptime of up to 98%, which is honestly better than most of the playerbase. So not sandbagging groups.

I don't recommend it personally because Summoner is very easy to play and 6-10 minutes of mashing a button fast is a pain. Downtime tends to disrupt the macro, as well as trying to weave in utility like Surecast or Addle, although it is recoverable. Really wasn't a fun playstyle and clunky. But it works and you won't hold groups back.