Macro Experiments

[vetch]

Conceptually nice macros, but do they not faceplant into queueing issues? For example, I often hit Summon Seraph when I'm in the middle of a cast.

It's complicated, and depends on how you build them and your frame rendering speed.

It's well-known that macros can't use the normal skill queue, but because macros send one line per frame, they can use a sort of 'pseudo-queue' by virtue of the fact that even if the first few lines are eaten by animation lock, a max-length single-skill macro that just repeats the action over and over (or one that's functionally single-skill, like that Summon Seraph macro), can still be processing by the time the lock ends and thus, the tenth or the fifteenth line might still execute and send the skill in the first open frame.

But, higher FPS removes that advantage. At 30FPS, a 15-line macro lasts ~0.4 seconds, which is only 0.1s shorter than the normal skillqueue. But at 60FPS, the macro lasts only ~0.2 seconds, with the window shrinking further the higher your FPS goes.

General tip: /micon should be the last line so it doesn't eat an execution frame.

This is true if you're using a macro that you hit when you're not in an animation-lock, like if you've got 3 or 4 conditional skills macro'd to one button. But if you're using a single-skill macro, it can be beneficial to put your /micon at the top in a frame that's extremely likely to be eaten by animation lock anyway.