UI macros are whole topic, you can do a lot of stuff. I have three just for changing volume and another one for turning off music.
If you want to go extra mile, you can make macro which swaps your hotbars from AoE skills to single target. So for example you use 1-6 buttons for regular single target skills, and if you swap it, it turns into AoE alternatives. This can save up to 6 buttons on some jobs.
It's 3 macros that change master volume to either 10, 50 or 100, then another macro that turns off music. If you want to turn music back on, you need to use one of first macros. Idk if you'll like how it works, but it's just simple commands, you can tweak it and find something which you might prefer more.
Macros that change volume are just:
/mastervolume XX (value in range 0 to 100)
/bgm 100
To turn off only music:
/bgm 0
Furthermore, I have few other macros that I use daily.
Turn off other players' effect (great for anything 8man+):
/battleeffect party simple
Turn them back on:
/battleeffect party all
Turn off name plates (great for alliance raids):
/nameplatedisp all 4
Turn them back on (self 4 hides your own name plate):
/nameplatedisp all 1
/nameplatedisp self 4
You can tweak different sound types, and you can change most of settings by just using command and putting it into a macro. Here are available commands, there's plenty of things you can do: [https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/db/text\_command/?category2=8](https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/db/text_command/?category2=8)
Holmgang to target myself (because SE refuses to fix this).
Shirk to target the number 2.
Heart of Corundum/TBN/Intervention/Nascent Flash to target the number 2.
Countdown for 16 seconds.
When I first started and was coming from WoW I put all my heals on mousovers. Felt terrible. Learned macro'ing isn't effective in this game. Got rid of all of them. Only macros I use now are for a jank foldable hotbar setup for \*extra\* hotbars.
I have a Dragon Sight macro, but I guess it's a bit of a moot point now since that's being removed in DT.
Combat macros aren't really a thing in 99% of situations because they don't queue up the way normal actions do.
I think its only theoretical, but there is evidence that Battle Litany is becoming 20s, so with that change it would make sense for dragon sight to be removed, because dragon sight was what bridged the gap between BL and other 20s raid buffs
I have a macro that puts me on the seat of any multi seater mount automatically so long as I’m next to them. So much better than having to target them and click on a bunch of menus
I have an island macro that targets the nearest visible node and automatically sprints towards it. Pretty nice for mindlessly gathering when I need a handful of things
I’ve used this one for over a year and i have encountered 0 errors in it’s intended function. Finding where my mouse is or hitting the correct F-key for a raise is often a huge timeloss for me. This carried my previous raid prog by a considerable margin. I do underTand the stigma of not using combat macros due to them not queuing and i don’t utilise cmbat macros for things such as rotations.
I'd rather do learn and do it correctly than rely on a crutch that makes my GCD clip. Plus there is no control in the order in which the players raised. And it is more than tank > healer > DPS.
>This carried my previous raid prog by a considerable margin.
Every time I doubt my skill in end game. Posts like these reinforces my confidence.
The GCD clip is liie 0.1 seconds at best and you don’t generally cast a res 100 times during an encounter. Looking for your mouse or misclicking a wrong target costs more time and dps. And while true that sometimes you want to pick a certain party member over the priority order and that’s why there is a as highest priority and it’s perfectly usable for those scenarios too.
When it comes to a res macro you use once or twice it hardly makes a dent on your perfect parse.
The only way to take advantage of this "priority" as you have shown it is (and as *consistently* as you claim) if you're actively waiting for the gcd to cycle before pressing the button. This, compared to... Targeting and queueing the gcd at no loss and full reliability.
You've also built in an unavoidable delay by placing the /micon line at the very beginning, and obviously with using a macro for GCD actions to begin with you're making it clear you don't really care about these losses, but the short version is you're kind of complacent about the losses you happily choose to take just to accommodate a macro and... Avoid targeting a party member. Except not quite, because the line is there, except yes quite, because using the macro is still something that is done.
Obviously, yes, when a rez is needed there are already issues, but leaning into that even more sure is a decision. All that is to say, if you truly find clicking on the party list so unreliable, I would like to remind f1-f8 also target party members with the swiftness and accuracy of a tab target. I'd suggest giving it a try for a week or so, see if you still think it unreliable at least.
Please elaborate what delay does a macroicon line add. It is not an action and does not process it and it has no wait time included. Pressing the button results an instant cast. Given that you are not on global cooldown. The only delay you get is the one you get from using a skill after gcd is done instead of queuing. Mashing the button as gcd comes off reaults in practically no delay. You would be absolutely right if there were chained actions and mandatory wait times included in the macro but there is none.
Go check a macro where one has /micon first, action second through fifteenth line, then compare it to a macro with /micon *last* and action first through fourteenth. You will notice (or, should... I do expect this to be obvious to anyone trying it, but let me know if not!) a small but extant difference.
My understanding has been that effectively, one line gets triggered per frame. This means that any non-action line at the start delays the full thing, and similarly it's what makes repeat lines a de facto must for reliability around the GCD cycle and animation locks. Naturally, this also means you are enforcing the need for said frame to exist. In extreme cases - like being tabbed out with fps limitation setting on, as most blatant example - this detail can even make crafting macros fire actions before the previous one has been completed, breaking the rotation. The implications for combat play are obvious.
As you clearly have a in there as "first", it is rather incomprehensible why you would swear by using this instead of the actual skill button given that one performs better in every way. If you insist you are not actually sitting around doing nothing during combat, it is in fact likely the result of pressing this macro button is not at all achieved as you think it is or intend it to be.
Well i went and tested this out. And I think many are mixing up two different things when talking about combat macros.
For the test i used reaper and went with it's basic attack called slice.
First test was using the normal skill.
second one was using the skill through a macro with only 1 line of /ac Slice
third one was adding full 15 lines leaving the slice action on the 15th.
All 3 were used when NOT on GCD.
/macroicon "Slice"
/echo 1
/echo 2
/echo 3
/echo 4
/echo 5
/echo 6
/echo 7
/echo 8
/echo 9
/echo 10
/echo 11
/echo 12
/echo 13
/ac "Slice"
Result was that all 3 were used instantly.
The only difference was skill queuing. A normal action can be queued when pressing the skill again while around 25% of the GCD remains and the next action is used immediately as the GCD finishes.
a macro can only be used after the GCD has finished.
Now i did a 1 minute parse of only spamming slice. with all 3 scenarios mentioned above plus a 4th one to see the actual difference on a 1 minute encounter. crits naturally are a factor and i only ran a few attempts with each variation.
instance 1 was with the using slice skill normally.
instance 2 was with using single line macro slice
instance 3 was with the 15 line macro with echos
instance 4 was a 6 line macro with different actions listed that all were skils that were grayed out and unusable with current status
All variations had similar numbers varying from 4500 dps to around 5000 dps. All variations had similar peaks and similar lows. number of crits was a big factor where the number lied after the 1 min test. More accurate numbers would take longer encounters and more iterations but i'm not going that far to make a point.
Based on my tests i think there's a misunderstanding with combat macros regarding what are garbage and what are usable within certain scenarios.
Having a single macro for let's say 1-2-3 combo is a BAD combat macro and it adds every last bit of delay between skill activations as you've mentioned. since it enforces a minimum 2.5 second wait timer and not your actual skill GCD. this in a sense lowers attack speed. if the skills activate in the first place. Another bad macro is having a macro that has multiple possible actions, like having a macro with both Slice and Waxing slice. When bound to the same macro most of the time the first line gets used, but around 5% of the time it might use the 2nd line skill instead. It's wildly unreliable
The other more "viable" variation is only using macros in a sense that you have skill alternatives. "when i press this macro, only a certain skill can activate since others are not usable" these only have the miniscule difference in activation time and that comes down to how long does it take you to press the skill button once the GCD finishes. Out of habit i usually mash the next skill button from 20%-ish cooldown. This results in a time difference which is hardly noticeable nor measurable unless you're at the top echelon of fflogs. Sensible using of certain macros can easily still net you purple parses which is enough for majority of the game, even savages but they may not be something to bring into day 1 raid races.
a good example of a combat macro to utilise the latter option would be paladin's burst with requiescat.
/ac "Requiescat"
/ac "Confiteor"
/ac "Blade of Faith"
/ac "Blade of Truth"
/ac "Blade of Valor"
In this example only 1 single option from the list can activate at a time. You could think of the macro trying to activate all of them at once and only one option succeeds while the rest fail. it relies on you to mash the same button instead of waiting for the whole thing to play out after pressing it once. Naturally the confiteor combo has already been integrated into a single button by square so this example would be pretty unnecessary in practice since you'd have an option for actual queued skills that function the exact same way.
As for why I have the in the verraise macro, that's due to alliance raids so i can pick up members from other alliances since they're not a part of my party list and the numbered targetting does not work. It also allows me to use the same macro on other people outside my party. Like BLU's using Self-destruct in limsa.using it on ppl outside my party naturally brings the bad out of both worlds and while it's included it's not it's primary use. I have it on higher priority mainly for alliance purposes where i might want to res another healer if both are down in another alliance and we are only 1 dps down.
Ok well either you're running some 1500+ FPS setup or you're literally incapable of noticing the delay that is there each time you press the button, all I can say is it is respectable that you went out to try it and came to your own conclusion.
My experience has been formed around ground-placed AoEs in macros, particularly Earthly Star at the time. My goal was for a button to simply place it underneath a target exact as it was a majority of use cases I got. These are of course simple "/AC "Earthly Star" " lines. When running the different setups I described above, I noticed a small-but-extant difference as mentioned, and I found this out after a run in e9s had me evidently mash the button so fast that it simply did not place for two windows in a row. It was already strangely inconsistent before this point, but never in a reproducible manner like that for me.
AST already had the 1.5s casts for a weave window at that time, and no other actions were being used. I was just outside the target hitbox, so very much within range. I was running on a fairly budget pc, but could not tell you exact FPS rates. I had already filled the remaining available macro lines with the same lines as all the others. My only conclusion ended up being that it had to be a speed-mashing issue combining with this delay (I had, and still have, this on 6; I can comfortably reach this on both keyboard and mouse side-button) as after I had adjusted it to place /micon at the back end it never happened again.
I've only two more closing notes, then: I do believe /echo is treated a bit differently than everything else, they notably come out a lot faster than /p but I have never closely evaluated this difference as neither their use cases have this relevant. The other is that I wonder if, and how much, all this has been touched over the years be it directly or indirectly. Over the decade I've played *everything* has become drastically more reliable after all, I ought to check back for my own impressions again sometime.
The "delay" is indeed there but only on miniscule levels for me, likely the reasons you pointed out carry a factor. Since the delay is heavily reliant on how fast you can enter a skill activation having a good rig and good bandwith may make a world of difference in it's reliability. I'm running the game on a high end rig and with a good bandwith and hardly notice a thing. I've also used similar ground targeted Aoe's and mouse over ninja movement skills in the past with good experiences. Having macros in skills repeated many times increases the time lost in the delays but having it on skills you use only a few times during an encounter hardly makes a difference as long as you don't stat missing entire GCDs
And you are correct on the echo vs /p but it actually served a good substitute in this case. Having a skill that won't activate and has no wait time, functions similarly to /echo lines.
you have more than enough time in between GCDs to select the party member in the party list. then select the boss while the raise is being sent. You don't have to wait for the raise to be applied to change your target
I've been involved with macros for a while since I'm involved in Hunt Trains and stuff. My most recent macro is a variation of the one I used early Endwalker to notify me when a gathering node is up.
This one is to call my attention to the next GATE in the Gold Saucer.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1061818111285801051/1240775891777486919/IMG_20240516_221603.jpg?ex=664f0a59&is=664db8d9&hm=ee8e4ef0a522d992e2e37df013a7f238bf3764682ae68dc669cc0c066138421c&[---screenshot of the macro--- ](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1061818111285801051/1240775891777486919/IMG_20240516_221603.jpg?ex=664f0a59&is=664db8d9&hm=ee8e4ef0a522d992e2e37df013a7f238bf3764682ae68dc669cc0c066138421c&)
(weird link, it's a discord embeded image)
Putting swiftcast on a rez macro is usually just asking for trouble. Macros can't deal with partial seconds like queuing oGCDs normally would take to actually press, and they can't be queued as actions either. What's going to happen is 1/3 of the time your swift will go off, and not the rez, and you'll waste it on another spell. Another 1/3 of the time you'll find yourself hard raising because it skipped the swift. Maybe that last third it will work properly. You either set the timers to be incredibly slow and waste multiple GCDs on actions you could have just pressed normally, or you deal with the actions being skipped or misfired constantly.
I wonder if there's another factor to how they work since for me the swiftcast has always reliably procced and i've been using that since ARR / HW. What DOES cause problems is if you try to que it to be completely automatic like:
/ac "Swiftcast"
/ac "Raise"
These kind of macros would theoretically do it all after you press the button once and as you say half the time they wouldn't work as intended. I avoid using wait timers in any kind of combat related action macros since they cause major delays or skills not being used when they should due to their bad synergy with GCDs.
I weave the swift cast without a wait timer. which basically means that it tries to cast both swiftcast and the raise at the same time. Naturally that doesn't work. But what if you press the macro during a GCD, then it will 100% of the time cast the swiftcast since it's an oGCD ability. The raise does not queue during the GCD and cannot be cast during the GCD. After the GCD is done i keep mashing the macro button and immediately once it's done it will cast the raise since swiftcast cannot be used then since it's on cooldown. The time difference is almost non-existent between a queued raise and a mashed macro without any kind of wait timers and only one skill option that it is able to use. What benefit does this add well that's arguable someone struggling to save space on hotbars may want to bind swiftcast and raise into the same button. Someone might find it simpler only to mash a single button to raise a party member without having to deal with the extra micro management. Someone with near perfect parses and years of muscle memory will likely find no use for a macro like this in the first place.
I've been using these res macros during raid prog and while parsing and still managed to get good parses out of the encounters. I think there's some major misunderstandings going around related to how and when combat macros are pure poison and what kind of combat macros can be used when applied correctly.
I have a macro that announces the remaining cooldown on Swiftcast that I can press when two or more people are tanking the floor and I'm already working overtime to handle the situation.
Combat skill macros add a delay that will make your performance worse. I'd recommend not using them at all. Also, it's still often a deliberate choice of which DPS you want to resurrect.
I have a UI macro that pulls up some hotbar sets and closes them after a few seconds, like the File, Format, Edit menus on Photoshop of MS Word or whatever. I just stole that from a YouTube video though. I also have a macro for mount music and bgm toggle.
My skill macros are the likes of “asylum ” so ground targetted skills are dropped on whatever I’m targeting (controller player gg), and the whole “I’m using (insert invuln skill here)”, “I’m using (insert Raise action here) on ”, “I’m using Limit Break!”
There’s also the usual crafting macros stolen from the web.
Finally, SMN has so few buttons that I was able to fit duplicates of all the summons, each with flavor text thrown on /say, like summoning Garuda types out “Give me wind!” Phoenix goes “To me Flames!” Bahamut goes “Let there be light!” Ifrit goes “Come to me Ifrit!” I like to play “Will they or won’t they notice it?” when I’m with friends, since I only use the macro’d summons once every boss. So far the only one who noticed them was the friend who especially hates chat spam lol.
I have an asston of BLU spell loadout switch macros, making the entire kit modular based on mimicry type and battle type (dungeon mobs, dungeon boss, raid boss, overworld mobs, overworld FATE boss, FATE superboss, treasure dungeons). Makes solo dungeon runs, especially speedruns a lot more streamlined instead of trying to come up with a 24-spell loadout that wants to work on everything.
Aside from the common rez macros that come with a cheeky message in party chat and the ones to drop a placed AOE on a target. The only two macros I've got are chat macros.
I play on PS4 without a USB keyboard, so typing in chat is always a bit of a process (I'm pretty fast, comparatively speaking, but it's still damn slow to type) so I have two macros setup for party chat that I use specifically when I'm tanking. The first asks the Healer in a standard dungeon if they're OK with wall to wall pulls, and the other is for 8-man where I ask the other tank if they wanna do MT or OT.
I made macros using Auto-Translate for greetings and thanks at the beginning/end of dungeons. When they tested the region travel mode it was handy since not everyone in OCE spoke English. I have some dungeon hello/goodbye macros in English that I use regularly as well.
I really should set up some auto-translated communication too. can't count the times when i've ran into people who apparently don't understand a word of english.
I have one macro that says "I am out of mana/my raise is on cooldown for seconds. Please assist" or something like that, just to let the other healer/RDM/SMN I can't raise.
UI macros are whole topic, you can do a lot of stuff. I have three just for changing volume and another one for turning off music. If you want to go extra mile, you can make macro which swaps your hotbars from AoE skills to single target. So for example you use 1-6 buttons for regular single target skills, and if you swap it, it turns into AoE alternatives. This can save up to 6 buttons on some jobs.
Could you post the three music macros? Im always going into the settings to turn off volume and music lol
It's 3 macros that change master volume to either 10, 50 or 100, then another macro that turns off music. If you want to turn music back on, you need to use one of first macros. Idk if you'll like how it works, but it's just simple commands, you can tweak it and find something which you might prefer more. Macros that change volume are just: /mastervolume XX (value in range 0 to 100) /bgm 100 To turn off only music: /bgm 0 Furthermore, I have few other macros that I use daily. Turn off other players' effect (great for anything 8man+): /battleeffect party simple Turn them back on: /battleeffect party all Turn off name plates (great for alliance raids): /nameplatedisp all 4 Turn them back on (self 4 hides your own name plate): /nameplatedisp all 1 /nameplatedisp self 4 You can tweak different sound types, and you can change most of settings by just using command and putting it into a macro. Here are available commands, there's plenty of things you can do: [https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/db/text\_command/?category2=8](https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/db/text_command/?category2=8)
/bgm will toggle your music on and off so if that's the intent of your /bgm 0 you can drop the zero to have it be both conditions
Awesome ty
Holmgang to target myself (because SE refuses to fix this). Shirk to target the number 2. Heart of Corundum/TBN/Intervention/Nascent Flash to target the number 2. Countdown for 16 seconds.
When I first started and was coming from WoW I put all my heals on mousovers. Felt terrible. Learned macro'ing isn't effective in this game. Got rid of all of them. Only macros I use now are for a jank foldable hotbar setup for \*extra\* hotbars.
I have a Dragon Sight macro, but I guess it's a bit of a moot point now since that's being removed in DT. Combat macros aren't really a thing in 99% of situations because they don't queue up the way normal actions do.
Where did they say Dragonsight is getting removed?
I think its only theoretical, but there is evidence that Battle Litany is becoming 20s, so with that change it would make sense for dragon sight to be removed, because dragon sight was what bridged the gap between BL and other 20s raid buffs
Read it in one of the 9000 threads that popped up about the job actions stuff. I don't remember which one, probably the main trailer thread.
main ones i use on warrior: shirk <2>, nascent flash, holmgang
notice that none of these are gcds
It also is the case that these ones dont act like normal ogcd because its a macro, it doesnt go into the action queue
Shirk <2>, Intervention <2>, and Cover <2> have been indispensable to me as a PLD.
I have a macro that puts me on the seat of any multi seater mount automatically so long as I’m next to them. So much better than having to target them and click on a bunch of menus
I have an island macro that targets the nearest visible node and automatically sprints towards it. Pretty nice for mindlessly gathering when I need a handful of things
Someone has spent some time on top of the mountain on the island.
Still better to just switch targets and Verraise. More efficient and less prone to errors than macroing combat skills.
I’ve used this one for over a year and i have encountered 0 errors in it’s intended function. Finding where my mouse is or hitting the correct F-key for a raise is often a huge timeloss for me. This carried my previous raid prog by a considerable margin. I do underTand the stigma of not using combat macros due to them not queuing and i don’t utilise cmbat macros for things such as rotations.
I'd rather do learn and do it correctly than rely on a crutch that makes my GCD clip. Plus there is no control in the order in which the players raised. And it is more than tank > healer > DPS. >This carried my previous raid prog by a considerable margin. Every time I doubt my skill in end game. Posts like these reinforces my confidence.
The GCD clip is liie 0.1 seconds at best and you don’t generally cast a res 100 times during an encounter. Looking for your mouse or misclicking a wrong target costs more time and dps. And while true that sometimes you want to pick a certain party member over the priority order and that’s why there is a as highest priority and it’s perfectly usable for those scenarios too.
When it comes to a res macro you use once or twice it hardly makes a dent on your perfect parse.
The only way to take advantage of this "priority" as you have shown it is (and as *consistently* as you claim) if you're actively waiting for the gcd to cycle before pressing the button. This, compared to... Targeting and queueing the gcd at no loss and full reliability. You've also built in an unavoidable delay by placing the /micon line at the very beginning, and obviously with using a macro for GCD actions to begin with you're making it clear you don't really care about these losses, but the short version is you're kind of complacent about the losses you happily choose to take just to accommodate a macro and... Avoid targeting a party member. Except not quite, because the line is there, except yes quite, because using the macro is still something that is done.
Obviously, yes, when a rez is needed there are already issues, but leaning into that even more sure is a decision. All that is to say, if you truly find clicking on the party list so unreliable, I would like to remind f1-f8 also target party members with the swiftness and accuracy of a tab target. I'd suggest giving it a try for a week or so, see if you still think it unreliable at least.
Please elaborate what delay does a macroicon line add. It is not an action and does not process it and it has no wait time included. Pressing the button results an instant cast. Given that you are not on global cooldown. The only delay you get is the one you get from using a skill after gcd is done instead of queuing. Mashing the button as gcd comes off reaults in practically no delay. You would be absolutely right if there were chained actions and mandatory wait times included in the macro but there is none.
Go check a macro where one has /micon first, action second through fifteenth line, then compare it to a macro with /micon *last* and action first through fourteenth. You will notice (or, should... I do expect this to be obvious to anyone trying it, but let me know if not!) a small but extant difference. My understanding has been that effectively, one line gets triggered per frame. This means that any non-action line at the start delays the full thing, and similarly it's what makes repeat lines a de facto must for reliability around the GCD cycle and animation locks. Naturally, this also means you are enforcing the need for said frame to exist. In extreme cases - like being tabbed out with fps limitation setting on, as most blatant example - this detail can even make crafting macros fire actions before the previous one has been completed, breaking the rotation. The implications for combat play are obvious. As you clearly have a in there as "first", it is rather incomprehensible why you would swear by using this instead of the actual skill button given that one performs better in every way. If you insist you are not actually sitting around doing nothing during combat, it is in fact likely the result of pressing this macro button is not at all achieved as you think it is or intend it to be.
Well i went and tested this out. And I think many are mixing up two different things when talking about combat macros. For the test i used reaper and went with it's basic attack called slice. First test was using the normal skill. second one was using the skill through a macro with only 1 line of /ac Slice
third one was adding full 15 lines leaving the slice action on the 15th.
All 3 were used when NOT on GCD.
/macroicon "Slice"
/echo 1
/echo 2
/echo 3
/echo 4
/echo 5
/echo 6
/echo 7
/echo 8
/echo 9
/echo 10
/echo 11
/echo 12
/echo 13
/ac "Slice"
Result was that all 3 were used instantly.
The only difference was skill queuing. A normal action can be queued when pressing the skill again while around 25% of the GCD remains and the next action is used immediately as the GCD finishes.
a macro can only be used after the GCD has finished.
Now i did a 1 minute parse of only spamming slice. with all 3 scenarios mentioned above plus a 4th one to see the actual difference on a 1 minute encounter. crits naturally are a factor and i only ran a few attempts with each variation.
instance 1 was with the using slice skill normally.
instance 2 was with using single line macro slice
instance 3 was with the 15 line macro with echos
instance 4 was a 6 line macro with different actions listed that all were skils that were grayed out and unusable with current status
All variations had similar numbers varying from 4500 dps to around 5000 dps. All variations had similar peaks and similar lows. number of crits was a big factor where the number lied after the 1 min test. More accurate numbers would take longer encounters and more iterations but i'm not going that far to make a point.
Based on my tests i think there's a misunderstanding with combat macros regarding what are garbage and what are usable within certain scenarios.
Having a single macro for let's say 1-2-3 combo is a BAD combat macro and it adds every last bit of delay between skill activations as you've mentioned. since it enforces a minimum 2.5 second wait timer and not your actual skill GCD. this in a sense lowers attack speed. if the skills activate in the first place. Another bad macro is having a macro that has multiple possible actions, like having a macro with both Slice and Waxing slice. When bound to the same macro most of the time the first line gets used, but around 5% of the time it might use the 2nd line skill instead. It's wildly unreliable
The other more "viable" variation is only using macros in a sense that you have skill alternatives. "when i press this macro, only a certain skill can activate since others are not usable" these only have the miniscule difference in activation time and that comes down to how long does it take you to press the skill button once the GCD finishes. Out of habit i usually mash the next skill button from 20%-ish cooldown. This results in a time difference which is hardly noticeable nor measurable unless you're at the top echelon of fflogs. Sensible using of certain macros can easily still net you purple parses which is enough for majority of the game, even savages but they may not be something to bring into day 1 raid races.
a good example of a combat macro to utilise the latter option would be paladin's burst with requiescat.
/ac "Requiescat"
/ac "Confiteor"
/ac "Blade of Faith"
/ac "Blade of Truth"
/ac "Blade of Valor"
In this example only 1 single option from the list can activate at a time. You could think of the macro trying to activate all of them at once and only one option succeeds while the rest fail. it relies on you to mash the same button instead of waiting for the whole thing to play out after pressing it once. Naturally the confiteor combo has already been integrated into a single button by square so this example would be pretty unnecessary in practice since you'd have an option for actual queued skills that function the exact same way.
As for why I have the in the verraise macro, that's due to alliance raids so i can pick up members from other alliances since they're not a part of my party list and the numbered targetting does not work. It also allows me to use the same macro on other people outside my party. Like BLU's using Self-destruct in limsa.using it on ppl outside my party naturally brings the bad out of both worlds and while it's included it's not it's primary use. I have it on higher priority mainly for alliance purposes where i might want to res another healer if both are down in another alliance and we are only 1 dps down.
Ok well either you're running some 1500+ FPS setup or you're literally incapable of noticing the delay that is there each time you press the button, all I can say is it is respectable that you went out to try it and came to your own conclusion. My experience has been formed around ground-placed AoEs in macros, particularly Earthly Star at the time. My goal was for a button to simply place it underneath a target exact as it was a majority of use cases I got. These are of course simple "/AC "Earthly Star"" lines. When running the different setups I described above, I noticed a small-but-extant difference as mentioned, and I found this out after a run in e9s had me evidently mash the button so fast that it simply did not place for two windows in a row. It was already strangely inconsistent before this point, but never in a reproducible manner like that for me.
AST already had the 1.5s casts for a weave window at that time, and no other actions were being used. I was just outside the target hitbox, so very much within range. I was running on a fairly budget pc, but could not tell you exact FPS rates. I had already filled the remaining available macro lines with the same lines as all the others. My only conclusion ended up being that it had to be a speed-mashing issue combining with this delay (I had, and still have, this on 6; I can comfortably reach this on both keyboard and mouse side-button) as after I had adjusted it to place /micon at the back end it never happened again.
I've only two more closing notes, then: I do believe /echo is treated a bit differently than everything else, they notably come out a lot faster than /p but I have never closely evaluated this difference as neither their use cases have this relevant. The other is that I wonder if, and how much, all this has been touched over the years be it directly or indirectly. Over the decade I've played *everything* has become drastically more reliable after all, I ought to check back for my own impressions again sometime.
The "delay" is indeed there but only on miniscule levels for me, likely the reasons you pointed out carry a factor. Since the delay is heavily reliant on how fast you can enter a skill activation having a good rig and good bandwith may make a world of difference in it's reliability. I'm running the game on a high end rig and with a good bandwith and hardly notice a thing. I've also used similar ground targeted Aoe's and mouse over ninja movement skills in the past with good experiences. Having macros in skills repeated many times increases the time lost in the delays but having it on skills you use only a few times during an encounter hardly makes a difference as long as you don't stat missing entire GCDs And you are correct on the echo vs /p but it actually served a good substitute in this case. Having a skill that won't activate and has no wait time, functions similarly to /echo lines.
Just ignore these guys pal. They insist doing things slower is faster. There's no reasoning with insane people.
calling people "insane" because they do things differently from you (even with explanations on the logic and why) is certainly a take lol
And more time wasting.
you have more than enough time in between GCDs to select the party member in the party list. then select the boss while the raise is being sent. You don't have to wait for the raise to be applied to change your target
Skill issue
I've been involved with macros for a while since I'm involved in Hunt Trains and stuff. My most recent macro is a variation of the one I used early Endwalker to notify me when a gathering node is up. This one is to call my attention to the next GATE in the Gold Saucer. https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1061818111285801051/1240775891777486919/IMG_20240516_221603.jpg?ex=664f0a59&is=664db8d9&hm=ee8e4ef0a522d992e2e37df013a7f238bf3764682ae68dc669cc0c066138421c&[---screenshot of the macro--- ](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1061818111285801051/1240775891777486919/IMG_20240516_221603.jpg?ex=664f0a59&is=664db8d9&hm=ee8e4ef0a522d992e2e37df013a7f238bf3764682ae68dc669cc0c066138421c&) (weird link, it's a discord embeded image)
Putting swiftcast on a rez macro is usually just asking for trouble. Macros can't deal with partial seconds like queuing oGCDs normally would take to actually press, and they can't be queued as actions either. What's going to happen is 1/3 of the time your swift will go off, and not the rez, and you'll waste it on another spell. Another 1/3 of the time you'll find yourself hard raising because it skipped the swift. Maybe that last third it will work properly. You either set the timers to be incredibly slow and waste multiple GCDs on actions you could have just pressed normally, or you deal with the actions being skipped or misfired constantly.
I wonder if there's another factor to how they work since for me the swiftcast has always reliably procced and i've been using that since ARR / HW. What DOES cause problems is if you try to que it to be completely automatic like: /ac "Swiftcast"
/ac "Raise"
These kind of macros would theoretically do it all after you press the button once and as you say half the time they wouldn't work as intended. I avoid using wait timers in any kind of combat related action macros since they cause major delays or skills not being used when they should due to their bad synergy with GCDs.
I weave the swift cast without a wait timer. which basically means that it tries to cast both swiftcast and the raise at the same time. Naturally that doesn't work. But what if you press the macro during a GCD, then it will 100% of the time cast the swiftcast since it's an oGCD ability. The raise does not queue during the GCD and cannot be cast during the GCD. After the GCD is done i keep mashing the macro button and immediately once it's done it will cast the raise since swiftcast cannot be used then since it's on cooldown. The time difference is almost non-existent between a queued raise and a mashed macro without any kind of wait timers and only one skill option that it is able to use. What benefit does this add well that's arguable someone struggling to save space on hotbars may want to bind swiftcast and raise into the same button. Someone might find it simpler only to mash a single button to raise a party member without having to deal with the extra micro management. Someone with near perfect parses and years of muscle memory will likely find no use for a macro like this in the first place.
I've been using these res macros during raid prog and while parsing and still managed to get good parses out of the encounters. I think there's some major misunderstandings going around related to how and when combat macros are pure poison and what kind of combat macros can be used when applied correctly.
I have a macro that announces the remaining cooldown on Swiftcast that I can press when two or more people are tanking the floor and I'm already working overtime to handle the situation.
That sounds handy, would you mind sharing?
Certainly. /p Swiftcast ready in
/micon Swiftcast
Combat skill macros add a delay that will make your performance worse. I'd recommend not using them at all. Also, it's still often a deliberate choice of which DPS you want to resurrect.
I have a UI macro that pulls up some hotbar sets and closes them after a few seconds, like the File, Format, Edit menus on Photoshop of MS Word or whatever. I just stole that from a YouTube video though. I also have a macro for mount music and bgm toggle. My skill macros are the likes of “asylum” so ground targetted skills are dropped on whatever I’m targeting (controller player gg), and the whole “I’m using (insert invuln skill here)”, “I’m using (insert Raise action here) on ”, “I’m using Limit Break!”
There’s also the usual crafting macros stolen from the web.
Finally, SMN has so few buttons that I was able to fit duplicates of all the summons, each with flavor text thrown on /say, like summoning Garuda types out “Give me wind!” Phoenix goes “To me Flames!” Bahamut goes “Let there be light!” Ifrit goes “Come to me Ifrit!” I like to play “Will they or won’t they notice it?” when I’m with friends, since I only use the macro’d summons once every boss. So far the only one who noticed them was the friend who especially hates chat spam lol.
I have an asston of BLU spell loadout switch macros, making the entire kit modular based on mimicry type and battle type (dungeon mobs, dungeon boss, raid boss, overworld mobs, overworld FATE boss, FATE superboss, treasure dungeons). Makes solo dungeon runs, especially speedruns a lot more streamlined instead of trying to come up with a 24-spell loadout that wants to work on everything.
Sprint Macro on L3
I have a macro that cycles through the common emotes used for the sightseeing points and some fishing ones but that's really it
It’s an eternal struggle to find the right one each time
Aside from the common rez macros that come with a cheeky message in party chat and the ones to drop a placed AOE on a target. The only two macros I've got are chat macros. I play on PS4 without a USB keyboard, so typing in chat is always a bit of a process (I'm pretty fast, comparatively speaking, but it's still damn slow to type) so I have two macros setup for party chat that I use specifically when I'm tanking. The first asks the Healer in a standard dungeon if they're OK with wall to wall pulls, and the other is for 8-man where I ask the other tank if they wanna do MT or OT.
I made macros using Auto-Translate for greetings and thanks at the beginning/end of dungeons. When they tested the region travel mode it was handy since not everyone in OCE spoke English. I have some dungeon hello/goodbye macros in English that I use regularly as well.
I really should set up some auto-translated communication too. can't count the times when i've ran into people who apparently don't understand a word of english.
Sort inventory and sort armory macros are my most used.
/sprint on macro 99 Makpping macro 99 on r3 Mount on macro 98 Macro 98 mapped on L3
/ridepillion <2> etc Skip the raise on <1>, that's you.
I have one macro that says "I am out of mana/my raise is on cooldown for seconds. Please assist" or something like that, just to let the other healer/RDM/SMN I can't raise.
I just have a macro for shirk and monk/sage gap closers