Source
r/ffxiv•
thetracker3

Has Square set any rules for what you're allowed to do with macros?

[Question]

For example, can I have a macro that uses several different abilities to chain them up? I know the macro system allows it to be done, I just want to know if its "legal" to use.

Edit: I understand that its a DPS loss. I probably should have mentioned this first, I only really need it to level cause pressing the same buttons in the right order while leveling is tedious. For leveling, I'm perfectly fine with having slightly less DPS.

Edit 2: Seriously, I get it. I lose DPS doing this. This isn't about being efficient. Its about being lazy while killing trash mobs in the overworld. I'm not going to do this in dungeons, or raids, or guild-brawl-banana-hests.

Posted Aug 25, 2017, 2:37 PM UTC · edited

023
notasinglenamegivenCornelia Sylvana on Gilgamesh•

It's horrible to macro combo's or skills together. It's a straight up DPS loss because of the downtime inbetween.

18
bjjgrrl•

If you can do it with the macro system, then it's legal. It is, however, not necessarily efficient, it decreases flexibility, and it probably results in lower DPS.

12
Mizzet•

If you're talking about the in-game macro system, you can do whatever you want with them. The real limitation is how bad they are in practice for combat, and not whether they're allowed or not.

6
Angry_RoboticsDekka Punchatrain on Cactuar•

Outside of making/spamming chat messages that would get your banned normally, you can use whatever the heck you want.

5
KeluFFXIV•

Levelling how? Killing over world monsters and FATES? Because in a dungeon or POTD you're a detriment to the whole party and slowing it down. I would kick someone from my party I saw doing this.

It's not slightly less DPS. It's substantially less

4
thetracker3OP•

Of course. I'd never willingly bring down the dungeon for the sake of simplicity. Especially not when I get mad at people for doing it. The instant I go into a dungeon, its serious mode.

I can't stand how long and slow the leveling dungeons are when trying to save time (avoiding monsters, skipping loot, etc). Making it take longer by doing spells and attacks improperly? Screw that noise.

1
KaguBWHM•

There's a very specifically placed delay between actions done in macros. It's POSSIBLE to do, but it's rarely a good idea.

3
speedkat•

Literally anything the in-game macro editor is capable of is legal.

3
LightSamusLucille Aemilia [Cerberus]•

As a rule of thumb, try to only use macros for single skills as anything else just causes downtime or delays. Like dropping a quick Salted Earth or a message to accompany a res.

2
Ven_aeY'all need to calm down•

If it's possible to do with macros, then you can do it. Macro's are quite restrictive, linear.

Chaining skills together actually isn't great. You'd have to use wait placeholders, and because you can only specify whole seconds, by the time a skill is ready to use again it ends up being a DPS loss, and well as messing things up by being unable to adapt to changing situations.

2
ExistentialFajitasTank•

what

1
cronftSamurai•

legal it is, but the general consensus is what is not a good idea, since you can't add half seconds, so basically you can't do <wait.2.5>, you either need to do <wait.3> or <wait.2>, plus you can't queue macros

1
thetracker3OP•

Either I'm reading things wrong, or the game is rounding up. Cause my macro has /wait 2.5 and its working. When I tried /wait 2.47 (my recast time), that's when it stopped working. The macro is slightly slower than pressing the buttons myself, which is to be expected, but it works perfectly fine.

-1
ChaosinaCanRinh Maimhov on Faerie•

It is probably rounding to the nearest whole second and rounding half up. 2.5 is then rounded up to 3 (a loss of ~20% speed compared to queueing skills normally) and 2.47 is rounded down to 2 (which doesn't work because it's faster than your recast time).

2
VitalSuitTarra Netsky on Behemoth•

The game is rounding up to the nearest whole second. You can put /wait 2.5 in your macro but in reality it's actually /wait 3

2
crux-ansatai like swords•

It always rounds up to the next whole second.

Don't macro combat abilities btw.

1
Ritsku•

It's legal. It's also VERY inefficient. You'll have to put /wait 1 in between almost every ability and it's quicker to just push the button yourself.

I only use one macro that chains an ability and that's my hide macro on nin and I only use it pre-pull to get my mudras back so it's not messing with my rotation to do that. If you're talking like a macro that uses say.. a full skill combo, uses like all your mitigation buffs at once, or even one that uses like a quick reload + clean shot, id advise against that.

1
nicorasu-kunBlack Mage•

isnt slighty less dps, it can halves your actual damage, also using the buttons in the right order it helps you with the muscle memory for later levels or for when you have all the abilities unlocked.

if youre leveling using macros for combat youre gonna be carried in the dungeons

1
ErickFTGNinja•

If it can be done with a macro, it's legal. If it's recommendable, that's another topic.

1
CallbackSpannerCallback Spanner on Ultros•

It's legal.

It's legal because it will make your DPS so shitty a sleeping kitten with its head on a single key could do better.

1
Hshie•

But if topic but..

I am actually a strong advocate for the use of macros and I am aware it is fairly controversial.

If I am using a macro it is because it gives me a ease of use method as I play on controller which causes my performance to increase as I am not faffing about with my buttons or concentrating too much on my optimal rotation and not on important mechanics or other.

Edit: I use a pretty horrible macro on bard to you many skills on cooldown. It's my easy mode/lazy class. I don't main the job so whatever 😂

0
thetracker3OP•

But... but... didn't you hear how bad it makes your DEEPS?!

-2
Hshie•

Lmao.

In all seriousness though it actually increased my dps as I didn't forget to use things

0