[TheGrandMom]

13) What is a macro?

It is basically a shortcut to your job abilities, weapon skills, spells, etc. Sometimes you will combine an ability with a weapon skill so it will make it much easier and successful for you to do than to do it manually. You adjust your macros under your main menu and then go to the Macros tab. There are 10 sets of macros. There 20 individual macros to a set. So that gives you 200 macros to make if you need to!

Here is a macro that a Thief could use when he has the job ability Sneak Attack combined with a weapon skill:


First line: /ja “Sneak Attack” <me>
Second line: /wait1
Third line: /ws Shadowstitch <t>


Ok let’s look at each line. On the first line, you use /ja which means job ability. Notice that Sneak Attack is 2 words and you MUST put more than one word in quotation marks (“ “). Also note that both words are capitalized. And last on the line is the target you are using it on. Job abilitys are used on yourself so <me> is used.

The second line is a delay. When you use /wait you can put in up to 60 seconds. So this wait is 1 second. Waits are needed sometimes because of the length of time it takes to do a spell or sometimes because of lag.

In the third line, we use /ws which means weapon skill. In this case, we used a dagger weapon skill that is called Shadowstitch. Notice that it’s one word and we didn’t use the quotation marks around it. This is perfectly fine for single words. After the name of the ws, we put who is going to receive the damage from the ws. So <t> is used and means target. So whatever you have targeted will receive the damage. (No you can’t target your friend and Shadowstitch him….well you can in Ballista!! ^^ )


Now let’s do a mage’s macro:


First line: /ma Refresh <t>
Second line: /wait 16
Third line: /recast Refresh
Fourth line: /wait 6
Fifth line: /echo **Refresh is Ready!**


First line tells us /ma which means magic. The magic we are using is Refresh. And then we use the <t> for target again.

On the second line, we have wait of 16 seconds. It takes 16 seconds between the time you can recast Refresh again. Some spells have longer or shorter recasting times.

On the third line, we have a recast timer. That is what /recast means. After the timer, we put in the ability or spell that we want to recast. In this case, it is Refresh. The timer will post in your chat box how much time is left for Refesh to cast again. With this macro, it will look like this [Refresh] 5:00. The 5:00 is telling you 5 seconds to be able to cast Refresh again. So it we are waiting 16 seconds to have the recast timer tell us how much longer until we can cast.

On the fourth line, we have another wait timer of 6 seconds. That is because the recast timer for this macro will tell you 5 seconds until it can be cast. I add an extra second to compensate for any lag I might be having.

On the last line, we have an echo. What an echo does is tell you whatever you put after the /echo. It’s basically a reminder. In this case it will show in your chat box **Refresh is Ready!**. Echos are usually used with /waits to let you know when abilities or spells are ready. So this line is telling you that you can cast Refresh now.

Note: The drawback with /echo and /recast is if you use another job ability or spell during the /wait period of time, you will not see your /recast and/or your /echo in your chat. So the use of any other abilities or spells during the wait period cancels out your recast and echos for the previous macro.


Ok let’s cover a necessary melee macro. You need to be able to post your TP (Tactical Points) to the party so that you can do a SC (Skillchain). (TP and Skillchains are covered in other sections.)

Here is a basic TP macro:


/p Dark Knight >>> TP @ <tp>


Sometimes tanks will include their HP with their TP:


/p Paladin >>> HP @ <hp> - <hpp> >>> TP @ <tp>

And sometimes mages will use MP macros. Mages use macros to post their MP to party chat so people in the party are aware if they need to rest longer between fights:


/p White Mage >>> MP @ <mp> - <mpp>


Ok let’s cover all of these. In our basic TP macro we use /p which means party. This will post the information, given after it, into the party chat. This is exactly what you want in order to tell your party members what your TP is. After /p, you can choose to put your name, your job, or nothing at all. I prefer to use my current job. After that I tell what I’m posting so TP @ is used in this case. Then after that are the command lines. <tp> will post your TP percentage to the party. So for example they will see Dark Knight >>> TP @ 154%.

For the tanks macro, you will use <hp> and <hpp>. What’s the difference? Well <hp> will post your HP to the party. It will look like this 78/100. Then <hpp> tells them the percentage of HP. So it would look like 75%. So for example that macro would post to party chat like this: Paladin >>> HP @ 78/100 – 75% >>> TP @ 137%

For the mages macro, it’s just about the same as the tanks. When you use <mp> it indicates the MP you have. When you use <mpp> it indicates the percentage of MP you have. So that macro would look like this in party chat: White Mage >>> MP @ 78/100 – 75%.