Managing Spells and Macros Help

[Marakii]

So, as stated in my other post, currently at lvl 18 BLM and going to start lvling WHM as subjob. THere are many spells to be used and so far I have macro'd all my BLM spells except Warp.

As I lvl my WHM from the beginning, I can use Macro Set 3 since I wont have a need for my BLM spells off the bat. But as I am using both sets of spells for WHM and BLM at the same time (for example when Im 18BLM/9WHM), how do you guys manage your spells since you cannot have them all fit on one set of Macros?

Are there certain spells you just dont macro or keep in another set? For example, I may not need Cure available in first macro set for easy access as it would not primarily be my function in a party if we have a primary healer and I'm DD. But it would be useful as a backup esp if I need to heal myself or another in a pinch.

Or do you keep all your BLM spells in one set, WHM spells in set 2, and when you need to use a spell you just hold "cntrl" or "alt" and hit down key to change sets? Seems like you could accidently cast some wrong spells if you kept doing this.

Or do you keep the most handy spells in set 1 regardless if they are WHM or BLM spells? For example, have your most commonly used DD spells, Blink, Stoneskin, and etc. in one set, and your underused BLM and WHM spells int he second set? Only issue i see with this is it would depend on what your fighting and if your are performing backup healing responsibilites. If this is what you do, do you have an example of what should be in your first macro set?

[Mog]

Heres what I do....

1-6, assign elements to. 1= stone, 2= water, etc.

For ctrl, make them single spells, and for alt, make them aga spells.

EX. ctrl 1= Stone, alt 3= Aeroga.

As for 7-10, play around with them. Maybe assign Cure to one of them and assign enfeebles to the rest. As you level up, your options will broaden and you'll be able to do more with your macros.

I myself have it set to do Drain and Aspir for ctrl 9, shock burn and choke for ctrl 7, etc.. I generally stack my enfeebles, so whichever one's go together, assign all of them to one macro.


Edit:

As for whm-specific spells, I keep that in a separate macro altogether. You can put Cure 3 or so in your blm macros, but generally, you're going to want to keep them seperate.

Overall, I would tell you to save sets 1-4 for blm, and work down from set 10 with whm. Blm is going to have a lot of important spells that you'll be able to use over the course of time, so you're going to want to save space for them.

[Marakii]

Brilliant, I feel a little stupid for not thinking of sticking certain spells together. Using 1, 2, 3, and 4 for the different element spells makes perfect sense. Up to now Ive been macroing them in the order I get them, lol.

Having WHM spells in set 10 allows me to hit "up" arrow immediately without scycling through the sets to get to them. Another nice one.

Thanks for the info! Does everyone elsehandle them this way too?

[Nazo]

For me, I mostly macro timing-critical spells and often used ones. When landing magic bursts, cures etc. timing is essential so I macro those, does it really matter if I take an extra second to choose an elemental enfeeble from my spell list? Not really, and I'm not likely to cast them a lot in each battle so those don't get macro'd.

I only use 1 macro set for each job (or job combo, I have a different one for my pt whm and my solo whm/nin as the priorities are different). It's easy to get muddled in battle trying to switch macro sets and teleporting my party out of the battle instead of curing them when tired one evening was enough to convince me that multiple sets are not for me!

[Simatumma]

I mainly use 1 macro set for each job as well, though I have been thinking of making a second for BLM because my Staff swap macros take up almost a whole set.

Here is an example of how mine are set up.
Ctrl1 equips my earth staff ctrl2-7 are equiping water through dark
my Alt on the same macro set will equip the correct staff for the right element that i'm casting
like Alt1 equip earth staff and casts stone3

I use the ctrls for equiping the right staff for elemental enfeebles / normal enfeebles and alts for general casting and MBing

Sorry if this is a bit confusing but I'm late for work ^^;

[Marakii]

Great stuff. One quick question (dont have multiple elemental staffs yet).

What would be the Macro for changing staffs to cast spell? For example:

/Equip "Earth Staff" (dont know macro for equipping)
/wait 2
/ma Stone <t>

And I know we get spells that weaken targets vs. certain elements. You would use that in a macro also? For example:

/ma Shock (not saying thats what shock does)
/wait 3
/ma Lightning

[Mog]

Great stuff. One quick question (dont have multiple elemental staffs yet).

What would be the Macro for changing staffs to cast spell? For example:

/Equip "Earth Staff" (dont know macro for equipping)
/wait 2
/ma Stone <t>

And I know we get spells that weaken targets vs. certain elements. You would use that in a macro also? For example:

/ma Shock (not saying thats what shock does)
/wait 3
/ma Lightning

/equip Main "Earth Staff"
/ma "thunder" <t>

equipping something does not infringe on your spell casting, so you don't need to use /wait.

As for enfeebles, shock, burn, and choke have entirely different purposes. They're able to reduce the mind, intelligence, and something else (can't think of it) of the enemy, which ultimately, makes your spells get less resisted and hit for more damage. They are able to stack, and I have all three in one macro.

[Visper]

I do it Ctrl is curing/whm spells (use macro lines 1-3)

and

Alt is for BLM spells (macro lines 1-5)
1 line for enfeebles
1 line for -ga spells (most up to date like -ga 1 or 2)
1 line for AM
1 line for Tier 2 nukes
1 line for Tier 3 nukes
(soon to be adding Tier 4 nukes)

All other spells i just select from the magic menu.

I do have a line (line 9) where I have all my Teles and Warp macros.

Edit:
Also Shock has no affect on Lightning, Shock is an Enfeeble that lowers Mind on the mob so other enfeebles stick better (like burn so ur nukes land better)

[Icemage]

Generally speaking for XP parties as a BLM, you aren't casting every spell in the book, so I set my macros up like this:

Ctrl/L1 set: Offensive

Generic Nuke 1*
Generic Nuke 2*
Magic Burst 1*
Magic Burst 2*
Stun
Drain
Aspir
Bio I/II
<t> {Found it!}: <pos>!
/target <bt>

Alt/R1 set: Support/Enfeeble/Defensive

Elemental Enfeeble 1*
Elemental Enfeeble 2*
Cure I
Cure II (replaced by Regen eventually)
Cure III
Blink
Stoneskin
Gear swap: MP/resting
Gear swap: INT/nuking
Miscellaneous*

* These are edited based on party and what I'm doing and fighting.

I keep a second partial set of macros directly next to this set for Elemental Seal, Sleep/Sleep II/Sleepga/Sleepga II, Escape, Tractor, and Warp II.


Icemage

[Murphie]

The most important thing in macro setting is that you have things in a configuration that you are most comfortable with. Play around with the placement of your macros until you find what works best for you.^^

This is how I do things:

For WHM I keep things simple. I knew I was only going to take it to 40 (although I suppose I could take it to 42), so I mapped out my macros accordingly.

I don't macro Bar-spells, and I don't macro any buffs save for Haste (so I can easily see my recast on it). I also don't macro Banishes. I'm a fast typist, so I can either type in /ma BarwatTAB <me>, or just open up my magic menu and cast from there. But everyone's style is different.

CTRL: Cure Cure2 Cure3 Regen Curaga Curaga2 Dia Paralyze Slow Silence

ALT: Poisona Paralyna Blindna Silena Cursna Erase Viruna Stona Haste RestMacro

For BLM, things I stretch my spells into two Macro Palettes. I probably could have crammed the necessities into one palette, but I like symmetry.

CTRL: Stone Water Aero Fire Blizzard Thunder

ALT: Poison Blind Bind Bio Sleep Sleepga Aspir Drain RestMacro

On the palette below that I have my -ga spells and elemental enfeebles.

CTRL: Stonega Waterga Aeroga Firaga Blizzaga

ALT: Shock Rasp Choke Frost Burn Drown

This way, I just have to cycle up or down a palette in order to reach the spells that I need at that particular moment. Perhaps if I were to take BLM further than 40 I'd switch things up, but this is what worked best for me.

[Chveya]

I really need to reorganize my BLM macros, but I keep forgetting and by the time I join an exp party, its too late to say "Hey guys, wait a half hour while I write all new macros!" ^^

Here's how mine are set up, and it's worked fairly well so far:

Alt Line
[Choke] [Shock] [Rasp] [Frost] [Drown] [Drain] [Aspir] [MP<call>] [RestMacro]

[b]Ctrl Line
[Elem Seal] [Fire] [Thunder] [Blizzard] [StoneII] [WaterII] [AeroII] [Sleep] [CureII] [Escape]

The Alt Line gets changed a lot, depending on which elemental enfeebs I'm using. I replace the unnecessary ones with other enfeebs like Blind, Poison, or Slow depending on what the WHM/RDM/NIN is doing.

I really like the idea of combining each set of 3 elemental enfeebs in a macro, but I am hesitant to commit to that much casting at once, although I suppose could use a /recast macro or something to interrupt if I needed to cancel. I have been meaning to reorganize the Alt Line mainly because I want more enfeebs set up without having to edit in macros according to different party setups.

[Dux]

In the end it all comes down to personal preference and what you like to do each fight.

I use the following setup for my BLM.

Set 9
[Aero III] [Water III ] [Fire III] [Thunder III] [Blizzard III ] [Stone IV] [Shock] [Chocke] [Burn] [Resting Equip]
[Aeroga III] [Waterga II] [Firaga II] [Thundaga II] [Blizzaga II] [Stonega III] [Bind][Gravity] [Dispel]

Set 10
[Aero IV] [Water IV] [Fire IV] [Thunder IV] [Blizzard IV] [Rasp] [Frost] [Poison] [Bio] [Blind]
[Stun] [Waterga III] [Firaga III] [Thundaga III] [Blizzaga III] [Drown] [Drain][Aspir] [Sleep II] [Sleepga II]

Set 1
WHM Macros here.

[Simatumma]

I'm sure you've noticed alot of people have something called a "rest macro", this is something that you should get use to doing. Just make a macro (mine is in ctrl0) and title it rest or heal then put /heal in it. Later on when you get a dark staff(+10mp per tick while healing) you can add in /equip main "Dark Staff" and already be use to resting with that macro. You can also put mana regen food in the macro
example:
Line 1: /use "Ginger Cookie"
Line 2: /heal

The less you have to change about the way you do things later on will make your job alot easier.

[Marakii]

Nice! Never would have thought to do that. Ill have to bookmark this post :) Right now lvling WHM so when I am ready to switch back I think ill use these ideas!

I'm sure you've noticed alot of people have something called a "rest macro", this is something that you should get use to doing. Just make a macro (mine is in ctrl0) and title it rest or heal then put /heal in it. Later on when you get a dark staff(+10mp per tick while healing) you can add in /equip main "Dark Staff" and already be use to resting with that macro. You can also put mana regen food in the macro
example:
Line 1: /use "Ginger Cookie"
Line 2: /heal

The less you have to change about the way you do things later on will make your job alot easier.

[Chveya]

Question for Mog or anyone else who stacks enfeebles in one macro: what is the wait time I need to write in between castings for elemental enfeebs? Thanks in advance!


edited to add:

This is the rest macro I used when I was eating Ginger cookies

/item "Ginger Cookies" <me>
/wait 2
/heal

The macro didn't work for me without the /wait 2, because it was trying to simultaneously perform both item usage and healing, which cannot happen.

[Murphie]

I don't have a /wait in mine, but that's probably because I have gear swaps.

/item "Ginger Cookie" <me>
/equip Main "Pilgrim's Wand"
/equip Legs "Baron's Slops"
/heal on

The reason I put /heal on, instead of just /heal is because sometimes I accidentally hit the macro twice, and then I end up standing back up again. So if I always use /heal on, that won't happen.

[Mog]

Question for Mog or anyone else who stacks enfeebles in one macro: what is the wait time I need to write in between castings for elemental enfeebs? Thanks in advance!


edited to add:

This is the rest macro I used when I was eating Ginger cookies

/item "Ginger Cookies" <me>
/wait 2
/heal

The macro didn't work for me without the /wait 2, because it was trying to simultaneously perform both item usage and healing, which cannot happen.

I want to say 5 seconds between any two elemental enfeebles? I'll have to check it myself, but if that doesn't work, just fiddle around with it.

Moreover, realize that Frost, rasp, and drown go together. Same goes with Burn, shock and choke. Otherwise, you'll get one cancelling out the other, not having any effect, etc. So you're going to want to assign the first three to a certain macro and the second three to a different macro.

[Gentoo]

I'm sure you've noticed alot of people have something called a "rest macro", this is something that you should get use to doing. Just make a macro (mine is in ctrl0) and title it rest or heal then put /heal in it. Later on when you get a dark staff(+10mp per tick while healing) you can add in /equip main "Dark Staff" and already be use to resting with that macro. You can also put mana regen food in the macro
example:
Line 1: /use "Ginger Cookie"
Line 2: /heal

The less you have to change about the way you do things later on will make your job alot easier.

Just a really minor tweak to this.

When you set up your heal macro, you may want to try using "/heal on" for your rest macro, and "/heal off" for you non-rest macro (if you have one).

"/heal" simply toggles your healing state (i.e. if you're standing /heal will make you heal, if you're healing /heal will make you stand).

The reason why; if you're already healing, but didn't use your rest macro to get into that state, using "/heal" at the end of your rest macro will make you stand up. Using "/heal on" after all your gear changes won't change your healing state, and you'll continue gathering up MP uninterrupted.

I have a '/use "Wizard Cookie"' in first line of my healing macro. There are circumstances where I don't want/need to use a cookie. So I /heal before using the macro, hit CTRL-0 to perform all the gear swaps.

Like I said it's a minor tweak, but one that I've found to be useful.

EDIT: The danagers of starting a post, walking a way, and then finishing up several minutes later. I've duplicated Murphie's post on this subject -- sorry for the redundancy.

[Simatumma]

I don't have a /wait in mine, but that's probably because I have gear swaps.

/item "Ginger Cookie" <me>
/equip Main "Pilgrim's Wand"
/equip Legs "Baron's Slops"
/heal on

The reason I put /heal on, instead of just /heal is because sometimes I accidentally hit the macro twice, and then I end up standing back up again. So if I always use /heal on, that won't happen.

Forgot you needed a wait without a gear swap in there. i equip my seers tunic and dark staff with mine so knowing that you can't have those that lvl 20 i just left them out. ^_^

Seems as though i also forgot to put in a target when i was informing you about that rest macro. I'm always having to go back and play with the macros I make just because I will either forget targets or forget to put the spell/item in quotes and end up gettting errors or casting blizzard instead of blizzard II.

[Sabaron]

I don't really use macros the same way most people do. I type rather fast, so for flexibility, I rarely use them in XP or otherwise. Things I do put in macros:

1. Resting Macro
/item "Ginger Cookie" <me>
/heal

2. Emergency cures (even on BLM)
CTRL-1 through CTRL-5
/ma "Cure III" <px>

3. Guard macro
/ma Stoneskin <me>
/ma Blink <me>

4. Equipment Swaps:
Rest
/equip main "Pilgrim's Wand"
/equip legs "Baron's Slops"
/equip body "Seer's Tunic +1"

5. Mana Item Swap
/equip R.Ring "Astral Ring"

6. Spellcasting Item Swap
/equip main "Solid Wand"

7. Spellcasting Item Swap #2
/equip R.Ring "Tranquility Ring"

8. Seal Macro
/ja "Elemental Seal" <me>
//ja "Divine Seal" <me> # for when I'm subbing WHM

I imagine that at 51st level, I'll put in staff swaps as I get the requisite staves and might set up macros similar to IceMage's for battle specific stuff, but I like the flexibility I get from typing in my spell choices. I do use macros for Blood Pacts on Summoner, but not for WHM/BLM/RDM. My free slots vary based on current conditions. I don't have any problem with typos generally (although the occasional one creeps in, but that would likely be the same time I strike the wrong macro sequence anyway). I type the next action while the first one is being cast. As a 25th level Black Mage, I was using the following procedure most of the time:

If no RDM/NIN:
/ma Blind

/ma Shock (reduces MND) #1
/ma Choke (reduces VIT) #2
/ma Burn (reduces INT) #3

/ma <Nuke Vs. Mob's weakness> #4
/ma <Strongest Nuke> #5
/ma <Nuke of the Day unless Mob is strong against it> #6
/ma Drain #7
/ma Aspir (if aspir-able) #8

I don't throw White enfeebles if the WHM is doing so, and there is significant lag time once I start nuking between spells to prevent enmity, so typos are not generally a problem. Pressing Esc clears the line if I need to change up. This could all be procedurally macroed in order as numbered above and then:

CTRL-1, 2, 3
(if one or more don't stick, re-apply interleaving between nukes)
Repeat common <1> 4, 5, 6
Repeat uncommon <2> 7, 8 (conditional)
Repeat <1>
Repeat <1>
Repeat <2>
...

I have drawn hate after throwing my 3rd Elemental enfeeble, so watch that one if your tank isn't able to throw down fast enough (e.g. after first Cure on a PLD or after cycle of NIN attacks, 2nd voke, SATA, etc).

[Kael]

Up untill now, I've made macro sets for various types of conditions.

I have a solo set, manaburn set, regular party set, and a farming set.

This seems to be using all my available sets with minimum flexibility though...

Sure, once I'm performing one of those actions, I can basically hit ctrl 1, 2, 3, etc down the line, but then im limited to 20 macros per action.

I'm thinking I'm going to rewrite my macros to mimic Dux's setup. (I'll put my elemental staffs into all of the spells of course).

My only issue with this set is the lag time between hitting ctrl, up / down, and casting your spell. Sometimes it can be very important to cast drain or sleep2 with a second's notice.

[Tsama]

Im kinda a weird blm... I have 5 pages of macros for blm.

page 1.
Soloing spells... When I solo I remove all -ga spells. I never use em.

ctrl is all enfeeble and gear swap for sorc ring

alt is actualy spells, but I only have 4 spells on it.
blizz IV, thun iv, fire iv, freeze II

Stoneskin also and then my /heal macro is in that set.

page II is all hnms/nms
all tier III -ga spells on cntrl

all tier IV magic spells on alt

page III High res mobs
exact same setup as page five but different gear to boost elemental mag

page IV

All cure spells, phlanx stoneskin

this is pretty much when im not nuking and I have to help heal

page V
This is what i consider my oh sh** page. If things go wrong and I need to clear up a situation I hit this page, every macro is tied to sleepga, sleep, bind, or grav and a high nuke.

There is no gear swap on these macros I have to manually do everything

-------------

I am so used to my macro setup that I can swap through all 5 pages and hit a macro on any page quite easily.

[IfritnoItazura]

PC players can save multiple sets of macros; it's possible use all 10 pallets for one job/situation, then swap in another 10 for a another job/situation.

Just log out, save/move *.mcr files, log back, and one can preserve/change all macros at once. (Some info here (http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/game-setup-tweeking-optimizing-q/64584-final-fantasy-xi-user-s-contents.html#post677596).)

So, yeah, go crazy with macros if you're on PC. =b