Macro's..

[Verranicus]

I've heard that for casters these are almost a requirement for parties.. is this true? >< If so, where cna I go to learn about them or find premade ones?

[Necropolis]

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Macro

This site has a pretty good explanation of macros and how they work. But really you'll learn to use macros on every job.

They are fairly simply with a little practice. For example, lets make a cure macro

/ma "Cure" <t>

This will cast cure on your current target. Using <stpc> will let you choose a player, <stnpc> will let you select a NPC or mob. <st> will let you chose any target, et cetera

/ja "Benediction" <me>

This will use your job ability Benediction (WHM only) without having to fumble through menus.

As your progress they will get more elaborate. Say as a blm you change gear to cast some spells:

line 1: /equip main "Dark staff" <-- changes your weapon
line 2: /equip Ring1 "Wisdom ring +1" <-- changes ring in slot 1
line 3: /ma "Sleep II" <stnpc> <-- will let you select target and cast spell

Other uses would be to use an item

line 1: /item "Ginger Cookie" <me>
line 2: /equip main "Pilgram's wand"
line 3: /wait 3
line 4: /heal on

This will have you eat a cookies, change your weapon (which has additional healing MP on it), wait for you to finish "using" the cookie, and then heal to start recovering mp.

Hope this helps.

[LoneGamer]

Macros are critically important, especially for Red Mage. I had macro sets 2-4 full for everything I needed to do on my RDM, since equipment swaps are necessary to optimize every spell.