A question about magic macros with gear swaps in it

[Maderas]

Should i use the macros which make me change the gear then start casting or should i use the ones which make me start casting then change the gear. Gear swaping takes 1 or 2 secs depending on the number of gears i change so the magic in the "gear swap first" macro is casted a lil later then it is casted w/o a macro with gear swaps in it. If i set the macro that i start casting and change later, gear swaping is made during the casting so it doesnt make the magic be casted later then it is w/o a macro with gear swaps in it. But i cant be sure that the stats of the gear i wear after i start casting effects the magic. For example, is it better for a brd to equip the horn then play the song, or start playing the song then equip the horn during the playing? I checked some guides about these but i wanna hear some opinions ^^. Any constructive answer would be appraciated.

[Mhurron]

Change gear then cast. The actual switch should happen instantly though there might be a delay before the model changes. If you're worried about it not taking effect until you see the gear change you could put a /wait 1 or /wait 2 between your gear swap and cast, but then you would have to take that into account timing your Magic Burst (for elemental magic).

Personally, I don't try changing gear once a macro for magic casting starts.

[Jugil]

Personally, I write the /equip lines before the magic/ability/song/etc. The 1 to 2 seconds it appears to take for your gear to swap is due to lag.

As far as I know, for most spells/abilities, it really doesn't matter which order you put your /equip vs. ability commands (e.g. you can cast Silence and have your Wind Staff equip right after you cast and be ok). However, there are some abilities that are instant cast (or pretty darn close): Chi Blast?, Charm, and Provoke. I am not sure if those would cause an issue (my Charm macro swaps in my Charm gear prior /ja "Charm" <stnpc>).

[LyonheartLakshmi]

The only issue I have read about regarding this order is with how you select your target. If you manually select your target and rely on <t>, using /equip lines first will cause you to lose target. That's probably why some player put their /equip lines after the line where they start casting the spell.

[Maderas]

Personally, I write the /equip lines before the magic/ability/song/etc. The 1 to 2 seconds it appears to take for your gear to swap is due to lag.

As far as I know, for most spells/abilities, it really doesn't matter which order you put your /equip vs. ability commands (e.g. you can cast Silence and have your Wind Staff equip right after you cast and be ok). However, there are some abilities that are instant cast (or pretty darn close): Chi Blast?, Charm, and Provoke. I am not sure if those would cause an issue (my Charm macro swaps in my Charm gear prior /ja "Charm" <stnpc>).

Hmm, my connection is not very good most of the thime so it may be the problem as you mentioned so /ma first macros should work better for me it seems. i will change my macros that way.

And about instant cast abilities; yeah, /equip first macros are a must for them.

[Amele]

I put the relevant spell first in all my macros. (note on JA's later)

this is because SE's macro system is.. unreliable.

if I'm hitting multiple macros in quick succession or in a high lag area where a macro may 'slip' and not actually finish (dynamis is the classic example, but I've had worse issues in Dragon's Aery and Behemoth's Dominion than anywhere else) I want the ability to go off much more than I want some misc. gear swapped in.

except for very few spells (flash, stun, etc) where the cast time is fast enough that macro lag may cause some gear to swap in late, your gear will be in place by the time the spell proc's. (I've confirmed with light staff and cure that the gear only has to be in place by the time the spell actually fires). note that, especially in the case of stun it's better to have the lag 'after' the spell fires than before.

note that with instant effect JA's you must use equip switches first if you want the benefit of the gear. (for this reason I generally try to avoid gear switches in my job ability macros) - to get around the loss of target you can use this 'trick' (assumes a maximum of 4 swaps)

macro lines:
/echo <st> (or "/p using ABILITY on <st>" etc) (also: <stpc>,<stnpc> etc)
/equip
/equip
/equip
/equip
/ja "ABILITY" <lastst>

[Feba]

I always cast, then equip swap, but that only works on long cast times (3-4+ seconds). If you're dealing with things like Dia or Bio, swap equip first.