Hi,
I am a well geared drg (main class) and now also a new war (with zenith weapon and just reached ilv 75).
For both I use some macros (principally for drg) as they make life easier. (too many buttons for a PS3 controller and too many places to remember).
Now I am wondering about efficiency of the macros I use.
The macros I use are more or less similar to the following:
/ac "action" <t>
/wait 1
/ac "action" out of GCD (generally buffs or debuffs but also others ...)
/wait 1.5
/ac "action" <t>
/wait 1
/ac "action" out of GCD (see above)
/wait 1.5
/ac "action" <t>
Normally 3 actions in GCD is the maximum that I use (tipical combos in DRG and/or WAR), sometimes I stop also at two actions and few macros are only one action.
I tested them with dummies and all actions (if available) fire (I did not test the execution time).
I have the impression that sometimes during the battle (expecially the most crowded, or with some lag) some action does not fire (I am not sure of this because of the confusion) but in any case this happens few times (generally the thing works well).
What I wonder is about the time efficiency. I read the the wait command is rounded so I wait between two actions not 2.5 (or a little less, depending on skill speed) but 3 whole seconds (and even I do not know if I have to add also the time for the animation of the action out GCD that sometimes I fire between the two actions).
Of course If I repeat many times the macros the delays increase and my DPS drops a lot (especially for my DRG but also for the WAR).
Any tips and or comments ?
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about macros and efficiencyFollow
You're wasting a lot of time. Wait is rounded up so in a single macro you're doing nothing for a full second out of 4. That's a 25% efficiency drop. Also you'll kill the macro every time you hit another button before it completes so if your actions are dependent on each other (Heavy Swing/Skull Render/Butcher's Block) you'll fail to complete the combo quite often.
I group like skills. I might do something like:
/macroicon "Skull Render"
/ac "Skull Render" <t>
/ac Tomahawk <t>
So when I need to grab hate on an errant mob I just hit my skull render button and if it's in range I'll Skull Render but if it's out of range I'll Tomahawk. So now 1 button covers both skills. I setup buttons for Defensive skills (hit it a few times and all of my defensive buffs are up), HP generating skills etc.
I group like skills. I might do something like:
/macroicon "Skull Render"
/ac "Skull Render" <t>
/ac Tomahawk <t>
So when I need to grab hate on an errant mob I just hit my skull render button and if it's in range I'll Skull Render but if it's out of range I'll Tomahawk. So now 1 button covers both skills. I setup buttons for Defensive skills (hit it a few times and all of my defensive buffs are up), HP generating skills etc.
Here's the macros I used on DRG for leveling up. I didn't really update them properly after hitting 50, so there's probably some useful stuff missing:
Heavy / Defense Boost wrote:
/micon "Heavy Thrust"
/ac "Heavy Thrust" <t>
/ac "Keen Flurry" <me>
/ac "Elusive Jump" <me>
/ac "Heavy Thrust" <t>
/ac "Keen Flurry" <me>
/ac "Elusive Jump" <me>
True Thrust wrote:
/micon "True Thrust"
/ac "True Thrust" <t>
/ac "Mercy Stroke" <t>
/ac "Power Surge" <me>
/ac Jump <t>
/ac "Piercing Talon" <t>
/ac "True Thrust" <t>
/ac "Mercy Stroke" <t>
/ac "Power Surge" <me>
/ac Jump <t>
/ac "Piercing Talon" <t>
Vorpral / Attack Boost wrote:
/micon "Vorpal Thrust"
/ac "Vorpal Thrust" <t>
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Vorpal Thrust" <t>
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
Feint/HP Drain wrote:
/micon "Feint"
/ac Feint <t>
/ac Bloodbath <me>
/ac "Life Surge" <me>
/ac Feint <t>
/ac Bloodbath <me>
/ac "Life Surge" <me>
Stuns wrote:
/micon "Leg Sweep"
/ac "Leg Sweep" <t>
/ac "Spineshatter Dive" <t>
/ac "Leg Sweep" <t>
/ac "Spineshatter Dive" <t>
AOE Spam wrote:
/micon "Doom Spike"
/ac "Doom Spike" <t>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac Bloodbath <me>
/ac "Life Surge" <me>
/ac "Mercy Stroke" <t>
/ac "Power Surge" <me>
/ac "Dragonfire Dive" <t>
/ac Jump <t>
/ac "Spineshatter Dive" <t>
/ac "Keen Flurry" <me>
/ac "Doom Spike" <t>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac Bloodbath <me>
/ac "Life Surge" <me>
/ac "Mercy Stroke" <t>
/ac "Power Surge" <me>
/ac "Dragonfire Dive" <t>
/ac Jump <t>
/ac "Spineshatter Dive" <t>
/ac "Keen Flurry" <me>
Scholar
47 posts
Hi,
Yodabunny, you are right, I am wasting at least 1 second per macro because the rounding of the two wait 1.5, the macro you wrote is ok (you could also write before Tomahawk) I use one similar so one of the two actions (that available at the moment) will start
Stouter, regarding the first macros you wrote if you have available Heavy, True or Vorpal Trust, they just fire the first action and not the others because the animation of the first action do not allow the second and third (even if available) to start (it needs about 0.45/0.5 or 1 second, rounded, to finish the animation)
You should have to press the button repeatedly (spending so this small time) to have the other actions to fire. Any action has an animation (different also in duration) than prevents an other action (even out of GCD) to start and so you have to wait a fraction of a second. This is my experience, but tell me also your opinion.
Yodabunny, you are right, I am wasting at least 1 second per macro because the rounding of the two wait 1.5, the macro you wrote is ok (you could also write before Tomahawk) I use one similar so one of the two actions (that available at the moment) will start
Stouter, regarding the first macros you wrote if you have available Heavy, True or Vorpal Trust, they just fire the first action and not the others because the animation of the first action do not allow the second and third (even if available) to start (it needs about 0.45/0.5 or 1 second, rounded, to finish the animation)
You should have to press the button repeatedly (spending so this small time) to have the other actions to fire. Any action has an animation (different also in duration) than prevents an other action (even out of GCD) to start and so you have to wait a fraction of a second. This is my experience, but tell me also your opinion.
Well for monks its a different story as macros for us are amazeball.
Rear side combo
buff
shoulder tackle
Combo 3
Combo 2
Combo 3
Combo 2
combo 1
But this only works for monks because our moves are limited to which step of the combo we are on.
I would do something like;
IC
BFB
Jump
Heavy thrust
It would buff you up before using jump then heavy thrusting.
Since the top 3 have longer cool downs the bulk of the time it would be just heavy thrust. Of course you would need to click off bfb on certain situations but you get the idea.
Rear side combo
buff
shoulder tackle
Combo 3
Combo 2
Combo 3
Combo 2
combo 1
But this only works for monks because our moves are limited to which step of the combo we are on.
I would do something like;
IC
BFB
Jump
Heavy thrust
It would buff you up before using jump then heavy thrusting.
Since the top 3 have longer cool downs the bulk of the time it would be just heavy thrust. Of course you would need to click off bfb on certain situations but you get the idea.
Scholar
47 posts
dustinfoley wrote
what is IC ? I imagine BFB is Blood for Blood
Quote:
I would do something like;
IC
BFB
Jump
Heavy thrust
IC
BFB
Jump
Heavy thrust
what is IC ? I imagine BFB is Blood for Blood
Was supposed to be IR (inner release)
Most Useful Macro is:
/macroicon "Full Thrust"
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Life Surge" <me>
/ac "Full Thrust" <t>
True Thrust > Vorpal Thrust > Macro
Spam the Macro right away so Blood for Blood and Life Surge activate while on you are on GCD from using Vorpal Thrust.
My Phlebotomize looks like this:
/macroicon "Phlebotomize"
/ac "Phlebotomize" <t>
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Power Surge" <me>
/ac "Jump" <t>
For most situations this macro (single push) will be Phlebotomize for my normal rotation. Pressed twice it will activate Blood for Blood with I'm on GCD, and 3 times you can get IR to go off as well. Keep pressing if you want a big DMG instant Jump. I use that part when I don't have enough time for the whole TTT rotation before a Boss jump.
This one is cool for AoE:
/macroicon "Ring of Thorns"
/ac "Dragonfire Dive" <me>
/ac "Ring of Thorns" <me>
That's what I use to AoE because it uses Dragonfire Dive on cooldown. I can still watch the icon for when I need to use Heavy Thrust to proc the extra Ring of Thorns damage after DD is on cooldown.
Finally:
/macroicon "Spineshattter Dive"
/ac "Spineshatter Dive" <t>
/ac "Leg Sweep" <t>
I just use this to stun (or when the enemy will jump soon and I just want the DMG real quick). Even when the icon show it on cool down, I can chekc my bar to see if Leg Sweep is still available. 2 stuns in one button, but of course pressing just once you still have your back-up stun available.
Once again, Macro with /wait times in them just don't fit my play style. These are all spammable and do different things depending on how many time you press the button.
And don't forget the simplified, singe-target rotation is:
HP IDC TTT // HP TTT TTT
Edited, Feb 14th 2014 11:09am by Gnu
/macroicon "Full Thrust"
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Life Surge" <me>
/ac "Full Thrust" <t>
True Thrust > Vorpal Thrust > Macro
Spam the Macro right away so Blood for Blood and Life Surge activate while on you are on GCD from using Vorpal Thrust.
My Phlebotomize looks like this:
/macroicon "Phlebotomize"
/ac "Phlebotomize" <t>
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Power Surge" <me>
/ac "Jump" <t>
For most situations this macro (single push) will be Phlebotomize for my normal rotation. Pressed twice it will activate Blood for Blood with I'm on GCD, and 3 times you can get IR to go off as well. Keep pressing if you want a big DMG instant Jump. I use that part when I don't have enough time for the whole TTT rotation before a Boss jump.
This one is cool for AoE:
/macroicon "Ring of Thorns"
/ac "Dragonfire Dive" <me>
/ac "Ring of Thorns" <me>
That's what I use to AoE because it uses Dragonfire Dive on cooldown. I can still watch the icon for when I need to use Heavy Thrust to proc the extra Ring of Thorns damage after DD is on cooldown.
Finally:
/macroicon "Spineshattter Dive"
/ac "Spineshatter Dive" <t>
/ac "Leg Sweep" <t>
I just use this to stun (or when the enemy will jump soon and I just want the DMG real quick). Even when the icon show it on cool down, I can chekc my bar to see if Leg Sweep is still available. 2 stuns in one button, but of course pressing just once you still have your back-up stun available.
Once again, Macro with /wait times in them just don't fit my play style. These are all spammable and do different things depending on how many time you press the button.
And don't forget the simplified, singe-target rotation is:
HP IDC TTT // HP TTT TTT
Edited, Feb 14th 2014 11:09am by Gnu
Scholar
47 posts
Quote:
And don't forget the simplified, singe-target rotation is:
HP IDC TTT // HP TTT TTT
HP IDC TTT // HP TTT TTT
yes this is my normal rotation for single target (when the target survive ...)
I just add after HP (Heavy thrust and Phlebotomize) also Fracture (nice DOT ..)
serjohn wrote:
Quote:
And don't forget the simplified, singe-target rotation is:
HP IDC TTT // HP TTT TTT
HP IDC TTT // HP TTT TTT
yes this is my normal rotation for single target (when the target survive ...)
I just add after HP (Heavy thrust and Phlebotomize) also Fracture (nice DOT ..)
The DoT on Fracture is not worth the GCD time, as DRG you have far higher DMG abilities/combos available to use your time on. More importantly, using Fracture will put you 2 seconds out on the Heavy Thrust buff so that the 10%+ is not active when you land Life Surge + Full Thrust at the end of the TTT combos.
BTW, if you are not using Life Surge ONLY for use with a comboed Full Thrust, you are losing a significant % of your potential DD. That's why the Most Useful Macro above is at the top of the list.
Edited, Feb 14th 2014 11:09am by Gnu
Scholar
47 posts
Yes Gnu,
but PH is 170 + (25 dam per 18 sec) = 620 and FR is 100+ (20 dam per 30 sec) = 700, then not so bad for 2,5 sec !
Further, if you use Life Surge before Full Thrust (as per your macro) you will have the first fire (even with FR) and the second will not fire (even without FR) because Life Surge (ensure crit damage for first action) has long recast time.
The same for Blood for blood (only the first in the rotation will fire in any case because the recast time).
You are right for the duration of Heavy Thrust (20 sec ... just 8 actions) but you can avoid this putting Fracture before HT, I imagine ... probably I am wrong ...
but PH is 170 + (25 dam per 18 sec) = 620 and FR is 100+ (20 dam per 30 sec) = 700, then not so bad for 2,5 sec !
Further, if you use Life Surge before Full Thrust (as per your macro) you will have the first fire (even with FR) and the second will not fire (even without FR) because Life Surge (ensure crit damage for first action) has long recast time.
The same for Blood for blood (only the first in the rotation will fire in any case because the recast time).
You are right for the duration of Heavy Thrust (20 sec ... just 8 actions) but you can avoid this putting Fracture before HT, I imagine ... probably I am wrong ...
serjohn wrote:
Yes Gnu,
but PH is 170 + (25 dam per 18 sec) = 620 and FR is 100+ (20 dam per 30 sec) = 700, then not so bad for 2,5 sec !
Further, if you use Life Surge before Full Thrust (as per your macro) you will have the first fire (even with FR) and the second will not fire (even without FR) because Life Surge (ensure crit damage for first action) has long recast time.
The same for Blood for blood (only the first in the rotation will fire in any case because the recast time).
You are right for the duration of Heavy Thrust (20 sec ... just 8 actions) but you can avoid this putting Fracture before HT, I imagine ... probably I am wrong ...
but PH is 170 + (25 dam per 18 sec) = 620 and FR is 100+ (20 dam per 30 sec) = 700, then not so bad for 2,5 sec !
Further, if you use Life Surge before Full Thrust (as per your macro) you will have the first fire (even with FR) and the second will not fire (even without FR) because Life Surge (ensure crit damage for first action) has long recast time.
The same for Blood for blood (only the first in the rotation will fire in any case because the recast time).
You are right for the duration of Heavy Thrust (20 sec ... just 8 actions) but you can avoid this putting Fracture before HT, I imagine ... probably I am wrong ...
I'd like to understand more of what you are saying.
I try to make sure Life Surge is activated off Global Cooldown so it does not use up my 20 seconds of Heavy Thrust. I'm unclear what you are saying with "the second will not fire".
And the Blood for Blood line, because recast time? I think what you are saying is that it won't be up every time you use Full Thrust. Yes?
I'm not convinced Fracture is a good use of a cross-class slot or GCD time yet, although the combined potency does seem to be on par at least with Phlebotomize. Very few enemies last 30 seconds, but we are talking about max damage in ideal conditions. However 30 seconds puts you in a wonky part of your overall rotation, so you are not likely to reapply right away. Better finish a TTT rotation than clip Fracture early.
What I've read is that Fracture is on par with most of the DRG skills. In practice it's more or less even. Ideally you need the Skill Speed in order to apply it after Heavy Thrust. If your going to use it, might as well get the extra 10%.
Personally, given that it's more or less even DPS overall, I prefer to keep my rotation simpler and also free up a cross-class slot for a DEF ability. I've found Foresight specifically to be useful quite a bit.
Scholar
47 posts
Quote:
And the Blood for Blood line, because recast time? I think what you are saying is that it won't be up every time you use Full Thrust. Yes?
yes you are correct, sorry for my bad and poor english ...
When I say "the second will not fire". I mean during the second TTT in the rotation.
I agree with you for foresight: I have it and have also Internal release, Fracture, Bloodbath. I Change often between Second Wind and Featherfoot (don't know which is better)
Thank you for your comments/opinion, well appreciated
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