Advanced macro help.Follow

Hi all,

As of right now, my SCH is 69. And I've been trying to find a good macro set up that is the most efficient. I'll put down how I have my macros set at the moment. It may not make sense if you look at it chronologically, but just bear with me. Also note: Light Arts is always on Ctrl+1, and Dark Arts is always on Alt+1. Hitting either of these macros will send me to the Light Arts main and Dark Arts main. Again, bear with me. Sorry if this is confusing.

Sublimation is always set on Alt+0, except for Storm spells/helices (set 6), for which I don't have any room to put Sublimation on.

Set 1: Main switchboard. I don't use this, as I feel it's just one more macro set to trudge through to get to the spells I need to use for the given time. Of course, this is subject to change (equipment change macros, etc.).

Set 2: Light Arts main. Here's where everything starts for everything Light Arts related. I have macros that send to me to Cures (set 7), Status Removal (set 4), Enspells (set 10), Enfeebles (set 9). I have all JAs related to Light Arts too. There's plenty to work with here, and hitting Ctrl+1 only puts on Light Arts and doesn't switch macro sets.

Set 3: Dark Arts main. Follows the Light Arts main example. Nuking (set 8), Enfeebles (set 9), Helices/storm (set 6). All JAs related to Dark Arts are here. Lots of room to work with, which I could make good use of Sleep macros.

Set 4: Status Removals. I keep everything related to removing statuses (duh) and what Addendum: White gives. I don't go here too much unless I know I need to use multiple spells from this category.

Set 5: Originally I had intended this to be where all Addendum: Black spells went. But I quickly discovered there weren't enough spells to make use of, and it had become more cumbersome to put Sleep and Dispel in here all alone. Of course, with Tier IV nukes now becoming available to me, this could be a good place to house them.

Set 6: All of my storm and helices are here. I have them in order of how the days go, so Firestorm > Hailstorm, etc. all on Alt, and Pyrohelix > Cryohelix, etc. all on Ctrl. I have just enough room to stick the default Light/Dark Arts, Kilmaform and Modus Veritas macros here, but nothing else.

Set 7: All cures go here. I'd say I spend 90% of my time here for Light Arts. After cures and job abilities are set here, I have enough room to throw Stoneskin, Phalanx, Blink, Erase and a status removing spell of my choice. For fighting imps, Silena is a godsend to go here, and I couldn't imagine having to switch macro sets to access it.

Set 8: All nukes go here. I have not worked with Tier IV nukes yet, so it's just all Tier III nukes (and I macro in II nukes in case of level syncing). I also found it helpful to put Aspir and Drain here, for fighting Colibri and whatever else. I put Sleep macros in here too, although I still need to fine tune them.

Set 9: Enfeebles. Self-explanatory.

Set 10: Enspells. Self-explanatory too.

How do these macros look? Of course, I macro in Elemental Staves when necessary, and everytime I hit Light/Dark Arts, it switches the rings I'm using (Dark = +INT, Arts = +MND).

I just want to be able to access spells without fumbling around like a moron and not getting a spell off in time. With my current macros in Sets 7 and 8, I don't have any room to put in equip macros, aside from in the spell macros themselves.

I'm also going to give myself a tad bit of slack when it comes to anything Dark Arts related. I was fine doing pre-ToAU areas, but once these areas hit, between level sync and the sheer amount of new spells I was getting, I am finding it to be a bit overwhelming. Couple that with the fact that my prior 75 job is SMN, so I don't have much experience leveling another real mage class.

Any advice you can give me is much appreciated, and if you need clarification or additional information, please let me know.

Thanks!

I have mine setup as follows:

Set 1: Cures *including status removal and regen*
Set 2: Nukes *including drain and aspir*
Set 3: Buffs
Set 4: Enfeebles

All sets have the stratagems that apply.
All sets have Alt-0 as addendum: X followed by X arts for the arts that applies.
All sets have Alt-9 as sublimation.
Enfeebles set has Ctrl-0 as Addendum: Black followed by Dark Arts.

I don't have helices macro'd, I simply type them into the command line. Storms are in set 3. I don't typically cast tier 3 spells or lower unless to finish a mob off, so I simply type whatever spell I need in that situation into the command line.

Switchboard style macroing is quite effective in my opinion. It just needs to be setup properly. I used it for a while, but eventually removed it as I couldn't get in the habit of using the switchboard controls. I do have set 10 setup though to switchboard between different books for when I change jobs.

Since I use Windower and haven't made the jump to Spellcast, my swaps are perhaps a bit more intricate, but I think they're rather functional.

Since I like to Campaign, sometimes I might not want to be swapping my weapons around. For that, I've created a toggle system utilizing aliases. I've also used the system for changing how I focus my nukes on the fly. For basic stuff, I'll just use my more MATK heavy build, but for resistant things, I'll use my more accurate settings.

Staff toggles in two separate texts bound to Alt+F12:
Allow swapping.

alias staffstatus staffswap; 
keyboard_sendstring /echo Switching staves on casting.; 
keyboard_bind !f12 exec SCH/toggle_noswap.txt;

Prevent swapping.

alias staffstatus keyboard_sendstring /echo Staff swapping is disabled.; 
keyboard_sendstring /echo No weapon swaps on casting.; 
keyboard_bind !f12 exec SCH/toggle_swap.txt;

Potency/Accuracy toggles bound to Ctrl+F12:
Focusing on MATK:

alias nukestatus exec SCH/Alias/sch_int_nuk_atk.txt; 
alias helixstatus exec SCH/Alias/sch_int_helix_atk.txt; 
keyboard_sendstring /echo Focusing on Magic Attack.; 
keyboard_bind ^f12 exec SCH/toggle_macc.txt;

Focusing on MACC:

alias nukestatus exec SCH/Alias/sch_int_nuk_acc.txt; 
alias helixstatus exec SCH/Alias/sch_int_helix_acc.txt; 
keyboard_sendstring /echo Focusing on Magic Accuracy.; 
keyboard_bind ^f12 exec SCH/toggle_matk.txt;

One of my nuke macros would look something like this:

exec SCH/Alias/sch_fast_cast.txt; 
alias staffswap keyboard_sendstring /equip main "Jupiter's Staff";keyboard_sendstring /equip sub "Bugard Strap +1"; 
keyboard_sendstring /equip waist "Rairin Obi"; 
keyboard_sendstring /recast "Thunder IV"; 
keyboard_sendstring /ma "Thunder IV" <t>; 
wait 1; 
staffstatus; 
nukestatus;

Swap nukestatus for helixstatus if using a Helix, but such is pretty much how all my spells look taking into account using Relic Head/AF Feet/Loquacious at start then swapping to whatever gear is appropriate for casting. Technically, I need to go through and create an alias system for staves/grips so I'm not going through 40+ texts if I want to tweak something specific, but for now that's what I've got.

Specific macro layout will depend on what form of Arts I'm in.
Light:

CTRL: 1) Dispel 2) Regen 3) Regen II 4) Dia II 5) Blink 6) Aurorastorm 7) Bind 8) Banish 9) Banish II 0) Sleep 
ALT: 1) Add: White 2) Dark Arts 3) Cure III 4) Cure IV 5) Stoneskin 6) Silence 7) Slow 8) Paralyze 9) Blind 0) Gravity

White:

CTRL: 1) Dispel 2) Regen II 3) Poisona 4) Blindna 5) Paralyna 6) Silena 7) Cursna 8) Viruna 9) Stona 0) Erase 
ALT: 1) Misc Barspell 2) Dark Arts 3) Cure III 4) Cure IV 5) Stoneskin 6) Silence 7) Slow 8) Paralyze 9) Blind 0) Gravity

CTRL-F4-F8 also have Penury, Celerity, Accession, and Rapture bound respective. Whenever I used Accession, my macros jump to a Buff page where whenever one is cast, it goes back to whatever mode I had set via an alias I simply call buffsplace that's set when whatever mode is chosen.

Buffs:

CTRL: 1) Regen II 2) Aquaveil 3) Enstone 4) Enwater 5) Enaero 6) Enfire 7) Enblizzard 8) Enthunder 9) Protect IV 0) Shell IV 
ALT: 1) Stoneskin 2) Phalanx 3) Sandstorm 4) Rainstorm 5) Windstorm 6) Firestorm 7) Hailstorm 8) Thunderstorm 9) Aurorastorm 0) Voidstorm

Dark:

CTRL: 1) Dispel 2) Drain 3) Aspir 4) Bio 5) Poison 6) Bind 7) Helices 8) Tier IIIs 9) Thunderstorm 0) Sleep 
ALT: 1) Light Arts 2) Add: Black 3) Cure III 4) Cure IV 5) Stoneskin 6) Silence 7) Slow 8) Paralyze 9) Blind 0) Gravity

Black:

CTRL: 1) Dispel 2) Drain 3) Aspir 4) Bio 5) Poison 6) Bind 7) Helices 8) Tier IIIs 9) Tier IVs 0) Sleep II 
ALT: 1) Light Arts 2) Klimaform 3) Cure III 4) Cure IV 5) Stoneskin 6) Silence 7) Slow 8) Paralyze 9) Blind 0) Gravity

Like the Light side, CTRL-F4-F8 get Parsimony, Alacrity, Manifestation, and Ebullience bound respectively. The Tier III, IV, and Helix pages basically resemble Black, but replace 4-9 with the nukes and 2-9 with helices.

Other macros I have involve CTRL-F3 swapping in either my Ixion Cloak or AF Hat/Relic Body depending on my Sublimation needs. CTRL-F4 calls the earlier mentioned Buffs page if I need it for some reason. F9 equips my HMP gear. There are some other incidentals, but we start delving into me actually having melee gear, things for Spirit Taker, Omniscience, etc..

I saw a post by Kaeko about macros for SCH. I took some time and went over them, and noticed that he did what you are doing there with the macros that send you to other sets. I do like the idea there, but I personally have never been able to impliment that successfully. I prefer to condense my macro books to spells that I will commonly use and memorize where they are. I shift up and down max one set to cast any spell I use. A basic overlook of my book:

Set1: The other elements, but all casted in elemental skill gear (when do you cast Aero4/Fire4 not in ele skill gear?) I also keep Klimaform here as ALT0, since I generally use this while doing ele skill nukes.

(Main DA)Set2: Basic DA spells. Basically any spell I'd cast soloing, its here. Thunder3-4/Blizz3-4, Cryo/Ionohelices, Gravity, Bind, Sleep, dispel and the DA strats. I also have Hailstorm/Thunderstorm here.

(Main LA)Set3: Basic LA spells. Basically any spell I would use while healing, or that I would need to buff myself while soloing. Cures, regen2, Paralyna, Silena, Erase, Stoneskin, Blink, Phalanx, Enthunder, Sandstorm(desert boots), Firestorm, and the LA strats.

Set4: here is where i keep a few of the less used LA spells. stona, cursna, etc.

Basically, If im in Dark Arts I stay on Set2 and scroll up 1 for oddball black magic, and scroll down for cures. If I swap to LA, I go to set 3 where I have all my normal cures and buffs. Its pretty simple, I really dont see the point of having Barwater or EnAero on my book because honestly, I can manually cast a spell that I only need once every few months. Same goes for Thunder1 or Burn. If you sort you spells those are very easy to scroll to anyway.

Thanks for your replies.

Seriha, how exactly do you go about binding commands to F1-F12 and such? I like what I see there, although it might be better to use Spellcast if it's the same amount of work. I've read about Spellcast (since I use Windower as well) and I think the functionality would work very well.

By the way, this just might be me, but is anyone else a stickler for wanting to see spell animations? It's to the point where I'll have a /wait macro between casting the spell and equipping the appropriate staff. I feel it's a bit jarring to equip a staff and cast a spell at the same time. This especially rings true for SMN, where I used to stand there like a dope for 5 seconds before doing anything. Now, I have a /wait 5 macro before the equip change, at which point the avatar is summoned. Much better. But I digress.

Really, it seems like using Spellcast or F1-F12 bindings is the way to go. Freeing up all the JAs on the traditional macro set would be a godsend to me.

I do exactly the same thing on my SMN, lol.

Edited, Mar 26th 2009 1:30pm by Squintik