vanguard macro (hotkey) guide to get most out of your class

Discussion in 'The Newbie Yard' started by Awarr, Nov 11, 2012.

  1. Baldur Active Member

    Yes, you are correct, it will fire off all 3 parts of the 1st crit chain. But if all you are doing is putting /reactionchain 1 in the macro then you can accomplish the same thing by dragging the icon from the finisher hotbar down to another hotbar. Then you get the same thing as the macro but the icon will change with each step of the chain and you can see the timer.
  2. Vedrix Member

    Oh ok this helps too. I thought I did that initially but I may have used the original icon it gave me when i trained the ability the first time (which is why its not chaining properly as you described). As it is right now I have to hit 3 keys to do 1 full chain which is cumbersome. Now I can save space on the gamepad. Thanks.
  3. Dirkin Active Member

    Do you not have your chain window up? There is a separate window from your hotbars that displays your chains, you can just click on them from there. Will save you some space. :)

    Edit: The same applies to both counter abilities and rescues. they all have their own separate windows. Or bars, whatever you want to call them. You can go to layout mode and place them wherever you want though. No need to clutter up your main hotbars with chains,counters,rescues.
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  4. Nejibana Active Member

    one macro that everyone should have regardless of class is:
    /target rynatya
    /bonk
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  5. Vedrix Member

    Yeah I got the bar up to see the cooldowns and stuff but I try not to click stuff.
  6. Awarr Active Member

    yes it will, second and third step of the chain will fire with same macro. third too.

    my macro's are designed to be kept spammed. so 1111111111 will fire chain skills if they are up, all direct skills casts available, kick when its available and sunder if nothing else. Easy peasie.

    Typically i kep spamming 1 whole time during fight, after debuffing mob with rend armor. When mob is almost dead i switch to next mob and again, keep spamming 1.
  7. Vedrix Member

    Yea... I want to try and avoid this. I'll agree it's the most efficient way to do things but it removes part of the fun from the game for me. I like being challenged with trying to match the right keys with the right abilities. Adds more to each encounter. Reminds me of raiding in SWTOR, as a DPS, healer, or tank all I did was spam 1-5. I sat there for 4 hours spamming the same buttons over and over. It lost its fun once I got all the best gear (content was fun and challenging but that was only because of the learning curve some ppl had, but the only novelty was the gear) so I came here. Actually its not much different what I do I just press more buttons. 54 function game pad + 90 function mouse. I just press a different assortment of keys, or in the mouses case, rotate knobs, press buttons, and hit switches.
  8. Awarr Active Member

    i actually prefer mindless spamming so i can keep my attention to the tanking itself. I got no skills or resets to look at usually with my macro's.. So i can study roaming patterns from mobs, see adds way before they *really* add, force target mobs that i lost aggro on by watching encounter window all the time... All in all, it would take serious effort to tank hours on end clicking all the right buttons and watchting screen for adds. I just know from personal experience i can keep tanking all day now, easy peasy mode. If did it without macro i got 'tired' after few hours due to concentration.. I know its less challenge off course.. But i get my thrill by just steaming head on before rest of group into bunch of mobs and just aoe aggro tank 'm all.. Then i hope healer and dps catch up before i'm dead:rolleyes:

    Wouldn't be the first healer that said "you and your charging from one mob to next.. you really are hard to keep up with.." or "gimme some time between mobs for mana, you chain pulls too much". Thats what makes my day :p
  9. Vedrix Member

    Yea... most dungeons so far are just pure tank and spank... which is 100% boring (fight mechanic wise). Hopefully some crazy mechanics pop up in the end-game content. So far for grouping to be intrinsically rewarding I need to add the extra complications and challenges to the simple mechanics. I run the risk of totally screwing up in a fight and everything falling apart but it makes the game more enjoyable. It's kinda like being underleveled and undergeared as a healer and having encounters where your slamming buttons and are on edge the whole fight like "Oh **** oh ****" the entire fight. Those are fun times.
  10. Dirkin Active Member

    I'd get bored just spamming 1 all night long. :)
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  11. Awarr Active Member

    at least i can keep up tanking at 100% concentration with it, all night long, for hours on end! Doubt you can do that if you have to focus on skills all the time...
  12. Vedrix Member

    I'll admit I'd probably hit a burnout or wall where you could keep going, you know where I fumble keys and stuff. That usually happens after about 5-6 hours of straight gameplay. Then again I don't think most play for 5-6 hours straight without taking a break somewhere in there (not talking about a logical "break," i mean bio, drink food, smoke, etc, revitalize). But yea, if you're just pressing 1 the entire night I bet you could go for 24 hours straight with no issue.
  13. Awarr Active Member

    like i said its just a matter of where you get your satisfaction from. This guide does not promote to make macro's that allow you to press 1 all the time.. Its a guide on how to make macro's i general.

    You could make macro's that fire the group bonus skills before any skill hotkey if you wish. Or split my macro's into ten buttons.

    Possibilities are endless.

    But raiding without macro's? Bad idea. Macro's are needed to play your class to the the fullest extent, period.

    Reason i went with 1 button click macro's is to be able to raid 8+ hours a day without loosing focus. :p
  14. Awarr Active Member

    any update on making posts editable all the time? I'd really like to add some stuff to the OP :(
  15. Torveld Active Member

    Cool guide, I never really noticed it before for some reason. I just wanted to add my quick thoughts about macros.

    They are really helpful at times, often in noncombat situations as well as combat situations. The greatest benefit that macros provide to me is that they allow you to fire off multiple non global cooldown abilities in a specific order that benefits your class in some way. I only use like 2 macros basically and I only hit them every few minutes or so depending on whats going on. I can't speak for all classes but I feel that for me specifically to have a 11111 macro would be illogical because doing the same thing each time is not always the most desirable way to approach an encounter. I feel that there may be a variable strategy to the way I order my abilities that are sometimes better in one situation but not better in another. For instance, macroing my monks "Jin Surge" ability doesn't make sense to keep it constantly going off on cooldown. The reason being is because I want it to apply to my most powerful attacks, putting it inside of a macro limits the effectiveness of when it is applied. I am of course guilty tho of sometimes getting lost in the buttons in comparison to whats occurring during the fight, but for me that just makes it more of an interesting challenge to try to focus on doing the right combat abilities while trying to react to the circumstances of the fight.
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  16. Sorcinum Dizzy Active Member

    Its really true.. You should at least make 1 or 2 macros (inhabit mad meany yet, but will) on my new main(sorc)
    Watch when u play how much u just stare at ur hot bars.. Especially when tanking, omg!
  17. Eacaraxe New Member

    After taking the time to set up my new blood mage's macros tonight, the ugly logistics monster reared its head and I figured I'd throw a post in here to ask some questions.

    First, are there any arguments or modifiers you can add to display the tooltip of the spell you're using, rather than the macro itself? Having limited ability to track my global cooldown really holds me back, especially since I'm very much not a button-spammer type of player.

    Second, is there a pause or wait modifier/command? I'd like to get one macro for all my group buffs, but considering the GCD that's not going to happen without a /pause command or somesuch. Even EQ1 back in the day had /pause, even if it was for some reason measured in centiseconds...
  18. Shal Active Member

    no to both
  19. Baldur Active Member

    Just to update this, you can get more than 10 lines in one macro by using a semi-colon ; instead of hitting enter between lines. I can't take credit for figuring this out, I read it in another thread somewhere, and I can't remember who said it, otherwise I would give them credit for it.

    As long as you can fit it within the 255 character limit, if you use semi-colons instead of new lines, then you can have as many actions as you want in a macro. It's a little harder to manage if you have to make any changes to it, but it's helped a ton with me playing 4 characters at once. I really needed more than 10 lines per macro.
  20. Sinisna Active Member

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