Am I the only one that does not macro?

And is that going to cause problems for getting t1/t2 groups once I get to that level?

I went all 50 lvl's without using macros. Now that I'm 50 I find that a little forum surfing will give you some good cookie cutter macros and it has made me wonder why I did it the hard way for 50 lvl's. i don't think that using them or not should matter if you get your job done.

Macro's only really serve to make it easier for the player. Instead of having to push 10 different buttons for my main abilities I can only push 2-3. If you are doing fine without macro's then I don't think anyone is going to not group with you because you do not use them (no way for them to tell anyway unless you tell them, there is no "inspect macros" option). Also, if you are interested in using macro's many in this guild would be more than happy to help. There is also a good guide on the site.

I mainly use a Saboteur build for raids, and I don't use any macro on it.

I never use macro's, I think its cheating. I think they would really help classes like Blade Dancer and Paragon out with their combo system thing tho, cause its highly annoying to do that cause stuff misses.

I got to 50 on my mage and currently 48 on my cleric without the use of macros and never had a complaint from anyone I've grouped with. I decided to try macros on my rogue because I was told "it makes it all so much better". At 30 I ditched them. It was lazy play. I was bored silly and lacked the flexibility I enjoyed before I used them. As long as you get the job done and have fun doing it, it should not be an issue.

I do not use macros - and I find that as long as I keep my mind in the game I don't have an issue. To qoute Zashyn, "I was bored silly and lacked the flexibility I enjoyed before I used them. As long as you get the job done and have fun doing it, it should not be an issue." This is how I think.

I use a few macros, though sabdancer doesn't need many. Mostly just startattack stuff to keep auto-attacks on. Also an incriminate macro to allow @mouseoverui and @focus incriminates, gearswap macros for different specs, and some other misc utility stuff ("Cead Mile Failte! Welcome...") My PVP spec (MM/sin) has no macros. No real point to using any. On my mage as a chloro I use a mouseover macro for bloom.

I have used macros (in other games), but not for anything combat related. My feeling is that if you are in a fight, you should be sweating a little bit... heh heh... /say "enter or exit just open the door!"

» Edited on: 2011-07-11 17:12:36

I don't use any macros myself, but I'm not against them. How else would Fog keep up with his spam? :D

for some classes it is virtually impossible to achieve the same amount of DPS "unmacro"'d as it is "macro"'d. but you can still play without them, and still be OK, especially in t1s and t2s, as long as you know what to do when :)

» Edited on: 2011-07-11 18:22:44

I don't use macros on my healer, but I do on my tank. How else would I have time to eat popcorn and drink coke :) .. seriously I didn't start using macros until I got carpal tunnel from tanking, so I cut the most repetitive out and can now enjoy playing.

Macros are a tool given to us by the devs. When they are the right tool for the job then there's nothing wrong with using them, they're certainly not cheating. Yet it's still fun to go for a foodless pacifist atheist ascension in NetHack. Sure, food is a tool given to you to avoid starvation, prayer and altars are damn useful, and those weapons are a great tool on the path to ascension, but if you can win without them and it's fun to do so why not try? Of course, NetHack is single player. A weaponless rogue there isn't going to wipe a raid.

Where is the guide for macros? and which class benefits the most from them. I saw where someone said there was a guide here but I am still learning the site and would like a more specific direction. I can use any direction and help that can be given. I am always willing to learn new things. Thanks

The guides page is one of the tabs at the top (underneath the top tabs) in between the About and Participate sections. You can also reach it here: http://rift.gaiscioch.com/guides/ This site is also all about macros in Rift: http://www.riftmacros.com/

Only macro I use is for healing.. and it's a mouse-over. Which honestly isn't anything fancy or different.

Macros r too easy. It makes playin the game to easy. Especially when most people can play the game just fine without them. Sometimes They help sometimes they dont. MACROS MAKE THE GAME TOO EASY!!

I think there are certainly times where macros are appropriate - for instance, when casting targetted heals setting up a "macro" that first tries to cast on a mouseover target and if that fails casts on your focus target. Ideally that's something that could be done with a modifier key (maybe it can?) but IMHO it's much better than clicking the target, casting the spell, then clicking on your previous target (assuming that's an easy thing to do). They can also be helpful in raid situations for combat rezs - it's fairly common to have a macro that says something in raid (ie: "%t, get back up and FIGHT!") so that the other healers know the rez is taken care of. You might be able to coordinate that in Vent, but it makes sense to me both from a gameplay and RP standpoint to have that communication in game. But yes - using macros to handle your rotation for you DOES greatly simplify gameplay (for better or for worse).

I want to develop a nice mouse over heal macro. That would be awesome!

#show Healing Breath stopcasting cast @mouseover Healing Breath

By the way, for mouseover macros of spells that have a casting time, the 'stopcasting' part of that macro will interrupt whatever you were doing. Even if that previous action was casting the same spell. What that means is if you are used to queueing up your spells, then don't use that command. It will prevent you from queueing up your spell casts.

And if you have my play style where you hit the keys to the beat of an 80's death metal band, that will make it worthless too

» Edited on: 2011-07-20 13:05:14

Solo, I use a pretty moderate macro with 6 abilities. Cuisinart spec does that, and there are plenty of others I use that aren't macroed. In groups, Sabdancer, Riftstalker, and Bard are all largely unmacroable (save for startattack macros and mouseover macros that have 1 ability each.) In PVP, 44MM is unmacroable. That said, Hoko's 1-button setup is pretty amusing: #show Backstab petattack petcast Bite petcast Maul cast Backstab cast Precision strike cast Puncture cast Quick Strike cast Keen Strike cast Weapon Barrage cast Blade Tempo cast Poison Malice cast Quick Shot 4 other buttons for finishers/utility.... Which brings up petattack and petcast. With ranger/BM pets every ability you use should have petattack and the petcasts macroed in, it adds around 80dps last I checked. Pet autocast is buggy somehow.

Macros really help with the reactive abilities. With a spec like Hoko's, which I also use for dpsing/questing, it hurts your performance by NOT using the macro. Your pet does less dps, you don't get off your reactives right away. Taking out the cooldowns in that spec could help a bit and of course the interrupt(weapon barrage), not sure why anyone would have that macro'd. All that said, I think Trion made a huge mistake with their macro rules. I hope they nerf/fix it, but it's probably too late for that. People would freak out if they couldn't do their 2000dps one button masher.

I would not think so Bashir. I only recently (lvl 43 or so) set up some serious macros for Tank mode. One I use for critical aggro situations when I really want to annoy something(s). Another macro stacks certain DOT abilities in the correct order to maximize the end result when it finally gets to the finisher. Because of the way the macro system is designed, it will only cast one ability in the list each time you use/press it. So the trick it to put abilities with longer cool down at the top of the list and descend to the shortest at the bottom. Instead of having to key 2 3 4 then 5 I just press one key 4 times and each time through it picks the next ability that is not in cool down. See? As a tank, I am nearly certain that anyone in the group would appreciate that I am using my abilities in the most effective order and leaving nothing to chance, fat finger or randomness. And, in a critical situation, grabbing one key is going to use everything I have available, quickly, to turn that baddie around in my direction. I do not use them constantly but there are times that I am finding I should have set them up long ago. Macros are also very good for changing Role and gear on the fly. Grabbing a drink wile saying "/party HOLD! Drinking" or /raid ADDS! ADDS!" and etc. I have a PVP macro that does: cast Disarming Counterblow cast Shield Charge cast Light's Decree cast Retaliation cast Face Slam cast Leader's Mark That starts the fight in a way that I imagine is truly annoying on the receiving end. :) Someone recently witnessed me use this macro on a rift raid after being killed by a Defiant Mage during a Rift. I hunted him down and followed/watched him for a good while. During another Rift a short time later he turned on an isolated Guardian and flagged. It was a very obvious act. I simply hit the key and he never got another shot off. He was replaced by a tombstone in seconds. Gaming is the only space where I ever seek revenge. Fun! If anyone needs a hand with the topic, feel free to drop me a note or look me up in game and I will share what I have learned so far. I tested these extensively on the dummies in town and sorted out some problems that most will likely run into. On an added note, it was the first time (using the macro keys on dummies) that I have ever seen "Not enough power" message appear on my screen. So it is obviously much more effective than my typo-plagued finger, and a whole lot less chance to break a nail as well!

» Edited on: 2011-07-25 23:14:06

Hello all, just joined the family. Thought I'd start right off with giving back a little :) I have to admit I do macro a fair bit. I sill keep a lot of my abilities on my hotbar(s) for times when I just want to hit certain abilities/spells, but for general leveling macros makes things so much easier. I find this especially true for classes with lots of reactives - melee clerics, champs, paladins, etc... I jump between classes a lot and it helps immensely, especially when I haven't played a particular character in a while. For setting up your own macros, I follow a simple format and it hasn't failed me yet. Macros are read top-down by the game. First line: #show spellnametoshow - I usually pick the first long-cooldown spell in the macro here. Second line: suppressmacrofailures - This gets rid of the "you can only cast one spell per macro" spam on your screen. First: Always list reactive abilities/spells first, and then in the order you would want them used if they all popped at once. Second: Pet attack and cast commands Third: Openers such as backstab, etc... Fourth: Abilities with cooldowns, listed in the order you would like them used. Keep an eye on the length of the cooldowns though. Lots of short cooldown abilities can prevent the macro from ever reaching the end. Not always a bad thing but something to keep in mind. Fifth: One "spam" ability with no cooldown. This should be placed at the end of the macro and will be used when all other abilities are on cooldown. Placing this higher up in the list will mostly prevent the macro from ever moving past that point in the list. I've seen this a lot on the forums and is a common mistake. I've yet to get my characters added in-game (listed below) but once I do feel free to hit me up with any questions. I love to help where I can. :) Entrepid - 42 Cleric Equiknox - 31 Warrior Imagica - 38 Mage Maetrix - 32 Rogue Yes I'm an alt-a-holic :) P.S. If any of you happen to have claimed the name Emmortal on the shard and are not actively playing it, I'd love to get it back. Been my main character name in MMO's since UO!

I've watched the "macro debate" across a multitude of games. I've macro'd a good bit in the past, but it annoys me for me to macro. What I've found, for myself as a touch typist sitting on a G510 keyboard with those lovely 18 G-keys on the side, is that I actually react faster for most abilities via pressing the button myself. It takes me, oh, an hour or two playing a class to get "good" at it, and a month or two of all those little once-a-day situations to use certain cooldowns sequentially to essentially 'muscle-memory' where a specific ability is. To this day, I can list off anywhere between 5 and 35 abilities for my various toons in wow by what key I pressed to do something. I can tell you without logging into game where I put most of my abilities in Rift, assuming I have my keyboard to assist me in remembering what I do and when (i.e. fingers over alt-3 is forked lightning as SC, essence link as necro, and the cast-speed-buff/debuff as archon, for example). Touch typing allows me to know where all the keys on the keyboard are regardless of the situation to the point that I don't have to think about it, ever, to find a key. Memorizing what abilities go to what key takes a little time, but allows me to not be 'wasting' a cooldown early or an ability cast needlessly. A perfect example is the (i think) Centurion strike for Justicar, the one that looks like a sword from bottom left to top right and causes them to take extra magic damage. You can cast it every 7 seconds, but it lasts on the mob for 15 seconds and hits softer than the normal strike. Macroing it means a small loss in tank-dps, aka aggro gen. There are a multitude of other examples to show why touch typing is anything from a tiny gain to a gargantuan one, depending on the class & circumstances. I've seen others use macros to do everything from notifying a group/raid of a combat res to reactionary abilities (something I do agree with and do for my warrior). Sometimes those macros allow someone who doesn't touch type to do just as good. Other times, it makes abilities that are annoying but useful just useful. Unfortunately, yet other times it means that when they change the macros they suddenly go from doing 2100 dps to 1100 dps from one patch to the next because they don't know instinctively what to push when if it's not macro'd for them because they never learned to play their class. I support any use of macros that enables someone to play. I support any use of macros that removes annoyances like reactionaries that only activate on dodge (or similar). I support macros to enable someone who doesn't type well to play well. It's only the last type, the macroing that enables someone to press one key and not know what they're doing but pressing that one key repeatedly enables them to "play well" that I personally disagree with. For myself, though, the only macros I use are notification style (cast res /say "resing [name]") and reactionary types. *shrug* To the OP, not macroing will never mean you can't play effectively or even as the best of your class online, if you put the effort in. =) I know many people who don't, and many people who do, and for the most part they all play well and fill the roles they need to fill as the situation calls for it. »Edited for grammar & spelling

» Edited on: 2011-07-26 13:29:06