How To Use Macros In Ffxiv

As I became more and more than interested in FFXIV I started looking at smaller things that could amend my gameplay feel. This led me to tinkering around with user macros, a very useful tool for automating all sorts of things in the game and making things a tiny bit friendlier to my user experience.

There are lots of quality of life improvements that macros can assistance yous with, and yes, even some express benefits when it comes to combat. If y'all're interested in any of those things, read on. While I'll comprehend a diversity of uses, this is but an introduction and there are fifty-fifty more than complex things you can gear up up with the help of macros.

In this postal service I'm going to innovate you to macros and how to set them up. I'm also going to go over some of the about mutual usages, too equally some 'housekeeping' aspects you may want to add together when creating them. The FFXIV playerbase very ofttimes shares useful knowledge with each other, so new macro uses and innovations are often posted on reddit or discord if y'all're keeping upward with those communities.

Making and Saving Macros

Showtime, let's get-go with the housekeeping stuff. How do you create, admission, and salve your macros? I'll also show some common lines that are added to most macros to impact the icon, timing, and potential error letters.

The User Macros Window

Y'all tin go to Organization > User Macros to come across and create your macros. You'll detect there's an individual and a shared tab. The shared tab is for all characters (alts) you lot create, while the private tab is merely for the character you're currently playing. No demand to rewrite all your macros when y'all start a new character. You can accept 100 macros in each tab.

Y'all can click and drag a macro from this window to place a copy of it on your hotbar, which is then activated like any other hotbar push. Or, you tin can as well correct click the macro from the user macros window and execute it immediately.

There'southward a button at the bottom right labelled 'Text Commands' which opens a very long list of commands you tin can use to write your macros. I'll be going through some common ones, simply if you're interested in digging deeper, that'south where you'll want to await. Note that there'due south a lot of filler commands because many of them are the various emote deportment.

The right-hand side of the user macros window is where the selected macro is displayed. You're limited to 20 characters in the name. Next to the name field is the selected macro's current icon. You can click on that to select from a number of preset icons. Yous can also choose others which I'll talk about in the next section.

The body of the macro gives yous xv lines. This can feel limiting if you become into crafting or transformation macros, but it'due south plenty for near macro purposes.

How to Set Macro Icons

In that location are a number of default macro icons in the user macros interface that y'all can view and choose from easily. With a macro selected in the user macros window, click on the greyness box to the left of the name of the macro, and select from several pages of default icons. These comprehend a diverseness of generic symbols but as well some game-related ones as well.

If you tin't find i you lot like, or if you desire something specific already in the game, you can change the icon by typing this line inside the macro:

/macroicon "icon name" [category]

/micon "icon proper name" [category]

This works keen for combat macros especially, since information technology volition display the recast timer and mana cost, just like the regular skill yous're using the icon for.

You lot can even use icons for pet commands, items, waymarks, emotes, and tons more. If you have the name of the icon right just it withal won't show up, endeavor including the type of icon after the quotations, for example:

/micon stay pet
/micon greeting emote
/micon a waymark

Skills for combat, crafting, and gathering jobs practise not need a category tag after the skill name, since information technology assumes the [action] category by default.

/micon medica
/micon innovation
/micon unearth

Annotation that yous will need quotations for icons that have more than one word. Names that are merely hyphenated practice not require quotations.

/micon "cure II"
/micon "battle deport" mount
/micon "attacker stance" companion
/micon "wind-upwardly leviathan" minion

/micon hi-cordial detail

Unfortunately not all items in a category seem to work. While cordials display as a macro icon, I couldn't become potions or ethers to.

In that location are also many categories which I idea would permit you to utilize icons merely sadly practise not (or I just don't know the proper category tag). Traits, squadron commands, and arrangement carte du jour icons were all things I tried and failed to use as macro icons.

Why Practice I Get Macro Errors?

If a macro performs an action that was unsuccessful, similar trying to resurrect a living party member, shield your target with no target gear up, or use a skill without the resources to do and then, you will receive an error message in conversation. These can be annoying, and if many tin can go off, tin flood the chat window. Almost macros I utilise include i of the following lines to prevent this:

/macroerror off

/merror off

Yous can put this line anywhere in the macro. I often put it at the end, or sometimes the showtime.

How to Use Await Commands

Wait commands can simply wait in whole 2nd intervals. So, you cannot expect 2.v seconds, it will round up to three. Y'all can put these either on their own line or at the end of another line and they should exist functionally identical. You tin can't apply a expect command to look more than than 60 seconds.

/ac "Delicate Synthesis"
<wait.3>

/ac "Delicate Synthesis" <await.iii>

These are very mutual in crafting macros since you accept to wait for the blitheness to play before using each skill. Some more than niche uses for wait commands include making a cooldown notification macro, or putting ane in your raise macro to avert spamming party chat.

Exist enlightened that if your computer lags, you may find your crafting macro breaks because it needed an extra second in between two actions. This happened to me several times when I would do a ready of macro crafts, and the odd one would fail hither and there. I simply decided to add an actress second to my look commands.

Conversation Macros

Have a Pre-Written Message Ready to Become

While this may not seem super useful to everyone, in that location are plenty of people who play on PS4 and don't happen to apply a plug-in keyboard. This makes chatting super inconvenient, and then these players may find it useful to set some messages when they aren't in the heart of a duty. They can quickly exist activated with the press of a button.

If you're someone who likes to be friendly in chat with your newfound political party members, you might desire to prepare upwards a macro that types out your preferred polite greeting or farewell.

If you're new to a role, specially tank or healer, permit them know that you're learning the role withal, and signal if y'all'd like advice or feedback.

If you're a goofball you can macro some ASCII art. I've seen a lot of these in brotherhood raids, some of which have made me laugh. Be careful not to spam these sorts of macros, though, since they tin can quickly flood chat and make it difficult to read others' letters.

Coordinate Savage Fight Strategy and Positions

Macros are extremely ordinarily used in PUGs (pick-upward groups) in the party finder, specially if you're learning cruel fights. These duties are more complicated than casual content and have a lot of moving parts.

This means there are lots of times where every political party fellow member needs to be somewhere specific to perform mechanics correctly. Posting a macro in chat at the first of the fight with everyone'south position saves a lot of fourth dimension and helps go everyone on the same page for what the grouping will be doing in specific moments.

Of course, these macros are all created generally independently, so there isn't 1 principal macro that everybody uses. Strategies alter as people try new things with the fight, and come upwardly with more than efficient tactics. Information technology's important to have a look at the macro when you come across it. If y'all similar information technology, ask them for a link or copy information technology yourself and paste information technology into your user macros.

Utilise Audio Effects Wisely

Audio effects can be put to proficient apply, only be careful not to throw them in unnecessarily. These tin be annoying if overused, so just include them if they add value.

Some of the about useful ones I've seen in brotherhood raids brand use of the 'warning' sound effects, which ordinarily get people to look up and movement during an important 'move to your spot or y'all'll die' mechanic. If you're in Labyrinth of the Ancients you lot may sometimes hear someone playing the danger bongos during the 'Ancient Flare' bandage.

I made a piffling notepad macro only describing the sound effects so I can reference this if I want to use one in a macro. Some of them are too tranquillity to hear over the racket of combat, while others are quite loud and abrasive, especially if repeated. Call back to employ these sparingly or exit them out birthday if you're in a party.

If you want to play around with these you tin can easily do so with the echo command (/e). That way y'all don't accept to bother any party members while you test them out.

System Control Macros

At that place are tons of great uses for macros that assist improve your interface with the game.

You tin hibernate UI elements using the /hud command. Use the 'on', 'off', or 'toggle' subcommands:

/hud dutylist toggle
/hud scenarioguide toggle

Yous can adjust organization settings. I use a macro to mute the game with one click, and another to set the volume back to where I normally continue information technology:

/mastervolume 0

You tin can examine other players' gear without using a menu. I set this to a mouse keybind (ctrl+M3) so I tin can hover over players and open their character screen:

/merror off
/bank check <mo>

You can brand a macro that changes your gearset and HUD layout all at once. This is peachy if you're the type of person who uses different HUD layouts for different roles (some people exercise this when they heal for case, as the party list becomes more important), or if you prefer your crafters' or gatherers' HUDs to be setup differently than your combat jobs.

/micon 3 gearset
/gearset alter 3
/hudlayout 2

For some more than avant-garde usages of macros, I've seen several 'transformation' macros which do a magical daughter style outfit change while your graphic symbol poses or uses combat skills. These can be as elementary or as complicated every bit you like, limited by the number of lines in a macro, that is.

You tin also create nested hotbars, though this is quite a bit more than complicated. I recommend following a YouTube tutorial, that'due south what I did. Personally I love using this; I detect it makes everything feel and so much more compact and organized.

Combat Macros

Remember that macros are not meant to completely automate gainsay. That wouldn't exist very fun or engaging, and this is a game subsequently all. Foursquare Enix has made sure that macros are generally less effective at combat than the average player, at least in about aspects.

There are still a bunch of useful macros that tin improve the feeling and use of certain gainsay abilities. These are specific types of skills though, and in general macro utilise should be limited in regards to combat. GCDs (weaponskills and spells) in particular are usually best left lonely.

The Disadvantages of Combat Macros

Some people discover macros in this game and they try to exist a little besides clever with them, thinking information technology will exist a definite comeback with no drawbacks. They might try to macro a iii-step melee combo onto one button to salve hotbar space, or brand combat easier, and on the surface, yep it can exist done. What I recollect needs to be understood however is how this cuts your effectiveness in battle.

The GCD (global cooldown) is ii.5 seconds, further reduced past the skill speed or spell speed substats. In lodge for a macro to actually perform a 3-step combo you would accept to issue await commands. Without await commands the macro would apace spit out orders for three skills, but the second and third would be ignored considering your character is decorated executing the showtime attack. After all, you can't but mash 1, 2, 3 on your keyboard as fast as possible either. You have to look earlier you effect a command for the next button in the sequence.

Wait commands tin only operate in i 2nd intervals. Yous probably encounter where this is going. Trying to blazon <wait.2.5> rounds itself to <wait.3> and now you're at least half a second slower than manually inputting the buttons yourself (but nigh definitely more than than that because your gear'due south skill speed makes your GCD between 2 and 2.five seconds).

This means that if y'all apply macros like this on every GCD, your character performs at most around 83% the GCD output. This is a big no-no. The most basic affair new players tin can do to improve harm output is to make sure you are always keeping your GCD rolling (ABC: "E'er Be Casting"). Dropping virtually xx% of your GCD skills because you didn't desire to set up another hotbar is completely not worth it.

OK so chaining multiple GCD skills isn't 100% effective. Got it. What if we simply had a single GCD skill on a macro? That'south still got a drawback. Observant players new to the game may have noticed that you can actually press the button for a GCD a moment before the GCD is ready. The game will 'queue' the skill and it will become off as presently as it tin can, leaving your GCD rolling uninterrupted.

Macros practise non queue. You can press your macro keybind a moment before your GCD is rolling and….nothing happens. Yous have to actually spam the key to get it to activate when the GCD is fix. If y'all're lucky yous'll be shut, but since you're a human and not a computer, yous tin merely fall farther and farther behind, bit by scrap.

Hither's a visual representation. This gif shows someone spamming a non-macro GCD vs a macro GCD and you'll come across it's inevitable that you fall backside and lose casts over time.

Commonly Used Combat Macros

As you can see, macros are not as useful to gainsay as you lot might have first thought. While GCD skills should usually exist avoided, there are however some actually convenient uses on oGCD skills. The near common uses are for those skills that target other players or have an AoE ground indicator that needs to be placed.

If you demand to target some other thespian, consider a mouseover macro, or one that always targets the same position in your party list. There's too some use for chat notification macros, simply be warned these can be considered spammy or abrasive by some players. If yous're including a conversation message, keep information technology cursory, and avert or limit the use of sound effects.

Shirk Your Co-Tank

/merror off
/ac "Shirk" <2>
/micon "Shirk"

This will shirk the party member in party position 2 (past default this is your cotank). The macro will display the shirk icon and remaining cooldown also.

Unmarried-Target Marry (mouseover or cotank)

/merror off
/air-conditioning "Middle of Stone" <mo>
/air conditioning "Middle of Stone" <2>
/micon "Heart of Stone"

This macro will target whoever you hover your mouse over. Yous can use this to provide mitigation for a teammate in the party list assuming their graphic symbol is in range. If no player is moused over, it will go on your cotank. This is pretty useful for tank swaps.

This style of macro is peachy for tanks (Intervention, Comprehend, Nascent Wink, The Blackest Night, Center of Stone) and too has use for something like Dragoon's Dragon Sight.

Unmarried-Target Ally (target of target a.chiliad.a. highest enmity)

/merror off
/ac "Divine Benison" <tt>
/micon "Divine Benison"

This is a similar macro to the last one, only it specifically targets whoever has the enemy's attending at the moment. If you're a healer and your tanks do a tank swap throughout the fight, this will always proceed whoever currently holds the boss.

If y'all're comfortable using the assist target keybind (target the target of your electric current target) yous might not need this, since yous tin switch between the dominate and the current tank pretty quickly that fashion.

Ground-Indicator Placement

/merror off
/air conditioning "Aviary" <t>
/air conditioning "Asylum" <tt>
/ac "Asylum" <me>
/micon "Asylum"

This will effort to place the AoE on your target, and so on your target'south target, then on yourself. In a situation where the boss is off the side of the arena it will be placed on the main tank instead. In a situation where the boss goes completely untargetable, you'll identify the AoE on yourself.

Placing ground indicators tin feel actually slow, so this is a popular usage of macros. I still recommend having a dissever keybind for the unmacroed skill and so you lot tin can ever straight the placement if you absolutely demand to.

If you lot macro Shukuchi using this, you probably but want to go along the <t> line. Besides I should point out that you (unfortunately) cannot use a mouseover macro to cast ground placement aoes on the footing. Only targets similar the ones listed higher up.

Chat Notification

/ac "Heighten" <t>
<look.1>
/p Raising <t>
/micon "Raise"
/macroerror off

This lets your party know in chat who yous're raising, which can help save other healers from wasting time attempting to raise the same target. The <look.1> line allows you lot to tap the push button a couple times (to brand sure it goes off) without spamming the chat.

Keep chat macros in combat simple, and don't spam them (especially if they accept a sound consequence). Some people use macros to notify teammates they've used an important defensive cooldown like Hallowed Basis. Personally I don't find this very useful since healers tend to spend a lot of time looking at the party listing anyhow. Your healer already knows you used Superbolide. Y'all're at 1 HP.

Cooldown Notification

/ac "Elixir Field"
<wait.30>
/e Elixir Field is ready! <se.five>
/merror off

This is not a manner of macro I personally use, but I've heard of people making these before. Essentially you get a bulletin in chat with a sound event that simply y'all can see and hear, considering it's an echo (/eastward). The macro waits the length of the skill'southward cooldown (and so you take to check what that is when you set up this up). The cooldown can't be more 60 seconds since that's the maximum time the macro will <look>.

Using any other macro will stop this macro, so you wouldn't get the echo notification when the skill comes off cooldown. That makes this type of macro extremely niche, basically but useful when yous accept one single gainsay skill (cooldown <60s) macroed and you want to use it every fourth dimension information technology'southward up. Non common, not a big quality of life improvement. But it exists.

Crafting Macros

Quite possibly the about common usage of macros are the ones that dedicated crafters use to ensure quick, high-quality crafts with the push of a push button (or two). These macros are heavily dependent on coming together a certain threshold on your maximum CP and then you can cast all the skills required in the macro. This CP requirement is usually noted past whoever created and posted the macro.

Here is an case of crafting macros someone has shared. They state what durability craft it's for and the required stats and number of HQ materials. Note that many crafting macros are as well long to fit in ane, and so they use two with an echo (/east Macro #one finished <se.one>) to let you know when information technology'south time to utilize the 2nd macro. You tin put an echo at the very terminate to tell yous the item is complete. Information technology's helpful if yous desire to alt tab while crafting.

In that location'south also usually a listed craftsmanship and control stat to ensure a high quality result. If your control stat is a little lower information technology but won't be a guaranteed high quality effect. If your craftsmanship stat is as well low though your arts and crafts could fail entirely.

It's very common to simply utilise normal quality materials if your crafters are geared well enough, especially with the changes to crafting in Shadowbringers which made it a picayune easier to become 100% quality. Many macros you observe online will assume no HQ materials are being used, merely you may come across one that expects one or more than components to be HQ.

If you make your own for personal use, consider including the required CP in the macro name in case you demand to eat food to achieve that CP again later. Also note how many starting materials should be HQ so you guarantee an HQ result.

Gathering Macros

There aren't a ton of different uses for gathering macros, but collectables are fabricated much simpler with a one push macro to boost collectability rating.

Hither is a macro for gathering collectables that requires 600 GP to utilize. As I said, not many macros for gathering are out there. If y'all want to make some yourself, you tin bank check The Balance discord for other gathering rotations you might detect handy.

Summary

While you might non want to fully automate gainsay, user macros tin improve how yous craft, navigate between jobs, and communicate with other players. There are a lot of tricks to explore, and members of the community are always experimenting and sharing useful knowledge.

Give some bones macros a try and see if you lot can brand annihilation just a little easier for you and how you like to play. Also, if y'all come across whatever other macro icon categories, permit me know in the comments! I'g sure at that place are lots of people who would appreciate the tip.