EQ2 macro question

[Catamer]

these EQ2 macro's are just not right.
for example I have a healer and put 5-6 spells into a macro figuring it would more or less work it's way from top to bottom in some kind of spamming situation.
for some reason I tried to test it and it only casts 2 spells, the first and the "cure" spell, cure was last in the list. Cure had a fairly fast re-cast on this character so I rarely got anything else but "cure".
it's like it queued up cure and waited for it. any DPS macro with cure in it does cure over most other spells.

per say this question is about healing but I figure the other macro's for DPS are probably worthless too.

so how do others use them , just make 2 spell macros and have inner space do steps like ( 1, alt-1, cntrl-1 )

[Ellay]

I have cure on a different macro entirely.
The macro's work like this, casts from top to bottom but tries to cast the last spell as a queued spell. So if you have 6 spells 1 through 6 and you push the button it will try to cast 1 and queue up 6. If you let them go through and hit the button again it will try and cast 2 and then 6. If you spam the button it may cast 1 then 2 then 3 before it has a chance to cast spell 6. The way to get past this annoyance is to just put the same spell on both 1 and 6.
Also the cure spell is messing you up, because it attempts to cast it and when it finishes it says nothing needs to be cured. So it will just keep recasting it over and over and over.
Also watch out some spells have a really low recast on them so you may not even get through your entire spell list because some spell is already refreshed.
Hope that helps.

[Alex66]

you can also put command

/clearabilityqueue, or its short version
/cl

on very top of your macro so that on each press it clears a queued spell

[Lyonheart]

you can also put command

/clearabilityqueue, or its short version
/cl

on very top of your macro so that on each press it clears a queued spell

^^I like this! My dirges debuffs are a good example.. the have a fast recast and can keep all of them from casting, so i use this to make sure it just goes down the list. Longest cooldown to shortest.

[Alex66]

Macro will still attempt to cast the upper spell first, so if your first debuff is off the cd, macro will recast it. I put my dirges's debuffs each on a separate hotbar slot and just make the Isboxer hit them each once while doing dps rotation. I reset the rotation manually too (force-assist button) as there is no /reset=target thingie in EQ2.

[Meeo]

Alex are you setting up your Keymaps to trigger individual abilities? and is your whole setup based around that? or do you use macros as well?

[Alex66]

I have two DPS macros on two hotbar slots in-game, triggered by my one spam hotkey, then I have individual 3 debuffs on three more hotbar slots in-game (no individual keymaps for them, they are parts of the dps rotations in Isboxer). My setup has three modes -

(1) Trash. No debuffs are included on keysends from Isboxer
(2) Elite Mobs. One debuff 1 is cast before my dps macros start being mashed.
(3) Boss. All three debuffs are cast in sequence before my dps macros start being mashed.

When I switch to a new mob in Elite and Boss modes, I press manual assist keymap that resets the rotations to step 1, etc.

I use two DPS macros instead of one for spam because its easier for me to juggle spells between thos two macros to aim for a preferred cast sequence. For example dps macro 1 may have abilities that I always want to go off when they are off cd, while dps macro 2 has some ranged abilities and shorter-cd abilities. Both 1 and 2 are in a single step in Isboxer, so they get both pressed.

[Meeo]

That setup also "help" the buffering issue as well? I've been in a situation lately where the buffering keeps me from moving a tune/emergency healing. I've basically had to just slow down how often i hit buttons.

[Alex66]

Well, I just had to use "do not advance to next step for x seconds" option in my spam keymap. I use 0.4 to 0.5 seconds, which takes the worst off buffering while allowing mashing my button at my customary speed :). I think with 0.7 to .8 there is no noticeable buffering at all, but that'll reduce dps for classes with fast cast time and reuse, like rogues.

[Meeo]

Thanks! i'll have to check this all out when i get home from the office. Thanks for the tips, i'm really enjoying this game, almost similar feeling to when i first started playing EQ1 way back in the day.

[Meeo]

When I switch to a new mob in Elite and Boss modes, I press manual assist keymap that resets the rotations to step 1, etc.

Do you use a manual assist for all assisting? or do you also assist+broadcast?

[Catamer]

I had been "curing" my main tank to death because it was the only spell being cast.

I tried the "steps" thing I talked about in my first email. some teams are MUCH more powerful because of this change although I think the pally's didn't show as big of a change.
I'm using 4 buttons, 1 is mostly melee or short range, 2 is long range or pulls, 3 is a generic single targe dps button and 4 is the AoE button.
some macros still have 3-4 in them.
healing was spread out and cast apx 1/3 of the time on any button press (or in 1/3 of the macros)

I did the Palace of Sabaron with a level 60 team and knocked out the first two bosses without much issue, It was late and I couldn't finish Sabaron himself, I'll try him again later.
The pally's failed miserably here, they are out of juice before I can get the first boss down 10%.