Casting Rotations / Maximizing DPS as a multiboxer

[Ellay]

So the basics are down - you've got your groove on. Now it's time to play your character to the fullest in a multiboxing setting..

I've seen others able to review their ACT logs and find ways to improve, perhaps it's just modifying your DPS macro for a better cast rotation.. these are the questions I have!!

First off I think I've read conflicting reports on how a Macro works, if you have 5 abilities on it and you spam the crap out of it, it casts the top one first then the bottom then it goes from top to bottom?
If this is true what happens when abilty 2 becomes active while your on ability 4, will it recast ability 2 again, then go to 4?

How do you order your DPS macro? I.E fastest recasts first? longest recasts? highest dps?

Do you funnel your group mega damage buffs together, or do you hold them all off to the side for that boss encounter?
I.E do I hold off Death March on my SK for a boss encounter with a few adds or just cycle it in my rotation, along with Death Touch.
Or a Wizards Velium Gift along with the AA talent to convert all spells to cold, cycle them in or hold off on the side?

There has to be some type of pattern here that is common among all classes, just trying to find it

[Khatovar]

MAcros cast the top spell available. then queue the bottom spell. If you hit it again before the bottom {queued} spell can cast, it moves to the second available spell and requeues the bottom and so on. It will always requeue the bottom spell and never move upwards and it will always cast the first available from the top. So you have 5 spells in the macro and spam, it casts 1, queues 5, cancels 5, casts 2 if 1 is down, queues 5, cancels 5, casts 3 if 1 AND 2 are down and queues 5. If one of the earlier spells are ready before 4 is, it will cast that and so on. 5 will go off if you leave a long enough time without spamming or it becomes the top available spell on the list.

You can turn off queueing in the options, but it is seriously bugged at the moment....better off using the clear all queued command...it's in the /list on EQ2Interface forums.

I'd post more, but I am so very sleepy now and I need to rework my setups anyway, so whatever I do now is pretty useless. :P

[Lokked]

NOTE: Khatovar got her post in before mine, and it is FAR easier to read (and maybe more correct).

Your analysis of Macros seems appropriate. Think of it as every time you press the Macro, it cycles through each line in the macro once. Starting from the top of the macro, it will cast the initiate the casting of the first available ability and then cycle to the end of the macro and Queue the last ability.

This states that if ever the last skill is available, it will always be cast immediately after any prior available ability has been cast.
Even if your character is in the recovery state, when you push the macro, none of your other abilities will fire, thus is will still queue the last ability.

I use this to my advantage by simplifying my universal DeBuff Macro. If I only want to cast 1 or 2 DeBuffs before tearing into the mob, I place the #1 ability first and the #2 ability last. I hit the macro once, wait a couple seconds for the second DeBuff to start casting then spam the DPS macro. In between these 2 can go all the other, less essential DeBuffs.

"If this is true what happens when abilty 2 becomes active while your on ability 4, will it recast ability 2 again, then go to 4?"

If you are in the middle of casting ability 4, when it is finished it will cast your last ability if it is available, regardless of your spamming. If your last ability is on Cooldown and you are spamming it will then cast ability 2.

The way you phrase your questions leads me to think that you are interpretting the macro system as a /castsequence from WoW, where the API remembers where you are in the sequence.

In EQ2, macros are processed as an immediate chunk of commands and the last position is not saved. If a macro reaches an ability and casts it, it is not because the macro is "on that ability", it is because all prior abilities are on cooldown and this is the first ability available to cast. The second is starts to cast that ability it moves on to all the other abilities, which is obviously cant process, as you are already busy casting. The macro ends, activating the last ability, which is put into queue.

Sorry if I explained the same concept more then once, I'm still trying to take these pieces of information and come up with something constructive. Re-iterating it to myself helps.

Setting the 2 most useful abilities to First and Last position is useful in Pull, Taunt and DeBuff Macros.

Keep in mind that if you put something with a really short Cooldown above something else, chances are the abilities below the Short Cooldown Ability (with the exception of the last ability, which will always fire) will either never fire or fire very late in the fight.

[HomersDonut]

As mentioned, disabling the button queue is buggy and will always queue the first ability regardless of whether it is on cooldown or not. What I do to get around this is to have my last ability set as a non-combat ability like harvesting or mining. This will generate a bit of on-screen spam, but does allow for a simple top down button queue.

[Frosty]

As mentioned, disabling the button queue is buggy and will always queue the first ability regardless of whether it is on cooldown or not. What I do to get around this is to have my last ability set as a non-combat ability like harvesting or mining. This will generate a bit of on-screen spam, but does allow for a simple top down button queue.

I *think* what Khatovar mentioned in her post, using /clearallqueuedabilities at the end of your macros will give you the same result.

I could be wrong, but I tried doing this last night and it seemed to work pretty well as far as I could tell.

[HomersDonut]

I'd forgotten about /clearallqueuedabilities. I'll check that out. Thanks for the reminder

[Khatovar]

I tend to work my macros in chunks. My down and dirty setup has

1= debuffs
2= dps/wards/reactives
3= close range
6&7= ST heals, wards, reactives/long cooldown temp buffs, specials

these are my commonly used buttons. My first spells on 1 & 3 are always long cooldown spells, usually something like Master's Smite or abilities gained through racials. When at all possible, I use an instant cast as my bottom spell. If I have no instant, I use the shortest-cast, non-vital spell I have, or in some cases, a useful spell that needs to run a duration {ex. Brainclot - does X damage over time and Y damage on termination. It takes 24 seconds to do all potential damage, but you can recast it every 8 seconds....so you {arguably} DON'T want to recast this every time it's up, only after termination}. If need be, I will repeat those same spells across all 3 macros.

From there, I have to asssess where my DPS is coming from. According to EQ2Flames for example, Illy DPS should see a casting order like this :

Prismatic pre-pullCast 2s, Dur 15s, RC 15s
Shower Cast 2.5s, Dur 10s, RC 45s
Brainclot Cast 1s, Dur 24s, RC 8s
Beam Cast 1s, Dur -s, RC 3s
PrismaticCast 2s, Dur 15s, RC 15s
Beam Cast 1s, Dur -s, RC 3s
Pessimism Cast 1s, Dur 24s, RC 6s
Beam Cast 1s, Dur -s, RC 3s
Drain Cast 2s, Dur 8s, RC 25s
Beam Cast 1s, Dur -s, RC 3s
Lesion Cast 1.5s, Dur 4.5s, RC 30s
Beam Cast 1s, Dur -s, RC 3s
PrismaticCast 2s, Dur 15s, RC 15s
Beam Cast 1s, Dur -s, RC 3s
Pessimism Cast 1s, Dur 24s, RC 6s
Beam Cast 1s, Dur -s, RC 3s
Brainclot Cast 1s, Dur 24s, RC 8s
Beam Cast 1s, Dur -s, RC 3s

Obviously this will vary based on what you're doing, your group makeup and buffs, but this seems to be the standard for raiding illys. So going by this, we want Beam and Prismatic to cast every time it's up. So stick em at the top. We want Brainclot to run its duration, so put it at the bottom. We want Shower to start ASAP, so stick it between Prismatic and Beam at the top. Then Pessimism, Drain and Lesion. So your macro will look vaguely like this {w/ queueing} :

/assist {tank}
Prismatic
Shower
Beam
Pessimism
Drain
Lesion
Brainclot

The biggest problem here is Beam. Yes, we want it to go off every time we can get it, but we still need to cast All the other stuff, too, which is iffy with a 3s recast on beam {or less if you have something like Time Compression or Jester's Cap, setting your CDs faster}. Option 1, be willing to forgo the initial Beam hits and drop it to just above Brainclot. Option 2, put Beam on another macro. Personally, my spamming has gone from the rapid-fire techinque in WoW to a more Pianist-style in EQ2...slower presses at the start and random "rests" allowing queued abilites to process and bouncing between DPS, Debuff and Close at random intervals. So it's like 2...2, 1, 2..3, 2, 2, 2, 1..2, 2, 6...,2, 2, 1, 7, and so on. I would probably use both options, repeating Beam in the Queued posistion in some of my other macro slots.

Your first step is going to be weeding out any less-than-useful abilities. From there, find your "Core" macro for each individual class. Then a secondary for "Flavor" {debuffs, group buffs, random nice to have, but not required stuff}, this is where I'd put in damaging racials, Master Smites, spawned pets and the like. 3rd I stick with more situational stuff...PBAOE's, melee spells from racials and AAs. Next I'd go with the big-guns stuff...the kind of things you want for bosses, but would be a waste on trash. I tie these to my various heals with cancel_spellcast and/or clearallqueuedabilities as needed.

Of course, this is just general, I haven't yet sussed out anything optimal yet since we just hit 80 on the new team yesterday. I've a lot of research and trial and error to go through yet, but it's a solid starting point.

[Lyonheart]

I just made a post a few days ago about how I find myself wanting to spam my DPS button ( because of WoW ). Well, since then i have refined my macros a lot ( a work in progress ), and I also feel like I'm playing a piano when fighting. I have my tank pull with button 1, he applies his reactive buff to himself and has two agro builder abilities he queues up, when the mob gets to him, agro has been established and one ward has just landed on him. IF more than one comes I "click" an ae agro spell and then start the music ( playing the keyboard ) .. It is WAY more interesting than what i do in WoW! fun!

As a side note: does anyone else get all happy every time you see a chest drop? I love the way loot is done in EQ2! those chests make loot way more exciting, and also make it hard to "miss" any potential phatt loots or spell upgrades 8)

[Frosty]

As a side note: does anyone else get all happy every time you see a chest drop?

No!!! I get depressed every time I see YOU loot a legendary/fabled!!! /jealous :whistling:

Macros are killing me right now. I really can't wait for them to revamp the spell names.
I feel like I spend half my playing time updating each one every time I level. :P

[Khatovar]

Macros are killing me right now. I really can't wait for them to revamp the spell names.
I feel like I spend half my playing time updating each one every time I level.

I gave up on my secondary toons while we were mentoring them up. They hit like 30 or 40 before I created anything other than thier follow macro and level1 spells. And that was pretty much just going through my spell book and dragging everything that says "damage" into one macro. :whistling: Then I didn't touch them again until we hit 80. :wacko: