Yet Another Contraversal Thread...

Okay, I know without gear macros you'll fail. HARD. However I've recently revamped my macros to their max potential, and instead of being pleased I'm dying. This is because of the f***ing annoying things we call "blinks". They never stop, and it causes my macros to lag or not fire all together, and I've died 7 times on imps this week when in total I've died once on imps before and that was when I was afk and one aggrod because I didn't rest far enough away. I think I need to find a middle ground, because I can't get windowers "Blink Me Not" due to the fact Im on a 360 :(

You might need to use a "/wait 1" line after your equipment changes if you want to see the animation through.

In actuality, the blinking does not prevent your character from taking an action. You simply just won't observe it because of the "blink".

If I'm wrong, please correct me, but that's the way I always remembered it working when I didn't have windower for my macros.

I dont use macros for equipment change or sata or ta or sa . only for range stuff.

That's the way it works. You just don't see the action take place because the blink interrupts the animation. I don't know much about dd's though but I can say for a fact that the blinking can interrupt a mage casting on you if they had you targeted and you blink before they cast. A number of my friends have died on me in the past for that reason, which is why I don't like to rely on having the person targeted while trying to cast.

Macros are a fact of life, so you'll probably just have to find something that works for you. I'd keep it fairly simple since blink me not isn't available.

Well I use /wait syntax but I constantly find myself being unable to cast spells for a significant amount of time. Raise the death toll to 8 por favor.

Blame SE for not having Blink Me Not!

I have yet to see a blink affect me at all. In fact, 9/10 times it helps me. Maybe your macro is setup wrong... Obviously your macro is setup wrong.

Edited.

just curious, but can you post your macro ? the only time i can think of one case where macros fail is when i have two of the same items in the macro (like two snow ring, for example).

Blink Me Not only prevents targeted party members from blinking while they are your target. This way while you are selecting a target to cure or cast upon they won't disappear and cancel your targeting. I'm almost positive that once you've confirmed the target and your casting has begun them blinking will have absolutely no effect except to maybe make the effects of the spell not visually appear.

Unless Blink Me Not has changed in some way this is how I understood it.

It's worth noting that selecting the target through the party list will prevent this from happening even if you don't have Blink Me Not.

I NEVER experienced this issue when I played WHM on my first character through all my lvls of going to 75 and beyond.

Think it's his first time dealing with blinks... so just a matter of getting used to the delay between macros without seeing your char. ANd from my experience when I hit a macro over and over it just seems to take longer for it to actually do the macro.

I just wasn't sure whether the OP was playing a mage job or dd, but just from my experience it's been a lot harder to actually select, confirm and start casting without blink me not than with.

If you have a macro like this:
1: Equip swap
2: Equip swap
3: Equip swap
4: Equip swap
5: /wait 1
6: /ja Whatever

If you mash your macro, it'll "take longer for it to actually do the macro" because when you hit the macro again most likely its at the "/wait 1" line and every time you "hit the macro over and over" it starts from line one again never finishing.

Yea that's if there's a wait 1.. but there;s a natural delay too. Saying spamming it just makes it take longer. But yeah.. need to see the macro itself.. I don;t know if his macro is just a gear swap macro or GS and WS.

I used to see you on Fairy a lot Nymph! I asked you what was up with your name... I was Iguion at the time... was like two years ago. Oh and you told me it was some character off some thing. My memory doesn't server me all that well.

This is usually the problem I used to have with my HB macro, since I don't use Windower. My macros used to look like:

Macro 1:
/equip head Drachen Armet
/ma "Sprout Smack"

then immediately hit Macro 2:
/equip body Wyvern Mail
/equip neck Chanoix's Gorget
/equip head Saurian Helm
/equip legs Drachen Brais

With that, I wouldn't get the full HB, would usually get about 310 or so. Changing the macros to

Macro 1:
/equip body Wyvern Mail
/equip neck Chanoix's Gorget
/equip head Drachen Armet
/equip legs Drachen Brais

then hit Macro 2:
/ma "Sprout Smack"
/wait 1
/equip Saurian Helm

With that setup, it gives enough time for all the equipment to set in, and I get the full HB, 379, each and every time. So to the OP, I gotta agree with the others and see how your macros are setup.

<stpt>

Your friends can thank me later.
I accept Booze, Bewbs and gil.

As some have said previously, I think where the problem lies is that (assuming BLU) your short-cast spells are being cast while you're blinking, so generally you'll catch the tail-end of an animation, if that, and then a specified delay is required before the next cast. It can get pretty annoying if you aren't accustomed to it, and even then it can be inconvenient.

Here's what I generally use to avoid using "wait" lines and overall saving myself more macro lines which are probably priceless for those not using windower macros. Example:

/equip line 1
/equip line 2
/equip line 3
/ws "Random Spell" <stnpc>

This way, you will blink, but you won't lose your target and simply need to confirm the target in order to cast your spell without a /wait line and will also likely be in your new gear before the spell fires. It feels much snappier for me because it doesn't require waiting full seconds and helps when in a group situation and possibly needing to target multiple things (imp at your back with Head Butt instead of what you're engaged to).

I use this same method with things I need to switch back to my normal gear afterward as well, such as WS macros. Here's an example of that:

(**note: including the entire thing in one macro so you can see it all together despite being too big for one macro)

/equip ammo "newstuff"
/equip head "newstuff"
/equip neck "newstuff"
/equip ear1 "newstuff"
/equip ear2 "newstuff"
/equip body "newstuff"
/ws "Random WS" <stnpc>
/wait 1
/equip ammo "oldstuff"
/equip head "oldstuff"
/equip neck "oldstuff"
/equip ear1 "oldstuff"
/equip ear2 "oldstuff"
/equip body "oldstuff"

I'd assume for non-Windower users it's easier to just use separate macros for equipping and re-equipping so the /wait line is entirely unnecessary in that case, but wanted to show it in its entirety. In this way the "/wait 1" line does not fire until after the <stnpc> line has completed (you pressed enter to begin) so once the WS/ability/spell has already begun you're already in your new gear and will simply blink back when the animation has ended. The /wait time has to be modified if not using instant/short-cast spells or abilities, though, so as not to switch gear too early.

Waaaaaaaat?

1337 enough to do 16 gear swaps manual... duh

Being a PLD I've managed to use normal FFXI macros for my gear changes. For my DD macro for example (SHUTUPICANDDIFIWANTTOD:):

Macro Set 1, Alt 2:
/echo === DD SET ===
/equip head "Walahra Turban"
/equip body "Haubergeon"
/equip hands "Dusk Gloves"
/equip legs "Ryl.Kgt. Breeches"
/macro set 2

Macro Set 2, Alt 2:
/equip neck "Chivalrous Chain"
/equip L.ear "Minuet Earring"
/equip R.ear "Attila's Earring"
/equip waist "Swift Belt"
/equip back "Amemet Mantle +1"
/macro set 1

I usually do the blinkable gear first, and get it all overwith in the 1st macro, then when it switches and I press alt-2 a second time, I don't have to blink, but I still get the "Equipment Changed" spam (yeah, I know, Silence plugin :o ) without the blinking--or rather, I'm still mid-blink from the first gear swap.

I really don't see a need for windower macros just yet, not unless I do some incredibly drastic equip change that requires that I have to press 6 different macros the old way.

Also, if I have room, I'll add in an /echo "title" line just in case I accidentally press the wrong macro. I usually make room for it, though; it's pretty necessary for me.

Try removing the /wait out of your macros. From the testing I've done on BLU there's no need for a delay between gear swaps ---> action. If you want to verify this yourself I recommend haste/fast cast gear as that's the most visible.

I've found that the blinking actually helps me. I've had a few occasions where I hit my flash macro and KNEW I was going to be interrupted b/c I didn't wait long enough after I stopped running. The blink saved my butt though. I've actually tested this while running and then hitting the macro. 4/5 times I'm still interrupted, but that 5th time it goes off :D

I don't see how maccroing gear would *** you soloing... I've never had a problem. Hell I purposedly blink some of my spells and jas so they don't lock me like they normally would. Blinking should only help you solo and should only hinder you when your trying to target other people blinking. That shouldn't be a problem soloing because whatever you are using on yourself should be <me>. And really blinking shouldn't hinder you that much in pt situations as most mages I know are so used to hitting Fkeys it really doesn't matter lol

For example my SA/TA maccros look like

/equip lots of gear...
/sa

Since I have all the slots filled regardless of lag at least 1 equip animation will happen before SA and the rest will continue so that I can litterally SA on the run. Pretty useful back in the day when I had to start fights off with SATA AND had to pull. About the only thing that will *** it up is already being locked in another ja/spell that I didn't blink.

Supposedly I'm told windower/spellcast can make it so you can more easily/reliably do that to the point I've seen people run around blink/stop/ranged att blink again and continue running. New a guy that pulled like that as thf/nin farming. He was even trickier cause he would have some long delay ranged making it look like he couldn't pull and then blink into a dart or something lol.

However waits will kinda do bad things cause of variable lag in gear switch (even more so if you spam hit that maccro) so if you need a wait in there I suggest just putting whatever had to have a wait on another maccro generally and spam that one after just hitting the other

Blink is awesome for not getting locked into animations... as ya said... it's good to purposely blink some macros even if they have n purpose other than to cut off the animation. Kiting and using voke blinked it awesome... as is running while meditating... small things make big differences... and even though thins like flashed would be interrupted by running if you stop and blink it cuts down so you can immediately get back to running after hitting the macro.

Yeah blinking jas/spells is pretty much required when you are solo kiting something that runs at the same speed as you are unless there is some rediculous stuff you can do with the terrain and even then it will help a rediculous amount.

Hell Kaeko wrote a whole article on it about being one of the more advacned blm or sch techniques for soloing in his blm articles

I actually was never on Fairy, or anywhere besides Unicorn, but my name came from one of the characters in the Harry Potter book series, so it was probably used by someone on quite a few servers. I've had people in the past ask me if I was from their previous server, lol. XD

Yes, this is what I do now. Didn't take me long to learn it. :)

Fresh out of booze after the holidays though. xD

I prefer my character to blink when I change macros, but that may just be because i'm so used to it playing on ps2 for so long.

Also, not like it really makes a WHOLE lot of difference, but sometimes you can get your character to skip the JA animation when using flee when ur character blinks. Or hell, skip the JA animation for anything that may annoy you.

/equip feet "Rogue's Poulaines"
/ja "Flee" <me>
/wait 1
/equip feet "Assassin's Poulaines"

Most of the time my character blinks out, flee icon goes up and speed goes up, blink back in and didnt have to stop to do the JA activation emote. Like I said not really that useful, but what's the purpose of running away from something when you have to stop for an extra second or two while getting hit to be able to run?

Also when soloing on RDM, I have a macro that's sole purpose is to blink my character. Sometimes if you hold a directional button and blink, your character moves an inch during the blink even when bound. Spam this and you can move a decent amount, if the bind duration is that long. This can mean the difference between being bound in melee range of zipacna and not (after you've bound him of course).

/equip Body "Mirke Wardecors"
/recast "Head Butt"
/ma "Head Butt" <t>
/wait 2
/equip Body "Mirage Jubbah"

After the Head Butt animation is over:

/equip Body "Mirke Wardecors"
/recast "Utsusemi: Ni"
/recast "Utsusemi: Ichi"
/nin "Utsusemi: Ni"
/wait 3
/equip Body "Mirage Jubbah"

The macros work fine but I cannot fire them off nearly as fast as I used to , and constantly even after 3+ seconds I'm still unable to execute macros. I've recently made them all automatic so I don't have to press an Idle gear macro each time after I cast, I didn't used to have the /wait and second /equip

Edit: Those are two seperate macros, just an example to show what I'm having trouble with.

I much prefer not using waits. Too much can and will go wrong... especially when soloing.

What exactly is it saying when you try to do the maccros?

As far as blu goes. I have a generally tp set... then a refresh set for relic body and balhrans ring. And well the spell sets. I don't bother switch from tp for utsusemi

You need the /wait so it doesn't unequip mid spell, generally you have to do a few seconds over the casting time of the spell to account for lag. I still have trouble with this, with the /wait and I have 10% fast cast and I normally add about 25% extra time already.

Mirke fastcast is only 5%. Hell theres a chance that isn't even lowering your /recast. Not to mention skill plays a role in resist rate of the stun effect.