Macroing in EQ2, guiding your blades (part 1/2)

Packrat · 02-03-2007, 10:56 PM

by Psixakias from the Newbie Yard

Following is an extended guide on how to create macros in EQ2 to advance your playing to the most. Written in Dec 2004.
Making a macro in EQ2 is a great way to enhance your playing abilities and give your char some style. The devs have equiped the game engine with quite an easy way to create macros and everyone should take a min to set their own.
First, to access the macro window press O and choose the macro tab. From there you need to click and edit a macro slot. In the new window that pops up you can enter the Name of the macro you are making, choose the Icon of it and lastly write the actual string of it. To edit a previously made macro, right click on it...
Name: can be anything you want, is up to you, has no actual effect but to remind you what it does
Icon: not many in there yet, again choose anything you like
String: what this guide is about

What to type as the actual macro!
Well, you type any command you like, being a simple "/say Hello there and well met stranger" to more advansed strings that use multiple commands...
Some simple macros are:
/say Hello (makes your char say Hello in the general chat)
/g INC %t (sends in group chat the msg INC YourCurrentTarget)
/r INC %t (same as above but for the raid channel you might have formed)
Now for the more juisy stuff. To include more than one command in a macro you need to separate it with a ; . What you need to be aware of is to include a space before and after the ; key. Examples:
/bow ; say hello (makes your char bow and say Hello in the general chat)
/point ; g INC %t (emotes "Yourname points to yourcurrenttarget" and sends in group chat the msg INC YourCurrentTarget)
NOTE 1: on the above format you use the slash ONLY at the begining of the string. you dont need and must not use it for the rest of the commands that follow the first.
NOTE 2: any msg you need to send MUST be to the end of the string, else the program thinks that everything following is part of the text of the say or g command!!! (this might change inthe future)

Ok, after you experiment a bit with the above lets try put a spell or attack or ability in the above. The key command here is the /useability spell name one. Things to note about this command:
1) the "spell name" part MUST include the whole name of the spell, including any spaces or ' in it.
2) you use the same command for either spells, attacks or abilities.
Simple examples:
/useability Taunting Blow ; g INC %t (uses the attack taunting blow to pull and sends inc msg to grp chat)
/useability Veil of the Unseen ; g %t is Invisible (invis for your grp mate by announsing it too)
However, if you try the above you will notice they dont work!! The solution is to use a : to open the string (emote works too but is annoying and spamming). So, what to do is use the null char at the begining of the macro, put a semicomma and then use all the above w/o the slashes. Thus the correct format is:
: ; useability Taunting Blow ; g INC %t
: ; useability Veil of the Unseen ; g %t is Invisible
From here, the sky is the limit for your macroing. You can combine as many commands as you like, as far as you dont reach the max character limit of the macro box.

BUT..........

...there are some restriction...

You can use up to 2 spells/attacks/abilities in one macro because of the queue, using more than two will make the program pass the middle ones and use only the 1st and que the last. For example, if you put attack 1, then debuff, then attack 2 and last attack 3, the program will start casting attack 1, then will queue the debuff, then, w/o waiting for the debuff to be cast, will queue attack 2 and cancel the queue of the debuff, and following will queue attack 3, canceling previous queued action. The result is that with that macro you will do attack 1 and attack 3 and miss the debuff and the attack 2.
So,in a macro you can only include 2 attacks/abilities/spells if you want all to be excecuted.

HOWEVER, only exception to the above rule is the HO starter action. Becauce of the HO starter being instant, it doesnt Queue the folloing action but excecutes it asap, thus enabling a third action to be included in the macro.
This is great for solo/one person macros!!! In one macro you can include the HO triger, the HO advanser and the HO completer!! Example follows:
: ; useability Lucky Brake ; useability dirty tricks ; useability Quick strike
The above is an amazingly fast HO-enable attack that starts the HO of the scout, advances to wheel with the debuff and does a fast attack to complete the wheel and enable the benefit of the HO. (the names are from memory, some mistakes in the names of the abilities might exist, so if you copy/paste it might not work)
The above macro in general format is as follows:
: ; useability NameOfYourClassesHOtriger ; useability NameOfYourHOadvanser ; useability NameOfAttack
NameOfYourClassesHOtriger is the ability you click for the HO to start blinking
NameOfYourHOadvanser is the spell/ability you use to advance your blinking HO to a wheel (usually a debuff)
NameOfAttack is the attack you will use to finish the wheel. Use your most common one poping out (and fastest!)

With the above macro you can do and complete a single person HO by clicking one key only. In the case of a resist of the last attack, just use another, in the case of mages/priest with variety on ending spell type, you do the simple nuke of the macro and then conclude with the apropriate spell. Try it, it rocks

(Sidenote: the extra dmg of the HO that is trigering isnt influensed by the attack you use. Me, as a dirge, i finish my HO with the lvl 1 scout attack because it needs min recasting time, almost always hits and uses min power. at lvl 24, the attack does like 10 dmg and the HO does ~80 dmg. Ofcource this is only me and my playstyle and choices, you can use anything.)
Update jan 6th: As of the new big patch the macro window has 3 lines instead of one. This doesnt exclude the above, mutlicommand format but instead of using the above for 3 command macros, you could type the 3 commands one in each line (dont forget to use the slash / tho, each line is like a new macro). Again, you can still use both styles, especially if you need more than 3 commands in a macro.

Another usefull command is the /assistone. Trick here is that you need to change the name of the group member you assist as you change groups. Also, instead of a plain toggle on auto meele attack, you can use your basic attack that you usually start fight with. You save time this way and if the mob is far, you are put in autoattack mode too. The macro is:
: ; assist TankNameHere ; toggleautoattack
or
: ; assist TankNameHere ; useability YourCommonAttackOrSpell

NOTE: if you want to use a ranged attack for pulling, the command is togglerangedattack and you insert it in the macro w/o the useability one, is a standalone command. eg: : ; togglerangedattack ; g INC %t
UPDATE 26/1/05: was mentioned that if you use the toggle command combined with the assist to change targets to another mob of the grp you are fighting, the attack while it was on, goes off (thanks markdecox for pointing that out)... a solution is to use : ; assist %t ; autoattack 1 which keeps your char in attacking mode if he/she is already in one (thaaaank you FamilyManFirst)
-------
If the macro you are making doesnt work, check the below:

1) the : must be ahead in order for it to work
2) use ; AND two spaces, one before and one after it to separate commands
3) any say command MUST be at the end of the macro, cause the stupid prog thinks that everything following is a text msg
4) the ability name MUST BE in full name, with spaces and ' if in the name of the original spell, else the prog wont find it
5) if you use / other than the very begining, erase all but first

-------
To put some spice in yout msgs you can also use the below trigers:
%M – Returns the character’s pet's name (when they have a pet)
%T - Returns the current target.
%S - Returns the subjective gender-specific pronoun for the target (He, She, It).
%O - Returns the objective gender-specific pronoun for the target (Him, Her, It).
%P - Returns the possessive gender-specific pronoun for the target (His, Her, Its).
%R - Returns the race of the target (only works on Player characters - Sorry.
%G - Returns the gender of the targe

Also, for all of you pet owners the following commands i was told they work in macros (havent tested tho).
/pet attack: pet will attack your current target
/pet backoff: pet will cease attacking its target
/pet stayhere: pet will stop following you and remain where it is
/pet followme: pet will follow you
/pet report: pet will announce his health in a percentage
/pet guardme: pet will guard and follow you
/pet guardhere: pet will guard its current location
/pet who: pet will announce its master
/pet getlost: pet will disappear

-------

Packrat · 02-03-2007, 10:57 PM

(continued from previous post)

Lastly, some tips for macroing ingame, out of my personal experience:
- using 2 attacks in one macrois a great way to save keystrokes if you usually use them anyways... eg. as a dirge i link my 2 backstabs in one key... a shammy/cleric/druid can link his 2 debuffs in a macro too... same for warriors, can join taunt and an attack that has equal or less recast tha usually follows taunt...
- if you link 2 attacks/spells together, put the strongest and slowest first... this way you can un-queue the second following by hitting another hotkey that is more important at the time...
- putting a msg in a macro that you usually cast more than once every 10 secs can be very annoying... avoid it! (excluded mezz msgs and anything similar

)
- every healer casting group heal should have a msg attached to it to inform the grp and mainly the taunter that he might receive extra agro...
- if you want to remove a msg from a macro for the current grp/situation, dont delete the gsay blah blah blah part, just delete the command gsay(or g) and retype it later to re-activate it...
- joining 2 buffs in one macro can save you time, keystrokes and hotkey slots...
- using 2 attacks that have the same or near the same recasting time is a good idea so to avoid waiting for the slower one to be cast or losing it cause of slower recast time...
- lag is a macro killer afaik... due to the queue style of the game, if you lag and you press a macro of 2 combined attacks, the first attack might "lag" thinking your previous attack (one done before you press the macro hotkey) isnt over, thus resulting of it being queued out from the second attack and thus be lost to the second one following and being queue in return... NERF LAG!!!!!
- to find the spelling of a commandyou know or think it exists, type the starting letters of the command and press TAB... this will produce a list of all game commands starting with these letters (eg. try typing /togg and press TAB)
- sometimes you want to know the exact time the spell is available to be cast again... the macro icon doesnt grey in and out as the normal hotkeys... put one of the 2 attacks next to the macro, so when the macro is excecuted, the hotkey icon of the command in it will gery out as if you had press it and will advance as normal till it seems usuable again... you dont save a hotkey slot this way, but you do save keystrokes

- I would like to suggest that you setup a few ho macros, but don't complete the final step in the macro. As a berserker, I have 2 ho macros, one is fighting chance, wound, wild swing and the other is fighting chance, mangle, and concussion. That way if the first thing doesn't land the second one should. Then I alternate between my taunts, mainly enrage and regular taunt. This also gives you a chance to save the ho if neither of the two landed by hitting the other macro, one out of four should definitely land. Then I throw in a Knee break between the HOs. Seems to work pretty good. (thanks Hunadi)
- with the autocomplete that EQII uses, you should be able to shorten many of the command lines, such as useability becoming usea as there is no other command that starts with those four characters. (thanks KerraKing)
- SUPER Tip from Kehan! To add a kind of a pause for HO usage with a msg in order to use it in grps, make a macro that does a skill/spell with a casting time of the secs you want as pause before the HO is started and then add the HOstarter. This way the HO will start asap your move is done, giving 2 or 3 or 4 secs to your teamies to prepare for their folloups while it is casted.
Examples of some macros:
:;assist ; useability nukenamehere For casters that prefer to use /assist unstead of always targeting the tank... (thanks DocGiggs)
: ; useablity Experiment ; useability Analyse
: ; useablity Theory ; useability Analyse

: ; useablity Reaction ; useability Analyse With them you can keep durability up and react to any events with one keypress (thanks xerty)

: ; target_self ; useability Demonstration of Faith ; target_nearest_npc (thanks Ebetabo)
: ; assist %T ; togglerangedattack This allows to tab to different members of any group and assist on the fly
:; useability progressicon1 ; useability progressicon2 ; useability progressicon3 Example of a Crafting Macro to bump progress (thanks Magique for these 2)
LINE1: /usea Strike of Storms
LINE2: /gsay HO starting in 10 second please do not break
LINE3: /usea Lucky Break (Thanks Kehan)

-------
Things you CANNOT do with a macro (as till the time i type):
- you cant make a macro push a hotkey (no command for it and i think it is intetional)
- you cant insert a pause... no command for it again, if there is one or a way round it, plz plz PLZ post it!

I really hope the above helps. Whatever you do, enjoy the game and the time you spend in it! And i am certain that some nice macros will help to that end...

Message Edited by Psixakias on 01-26-2005 10:39 AM
Message Edited by Psixakias on 01-26-2005 10:40 AM

02-03-2007, 10:56 PM	#1 (permalink)
Packrat Keeper of cheese, useful things, and lost buttons Posts: 37	Macroing in EQ2, guiding your blades (part 1/2) by Psixakias from the Newbie Yard Following is an extended guide on how to create macros in EQ2 to advance your playing to the most. Written in Dec 2004. Making a macro in EQ2 is a great way to enhance your playing abilities and give your char some style. The devs have equiped the game engine with quite an easy way to create macros and everyone should take a min to set their own. First, to access the macro window press O and choose the macro tab. From there you need to click and edit a macro slot. In the new window that pops up you can enter the Name of the macro you are making, choose the Icon of it and lastly write the actual string of it. To edit a previously made macro, right click on it... Name: can be anything you want, is up to you, has no actual effect but to remind you what it does Icon: not many in there yet, again choose anything you like String: what this guide is about What to type as the actual macro! Well, you type any command you like, being a simple "/say Hello there and well met stranger" to more advansed strings that use multiple commands... Some simple macros are: /say Hello (makes your char say Hello in the general chat) /g INC %t (sends in group chat the msg INC YourCurrentTarget) /r INC %t (same as above but for the raid channel you might have formed) Now for the more juisy stuff. To include more than one command in a macro you need to separate it with a ; . What you need to be aware of is to include a space before and after the ; key. Examples: /bow ; say hello (makes your char bow and say Hello in the general chat) /point ; g INC %t (emotes "Yourname points to yourcurrenttarget" and sends in group chat the msg INC YourCurrentTarget) NOTE 1: on the above format you use the slash ONLY at the begining of the string. you dont need and must not use it for the rest of the commands that follow the first. NOTE 2: any msg you need to send MUST be to the end of the string, else the program thinks that everything following is part of the text of the say or g command!!! (this might change inthe future) Ok, after you experiment a bit with the above lets try put a spell or attack or ability in the above. The key command here is the /useability spell name one. Things to note about this command: 1) the "spell name" part MUST include the whole name of the spell, including any spaces or ' in it. 2) you use the same command for either spells, attacks or abilities. Simple examples: /useability Taunting Blow ; g INC %t (uses the attack taunting blow to pull and sends inc msg to grp chat) /useability Veil of the Unseen ; g %t is Invisible (invis for your grp mate by announsing it too) However, if you try the above you will notice they dont work!! The solution is to use a : to open the string (emote works too but is annoying and spamming). So, what to do is use the null char at the begining of the macro, put a semicomma and then use all the above w/o the slashes. Thus the correct format is: : ; useability Taunting Blow ; g INC %t : ; useability Veil of the Unseen ; g %t is Invisible From here, the sky is the limit for your macroing. You can combine as many commands as you like, as far as you dont reach the max character limit of the macro box. BUT.......... ...there are some restriction... You can use up to 2 spells/attacks/abilities in one macro because of the queue, using more than two will make the program pass the middle ones and use only the 1st and que the last. For example, if you put attack 1, then debuff, then attack 2 and last attack 3, the program will start casting attack 1, then will queue the debuff, then, w/o waiting for the debuff to be cast, will queue attack 2 and cancel the queue of the debuff, and following will queue attack 3, canceling previous queued action. The result is that with that macro you will do attack 1 and attack 3 and miss the debuff and the attack 2. So,in a macro you can only include 2 attacks/abilities/spells if you want all to be excecuted. HOWEVER, only exception to the above rule is the HO starter action. Becauce of the HO starter being instant, it doesnt Queue the folloing action but excecutes it asap, thus enabling a third action to be included in the macro. This is great for solo/one person macros!!! In one macro you can include the HO triger, the HO advanser and the HO completer!! Example follows: : ; useability Lucky Brake ; useability dirty tricks ; useability Quick strike The above is an amazingly fast HO-enable attack that starts the HO of the scout, advances to wheel with the debuff and does a fast attack to complete the wheel and enable the benefit of the HO. (the names are from memory, some mistakes in the names of the abilities might exist, so if you copy/paste it might not work) The above macro in general format is as follows: : ; useability NameOfYourClassesHOtriger ; useability NameOfYourHOadvanser ; useability NameOfAttack NameOfYourClassesHOtriger is the ability you click for the HO to start blinking NameOfYourHOadvanser is the spell/ability you use to advance your blinking HO to a wheel (usually a debuff) NameOfAttack is the attack you will use to finish the wheel. Use your most common one poping out (and fastest!) With the above macro you can do and complete a single person HO by clicking one key only. In the case of a resist of the last attack, just use another, in the case of mages/priest with variety on ending spell type, you do the simple nuke of the macro and then conclude with the apropriate spell. Try it, it rocks (Sidenote: the extra dmg of the HO that is trigering isnt influensed by the attack you use. Me, as a dirge, i finish my HO with the lvl 1 scout attack because it needs min recasting time, almost always hits and uses min power. at lvl 24, the attack does like 10 dmg and the HO does ~80 dmg. Ofcource this is only me and my playstyle and choices, you can use anything.) Update jan 6th: As of the new big patch the macro window has 3 lines instead of one. This doesnt exclude the above, mutlicommand format but instead of using the above for 3 command macros, you could type the 3 commands one in each line (dont forget to use the slash / tho, each line is like a new macro). Again, you can still use both styles, especially if you need more than 3 commands in a macro. Another usefull command is the /assistone. Trick here is that you need to change the name of the group member you assist as you change groups. Also, instead of a plain toggle on auto meele attack, you can use your basic attack that you usually start fight with. You save time this way and if the mob is far, you are put in autoattack mode too. The macro is: : ; assist TankNameHere ; toggleautoattack or : ; assist TankNameHere ; useability YourCommonAttackOrSpell NOTE: if you want to use a ranged attack for pulling, the command is togglerangedattack and you insert it in the macro w/o the useability one, is a standalone command. eg: : ; togglerangedattack ; g INC %t UPDATE 26/1/05: was mentioned that if you use the toggle command combined with the assist to change targets to another mob of the grp you are fighting, the attack while it was on, goes off (thanks markdecox for pointing that out)... a solution is to use : ; assist %t ; autoattack 1 which keeps your char in attacking mode if he/she is already in one (thaaaank you FamilyManFirst) ------- If the macro you are making doesnt work, check the below: 1) the : must be ahead in order for it to work 2) use ; AND two spaces, one before and one after it to separate commands 3) any say command MUST be at the end of the macro, cause the stupid prog thinks that everything following is a text msg 4) the ability name MUST BE in full name, with spaces and ' if in the name of the original spell, else the prog wont find it 5) if you use / other than the very begining, erase all but first ------- To put some spice in yout msgs you can also use the below trigers: %M – Returns the character’s pet's name (when they have a pet) %T - Returns the current target. %S - Returns the subjective gender-specific pronoun for the target (He, She, It). %O - Returns the objective gender-specific pronoun for the target (Him, Her, It). %P - Returns the possessive gender-specific pronoun for the target (His, Her, Its). %R - Returns the race of the target (only works on Player characters - Sorry. %G - Returns the gender of the targe Also, for all of you pet owners the following commands i was told they work in macros (havent tested tho). /pet attack: pet will attack your current target /pet backoff: pet will cease attacking its target /pet stayhere: pet will stop following you and remain where it is /pet followme: pet will follow you /pet report: pet will announce his health in a percentage /pet guardme: pet will guard and follow you /pet guardhere: pet will guard its current location /pet who: pet will announce its master /pet getlost: pet will disappear -------

02-03-2007, 10:57 PM	#2 (permalink)
Packrat Keeper of cheese, useful things, and lost buttons Posts: 37	Macroing in EQ2, guiding your blades (part 2/2) (continued from previous post) Lastly, some tips for macroing ingame, out of my personal experience: - using 2 attacks in one macrois a great way to save keystrokes if you usually use them anyways... eg. as a dirge i link my 2 backstabs in one key... a shammy/cleric/druid can link his 2 debuffs in a macro too... same for warriors, can join taunt and an attack that has equal or less recast tha usually follows taunt... - if you link 2 attacks/spells together, put the strongest and slowest first... this way you can un-queue the second following by hitting another hotkey that is more important at the time... - putting a msg in a macro that you usually cast more than once every 10 secs can be very annoying... avoid it! (excluded mezz msgs and anything similar ) - every healer casting group heal should have a msg attached to it to inform the grp and mainly the taunter that he might receive extra agro... - if you want to remove a msg from a macro for the current grp/situation, dont delete the gsay blah blah blah part, just delete the command gsay(or g) and retype it later to re-activate it... - joining 2 buffs in one macro can save you time, keystrokes and hotkey slots... - using 2 attacks that have the same or near the same recasting time is a good idea so to avoid waiting for the slower one to be cast or losing it cause of slower recast time... - lag is a macro killer afaik... due to the queue style of the game, if you lag and you press a macro of 2 combined attacks, the first attack might "lag" thinking your previous attack (one done before you press the macro hotkey) isnt over, thus resulting of it being queued out from the second attack and thus be lost to the second one following and being queue in return... NERF LAG!!!!! - to find the spelling of a commandyou know or think it exists, type the starting letters of the command and press TAB... this will produce a list of all game commands starting with these letters (eg. try typing /togg and press TAB) - sometimes you want to know the exact time the spell is available to be cast again... the macro icon doesnt grey in and out as the normal hotkeys... put one of the 2 attacks next to the macro, so when the macro is excecuted, the hotkey icon of the command in it will gery out as if you had press it and will advance as normal till it seems usuable again... you dont save a hotkey slot this way, but you do save keystrokes - I would like to suggest that you setup a few ho macros, but don't complete the final step in the macro. As a berserker, I have 2 ho macros, one is fighting chance, wound, wild swing and the other is fighting chance, mangle, and concussion. That way if the first thing doesn't land the second one should. Then I alternate between my taunts, mainly enrage and regular taunt. This also gives you a chance to save the ho if neither of the two landed by hitting the other macro, one out of four should definitely land. Then I throw in a Knee break between the HOs. Seems to work pretty good. (thanks Hunadi) - with the autocomplete that EQII uses, you should be able to shorten many of the command lines, such as useability becoming usea as there is no other command that starts with those four characters. (thanks KerraKing) - SUPER Tip from Kehan! To add a kind of a pause for HO usage with a msg in order to use it in grps, make a macro that does a skill/spell with a casting time of the secs you want as pause before the HO is started and then add the HOstarter. This way the HO will start asap your move is done, giving 2 or 3 or 4 secs to your teamies to prepare for their folloups while it is casted. Examples of some macros: :;assist ; useability nukenamehere For casters that prefer to use /assist unstead of always targeting the tank... (thanks DocGiggs) : ; useablity Experiment ; useability Analyse : ; useablity Theory ; useability Analyse : ; useablity Reaction ; useability Analyse With them you can keep durability up and react to any events with one keypress (thanks xerty) : ; target_self ; useability Demonstration of Faith ; target_nearest_npc (thanks Ebetabo) : ; assist %T ; togglerangedattack This allows to tab to different members of any group and assist on the fly :; useability progressicon1 ; useability progressicon2 ; useability progressicon3 Example of a Crafting Macro to bump progress (thanks Magique for these 2) LINE1: /usea Strike of Storms LINE2: /gsay HO starting in 10 second please do not break LINE3: /usea Lucky Break (Thanks Kehan) ------- Things you CANNOT do with a macro (as till the time i type): - you cant make a macro push a hotkey (no command for it and i think it is intetional) - you cant insert a pause... no command for it again, if there is one or a way round it, plz plz PLZ post it! I really hope the above helps. Whatever you do, enjoy the game and the time you spend in it! And i am certain that some nice macros will help to that end... Message Edited by Psixakias on 01-26-2005 10:39 AM Message Edited by Psixakias on 01-26-2005 10:40 AM