How Do I Get Hotkeys To Execute Properly?

[Defilade]

I'm a returning player, I've been playing a few weeks now and I have been struggling with getting my hotkeys to work properly. I have buff hotkey that refuse to do all the buffs, and combat hotkeys that are glitchy at best.

Here are examples of two hotkeys that give me grief:

Hot Key.png

I'm trying to get the above hotkeys to work, the first one simply ends after Gift of Alcarity is cast, and the other hotkey seldom if ever executes the Ravage ability. The buff hotkey looks so simple, I'm really perplexed as to why it won't cast the last two buffs. I even added a five second wait after Aclarity, and it still refuses to do the last two buffs. The last two i have to execute manually, so i can cast them.

I've tried extending the wait times, but maybe I'm just missing the fundamentals. When does the wait time start counting, is it immediately at the start of casting a spell or ability, or is it smart enough to wait until after the spell or ability has finished executing? I guessing the later is not true, other wise we would not even need wait times.

Or does the macro just blindly execute. For example, if I have a macro with five spells, like the one above, does the hotkey macro just execute spells as fast as it can, only being reined in by our wait timers?

Will I need to use something like my Logitech G19 to create a new macro, cast all my spells, and then look to the wait times in the G19 macro to work out the wait times for Istaria? I have actually tried to do that, and it does not work, unless I'm still missing something.

[Dracillion]

You can only have two abilities queued up at a time. It becomes problematic when you have more than 3 actions on a key, even if you've a delay between them.

The moment you press the key, the actions begin. You have to take into account other delays, not just literal cast times. I never did get one key for all of my gifts and buffs. For that, I ended up daisy chaining with an execute hotkey command at the end.

(Though it would be nice to simply have "Cast spell x x x x x x" in a row and let it run automatically")

[Defilade]

You can only have two abilities queued up at a time. It becomes problematic when you have more than 3 actions on a key, even if you've a delay between them.

The moment you press the key, the actions begin. You have to take into account other delays, not just literal cast times. I never did get one key for all of my gifts and buffs. For that, I ended up daisy chaining with an execute hotkey command at the end.

(Though it would be nice to simply have "Cast spell x x x x x x" in a row and let it run automatically")

I see, so the one hotkey I have for combat it really a good one, because all the skill execute, with Ravage working sometimes.

I agree, that it would be great if they allowed buffs to be macroed to cast automatically.

So your advise is to play around with the timers and have one hotkey execute another one?

[hallucin8]

Anything that changes health (gift of toughness) will automatically stop all macros, so put health buffs last. Also, having 3 sec wait times for all might help too.

The wait times need to relate to the casting delays and also the time taken to use the ability/spell. With alacrity V, 3 secs is usually enough to have as many buffs queued, but other spells and abilities take much longer so 4 or 5 seconds maybe required. During battle, if your health changes (as it often will) that can also cause macros to stop. Basically any change to health stops macros; stops players from afk-farming.

[Defilade]

Anything that changes health (gift of toughness) will automatically stop all macros, so put health buffs last. Also, having 3 sec wait times for all might help too.

The wait times need to relate to the casting delays and also the time taken to use the ability/spell. With alacrity V, 3 secs is usually enough to have as many buffs queued, but other spells and abilities take much longer so 4 or 5 seconds maybe required. During battle, if your health changes (as it often will) that can also cause macros to stop. Basically any change to health stops macros; stops players from afk-farming.

Ahhh, that is helpful, thanks