I love what EQ2 has done with macros. They’ve made them simple to use, and allow for a great number of commands (a little less then we used to have, but still nice). Yesterday I went through all of my crafting characters and created crafting macros for them. They all have gear to wear during harvesting, adventuring, and crafting.
My one issue with this is that I wish EQ2 adopted Vanguard’s method of handling gear, which is to allow for different ‘tabs’ depending on the spheres. Adventure classes, Diplomacy, and Crafting as well as Harvesting each have their own tab with their own set of gear, and your character switches to it depending on what they’re doing. I have an entire bag devoted to crafting and harvesting gear on my tailor, not to mention all of the quest items I also have to drag around with me. It would be nice to free up some of that space eventually. If you’ve neglected testing out the ‘new’ (it’s been around for a little now but I’m never sure how many people are aware of it) macro system, I’d give it a try. The idea is that players don’t have to put in a lot of their own commands any more, there’s a drop down tab with a selection of macro options (equip item, use item, cast spell) that all simply use a drag and drop method to control the macro.
It’s nice to be able to switch out all my gear at the touch of one button, and not have to root through my bags to figure out which item it is I want to wear. You can easily create these macros for things such as appearance gear sets, and even floating cloaks while you’re falling.
Anyone else use the macro system and find it helpful? Let me know in comments! Until then safe travels, and I’ll see you in Norrath!
I’ve got a crafting equipment macro, harvesting equipment macro & fighting equipment macro set up for all my characters. It just saves so much time to one button things. I also switch the appearance (at least the breastplate) between crafting (dress) and fighting (armor) so that I don’t discover that I’ve been fighting in my crafting gear quite as often now. It’s saved me several bad deaths.
Ive never been a huge macro person myself. They can be a nice work around for tedious tasks such as switching gear though. Ive not played Vanguard but I really like the idea of having space outside your bag to store your other sets of gear. In WoW I play a bunch of different characters. My paladin is the most developed, and while I play the role of healer most, I still have a tank set, a dps set, and a pvp set. Thats over half my bank and a quarter of my inventory If I just carry one alternate set. They have taken the first step by creating a quick system for swapping between sets of gear with the Equipment Manager, but Id still like to see games take the next step of giving you the luxury of alternate gear sets, without the storage hassle.
I use a few macros in combat, mostly just to let people in group know when I’ve cast something that they can take advantage of. I’ve never made an equipment macro, but my SK is getting to the point where she has enough “tank gear” vs “dps gear” that it’s becoming a little of a pain to swap items when swapping roles, so I’ve been thinking of making a macro like that.
My coercer’s got some gear that adds buffs to pets (including charmed and PE’d ones) but only if it’s equipped after the thing is a pet, so I’m needing to make an un-equip/re-equip macro for those pieces. That’s really been about it for me.