Slow down dood!! In your haste to vilify and condemn people - you got it backwards. (accidentally reversing your own point) In fact the the above linked thread was apparently on EQ Outriders a couple weeks before I started this one here. (I presume that's what you meant to say - LOL!) Its growth seems to parallell this one - in both date and substance. But they arrive at different places. That one started as a question about a "spam-key" that got steered toward a macro. I've tried to keep this thread from becoming a "spam-key" thread. And the info there was totally wrong that this stuff can't make it to a multi-bind key instead. ( as many here pointed out) I decided that Jolting or Enraging heel kicks should come at the very end of the macro to either enhance or mitigate any hate generated by the damage lines. (Giving a "final closure"). The macro there, never got that far. Fact is, I never ever saw that EQ-OE thread and only signed up for the (mostly dead) EQ-OE forum this week ahead of the Dev, Web-Chat. (and that was a waste of my time - the forum not the chat)). If you look at my early posting history here, my interest in macro-building and AA choices runs long and deep. This is the thread where I kinda "put it all together" after catching enough clues. Any input to this macro came only from the people that helped with this thread (and it predesesors) here on this forum alone. Well, That an a poor combat dummy that took a beating while I watched the individual buttons refresh and twiddled with pauses and timers.) When I look at your posting history - I see only negative comments to people. Kinda like wanting to have the tallest building in town by tearing everyone else's down? -R PS: I never named it the "Rat Macro" - It's labeled "kicks/blades" on my hotbar. That someone else did call it that - is kinda cool - if you're me.
As someone who wants to do maximum damage 24/7/365, I'd never use the aforementioned hotkey. Removing the pause and spamming it is more damage. Get a programmable keyboard and set it to a G-Key if you have arthritis or ADD. I actually use three hotkeys, they are: JOLT /disc focused storm of blades /alt act 337 #ferocious kick /alt act 15073 #banestrike /disc jolting heel kicks /doability 2 #Kick HATE /disc focused storm of blades /alt act337 #ferocious kick /alt act 15073 #banestrike /disc enraging heel kicks /doability 2 #Kick AE /disc storm of blades /alt act337 #ferocious kick /alt act 15073 #banestrike /disc jolting heel kicks /doability 2 #Kick Spot 3 on my hotbar is always one of these three buttons, which is then linked to the period on my numberpad (which is disabled) On events where I have to watch agro, I'll comment out line 2 (Ferocious kick) (Namely bixie 2, impossible for me to live on that fight using Ferocious kick)
It's a non spam key that gets close to a spam key for dps. The whole point is to not have to spam it, and to hit before switching boxes.
Efficient boxing is not the 'whole point' behind the concept of this hotkey. Shang's post concerns the art of elite, competitive ranger dps'ing.
Interesting to see different people's macros. I use macros close to Shang's but my reason is not optimal dps so much as keeping my interface responsive. Once started a social macro runs to completion with all its pauses locking out any new macro. No long /pause ever sees use on my main. I have rarely used them on bots but don't like them much there either.
Spamming is the only way to be competitive these days. It also make sure you hit everything in a timely manner. Locking myself out by running a macro with pauses in it means something isn't happening.
Yes, but isn't it sad how much of competitive is a parse leader board? What about winning? Coping with unexpected events? When I last raided I had the privilege of playing with amazing players who did just about everything close to optimial. Being alert and switching to healing or curing or having the patience to recognize dps wasn't the key to winning right now, instead raid mechanics and simons says was respected and acknowledged. Even so, the standard measure of performance was the parse. Tiresome to say the least. Speaks poorly of Everquest.
Interesting, me and Shang never compared hotkeys. I have the exact same setup. I have it set to f12 key and works great along with naga mouse.
I don't confuse a parse with doing what is necessary to win. When I can focus on DPS is when I care about being competitive on a parse. When I can't I don't. I don't think I have ever had anyone call me out yet saying "you sucked this raid because you weren't on the parse." I think most of the players who opinions I care about know when I'm engaged doing other things then hitting a mob and vice versa. Granted there are a lot -clowns out there that can't distinguish between the two.
I'm not that elite or competitive. I can usually make the "top 10" on a parse - assuming I'm not throwing any heals. 6 tenths of a second (0.6 sec) was the fastest I could take it and allow for a spool time on the /pause 5 line. So yes, I'm (Cod forbid!) locked out for about 1/2 second. (I'm not sure about that /pause 1 now - but it must have misfired too much without it) -R
Agreed. I usually keep the "bottom 1/2" of the MTO on the ETW as an SOP. If we get down there "too fast" the RL knows that I'm likely to get off DPS and go to heals. A win is a win.. even a messy.... win - is a win. Or as our POTUS was fond of saying early in his tenure; it's a "teachable moment". -R
What are you guys doing during raids that makes it so difficult to focus on DPS? I'm legitimately confused, and assuming that rationale is just a strawman argument as to why you aren't maximizing your damage output to make a raid go faster. Exceptions are fights like plane of war, and neriak 2, where rangers actually can have a job outside of DPS.
Learning new raid mechanics, coping with unexpected events and struggling to win all represent such a small amount of time over the course of, say, a year, for many if not most raiding guilds (top 100?). The majority of time is spent going through the motions and farming content. The truth is, beyond void-tanking, a ranger's utility is rarely called upon these days. The single-biggest contribution we can make to the raid force is damage output - certainly during the majority of events and overall time-span. I don't see how the emphasis on parse performance somehow speaks poorly of Everquest. It's a video game. Video games, throughout history, have been all about 'high score leaderboards' - and many players desire to master their particular game and be the best at what they do. I view damage parses as the most direct challenge offered in this [easy] game as a raider. Especially for us, since we are generally not expected to hang with pure melee classes and casters at their own game. Simply put, some rangers rise to this challenge - many do not. Even when I spot heal my group, spot cc and/or fulfill buff-requests during events... I still manage to produce top 10 #s for an until-recently-top-10 guild full of highly competent players. Big deal? Maybe not. But this is how I personally derive challenge and fun from this game, especially during the farm grind. Not everyone likes to be competitive, and that's fine. But let's not kid ourselves - our main function in end-game raiding is dps, period.
My guild is not the high performance team that many other guilds maybe. To date we have only beaten Tainted WK and Champions of the People and still struggle mightily against complex raids such as Chapterhouse. Just to use Tainted WK for an example while you are probably DPSing as hard as you can I am busy throwing roots down range and even the occasional heal or boxing my cleric. Trying Bixies I haven't lived longed enough (beyond 30 or so seconds) to form an opinion on what I would really be doing. On DH I am killing maggots, casting cures, and dying to ACs. At the end-game you all may very well be nothing but DPS machines, but down at my level it is a totally different story some nights. I do love placing well on the guild parse though
Pretty much this, if you want to see a parse that matters go look at a beta raid guilds dry-run parse before everyone know's exactly when to do what and you will clearly see the best players, not the best classes at the top of every parse. Given enough time and repetition everyone could play whatever is best for every circumstance and always be #1, truly great players are #1 when it matters.
In the scenario you describe, I can see where your rangerly utility would be more heavily relied upon and crucial to your guild's success than others. Yep, that's really the bottom line. Player skill & tenacity > ADPS > Gear > Class. Or something like that.
