...to levels of spam abilities and spells that no human can keep up with manually, please, make sure that keybinding and such work properly and have kept up with the modern game. My paladin has about 55 buttons to spam each refresh per minute in most group or raid situations. There's no possible way to keep up with hitting those buttons manually, without using cheat hardware or software, and this is a drop in the bucket compared to what some classes are having to spam. The game does provide keybinding and custom macroing, which would be great if they worked properly and had kept up with the current amount of spam that most classes have now. Personally, I use a few custom macros for spam abilities and items that I need to use every recast, plus, I use keybinding for about twelve to eighteen things that I'd otherwise have to manually press every refresh. I'd say this works about 75% of the time, but then it glitches out the other 25% of the time. For example, when I press the E key, the things that I have tied to that key should fire every refresh (unless something is already in the process of being cast), but much of the time this system gets stuck trying to recast one thing that is on a long cool down and shouldn't be considered for casting at all. There's no fix for this that I know of and for the 25% of the time that it's not working, things slow down to the point that I can manually press everything, so I end up losing out on dps, healing, or whatever I'm doing at the time. I appreciate that the game has evolved to where we're not hitting two or three things per minute, if that, but it's reached the point that we have so many things to spam that it's impossible to hit them all every refresh. So, please, either reduce the amount of spam to a reasonable level or make sure that the in game provided tools are working properly and have been updated to meet the demands of the current game.
I feel this post. I fired up my 3 box crew for the first time in 2 years a couple days ago. I had uninstalled the game at some point so starting from scratch it took me half the day just trying to get all my AA, discs, hotbars, spam keys, macros, chat windows, filters, and UI set up just to get started. It was definitely a chore and it's still not optimal but I wanted to get started so I still have a lot more work to do to get them all set up right. I also agree there is absolutely no way to keep all the spam abilities up without autofire (which I have set on my gaming mouse to toggle autofire spam keys on/off). Also the spam issue: when trying to filter out "you cannot use this ability" it is found under the "Other" chat filter. The problem is there are a lot of important this not related to spamming abilities that are found under this filter, so you are either stuck with the spam or you miss out on other important things.
An optional autofire feature for spam abilities, spells, items, and such that the player selects would be great at this point, provided that it works properly and could be quickly activated and turned off. I'm sure there is gaming hardware and third party programs to set this up, but I'd much prefer an in game feature that could keep up with everything. I'd love to see a video of one of the developers trying to play the game legit.
I have all of my nukes and melee abilities set up on 1 2 3, and I use a keyboard that can spam those 3 on toggle. Most of the rest of the stuff I hit manually. It seems to work out pretty well.
I have no issue hitting abilities or spells on refresh, the only issue I have is click items not instantly responding, all the time, to either a key press or click. If you become proficient at utilizing keybinds you'll have no issue keeping up with refresh timers. Edit: changed or to on.
I can agree here, in order to top the parse as my beastlord on raids each night I literally had to hurt my wrist by the time raids were done. Then you have my wizard... where I tap one button at 120 BPM and I do as much more than my beastlord did spamming two different buttons and 4 or 5 different spells. Some classes (like a beastlord) are just to spammy and it's not impossible, but highly improbable to get the most out of the class without using something to autofire hotkeys for you. When I asked the top Beastlords in the game how they did it, they told me use Auto Hotkey. Being forced to use a third party program to maximize what a class can do isn't ok with me so I main changed. I do miss my Beastlord though, much more fun to play as a solo class than a Wizzy that's for sure! The biggest issue with asking for a program like this is people are going to tell you "stop sucking" and "I can do it - why can't you" because we're humans and for some odd reason we get offended when someone tells us you're not playing at optimum efficiency even if it isn't our fault that we're not. There's a huge difference between getting the most out of your class and just playing it. Everyone can play a beastlord, but you're going to need a third party program to get the most out of the class unless you have wrist muscles the size of a friggen grapefruit. I would assume the same thing for rangers/other hybrid classes like that. And it's ok if you're not toping parses as these classes, it isn't your fault that you aren't, it's the design of the classes fault. If you fill a macro with spammable abilities, sometimes they still all don't fire. Not your fault, it's latency. During a burn on a melee class not having one of your abilities fire you're dropping thousands of DPS in your burn. That isn't your fault - it's the games fault.
As I said, I already use keybinding and a number of custom macros that none of which should be required to play the game outside of burning and a select few other occasions. The problem today is that they don't work much of the time. I used the example of a key getting stuck on one spell or ability with a long cool down and trying to cast it and only it until the cool down expires. When that happens, I have to stop using the spam keys and try and keep up with everything manually until that glitch works itself out. I end up losing out on dps, healing, or however I'm opting to play my class at the particular time when that happens as there is no possible way that I can keep up with the twelve to eighteen things that I typically spam. 55 buttons per minute doesn't sound like a whole lot, but when you're having each refresh happen at different times and sometimes at the same times, there's just no way a human can play manually anymore. The point of this is thread is to show that the game has insane levels of spam now and in game tools should work properly all the time and be updated to the current levels. The in game tools are either broken much of the time or woefully inadequate for the amount of spam that we have. Providing an optional opt in /autofire for any spam spells, abilities, items, and such that the players would select would go a long ways towards this, provided that it works properly and that you can activate it and shut it down quickly.
Many players get by without automated key press. Most classes have a ton of abilities, many situational, but most have several abilities they use over and over. Honestly, if you get proficient at keybinding it sn't an issue. Is it a lot of spam? Yeah, most games are these days, I don't see it as a problem. I personally don't have an issue with spells or abilities going off, so I'm not sure what the problem is. But pretending someone needs a 3rd party program to play optimally is a joke. If you want a game that requires precise high apm, look at the Starcraft franchise. I play games like Osu, Warcraft 3, and League of Legends to name a few, and all 3 require much higher APMs than EQ. EQ is gated by how many abilities we can use at a time, so we don't require a computer program to play optimally for us.
APM? I googled the acronym but nothing came up. Also I don't think you fully understand what they're talking about, you can hit as many AAs/Discs as you want at a time but you have a global cooldown on spells. Some classes, even with macros, require an insane amount of spamming. An unnatural amount, an amount so high that the people who are best at that class tell you to use third party programs to parse well. It depends on what you consider "optimally" - You can definitely get 100% out of a class without a 3rd party program by just spamming by hand. Now think about how tired your hand is going to get spamming over a raid fight that lasts 20 minutes.... Pretty darn tired. If you disagree than I have a challenge for you, sit there and spam just 1 or 2 keys on your keyboard for 20 minutes. Then do it again 3 more times because you're not just doing 1 raid tonight, oh no no you're doing 4 raids, each that last 20 min each, each of which you're spamming the entire time. That's about an hour of spamming two keys lightning fast to make sure your abilities all fire and you parse well. It has nothing to do with how good a player is or isn't in fact it pretty much has to do with how athletic a player is more than anything. And we're all nerds here for crying out loud. If we wanted to be athletic we'd have chosen a different hobby!
So you think it's good game design to manually mash spam keys every second of every encounter to play properly? I'm not saying its impossible or that it takes skill, I'm saying its annoying AF and wouldn't want to play certain classes without autofire.
APM = Actions Per Minute. In highly competitive games like Starcraft 1/2 (especially games like this) it requires an immense amount of Actions Per Minute to compete. Players have to keybind interactions to have a hopes chance to playing; clicking means you're terrible at the game and will not be able to compete against anyone semi competitive at it. I know we have a global cooldown, hence I talked about how EQ is gated. Whom are the people, in EQ, that are the best in their class that tell you to use third party programs? If they're using third party programs, like Macro-you-know-what (not saying you're saying it's that particular program), then they're cheating, and are most definitely not the best at their class. I'm in RoI, so I know a lot of "top" players. Anyone that talks about using THE PROGRAM openly usually gets laughed at, told they're bad, and in most instances are kicked out of reputable guilds (though reputable can be subjective, and a ranger might stalk you through multiple zones to prove to Qulas they're using THAT PROGRAM). For example, Mage is my best class. I don't personally know a Magician that parses higher than me. Whenever "top" Mages ask me for help, even the ones that claim they're the best Mage ever!!!, in game, on the forums, mage tower, etc...., I tell them they need to stop mindlessly spamming their multibind only, and hotkey other spells/abilities to their individual keys. That's actually an issue, and what I find funny about people wanting automated keys (we know plenty will automate spells). Sometimes you don't want to instantly hit something on cooldown. Sometimes you don't actually want to use the spell next in your multibind. Mashing keys isn't really the skill in EQ, it's using the best ability in the best situation. Automation, in my opinion, is a terrible idea for EQ if it's to the degree that some suggest (Autofire is fine). I do agree on the fact that macros are absolutely terrible in this game, like really really really bad, but I originally addressed the fact that is does not require 3rd party automation to reach top end dps. We had someone already say it's impossible to play manually anymore: Look at the video I linked. Individual players can produce incredible feats, so hitting EQ keys on repop, even if a few pop at the same time/close, is a small activity compared to other, actually competitive (content isn't as challenging as it used to be), games out there. Actually, if you're a class that can top parse/come close, and you're set up with great adps, it's 100% your fault for not topping it, especially if another player of the same class is. If you're having an issue with macros not firing, don't use macros! It's that simple. Keybind. Making up excuses, and the quote above is either sarcasm or a literal excuse (honestly, I'm not sure 100% due to your other posts), doesn't fix the problem. We are stuck with a "meh" game, most likely due to financial constraints and poor decisions in the past. Work with what you have. If someone of the same class isn't cheating, and is beating you, then it's 100% your, the player not you directly, fault. I understand macros are bad in EQ, but multibinding is much better, and I'm glad you (people in this thread) use it. I've never had a consistent issue of my spells not firing, or AA's, when using keybinds/multibind. Where did I say anything about it being good game design? I said that I think it's a joke people stating in EQ we require a 3rd party program (automated) to hit our abilities for us to reach maximum dps. Like I said above, I think macros are terrible in EQ, and wish the developers had more resources to fix this game up, especially the UI (UI is what we all stare at, and new players need an appealing UI to want to play).
For reference: Osu reference: I spent a decent chunk of time practicing OSU; I actually did it to improve my mechanics in League of Legends. Edit: Can people honestly read this thread, people that are actually decent at this game, and tell me that they need automated keys to keep things on cooldown, and it's impossible without automation? Mashing keys mindlessly isn't skill, but it does take skill to perfect keybinding. I know many players in top guilds that barely utilize keybindings, and click more than they should. The actual top players will notice, even looking at gamparse it can be obvious if you know what you're looking for (that, or they haven't built enough muscle memory).
Lol no one who is the best at their class is telling you to use 3rd party programs. You need to look around more and find better players to ask advice from. Hitting keys isnt hard, and isnt whats holding most ppl back from optimal play. What holds most back is a complete lack of effort to look things up and see how things interact. It's easier to just ask for the info and use what someone told you to use without knowing why or how it works. And while that can work for some in the short term inevitably the class changes and they turn into crap again until someone is nice enough to share info and "fixes" them. If everything was automated in this game, there would still be large differences in "top" players from the average ones because the game isnt static and you need to keep up with changes to stay on top of your class.
Not Macro-you-know-what Auto hotkey is what I was told to use and it was from Tibbers before he main changed as well as Stubar? Stubbers? Studar? The other BL had similar advice. Both told me to use auto hotkey to fix the issue I was having and one even gave me their script to use it (which spammed 1 and 2). If you're their best mage I am assuming you're Etile(fv char) as everyone praised him as the best mage in RoI over the last two years whom I know from your guild. You've also raided with me while I was on my Beastlord as well, but I think you quit before I started raiding on my Wizard. Mages won't have that issue of course, I can only think of one class I played with a spamming issue and that was Beastlord. During RoF and CoTF I was able to get 10 - 20k below your BLs burns and my DPS really plummeted on sustained (the reason i did less is because of Adps/I suck - you can choose =P). I think you should try a Beastlord before you make up your mind on "I haven't had this issue - so you must be doing something wrong" because I have only had these issues I described here on a single class, my Beastlord. I was a crappy beastlord, hands down - I will be the first to admit. I didn't have the stamina to spam that many keys constantly 4 times a week on 3hr raid nights. It's a lot different for you all in RoI too, you're going to be wearing a veil when it comes to stuff like this because you usually don't know how it is outside of your own guild. If you're Etile, then you do, in FnF fights would take 2 or even 3x as long as they do in RoI. So where your members may be ok spamming abilities for that long, they may not be ok spamming them for a fight that lasts 20 minutes longer than they're used to it lasting. But the things you're saying like "Don't use macros" and "keybind the abilities individually" just won't work for Beastlords and lets face it, it's a bit pointless for a lot of classes to do something like that. Unless you meant binding 6 abilities to 1 key like I have done for my wizard. I have 4 spells and 3 forces bound to . So I literally only have to press this one single button to pew pew. Binding tons of abilities to 1 key does to work (to an extent) but if you mix combat abilities and spells it can hang (which i explain later). Also, something else that isn't the players fault is when you combine spells and AAs/discs in a macro it can hang. If you've never had this happen before bind your force of elements in a macro with a few spells then spam it. What it will do is keep trying to cast a spell over and over and over while also trying to cast force and it'll hang up your abilities doing nothing. You'll notice that the cast bar for the spell will pop up like you were starting to cast it and a quarter way through it filling up it'll just disappear. You won't cast the spell nor use the force. This will happen over and over endlessly until you stop spamming the key and hit it slower or off beat. Toxn and I actually found a fix for this and it was the 120 BPM speed, that speed was the optimal speed for no spell hangs mixed in with forces for wizards. The class you're playing doesn't have the same issues Agrippa brought up or I brought up about Beastlords, so of course you're not going to know what we're talking about and of course you're going to tell us there is an easy way to get around it. It's because you've never experienced it yourself so you have no idea what troubles you could encounter until you've played the class yourself.
Etile was Vesh., a Cleric main. My main, in RoI, is Enkel. If you don't think I was the best, based on parses, look up parses from people you know in our guild. Also, Vesh was solid, but I don't know who said he was the best. He asked me all the time for help, since Mage wasn't his main, and I used to group with him. I really liked the guy, since he always tried his best. Edit: 20 second grammar fix, holy moly. Also, added last paragraph.
Hitting keys isn't hard. I said that. Spamming the same keys for 20 minutes straight with 20min breaks over the course of 4hrs is what I said was difficult. If you don't think so then good for you. To reiterate my point is one that has nothing to do with skill, intelligence, dexterity, coordination, key binds, macros... There's only one thing I said is required for this type of play, stamina. As for arguing about skill and who is better than who - you guys can argue about that all you want but I'm not going to feed the trolls. There's nothing I find more embarrassing than arguing with someone about who is better than who at a video game. It has absolutely no practical application in the real world and it's not like when I get older I am going to tell my grandkids tales about how I used to top parses or got Gladiator in World of Warcraft. A lot of the RoI who played with FnF on FV said that. When Etile joined I asked who he was and I was told "The best mage in RoI" - they could have been being sarcastic. I have a hard time telling when someone is being sarcastic a lot of the time. But that is definitely something I would remember.
I don't know what you read but my post wasn't about being the best. Its about how the vast majority of players want everything spoon-fed to them. Most people don't want to take the time to determine their own "best lineups" or stacking of different effects. Its easier to be lazy and ask for a guide. You're partially right its not about skill, intelligence, dexterity, coordination, key binds, macros, OR stamina... it's entirely to do with apathy and effort. Players that are lazy and satisfied with not understanding the whys/hows of what they're even doing, are always going to be behind the players that get that information for themselves, with or without automation. Are you going to sit there and pretend that secretaries, journalists, and stenographers have more "wrist-stamina" than the average EQ player? Cause I think most people's internet histories would disagree with that....
