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, it 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.

Basic Macros

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 character say "Hello" in the general chat)
/g INC %t   (sends in group chat the message "INC <YourCurrentTarget>")
/r INC %t   (same as above but for the raid channel you might have formed)

Now for the more juicy 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 ";" character. 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 message "INC <YourCurrentTarget>")

NOTE 1: In 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 message you need to send MUST be at the end of the string, else the parser thinks that everything following is part of the text of the say or g command (this might change in the 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 /useability <SpellName>. Things to note about this command:

• The <SpellName> parameter MUST include the whole name of the spell, including any spaces or apostrophes in it.
• The command format is the same command for spells, attacks, and abilities.

Simple (nonfunctional) examples:

/useability Taunting Blow ; g INC %t                (uses the ability Taunting Blow to pull and sends inc message to group chat)
/useability Veil of the Unseen ; g %t is Invisible  (casts invisibility and announces the target)

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 semicolon and then use all the above without 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 restrictions.

You can use up to 2 spells/attacks/abilities in one macro, but because of the queue, using more than two will make the program dequeue the middle ones and use only the 1st and queue the last. For example, if you had a command string of: attack1, debuff, attack2, attack3; the program will start casting attack1, queue the debuff, dequeue the debuff and queue attack2, dequeue attack2 and queue attack3. The result is that with that macro you will do attack1 and attack3 and miss the debuff and the attack2. So, in a macro you can only include two abilities if you want all to be executed.

The exception to the above rule are instants cast at the beginning of a macro. Instants, such as the HO starter, do not queue the following action, thus enabling additional action (or actions if several instants are chained at the beginning of a macro) to be included in the macro.

This is great for solo/one person macros. In one macro you can completely macro the HO chain. Example follows:

: ; useability Lucky Break ; 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. 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.

Another useful command is /assist. The downside 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 <SomeAbility>

NOTE: if you want to use a ranged attack for pulling, the command is /togglerangedattack and is a standalone command (e.g. ": ; togglerangedattack ; g INC %t"). If you use the toggle command combined with the assist to change targets to another mob of the group you are fighting, the attack will turn off. A solution is to use

: ; assist %t ; autoattack 1

which keeps your char in attacking mode if he/she is already attacking.

Troubleshooting

If the macro you are making doesnt work, check the below:

1. The macro must start with ": " in order for it to work.
2. Use " ; " between commands, one space before and after the semicolon.
3. Any say command MUST be at the end of the macro line, since the parser assumes anything following the command is the parameter for the say.
4. The ability name MUST BE the full name, with spaces and punctuation.
5. Only the first command on a macro line uses the leading "/" (unless using ": ").

Subsitutions

To put some spice in your messags you can also use the below substitution macros:

%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)
%G - Returns the gender of the target

Commanding Pets

For all of you pet owners the following commands can be used in macros:

/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    (despawns pet)

Things You CANNOT Do with A Macro

• You can't make a macro push a hotkey (no command for it, appears to be intentional).
• You can't insert a pause.

Macroing Tips

Lastly, some tips for macroing in-game, out of my personal experience:

• Using 2 attacks in one macro is 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 a taunt and an attack that has equal or less recast that usually follows taunt).
• If you link 2 attacks/spells together, put the strongest and slowest first... this way you can un-queue the follow-up command by hitting another hotkey.
• Putting a message in a macro that you usually cast more than once every 10 secs can be very annoying for people around you... avoid it! The exception are critical notifications, such as mezz.
• Every healer casting group heal should have a message attached to it to inform the group and mainly the taunter that he might receive extra agro...
• If you want to remove a message from a macro for the current group/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 nearly 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. Due to the queue, if you lag and you press a macro of 2 combined attacks, the first attack might "lag" if the currently running ability (one done before you press the macro hotkey) isnt over, thus resulting in it being queued out by the next command in the macro.
• Sometimes you want to know the exact time the spell is available to be cast again, since the macro icon doesnt grey in and out as the normal hotkeys do. Put one of the two abilities next to the macro, so when the macro is excecuted the hotkey icon of the command in it will allow you to see the ready status of the command. You dont save a hotkey slot this way, but you do save keystrokes.
• 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.
• To add a kind of a pause for HO usage with a msg in order to use it in groups, make a macro that does a skill/spell with a casting time you want as pause before the HO is started and then add the HOstarter. This way the HO will start as soon as your move is done, giving a few seconds to your groupmates to prepare for their followups while it is cast.

  /usea Strike of Storms
  /gsay HO starting in 10 seconds, please do not break.
  /usea Lucky Break
  

• To find the spelling of a command you know or think 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).
• With the autocomplete that EQ2 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.

Examples of some useful macros:

: ; assist ; useability nukenamehere  (for casters that prefer to use /assist unstead of always targeting the tank)
: ; useablity Experiment ; useability Analyse
: ; useablity Theory ; useability Analyse
: ; useablity Reaction ; useability Analyse  (tradeskill macro to keep durability up and react to any events with one keypress)
: ; target_self ; useability Demonstration of Faith ; target_nearest_npc
: ; assist %T ; togglerangedattack  (allows to tabbing to different members of any group and assist on the fly)
:; useability progressicon1 ; useability progressicon2 ; useability progressicon3  (example of a tradeskill macro to bump progress)

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...

===========================
Psixakias HObreaker: Dirge on Guk
Under the services of Descent of Dorians
Adapted from: http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=Newbie&message.id=69655, accessed 01-26-2005 10:40 AM