Why Macros belong in TOR.

I started PvPing in vanilla WoW and continued to play through the last expansion. When I started no one was using macros. In my opinion the heavy use of macros turned PvP into a profession instead of a game. If you didn't use macros you got stomped. Period. I don't want to have have to reprogram the game, buy a mouse with 300 buttons on it and quadruple the number of keybinds I have to memorize in order to have a fighting chance. Clearly, the tor devs agree seeing that there's no recount function, no combat log, basic focus and no macros. Heck, they don't even let you see your teammates performance stats until the end of a match to keep you from heckling people and screaming LTP at them. I'm sure people will find ways to turn tor pvp into a job as well at which point I'll move on.

I have 30 direct, easy to use keyboard shortcuts and I use WADS.....I rarely have to use my mouse to fire off an ability. I don't see the need for macros. I play a Commando Combat Medic and manage to heal just fine.

Macros are already here. They're not in the game, obviously, but they are available to people with G15 keyboards or smart enough to look for a free program called Autohotkey (binding several buttons into one which you will mash is the simplest, yet very useful thing it does).

If macros are for skill-less scrubs as so many have claimed, why are they both heavily used and indispensable to the most skilled players?

Because it is the only way they can compete due to the skill erosion caused by macros.

It is pretty simple.

at the end of the day, MMORPG's are morea bout build and philosophy than "twitch" play.

Twitch play is an FPS thing "skill" by their terms is dexderity, Skill by MMORPG standards is the build that will do the most damage.

I am on the fence with macro's, I played "the big mmo" for many years and didnt use macro's for a long time. Eventually i started using them and my dps soared, not because I didnt know what I was doing before but because timed abilities were constantly up if the could be.

From my perspective someone that could kick out the dps I kicked out and not use macro's would be more skilled than me. They would be more aware of their timers and use them effectively.

Using macro's is not skilless, but it is less skill. I dont care either way, because if they put them in I will use them, but on the other hand I like that as my awareness of my class grows and my experience using the class grows my dps goes up.

I lean slightly to the "no macro's" side only because an idiot with no clue can read a message board post and take his bought account to 80% of its potential with a couple of macro's and a 3 button rotation.

for the people that know their class that extra 5% meh... whatever... I like getting that extra 5% and knowing it is because of my awareness of both my toon and my surroundings and situation.

I've read parts of this thread and I see a lot people thinking the OP is asking for cast sequence macros or spammable dps macros (These are macros that list your top priority abilities first, followed by lower priority abilites and all you have to do is spam one button and it will use the best available ability). It seems he is mostly asking for the ability to use focus target macros to be able to efficiently use an ability on a character you don't have targeted. The ability to put your focus target into a stun/cc is valuable and takes a large amount of skill to use correctly. I know we all hate wow now, but anyone remember shadow word death macros? Did you think those were "skill-less"? I too would enjoy the ability to have macros that look like the following:

/target focus
/cast (ability)
/targetlasttarget

A lack of this type of macro is going to mean high end pvp will probably require having targeting macros for enemy players. This could get quite annoying if PvP stays as is and is mostly done in warzones with 8+ people.

I'd also like to encourage people to remember that this game is fairly new, and things are going to change considerably over the next few months. Keep an open mind and try to have a good time.

-Iamurfriend

Im an old wow high rated pvp player and i think macros should be implemented, specially for healers (played a warrior back in wow and playing a jedi guardian right now).

Healers without the ability to hold a focus target (either an enemy healer/caster, getting ready to cut a spell) or a secondary healing target will lose efficency aganist heavy nukers in most pvp scenarios, therefore will be less or even not used at all.

Most people claiming his playing skill to be enough to maintain maximun efficency without the use of macros are either lying or dont know what are they talking about at all since being able to use your character skills with speed is nothingless than an obvius matter. What brings the difference btw high skilled pvp players and low ones its the selfcapacity to being able to react aganist his human opponent with efficency and speed, the creativity to response aganist his current actions constantly. If you meet those facts then you will be able to stomp any player who doesn't, even if he uses macros and you don't. Macros add complexity to the game, and those who doesn`t use them either dont know how to or dont care at all, wich brings them to a lower level talking about pvp skill rate already.

What really made me laught aswell, was the argument wich some people is bringing talking about the cast sequence macros wich allow noobs to stomp great pvp players... Cast sequence? No pvp scenario of a minimun level allows a player to stand (or move) spaming 1 key and brings his effectivity to perfection. If you get harmed by such situations then sir, your probably worst player than the one spaming his "i win in 1600 rating arena games" key. You totally dont know what you're talking about, seriusly.

Excuse me for my poor english grammar.

So you macroskilled your way up the rank? The complexity between WoW and TOR aren't the same, I had to have every available hotbar open as a Shaman for all the totems, macros was needed. In TOR you only really need 2 full bars for everything accessable, if you need macros to fire off something off those 2 bars, you're lazy. I have stance/speeder on the left bar, consumables/trinklets on the right bar both easily accessable with the mouse.

NO to macros, it would make pvp much less fun, especially when ranked pvp matches arrives.

TL;DR - I need a crutch to effectively play this game