Why Macros belong in TOR.

Ok I'm relatively new to mmos my only prior experience being some time on Team Fortress 2 and Starcraft 2. From what I've heard in this thread I agree with the pro-macro argument for a few reasons

1: I have had to play with enough noobs to know, no matter what game you're in you can't beat a human with an "I win" button

2: If there's one thing Khem has taught me it's that the hit boxes are wonky so a mouse over macro for healers would help

3: I see no problem with being able to fluidly switch targets so you can take out the medic first then cripple the heavy he's healing

Extra: (this is more a general point) Before you cry nerf look for a counter, any thing balanced has a counter.

I much preferred launch on the 20th to being delayed due to security hardening tests and exploit scenario running on the macro / addon system.

Thanks Bioware

Macro's never really suited me, however I made massive use of Recount in WoW. At the moment it's difficult to know what are the most powerful attack rotations beyond sitting down and trying to work it out on a calculator from the possible damage outputs, but I'm never going to get a truly accurate result from that.

In-game recount would be great, but other than that I think it's got all it needs.

Macros decrease the skill cap of the already low ceiling on MMORPG's, so I don't support. You argue that macros make the game harder, but by definition macros make it more convenient. If you're having problems using all your important skills, get a better kb set-up and enable the quick bar extensions, yeah it'll take practice and hard work to learn these things - that's what I believe was the intention in increasing the skill cap. The same reason auto-attack does not exists, timing becomes more important.

Macros turn MMO's into carebear land. I had a 50 warrior and 50 mage in Rift and for PvE I never had to go past setting 3 main keybinds using macros - lofkinl - and maybe add a few more for PvP. The fact that there are a lot of skills to utilize and no macros only helps players with skill standout. I would hate to see SWTOR implement things similar to WoW; MMORPG's shouldn't feel the need to copy WoW to be successful (Rift). BW does something different from the MMORPG scene and you condemn them.

If you just want focus indicators and mouse targeting (which I don't have a problem with) WHY ARE YOU CALLING THEM MACROS? You're confusing a lot of people. We are thinking you want the ability to hit one key to execute a sequence of skills - please clarify that this is not because you keep using the word macro, if it is, then: NO. How does this "increase complexity" when you pre-write your actions outside of battle and press one key instead of thinking up your strategies on the fly and pressing multiple keys? So should StarCraft 2 also have macros so you don't have to remember the order in which to do things or at what frequency? Seems like it just decreases difficulty. So please explain how it effectively raises the skill cap.

Becuase now you can insta-switch stances / weapons like warriors / rogues in WoW used to do to compensate for bad game design. Oh wait, wrong game.

Maybe he has trouble reading and writing and considers the reading skill involved in learning TOR macros to be part of the combat system.

NUMBERS R HARD BRO!

Something that needs clarification is that the focus mechanic is not a handicap - it is not a direct replacement of manual targeting, it is an alternative.

To say that the implementation of focus macro functionality would be without purpose is illogical. Things are possible with focus target and macro support that are not while manually targeting. Thus, the introduction of focus macros into the game would alter game mechanics - it would have a noticeable (and, in my opinion, positive) effect on gameplay. To reiterate earlier statements - in many circumstances, identifying a healer, while engaged in combat with another player, manually targeting that healer who has already begun casting a 1.5/2 second heal, using your interrupt (with the short delay that entails) and retargeting your previous opponent (who has had the opportunity to continue moving and attacking you unopposed for at least two-three seconds) is more than impractical, it is implausible. Now consider the practice of "fake casting" and the situation is entirely untenable.

Once again, at it's most fundamental level, the argument is whether players should have the ability to reasonably engage two competent players/overcome a healer disparity, or not.

Focus is not a crutch, it is an alternative mechanic, one that would significantly alter gameplay.

Unfortunately, "macro" is a broad term, and despite multiple attempts to clarify exactly what I'm asking for (both in the OP and in my subsequent posts) people are still posting in ignorance.

Once again, a focus macro is not a crutch. It facilitates gameplay, circumstances and scenarios that would not otherwise be possible. Would increasing a players ability to compete against healers, particularly in a situation where there is a healer disparity between teams, be a positive development, or not? Would increasing a players effectiveness against multiple targets be a positive development, or not?

Discussion concerning the above questions would, in my opinion, be more constructive than endless, circular arguments about the nature and schematics of the focus macros nature itself.

I'm tired of nubs like you who haven't a clue a macro does. All you bads seem to think that all macros are /castsequence.... something only OTHER nubs would even attempt to use. Stop being a freaking bad and learn something. Man, you guys are like cockroaches... infest everything.

This is not really true. This game telegraphs moves by sound and visuals poorly. This is one of the complaints that competitive gamers have right now. Debuffs and Buffs are very hard to see (especially on the raid frame). It would help if they would allow us to customize the UI a bit more.

Name one important debuff or buff that does not have an especially obvious animation on the player character.

It's absolutely not impractical or implausible unless your reflexes are poor. It absolutely does not take two or three seconds to target someone, press a key and then retarget. Try less than 1 second. For me, it's completely seamless, and i've been doing it since Vanilla WoW when there weren't even cast bars, just glowy hands.

Fake casting doesn't do anything in this game, this is not World of Warcraft. Interrupts are not for the lockouts, they are for using right at the end of casts to waste the players time spent casting.

As someone who thinks macros need to be in the game, focus macros are one of the biggest "Crutch" macros you could possibly implement, only rivaled by one button damage rotation macros. They remove the need to keep track of the positioning of specific players on the enemy team and remove a large "twitch" skill factor. They do absolutely nothing BUT lower the skillcap of the game.