Macroing multiple skills often necessitates mashing the macro to make them all fire. There's a couple reasons for this.
First, while Off-GCD skills are be used in succession, there's a roughly-one-second internal cooldown on skills. In WoW, a macro consisting of 9 off-GCD buffs would all fire at the same time. XIV doesn't allow you to do that, so a macro consisting of Internal Release, Blood for Blood and Raging Strikes requires three different presses to activate, each bringing that 1~second cooldown. This is why theorycrafters weave Off-GCDs into normal GCDs; As soon as you've used two off-GCD buttons back to back, you've effectively lost an attack due to lag/input/etc.
Second, while XIV allows you to buffer abilities by hitting them early, macros are not subject to this. "Buffering," if anyone is unfamiliar with the mechanic, means you can press the button for your new skill before the GCD is up and you will automatically use that skill as soon as you're able. The window isn't huge, but it isn't small, either; Usually around .5~seconds in advance, maybe more. I mash my buttons anyway, so I can't tell how big it actually is.
Thirdly, macros with /wait timers cannot split half-seconds. XIV harbors a 2.5second GCD, but /wait macros can only do whole numbers. Macroing multiple attacks to a single macro means you're going to be stuck waiting 3 seconds after every attack, which is not a good idea for obvious reasons. Admittedly, this isn't what you're doing, Steel, but I'm including it for posterity!
So yeah, in short: Those sorts of macros require you to 1) mash the key and 2) lose attacks to process everything. What you could do in that situation is mash the macro, then hit an attack button, then mash the macro again to fire off the second ability, then hit an attack button, then mash the macro again to get the third skill.
First, while Off-GCD skills are be used in succession, there's a roughly-one-second internal cooldown on skills. In WoW, a macro consisting of 9 off-GCD buffs would all fire at the same time. XIV doesn't allow you to do that, so a macro consisting of Internal Release, Blood for Blood and Raging Strikes requires three different presses to activate, each bringing that 1~second cooldown. This is why theorycrafters weave Off-GCDs into normal GCDs; As soon as you've used two off-GCD buttons back to back, you've effectively lost an attack due to lag/input/etc.
Second, while XIV allows you to buffer abilities by hitting them early, macros are not subject to this. "Buffering," if anyone is unfamiliar with the mechanic, means you can press the button for your new skill before the GCD is up and you will automatically use that skill as soon as you're able. The window isn't huge, but it isn't small, either; Usually around .5~seconds in advance, maybe more. I mash my buttons anyway, so I can't tell how big it actually is.
Thirdly, macros with /wait timers cannot split half-seconds. XIV harbors a 2.5second GCD, but /wait macros can only do whole numbers. Macroing multiple attacks to a single macro means you're going to be stuck waiting 3 seconds after every attack, which is not a good idea for obvious reasons. Admittedly, this isn't what you're doing, Steel, but I'm including it for posterity!
So yeah, in short: Those sorts of macros require you to 1) mash the key and 2) lose attacks to process everything. What you could do in that situation is mash the macro, then hit an attack button, then mash the macro again to fire off the second ability, then hit an attack button, then mash the macro again to get the third skill.
![[Image: yEROfKO.png]](http://i.imgur.com/yEROfKO.png)
