The Hub System of Macro Management a guide by Sekhmet

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Category:Guides
==The Hub System of Macro Management==
Greetings and salutations! This is my first time writing a guide, and I hope it's understandable and comprehensive. First, I'll explain what this is not: It is not a guide to writing macros, It is not a guide of macro commands, nor is it a guide about cheating the system. This is a guide about what I like to call "the Hub system of Macro Management", which is something I've been playing with since discovering 2 particular macro commands. 
A little about me: I'm on the Leviathan server, Mithra, 5' 10" red-headed ginger cat, full of fire and spirit, named Sekhmet. And before you ask, no, I was not named after the Sekhmet from Ronin Warriors tm, I'm Egyptian, baby! Rawr!
I've been playing consistently since the North American release, so I've had a lot of time to play with macros and devise my own system of making them work to the fullest advantage. I hope this guide helps other players improve their macros, or at least give players something to base their own systems upon.
If you are a starting player, or are unsure of the numerous macro commands, Egomzez's guide is a great place to look up specifics. As I stated at the beginning, I will not be going over writing the macros themselves, but I will be using specific macros that I personally use as examples.
==The Two Commands That Make it all Possible==
Let me introduce you to my own personal saviors when it comes to macro management:
/macro book #
/macro set #
If you know and use these commands, congratulations, you have the cornerstone to building a fortress of streamlined macros. If not, I hope my explanation will shed some light on why I consider these commands so useful.
Every player has 20 macro books at their disposal, one for each job, as it turns out. The /macro book command is simple, it switches your current book to the book number in your macro. Example: If your on book 1, and you hit a macro reading /macro book 2, you get switched to macro book 2. 
The /macro set command works the same way, /macro set 3 takes you to the third set in your current macro book. Everyone has 10 sets within each book, and 20 macro buttons within each set, for 4,000 individual macros, and 6 lines for each macro, which means you have 24,000 macro lines available to fill with whatever your heart desires. 
Overwhelming, isn't it? A lot of players I've met only use one or two sets for any particular job, which leaves a ton of empty space just waiting to be filled. "But Sekky," you may say, "Scrolling down through the macro sets is so time consuming that I may miss a Cure or Stun, so having more then 2 or 3 sets makes it hard to find the right spell or ability in a timely manner." You'd have a point, but these two commands make zipping around your macro sets so easy, that once you get used to it, you'll never go back to scrolling up or down again. 
 
==The Basic Job Hub==
Lets start the examples. The most basic Hub I use is the Job Hub. In every macro book, I use the first set to list out the different macro books I have for my jobs. Example:
The blank space, in this case representing rdm, is the current macro book I am on, and is left blank on purpose, as a kind of visual clue which book I am currently in. If I'm on the Drk Book, then the Second space would be blank; if Thf, the third would be blank, etc.
That's it! This macro will take me to the second set of the first book, which is my Rdm job macro hub. Just continue that on down the line for the job hub, just make sure the book and set you're linking to is correct.
Why make this hub in the first place? Well, I'm sure everyone has made a mistake and been on the wrong macro set during an event or soloing, I know I've made that mistake many times in the past. This hub is useful to switch between job macro books so those mistakes aren't fatal (well, as fatal as a video game can be, anyway).
Do you think writing that for every job book is a pain? well, that's what copy and paste is for! One thing I may as well mention now, since it'll come up again, is the fact that I prefer redundant macros. Having numerous copies of the same macro is useful (even with this hub system) for very commonly used spells and abilities; Provoke, Stun, or Utsusemi: Ni for example. Obviously this is personal preference, use whatever you're comfortable with. The only person who will use it is you, so do whatever you want!
==The Job-specific Hub==
Ok, now for job-specific hubs. I put this as the second set within each book. Think of this hub as your home base, from which you link to all the other macro sets within a macro book. I usual set up macros for seldom used job abilities here, for example Composure or Convert, things you don't need to access all the time, due to timers or low utility. The best way to illustrate this hub is to show you my Rdm hub macros:
And so on and so on. Each of these macros will send you to the set listed, where you macro spells and such, as suggested by the macro name; enf for enfeeble spells, buf for buffs, WS for weapon skills, etc. The beauty of this is that you can change gear twice! 
Lets say your a Direct Damage job, and you are frustrated by the lack of lines to change gear before a WS. Easy! Here is an example from my Drk macros:
This will send you to your weapon skill macro set, where you can macro out all the various WS's that you will change gear for, for example:
where you can then do something like:
Or:
Granted, these macro sets are lacking in the equipment switches, but it illustrates the point that through the use of macro book and set commands, you can get around the "5 equip changes before a WS" complaint I've been seeing WAY too much of on the forums. If you take out the echo message and just use /macro set # and the WS line, that leaves 10 lines for equipment switches before you use a WS. And don't worry about taking up a line with the /wait command, because the <stnpc> command on the WS line will wait for your confirmation button press before using the WS. This serves a few purposes: It allows better timing when trying to proc red in Abyssea, and helps prevent those "Too far away" messages that make you loose all your tp and are a bane to DD's everywhere.
==Sub Sets==
Sub sets are the sets you link to from the job hub. These sets are filled with macros for the various spells and abilities that you decided to gather together in this particular set. Examples are an enfeebling set for rdm, or a healing set for whm, a WS set for a DD, or a nuking set for blm. Your imagination is the only limit when it comes to what kinds of sets you can make. For instance, you can set up a "pet hub" for Bst, and write up macro sets for the various jug pets you like to use, and macro stuff like reward, call beast, jug switches, and the like, and still have a macro set switch to link you back to a /dnc subjob set, for Quickstep, Haste Samba, etc., all while switching equipment while switching macro sets! It really is an elegant system when used to it's fullest potential.
 
In each sub set, I have a hub macro, that will take me back to the main job hub:
Simple! You can also put equipment switches in this hub macro as well, especially for jobs like Rdm, where you will be changing gear almost constantly if you are anywhere near proficient at it. For example:
You can also set up macro set switches between different sub sets. For instance, within my enfeebling sub set, I have switches to buffs 1, healing, and nuking sub sets. This not only saves time by not having to go back to the hub to get to another sub set, but allows you to do things like link to buffs set 2 only from buffs 1 to save room on other sub sets or main hubs. Example: On my buffs set 1, I have have switches to buffs 2 and buffs 3, removing the need for them to be put in the main hub or sub sets. These are all examples, of course, and I will say again that you can be as simple or as complex as you like in your macro set switches.
Another thing you can do is set up macro book switches if you need more then 10 sets for any one job. One example would be the "Pet Hub" idea I mentioned earlier. Do you have more jug pet macros that you want to set up, but not enough sets in one book? Do a book and set swap, and follow it up with a Hub macro to send you back to the main book, like so:
This example uses Red Mage macros and not Beastmaster, but the concept is the same and, like all the ideas presented in this guide, is given as a catalyst to get your own creative juices flowing.
==Fin==
It can easily get overwhelming if you try too many fancy switches right away, just start simple and when your used to it, try something a little more complex. This system I have did not come about overnight, It's taken me months of trial and error to figure these out, mainly because no one told me about them. While I can not write out every single macro I have to show the interlinking system I have now, I hope that this is at least a catalyst for ideas for anyone who wants to give this system a try. If anyone has any questions, suggestions, or constructive criticism, please contact me on the wiki, or if your on Leviathan, give me a tell. --Sekhmet11 12:28, May 25, 2012 (UTC)