Guild Wars 2

I am getting really tired of being rooted into the map in every single fight at least once when using Phase Retreat. If you’re not fixing bugs on Mesmer weapons aside from the tooltip typos, can I create a mouse button macro for doing an emote so I can actually, you know, move, and not be instantly killed? Is this allowed?

+1
/me dances for 15 characters.

ANet is never going to official sanction the use of macros. However, that doesn’t mean that they will go after anyone who uses a macro to type ‘’/dance’’ to fix an issue with being rooted after using a teleport skill.

To a degree it’s near impossible for ANet to even follow if a player uses a macro unless it’s excessively obvious. Things like auto-attacking and what not are already designed into the game so unless you’re botting and popping in to just harvest a node – you’re probably not going to get caught. I know a multitude of players that have expressed concerns about this but have ultimately resorted to macros. A key concept to keep in mind is that Anet has attempted to stop the use of excessive micro pulses into the gaming network – meaning don’t use a macro that sends any more than 100 instantiates at a given time and you won’t crash out of the network. This was found a few months ago (if not earlier) when they introduced the EotM – even though ANet didn’t bother to tell anyone. So boo on them if anything :/

Are you guys seriously debating wheter using a macro is ok or not? Being unable to move in an action combat game is a glitch that shouldn’t be there in the first place. Especially not when it’s so common (it’s not just class skills that cause it) and especially not after being around for several months without a fix.

The ethics behind macro’ing shouldn’t be questioned in the first place unless they give you a distinct advantage over other players – which in this game isn’t entirely possible given ground targeting skills are based upon a finite range which changes based upon terrain – other skills require timing – and other skills that need to be activated in quick succession can be assigned keys that more suit that player. Whether your a standard keyboard user or an advanced macro Razer Orbweaver user the key setup can be tailored to give you an edge against those who don’t take the time to setup in that fashion. If one is to debate the use of macros on the premise of giving an advantage to one’s play style then one is to also debate the use of advanced gaming peripherals in general. The only reason macros are “bad” is because people began to abuse them for botting. However, this practice is extremely obvious as there is no human element to the motions and actions of the character – it’s just stop, go, zig, zag, appear, and disappear. Thus a bot is still easily identifiable and can be reported whereas an active human player using a macro is hard to identify and shouldn’t be reported on the pretense of providing an edge unless they wish to also persecute the concepts of using interdevice communication concepts in advanced gaming peripherals – which they would have no way to even track :/.

Dragon Ruler X.8512:

The ethics behind macro’ing shouldn’t be questioned in the first place unless they give you a distinct advantage over other players

The problem with that logic is that everyone’s interpretation of “distinct advantage” is different, but the only definition that matters is ANet’s — and ANet isn’t telling us (because they cannot and because they should not). There are dozens of posts here (or Reddit or Guru) describing how someone was sanctioned for what they were convinced was a trivial matter.

Consequently, anyone choosing to automate any action, no matter how trivial it seems, is taking a risk of being permanently banned.

To evaluate the risk, look at the situation from ANet’s point of view:

• Will ANet be concerned that this hurts the game in any way?
• Might it influence the economy?
• Will it affect bandwidth?
• What happens if 1% of the players do this? 10%? 25%?
• How will players react if this action seems allowed, but not similar ones?
• How might botters and gold sellers take advantage of ANet turning a blind eye?
• And, sure, could it give a player a temporary or permanent advantage?

tl;dr it doesn’t matter if any (or all) of us think the action is ok; it only matters whether ANet thinks it’s a potential issue.

Will never be allowed, according to me, it is an advantage against other players, but I know about the frustration when you are against some darn annoying thief and can’t move… and in seconds you are dead
But on the otherhand it feels more awesome when you manage to kill a warr and thief while getting stuck (/dance)