Guide - Trying to determine high level strategy for how I want to approach using MQ

[RoboClaptrap4]

I play on the Ragefire progression server, and I just started using MQ. I don't plan on doing any afk XP grinding or anything like that, at any given point I will be in control of my main tank (paladin) and my puller (bard). My current setup is PAL/BRD/CLR/ENC/MAG/WIZ/RNG/BST/SHM/MNK. I have two basic objectives:

1. Grinding in group content where the MA will always be my bard, the target being attacked won't change, and my guys will simply assist the bard until things die, then assist the bard and repeat
2. In raids with real players where the MA can and will switch targets often, the paladin will be targeting different mobs than the MA, and the cleric will be played directly by me (no scripting at all)

When I was writing hypothetical sets of things I wanted my guys to do, it became clear that my group and raid behavior will be totally different. Like in groups, I want my enchanter doing the full deal, debuffs, mezzing, nuking, etc. On raids, the chanter will be a buffbot and very little else. I've been playing around with KISS and even though a lot of the features look really helpful, I don't feel like I have a lot of fine tuned control over what it's doing when it comes to attacking mobs. I would be worried on raids for example about something like "I tell my guys to assist the MA, and they immediately start nuking and meleeing a boss" or "the paladin grabs an add that came into camp and needs to be mezzed, but my guys immediately go full burn on it". I feel like what I want for my DPS is just the equivalent of a vanilla EQ macro like:

/assist main
/attack on

Except with it doing much more intelligent things like selecting the right nukes, sending in pets, healing a pet if it gets low on health, debuffing, etc.

KISS Assist seems to do all those things, but it also takes an extremely long time (over 5 seconds) to start up because it has to parse INI files and such. Also, when it's on, I don't feel like I have the same level of control that I would using more basic assist macros. I want one /command that makes them intelligently attack a mob, and then one other command to make them instantly stop and go into some kind of standby mode where basic kiss assist features like auto-buffing and medding work, but where it won't actually attack or debuff anything. This is sort of an unfocused stream of consciousness, but I'm a bit lost here determining exactly how I want to set my guys up. I know that I have two totally different setups for groups and raids, and I know that I want the ability to start/stop attacking/debuffing/healing very easily.

How...can I do these things? Any general strategies people would recommend?

 

[EQbackagain]

You can achieve a heck of a lot of fine control by simply using eqbc and liberal sprinkles of holyshits

 

[ChatWithThisName]

I primarily use MQ2Melee with holyshit/downshit and follow up with EQBC. of course most of that requires some concept of macro code, of which I have a lot of. However, that's not usually the case for the common mq2 user. So while your suggestion is valid, it's plausible it isn't going to help very much.

 

[kaen01]

you can have different inis for the same character

like:
pocketdruid.ini - your every druid ini that majors in supporting the group with heals and debuffs, and minors in dps.
dotdruid.ini - powerfull ini that virulent paralysis a mob, casts all dots and debuffs that enhance dot damage, good for solo rotting mobs that dont summon in dungeons
dpsdruid.ini - majoring in dps and debuffs and other spells that imrpove personal and group dps, only uses aa skills to heal t hings.

make a social for each setup:
/mac kissassist ini pocketdruid.ini assist ${Group.MainAssist}
/mac kissassist ini dotdruid.ini tank yourownname
/mac kissassist ini dpsdruid.ini assist ${Group.MainAssist}

now you have some choices you can futher refine with condtions.

like i use one ini that defines your dps buffs, and heals based on wether my paladin is marked as puller, or main tank.
or none of them.

so if he is marked as main tank he uses his agro spells and doesnt focuses on that area, if he is marked as puller he dont get to rest so much so he does less healing, and doesnt agro things, if he is none of them he just dps the best he can.

and then with in game alias commands, you can turn on an off dps mode, keep them in buff and heal mode. even entirely just /mqpause the macro for manual control.

many options to choose from.

 

[levox]

you can have different inis for the same character

like:
pocketdruid.ini - your every druid ini that majors in supporting the group with heals and debuffs, and minors in dps.
dotdruid.ini - powerfull ini that virulent paralysis a mob, casts all dots and debuffs that enhance dot damage, good for solo rotting mobs that dont summon in dungeons
dpsdruid.ini - majoring in dps and debuffs and other spells that imrpove personal and group dps, only uses aa skills to heal t hings.

make a social for each setup:
/mac kissassist ini pocketdruid.ini assist ${Group.MainAssist}
/mac kissassist ini dotdruid.ini tank yourownname
/mac kissassist ini dpsdruid.ini assist ${Group.MainAssist}

now you have some choices you can futher refine with condtions.

like i use one ini that defines your dps buffs, and heals based on wether my paladin is marked as puller, or main tank.
or none of them.

so if he is marked as main tank he uses his agro spells and doesnt focuses on that area, if he is marked as puller he dont get to rest so much so he does less healing, and doesnt agro things, if he is none of them he just dps the best he can.

and then with in game alias commands, you can turn on an off dps mode, keep them in buff and heal mode. even entirely just /mqpause the macro for manual control.

many options to choose from.

Can multiple characters run the same ini? For example say I had 3 wizards and two different KA set ups. One with rains (wizrain) and one just nukes (wiznuke).

If I was only doing single pulls where rains would be more efficient could I just have them all do /mac kissassist ini wizrain.ini while targeting tank and they will all use that same ini?

Because the way I do it now is manually change each chars KA ini when I do different things. It would make life so much easier.

 

[RoboClaptrap4]

Thanks for the suggestions! Some good things to try here. I'll probably try running some of my characters with holyshits and downshits (btw, what exactly is the difference between those?) and others with Kiss.

I can probably handle a little light scripting so no worries there.

 

[LurkMcGurk]

Thanks for the suggestions! Some good things to try here. I'll probably try running some of my characters with holyshits and downshits (btw, what exactly is the difference between those?) and others with Kiss.

I can probably handle a little light scripting so no worries there.

a holyshit is used during combat

a downshit is used outside of combat

 

[kaen01]

Can multiple characters run the same ini? For example say I had 3 wizards and two different KA set ups. One with rains (wizrain) and one just nukes (wiznuke).

If I was only doing single pulls where rains would be more efficient could I just have them all do /mac kissassist ini wizrain.ini while targeting tank and they will all use that same ini?

Because the way I do it now is manually change each chars KA ini when I do different things. It would make life so much easier.

yes my 3 wizards run the same ini, and i have conditions based on wether one of them is puller, and then i use rains if i have several mobs in camp, i check for my aggro percent using conditions to make sure they dont overaggro.