/stopsong
/cast 1

If you miss a note hit the button again. Works the same as the other mentioned double tab. Only issue I have with using the macro is I click it as the song finishes and sometimes the cast bar doesn’t display so I think it’s a missed note but in fact the song is casting. Messes me up sometimes.

If that does happen all your spell gems will be grayed out so that’s a clue in a way to know if your casting the song without the bar showing you it is.

Most times in groups I’m playing 3-4 songs so if I miss a note unless it’s really important I’ll just cycle back around.

https://i.imgur.com/lBYwEDm.gif

this is a A+ pun

get an MMO mouse if you suck at using keyboard and fatfinger keys often. it's amazing

This ^

https://i.imgur.com/Yps91uq.png

This leaves my left hand open to do movement keys only (forward and L / R strafe), right hand plays songs and moves mouse to turn the circle inward.

If you use 6-8 hotkeys for the /stopsong /cast x macros, how do you setup additional buttons for things like mez & charm group messages, /attack, stopsong, GG invis ring, /assist etc? It used to be easy with 2 hotbar banks as Ayonic shows in the youtube video linked above. Are those on the other hotbar bank pages?

Someone help please. I'm really struggling with this.

I set up /stopsong /cast macros for gems 5-8 on the 1-4 buttons. Gems 5-8 are my primary songs that only require 1 button press where as 1-4 are my more situational songs which I will hit alt+1-4 to use.

You make hot keys to swap to the 10 different hot button pages. Every individual page has it's own hot key to bring it up.

Sounds like a good solution. I've been experimenting with using the 12 buttons on the Socials Page. Not as good as having a larger traditional hot button where you can drag inventory slots etc to it but it might help. Jury is still out on that one for me.

Would you be willing to share screenshots of your hot button pages? I'd love to see your setup especially since you use the mmo mouse. I'm a Razer Naga user here but I find the buttons too small and hard to locate when the action gets hot. My solution so far is to have both the keyboard key and the mapped Naga button perform the same function. The result for example is either the "1" key on the keyboard or the "1" on the Naga run the /stopsong /cast 1 macro. I really want to use the macro setup but don't want to lose 6-8 hot buttons. Your page swapping suggestion sounds like the solution if I can figure out how to switch there and back quickly.

The other day in a hole group I was simultaneously chain pulling with SS helm eye of zom, cc'ing my own pulls, twisting in haste, replenishment, and slow, switching out lute and flute for harder mezzes, and even charming here and there as well. Filming my hands would have been hilarious. Felt like I was playing a piano. I turned that group into an efficient meat grinder of exp though. zero downtime.

I hate having to switch around hotbars, so here's what i do. I have all my songs on my hotbar 1-8. The bottom two slots (9,10) are my primary and secondary weapon. Then I keep a bag opened next to those hotkeys with all my instruments so I can easily swap out instruments and weapons easily using my mouse.

Depending on what i'm doing, i often times have both hands on the keyboard. WASD movement with my left hand, with easy access to hotkeys 1 (mez) 2, 3, 4 (mana/haste/slow), and tab for targeting. Right hand stays nears the numpad for higher hotkeys (7 charm, 8 ae slow for example), f9 if I need to change views and using the oldschool arrows for movement if twisting takes up too much of my left hand. Being able to move back and forth between twisting and moving with each hand, and the mouse for that matter, is a pretty key skill. After playing for a while you'll also start to feel the "rhythm" of your songs, for lack of a better term, so your hands will instinctively learn the timing between songs and move accordingly.

if your idea of playing a bard is just 1, 22, 33, 44, 11, etc. then you're probably a shitty bard.

On my bard my strategy was to get a bunch of backpacks and camp at the Kelethin bank. I would log her on every once in awhile to get things to put in the backpacks and then log back out. Did this for a couple years and it worked great. No repetitive stress injuries or anything like people usually complain about.