Daybreak Game Company · 1999

EverQuest macros

EverQuest invented the MMO social macro. Each one holds five lines, sits on a clickable button, and is built from /cast, /pause and the targeting commands that the whole genre later copied. The system is deliberately blunt — /pause is measured in tenths of a second and there are no conditionals — but twenty-five years of players have built astonishing things inside those five lines.

Setting one up

Open the Socials window (Alt+S by default) and pick an empty button.
Give the social a name and a colour, then type up to five command lines.
Use /cast 1 through /cast 12 to fire the spell in that gem slot.
Put /pause between actions — the number is tenths of a second, so /pause 25 is 2.5 seconds.
Drag the finished social onto a hotbar and bind it to a key.

Rules and limits

A social is limited to five lines. Longer sequences chain by having the last line call another social.
/pause is measured in tenths of a second, not seconds — /pause 10 is one second.
Only two commands fit on a line, and one of them has to be the /pause.
/cast uses the gem slot number rather than the spell name, so re-memorising spells in a different order breaks every macro you own.
A macro will not wait for a cast to finish on its own; if you do not pause long enough, the next line is simply dropped.

Macros by class

Pick a class to see only the macros that apply to it.

Melee

Priest

Caster

All EverQuest macros

29 macros, searchable and ready to copy.

29 macros

EV
Ask for a Corpse Run
General
```
/shout Corpse in the zone entrance, can anyone summon?
```
Announces your position and asks for a summon. Corpse recovery is a whole social institution in EverQuest and getting the request right matters.
EV
Assist the Main Assist
General
```
/assist Tankname
/pause 5
/attack on
```
Targets a named player and picks up whatever they are attacking. This is how an EverQuest group stays on one mob, and it predates every other assist system in the genre.
EV
Auto Attack On
General
```
/attack on
```
Explicitly turns melee swinging on rather than toggling it. Using "on" instead of a bare /attack means a macro can never accidentally switch your attack off.
EV
Buff and Announce
General
```
/g Casting group haste, hold your buffs
/pause 10
/cast 3
```
Tells the group what is landing before it lands. In a game where buffs have long durations and limited slots, saying what you are casting avoids overwriting somebody else's work.
EV
Camp Out Safely
General
```
/camp
```
Starts the camp timer, which is the only safe way to leave the game — a hard disconnect leaves your character in the world for a while.
EV
Cast and Pause
General
```
/cast 1
/pause 35
/cast 2
```
The shape of every EverQuest macro. /cast fires the spell in that gem slot, and the pause that follows has to be long enough to cover the cast time or the next line is simply dropped. Remember the number is tenths of a second.
EV
Chain Past the Five-Line Limit
General
```
/cast 1
/pause 35
/cast 2
/pause 35
/social BuffPart2
```
A social can call another social by name, which is how long sequences get built. Keep the chain short — every hop costs you a line and the timing drifts.
EN
Charm and Command
Enchanter
```
/cast 4
/pause 15
/pet attack
```
Charms a target and immediately sets it to attack. Charm breaks without warning, which is why the follow-up command is baked into the same button.
EV
Click an Item from a Slot
General
```
/useitem 1
/pause 20
```
Fires the click effect of an item in a numbered inventory slot. Clickable items are a huge part of EverQuest power, and reaching into bags for them mid-fight is hopeless.
CL
Complete Heal with Call-Out
Cleric
```
/g CH on Tankname incoming
/target Tankname
/pause 5
/cast 1
```
Announces the heal, targets the tank and casts. Complete Heal chains are timed between several Clerics, so the announcement is what keeps the rotation from collapsing.
EV
Consider Before You Pull
General
```
/consider
```
Checks whether a target is going to kill you before you engage it. Consider is one of the oldest commands in the game and still the correct first move against anything unfamiliar.
NE
Feign Death and Drop Aggro
Necromancer
```
/doability 1
/pause 10
/target clear
```
Feigns death and clears your target so nothing re-aggros the moment you stand. The pulling technique that defined EverQuest for a generation.