Death Knights are powerful warriors, risen from the dead and imbued with dark power to command the forces of undeath and spread terror on the battlefield.

Death Knight

Demon Hunters are agile and deadly fighters, using their demonic powers and unmatched mobility to hunt down and eliminate their infernal prey.

Demon Hunter

Druids are masters of nature, using their affinity with the wild to shapeshift into powerful forms and harness the primal forces of the world.

Druid

Evokers channel the gifts of all five dragonflights, using empowered spells that grow stronger the longer you hold the key to heal, augment or burn down their enemies.

Evoker

Hunters are skilled marksmen and beastmasters, using their keen senses and loyal animal companions to track and eliminate their enemies.

Hunter

Mages command the arcane arts, using their deep understanding of the elemental forces to unleash powerful spells and control the battlefield.

Mage

Monks are disciplined martial artists, using their inner strength and mastery of ancient techniques to heal, protect, and vanquish their foes.

Monk

Paladins are righteous warriors, using their faith in the Light to protect their allies, smite their enemies, and uphold justice.

Paladin

Priests are powerful healers and spellcasters, channeling divine power to mend wounds, shield their allies, and smite their foes.

Priest

Rogues are masters of stealth and assassination, using their cunning and agility to strike from the shadows and eliminate their enemies.

Rogue

Shamans are spiritual leaders, using their connection with the elements and ancestral spirits to heal, empower, and control the battlefield.

Shaman

Warlocks wield the powers of darkness, using their mastery of the demonic arts to summon infernal minions and unleash devastating spells.

Warlock

Warriors are relentless fighters, using their strength and skill in arms to charge headlong into battle and dominate their foes.

Warrior

World of Warcraft ships with a full macro editor. Macros combine slash commands with conditionals such as [@mouseover], [mod:shift] and [spec:1], which lets a single keybind behave differently depending on your target, your modifier keys or your specialisation. Blizzard deliberately caps what a macro can do — one button press may only trigger one spell cast — so macros save keystrokes rather than play the game for you.

Macros live in the in-game macro window and are limited to 255 characters. They accept slash commands and conditional clauses, and can be dragged onto any action bar slot like a normal spell.

World of Warcraft

Druids are versatile and adaptable, able to shift between animal and nature forms to suit their needs. They are skilled in healing magic and can also deal damage with a variety of spells and attacks. They are capable of summoning nature spirits and can even resurrect fallen allies. Druids are the ideal class for players who enjoy a hybrid role that can switch between different playstyles.

Hunters are experts in ranged combat, able to deal damage to their enemies from a safe distance. They are also skilled in trapping and taming animals, which can serve as loyal companions and fight alongside them in battle. Hunters are the ideal class for players who enjoy a ranged combat role that can also provide support.

Mages are powerful spellcasters who harness the forces of magic to rain destruction upon their enemies. They specialize in the elements of frost, fire, and arcane, and are able to conjure food and drink, teleport across great distances, and create magical barriers. Mages are the ideal class for players who enjoy a more cerebral and strategic approach to combat.

Paladins are warriors who have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of divine justice. They are able to heal wounds, cure diseases, and dispel evil using the power of the Light. They are also skilled in melee combat, able to deal damage to their enemies with their holy weapons. Paladins are the ideal class for players who enjoy a supportive and defensive role that can also deal damage.

Priests are devoted to the spiritual welfare of their allies, and use the power of the Light to heal wounds, cure diseases, and dispel evil. They are also adept at protection spells and are able to resurrect fallen allies. In combat, they rely on spells that weaken their enemies and bolster their allies. Priests are the ideal class for players who enjoy a supportive and defensive role.

Rogues are masters of stealth, assassination, and evasion. They rely on speed, precision, and guile to outmaneuver and outsmart their opponents. They excel at picking locks, disarming traps, and sneaking past enemies unnoticed. They are the ideal class for players who enjoy a more stealthy and strategic approach to combat.

Shamans are masters of the elements, able to call upon the forces of nature to heal allies, summon totems that enhance their allies' abilities, and deal damage to their enemies. They are capable of wielding both melee weapons and spells, and can also resurrect fallen allies. Shamans are the ideal class for players who enjoy a hybrid role that can switch between different playstyles.

Warlocks are masters of dark magic, able to summon powerful demons and cast curses and afflictions upon their enemies. They are also able to drain the life force of their enemies and use it to heal themselves. Warlocks are the ideal class for players who enjoy a more dark and unconventional approach to combat.

Warriors are the quintessential fearless fighters on the battlefield, experts at a wide range of weapons and tactics. Their legendary ability to withstand punishment and their unparalleled prowess in close combat make them the ideal frontline warriors. Their primary role is as a tank, drawing enemy fire and protecting their allies from harm.

World of Warcraft Classic Era keeps the 2004 rule set, and its macro system is deliberately blunter than retail’s. Spell ranks matter, so macros routinely fall back through Rank 3, Rank 2 and Rank 1. The modern conditional syntax ([@mouseover], [mod:shift]) is available, but there is no /castsequence reset-on-target trickery to lean on and far fewer abilities to weave together.

Same 255-character macro editor as retail, but written against Classic’s spell book: ranked spells, no specialisation conditionals, and pet commands that matter far more.

World of Warcraft Classic

WoW Classic

Alchemists brew potions, dyes, medicated meals and the reagents every other crafter depends on.

Alchemist

Limsa Lominsa’s pet class, and the only base class with two jobs — Summoner and Scholar, both unlocked at level 30.

Arcanist

Gridania’s ranged class, which becomes Bard at level 30.

Archer

Armorers shape metal into heavy armour, shields and machinist firearms.

Armorer

Astrologians hand out damage buffs from the Astrologian deck while healing, making card-target macros one of the most useful macro categories in the game.

Astrologian

Bards rotate three songs that buff the party while managing damage-over-time timers and procs. Battle Voice and Radiant Finale anchor raid burst windows.

Bard

Black Mages cycle Astral Fire and Umbral Ice, standing still to cast the biggest single-target spells in the game.

Black Mage

Blacksmiths forge melee weapons and crafting tools from ore and ingots.

Blacksmith

Blue Mages learn spells from enemies rather than levelling a job gauge. Because their spell book is enormous, action-set swapping macros are essential.

Blue Mage

Botanists gather lumber, fibres and reagents from trees and vegetation.

Botanist

Carpenters turn lumber into weapons, furniture and housing items. Like every crafter, most of their play happens inside two or three macro slots.

Carpenter

Gridania’s healing class, which becomes White Mage at level 30.

Conjurer

Culinarians cook the stat-boosting food that raiders and crafters run on.

Culinarian

Dancers pick a Dance Partner and pour buffs into them. Closed Position macros that target a specific party slot are practically mandatory.

Dancer

Dark Knights convert MP into damage and into The Blackest Night, a shield that generates Dark Arts when it breaks. Mouseover TBN macros are a staple of the job.

Dark Knight

Dragoons commit to long combo chains punctuated by jumps. Dragon Sight and Battle Litany make party-target macros genuinely useful.

Dragoon

Fishers work weather windows and bait chains for big catches, and lean on macros more than any other gatherer.

Fisher

The starting class of Ul’dah’s tanks, which becomes Paladin at level 30 with the Soul of the Paladin.

Gladiator

Goldsmiths cut gemstones and craft rings, necklaces and caster weapons.

Goldsmith

Gunbreakers stack the most buttons of any tank, with Cartridge spenders, Continuation follow-ups and Heart of Corundum for co-tank mitigation.

Gunbreaker

Gridania’s spear class, which becomes Dragoon at level 30.

Lancer

Leatherworkers tan hides into light armour, belts and accessories.

Leatherworker

Machinists have no raid buff but the tightest burst of the ranged roster, dropping Automaton Queen and Wildfire on cooldown.

Machinist

Limsa Lominsa’s axe-wielding tank class, which becomes Warrior at level 30.

Marauder

Miners quarry ore, stone and shards, and chase timed unspoiled nodes for collectables.

Miner

Monks chain forms and Chakra into Perfect Balance windows. Every GCD has a positional requirement, which is why Monk macros focus on targeting rather than casting.

Ninjas combine Ten, Chi and Jin into ninjutsu, then dump everything into a Trick Attack window that buffs the whole party.

Ninja

Paladins are the Gladiator’s job, trading raw mitigation for the strongest party-wide cooldowns in the game — Passage of Arms, Divine Veil and Hallowed Ground.

Pictomancers pre-paint motifs during downtime and cash them in during buff windows, with the most mobile burst of the caster roster.

Pictomancer

Ul’dah’s unarmed melee class, which becomes Monk at level 30.

Pugilist

Reapers build Soul and Shroud gauges to enter Enshroud, borrowing their avatar’s form for a burst window that lines up with party buffs.

Reaper

Red Mages balance black and white mana, then spend it on a melee combo. Vercure and Verraise make them the most self-sufficient DPS in a party.

Red Mage

Limsa Lominsa’s stealth class, which becomes Ninja at level 30.

Sages heal by dealing damage. Kardia links a party member to your attacks, and Eukrasian Diagnosis provides the shields that define the job.

Sage

Samurai build Sen and Kenki into Midare Setsugekka. No raid buffs, no utility, just the highest personal damage of the melee roster.

Samurai

Scholars prevent damage rather than repair it, layering Succor shields, Sacred Soil and Deployment Tactics while their fairy handles passive healing.

Scholar

Summoners cycle Ifrit, Titan and Garuda phases into Bahamut and Phoenix, and carry the only two-minute party raise on a caster.

Summoner

Ul’dah’s destructive caster class, which becomes Black Mage at level 30.

Thaumaturge

Vipers alternate between paired blades and a two-handed form, chaining Reawaken windows with the fastest GCD in the game.

Viper

Warriors turn Beast Gauge into healing. Between Bloodwhetting, Equilibrium and Shake It Off they can carry a pull that no other tank survives.

Weavers spin fibres into cloth armour, glamour pieces and most of the game’s fashion items.

Weaver

White Mages heal with Lilies and raw potency — Benediction, Tetragrammaton and Cure III cover almost any emergency without a pet or a card to manage.

White Mage

Final Fantasy XIV has a text-based macro system built around /action (or /ac), placeholders such as <t>, <mo> and <me>, and <wait.n> timers. It is deliberately unsuited to combat rotations — a macro drops any queued input and cannot clip the global cooldown — but it is unbeatable for mouseover healing, party call-outs and crafting rotations, where whole synthesis sequences are routinely automated.

Macros are edited in the User Macros window, hold up to 15 lines each, and are stored in 100 individual and 100 shared slots. Combat macros lose you DPS because they ignore the input queue; crafting and utility macros are where the system shines.

Final Fantasy XIV

FFXIV

Layers songs on the party for haste, attack and regeneration. Instrument swapping mid-song is the job's signature macro problem.

Charms wild monsters and fights alongside them. The premier solo job, capable of clearing content designed for full parties.

Beastmaster

Enormous single-target and area magic damage, gated behind mana and the constant risk of pulling hate off the tank.

Learns spells from monsters and builds its own job traits by which spells it equips. Extraordinarily flexible.

Rolls dice that buff the whole party and fires guns in between. Roll management is a constant background task.

Corsair

Heals and debuffs using TP rather than mana, which makes it the most self-sufficient job for soloing.

Heavy two-handed damage backed by dark magic that drains stats and life from the target. High risk, high output.

Polearm damage with a wyvern companion and the Jump line of abilities, which double as enmity tools.

Places a luopan that projects a persistent buff or debuff field, reshaping a whole fight from one spot.

Geomancer

Enormous sustained damage and a huge health pool. Monks hit faster than anything else in the game and use Chakra to heal themselves.

Tanks by making attacks miss entirely through Utsusemi shadows. Keeping shadows up is the most macro-intensive job loop in the game.

The dedicated defensive tank, holding hate with Flash and Sentinel while healing itself through Divine magic.

Fights alongside a configurable automaton that can be built as a tank, healer or damage dealer depending on the attachments you fit.

Puppetmaster

The highest ranged damage in the game, and historically so high that it had to be reined in. Positioning and hate control are everything.

Ranger

Debuffs enemies, hands out Refresh and Haste, and can heal in a pinch. The most valuable support job in the game for most of its history.

Tanks magic damage through elemental runes and wards, covering the gap that shadow-based tanking cannot.

Rune Fencer

Builds and spends TP faster than any other job, which makes it the standard opener for skillchains.

Switches between white and black magic stances with strategems, doing a little of everything exceptionally efficiently.

Calls avatars that fight, buff and heal. Blood pacts are on their own timers, which makes recast checking essential.

Steals, finds better loot through Treasure Hunter, and redirects enmity with Trick Attack. The job that makes hate control a group-wide tool.

Thief

The foundation melee job, and the source of Provoke — the subjob ability that half the game takes for granted.

The strongest healing and status removal in the game, plus Raise. Every serious group is built around one.

Final Fantasy XI is played through its macro palette. There are no hotbars in the usual sense — you press Ctrl or Alt plus a number and the macro fires, and a job with twenty abilities means a macro book laid out to match. Six lines each, /ma for spells, /ja for abilities, /ws for weapon skills, and a set of target tags that the rest of the genre never quite matched.

Macros live in books, each holding ten Ctrl macros and ten Alt macros. Every macro is six lines. /ma casts a spell, /ja uses a job ability, /ws performs a weapon skill, and target tags such as <t>, <me> and <stpc> decide who it lands on.

Final Fantasy XI

FFXI

Clerics are versatile spellcasters, drawing upon divine power to heal their allies, smite their foes, and defend against the forces of darkness.

Cleric

Mages wield the forces of the elements, using their deep understanding of the arcane to summon elemental minions and unleash powerful spells.

Primalists tap into the primal forces of creation, using their attunement with nature to control the battlefield and unleash devastating abilities.

Primalist

Rogues are masters of stealth, deception, and agility, using their cunning and skill to strike quickly and elude their enemies.

Warriors are fearsome fighters, using their martial prowess and unwavering resolve to stand firm against any foe.

RIFT has the most permissive macro system of any mainstream MMO. A single /cast list fires top-to-bottom and stops at the first ability that is off cooldown, which makes true one-button "spam macros" possible. /suppressmacrofailures hides the resulting error spam, and an asterisk after an ability name marks it as off the global cooldown.

Macros are written in the in-game macro window, capped at 20 lines, and support ability priority lists — the client walks the list and casts the first usable ability.

RIFT

A technologically advanced class that utilizes magical mechanical constructs for combat, combining magic and technology to deal devastating damage.

Aethertech

A stealthy and agile class, specializing in quickly eliminating targets from the shadows, using a mix of speed, deception, and precise attacks.

Assassin

A support class that uses buffs and debuffs to aid their allies and hinder enemies, employing the power of song and dance to enhance combat effectiveness.

Chanter

A primary healing class, focused on supporting their party through healing and protective spells, ensuring their allies' survival in the heat of battle.

A powerful melee combatant, skilled in both offensive and defensive techniques, using an array of weapons and armor to dominate the battlefield.

A ranged class that uses firearms to deal damage from a distance, excelling at suppressing enemies and controlling the flow of battle.

Gunslinger

A ranged class skilled in archery and survival, adept at fighting from a distance and setting traps to control enemy movements and exploit weaknesses.

A versatile class that uses the power of music to deal damage, heal allies, and control the battlefield, weaving melodies and harmonies to create a diverse range of effects.

Songweaver

A magic-based class that specializes in casting powerful spells to deal damage and control the battlefield, harnessing elemental forces to annihilate enemies.

Sorcerer

A pet-summoning class that uses elemental spirits to assist in combat and debuffing enemies, commanding their loyal minions to achieve victory.

Spiritmaster

A heavily armored class that excels at tanking and protecting their allies from harm, using a mix of sword and shield techniques to control the battlefield.

Templar

A unique class that harnesses the power of art and colors to unleash devastating attacks, using creativity and graffiti to manipulate the battlefield and outsmart opponents.

Vandal

Aion, NCsoft’s MMORPG set in the divided world of Atreia, includes a chained macro system built around /Skill, /Item and /Delay. Because Aion queues actions rather than casting them instantly, most useful macros are chat, targeting and quality-of-life shortcuts rather than damage rotations.

Macros are created in the skill window’s Macro tab. Each line is a command, and /Delay pauses between lines. Skills fire only when their cooldown allows, so a chained macro does not guarantee a full rotation.

Aion

The survivability career, built around Miracle Worker, Rotate Shield Frequency and engineering fleets. Engineering captains keep a ship alive through damage that would delete anyone else, and are the standard choice for tanking in group content.

Engineering

The control and exotic damage career, with Sensor Scan, Subnucleonic Beam and Scattering Field. Science captains shut down enemy abilities and deal damage that ignores conventional resistances, which makes them invaluable against heavily armoured targets.

Science

The damage career. Tactical captains bring Attack Pattern Alpha, Fire on My Mark and Go Down Fighting, and are the reason most damage records look the way they do. Their abilities are almost all short cooldowns, which makes them the career that benefits most from a well-built firing bind.

Tactical

Star Trek Online runs on the same Cryptic engine as Neverwinter, and its keybind system is the closest thing any live MMO has to programmable play. A single key can fire a whole tray of bridge officer abilities, cycle weapon groups and distribute shield power, all chained together with $$. Serious captains do not build hotbars — they build bind files.

Commands are attached to keys with /bind, chained with $$, and saved to text files with /bind_save_file. TrayExecByTray fires an ability by tray and slot, and because slots are numbered rather than named, one bind keeps working across every ship and loadout.

Games

Built-in macro systems

Commands and keybinds only