Power trays and incarnate abilities

[Zhym]

Is there any way (e.g., a fancy macro) to have a power tray slot activate whatever power happens to be slotted, as opposed to being tied to a specific power?

 

For example, one of my toons has Ageless, both Barriers, a Clarion, and an Incan for the Destiny ability.  If I try to put each of those powers in a power tray, that's five power tray spots, only one of which can be active at a time.  It'd be great if I could just have a power tray slot for whatever Destiny power happens to be active.  

 

Is that something that's currently possible?  Or should I be posting this as a suggestion? 

[KaizenSoze]

Yes! Example: /bind z powexec_tray 6 2

 

6 is the slot number, 2 is the tray number.

 

I have these kinds for my three actively used incarnates. So, I can just swap out the powers in the slots as needed.

Edited September 17, 2022 by KaizenSoze

[Six-Six]

you can also make a macro string where you have several powers lined up. You will have to tap the macro button several times to activate the corresponding powers. For example: if you have...

/macro Incarns "powexec_location self [lore power]$$powexec_name [destiny power]$$powexec_name [hybrid power]$$powexec_name [judgement power]"

note: I was too lazy to look up the corresponding power syntax in the [ ] fields, but you get the idea.

So you put this macro in button slot 5. If you press 5 once, your lore pet is summoned, pressing it again shortly after will activate your destiny, a third time your hybrid and so on. This works best if it's activated in quick succession. If there's a long enough pause between lore summon and destiny, the button may revert back to step one. in such case pressing 5 won't do anything since your lore pet is already out or on CD, but pressing 5 again will.

another disclaimer: I have been known to botch macro syntax.

[Zhym]

18 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

Yes! Example: /bind z powexec_tray 6 2

 

6 is the slot number, 2 is the tray number.

 

I have these kinds for my three actively used incarnates. So, I can just swap out the powers in the slots as needed.

Does that mean making sure that slot 6 in tray 2 has whatever the current incarnate slotted power is?  If so, I'm not quite getting how that's better than what I'm doing now, which is moving my active incarnate power to the tray slot once I've made the power active.  Or am I missing something?

[KaizenSoze]

17 minutes ago, Zhym said:

Does that mean making sure that slot 6 in tray 2 has whatever the current incarnate slotted power is?  If so, I'm not quite getting how that's better than what I'm doing now, which is moving my active incarnate power to the tray slot once I've made the power active.  Or am I missing something?

What I do is that I always put my three active incarnate powers, Judgement, Destiny, Hybrid, in a row.

 

Tray 2, slots 6,7,8. Then I make three binds:

/bind z powexec_tray 6 2

/bind x powexec_tray 7 2

/bind c powexec_tray 8 2

 

That way I know if I hit z, a Judgement will fire, x Destiny, c Hybrid. Regardless of what Incarnate is active on all my toons.

 

If you swap incarnates, you still have to drag the active incarnate to the appropriate slot.

[Zhym]

18 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

If you swap incarnates, you still have to drag the active incarnate to the appropriate slot.

Yeah, that's the part I was hoping to avoid. 

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, Zhym said:

Yeah, that's the part I was hoping to avoid. 

You craft and slot Ion Judgement. It's in your incarnate screen and nowhere else, so you can't macro/keybind it, except as "powexecname Ion Judgement". Upgrade it to Ion Core Judgement', and the bind/macro stops working, so it has to be edited. If you drag your Ion Judgment to, say, Tray 6 Slot 2, you can use a bind of "powexectray 6 2" to fire it off. But if you upgrade it to Ion Core Judgement, that destroys the Ion Judgement, so it's no longer in the tray, so you have to drag Ion Core Judgement into Tray 6 Slot 2, and then your bind/macro works again. Either way it requires some intervention on your part; your binds and macros don't update automatically when the power changes.

 

Now, I made a suggestion that there be a new type of powexec command that would fire off whatever incarnate power you had slotted (i.e., 'powexec_Judgement'), but Zepp's suggestion in his reply of creating a set of variables, like $Judgement, $Lore, etc., that could be used in the existing powexec commands is a better idea, so you would use 'powexecname $Judgement' to fire whatever your currently slotted Judgement power was, and 'powexeclocation 0 1 Lore' to drop your currently-slotted Lore pets right in front of you. You'd still want to pull the icons for the powers out into a tray so you could see the recharge timer, though, so the utility is limited except in special binds (i.e., 'targetcustomname Kahn$$powexecname $Judgement') that would 'grow' as your slotted power changes.

[Lazarillo]

I'm not 100% certain this would work, but I feel like I recall that you can bind multiple "powexec" functions to the same bind, it's just that the game won't execute any but the first/last on the list.  However, it might be worth checking to see what happen if you used a bind like this with two powers in the the bind that were mutually exclusive.  So if you did, like a "powexec_name Ageless Destiny$$powexec_name Rebirth Destiny", might only fire off the active power, since you couldn't have both powers to activate at the same time?

[BlackSpectre]

I get what you're saying. You want to save space, but you don't want to open the Polwerlist window, and  drag and drop a power onto of a power icon in your tray to replace it. Too many clicks.

 

There's really multiple solutions available, but they all have pros and cons, and which one you like is fundamentally up to your taste. What I'm thinking is your best bet is a macro that replaces the powers in the tray slots. The macro could cycle through each of your Destiny powers on each click. This means you'd have to allocate 2 tray slots... one for the macro, and one for your power icon. Does that sound like something you're looking for?

 

P.S. It would be just a plain macro button, no power icons. 

 

The switching macro could instead be bound to a key to take up less space in the trays...

 

Alternately, you could use a floating power tray. On second thought this might be the easiest... Click the "+" at the top of your power tray to open a floating power tray. Right click on it to change it's shape. Drag and drop the incarnate powers you want from the PowersList. Move the tray where ever you want.

Edited September 18, 2022 by BlackSpectre

[BlackSpectre]

3 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

I'm not 100% certain this would work, but I feel like I recall that you can bind multiple "powexec" functions to the same bind, it's just that the game won't execute any but the first/last on the list.  However, it might be worth checking to see what happen if you used a bind like this with two powers in the the bind that were mutually exclusive.  So if you did, like a "powexec_name Ageless Destiny$$powexec_name Rebirth Destiny", might only fire off the active power, since you couldn't have both powers to activate at the same time?

Only works with toggle powers. 

[Doomguide2005]

<-- not an expert (especially 10+ years after I did it much)

 

But couldn't he just

/bind 'key' powerexec_tray 6 1

And then just keep incrementing the number 6 2, 6 3, 6 4, 6 5 (and which key) etc. until he ran out of incarnate powers.  Just have to remember which is active with which key in this case with his Barrier choices (i.e. one grayed out inactive, the other active at 6 2 and 6 3 respectively) or do they need to swapped around.  Sheesh it has been too long.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Doomguide2005
Typos and clarity

[Ironblade]

4 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

I'm not 100% certain this would work, but I feel like I recall that you can bind multiple "powexec" functions to the same bind, it's just that the game won't execute any but the first/last on the list.  However, it might be worth checking to see what happen if you used a bind like this with two powers in the the bind that were mutually exclusive.  So if you did, like a "powexec_name Ageless Destiny$$powexec_name Rebirth Destiny", might only fire off the active power, since you couldn't have both powers to activate at the same time?

That works.  I just tested it to be sure.

I used the following set of commands and it triggered the one that was actually slotted (which was the one in the middle).

powexecname "barrier radial epiphany"$$powexecname "barrier core epiphany"$$powexecname "indandescence radial epiphany"

 

I've always used a similar keybind for the Blackwand and Nemesis Staff.  I have a keybind that tries to execute BOTH, but my characters all have the one that gives them the AT bonus, so it fires off the power they actually have.

[Ironblade]

1 hour ago, BlackSpectre said:

Only works with toggle powers. 

No, I just tested it with Destiny powers and I have always used that method with the Blackwand and Nemesis Staff.

 

Edit:  Specifically, the bind is:    bind  alt+f "powexecname Nemesis Staff$$powexecname Blackwand"

It tries to fire both but my characters all have just one and it works fine.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Ironblade

[biostem]

On 9/17/2022 at 5:09 PM, Zhym said:

Is that something that's currently possible?  Or should I be posting this as a suggestion? 

AFAIK, powers can only be activated by their name or by the particular tray and slot they inhabit.  There is not way to activate a power by its type, (lore, destiny, judgment, hybrid), though that would be nice...

[BlackSpectre]

22 hours ago, Ironblade said:

No, I just tested it with Destiny powers and I have always used that method with the Blackwand and Nemesis Staff.

Hey! That totally works! I didn't realize that the game wouldn't attempt to execute a Destiny power that a character had crafted but wasn't slotted! That's awesome!

 

OK. So what you want, @Zhym, is a macro that strings all of your Destinly powers together, and you might as well use one of the icon images so it looks nice...

 

/macroimage Incarnate_Destiny_Clarion_VeryRare Destiny "powexecname clarion core epiphany$$powexecname barrier core epiphany$$powexecname ageless core epiphany"

 

Just replace the Destiny powers above with whatever your powers are. Each powexecname command is separated by double dollar signs $$.

 

And that's it! Wow, pretty much exactly what you wanted! I didn't think it was possible. Thanks for pushing me to do some testing, @Ironblade!  🙂

 

P.S. The only drawback to using a macro like this, instead of the actual power icon, is that if you have the recharge timers enabled on your power icons, the macro won't show them.

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by BlackSpectre

[srmalloy]

13 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

Hey! That totally works! I didn't realize that the game wouldn't attempt to execute a Destiny power that a character had crafted but wasn't slotted! That's awesome!

The game also doesn't try to execute powers a character doesn't have. As part of my stock bind file, I have a bind that has powexecname commands for each of the possible non-P2W flight powers; since I'll only have one on any given character, the bind activates whichever one the character has; this way, no matter which flight power the character has, it's the same key to turn it on and off. And a similar one for teleportation.

Edited September 20, 2022 by srmalloy

[JasperStone]

Writing keybinds is important.

 

There is keymapping available through game settings

[Ironblade]

4 hours ago, srmalloy said:

The game also doesn't try to execute powers a character doesn't have. As part of my stock bind file, I have a bind that has powexecname commands for each of the possible non-P2W flight powers; since I'll only have one on any given character, the bind activates whichever one the character has; this way, no matter which flight power the character has, it's the same key to turn it on and off. And a similar one for teleportation.

I thought about that for flight powers, but I have a few characters that have more than one since different color flight packs look better with different costumes.

 

However, I do use it for the buff pets (since you can only have one), the Nemesis Staff/Blackwand (since you can only get the AT bonus on one, I only take one).

 

As an aside, a good set of keybinds make the game a lot easier.  When I create a new character, I type the command to manually load a bindfile ONCE.  The file has a keybind to reload the file, for when it gets updated.  I also have a bind to load my chat window settings.  If I change my chat settings, I have a bind to SAVE the new settings.  I have a bind that tries to enter an SG base for each shard where I have characters - only the correct one works.  To keep all the binds straight, I have a keyboard template that sits over my F-keys with three rows (F, alt-F, ctrl-F) of commands.

[MistressOhm]

I'd think a floating power bar coupled with the "powexec_tray" method would be best.  Either as a macro or as a keybind.  Put the power bar off to one side, and use it as a dash display for recharge times, no need to click.  if the powers change, then yeah, there's going to need to be some 'maintenance' keeping that tray updated.  But that's not a big deal.

 

If you want to see crazy macro/power tray manipulation, run a Warshade.  Set up power trays for each form, and macros for form changes that both rotate the active trays AND load a bind file to change the keybinds to match the form's powers (attacks and travel forms).   Done wrong, it's a mess... but done right, you can flip forms constantly and never worry about your trays being unsync'd or your binds being broken.

[BlackSpectre]

12 hours ago, srmalloy said:

The game also doesn't try to execute powers a character doesn't have. As part of my stock bind file, I have a bind that has powexecname commands for each of the possible non-P2W flight powers; since I'll only have one on any given character, the bind activates whichever one the character has; this way, no matter which flight power the character has, it's the same key to turn it on and off. And a similar one for teleportation.

I’ve done the same for teleport powers, flight powers, and jumping powers. One bind to rule them all… well, for each of the different travel powers at least. It really dos help if you have a lot of alts. 😃

[Ukase]

There is a way! And it makes no difference where your power is in your tray slots. 

Use a keybind. 
/bind B powexecname Ageless Core Epiphany    (in my mind, B is for buff, so I just use B for whatever my Destiny slotted power happens to be) 

But, as you say, you have multiple Destinies. And you don't want to keep moving them in/out of where they are. 

Then you just have to be more clever with the key assignments. 
/bind V powexecname Barrier Core Epiphany   or whatever key makes sense to you. The hassle is in remembering which key does which Destiny. 

For me, with all my characters, it's better for me to just use B for buff, N for Nuke (Judgement) and V for Hybrid. The Lore requires a reticle click, and the rest are auto. So, those three keys are next to each other, and I use them for all my characters so I don't have to keep anything straight in my head when I change characters. 

[Ironblade]

11 hours ago, Ukase said:

But, as you say, you have multiple Destinies. And you don't want to keep moving them in/out of where they are. 

Then you just have to be more clever with the key assignments. 
/bind V powexecname Barrier Core Epiphany   or whatever key makes sense to you. The hassle is in remembering which key does which Destiny.

You're late to the party.  😛

I already pointed out that you can do a keybind that tries to fire every Destiny power you have and only the one actually slotted will fire.

You don't have to remember which is active.