Why are macros important?

GrayGreene

Hello, being a non-hardcore player I'm finding myself looking things up a lot online to learn more about gaming in mmorpgs.  I'm not sure I see the importance yet of macros.  Aren't they the same thing that is already given in the default UI?   What is the difference?  At first I thought macros meant you could hit one button to initiate a chain of commands to implement right in a row, like a single button for motif of bravery, cadence, detonate . . . ect. That doesn't seem likely after a bit of research.  I really am clueless, but willing to learn.  Anyone have an idea how macros are important?  Or are they mainly used for emotes and such?

Pravius

In a nutshell you are right.  You can invoke different abilities, spells, etc in a sequece.  As far as the way Rift does macros I am not sure because I am literally a day into the game, so I really have not had the opportunity to play around much but I cannot imagine it being different than the other games out there. 

As healer they are important to me.  Here is an example of one of the many macros I will use as a healer. 

In a dungeon, one of the group members dies, there is more than one healer in the group.  I use my rez ability to rez someone and when I hit that hotkey I also say as a prt of the macro, "Rezzing %t".  This let's the group know that I am healing that person and also let's the other healer know to keep the heals on the main tank and not to worry about rezzing that group member.

There are other better examples but like I said it's hard for me to apply them to Rift because I am fairly new to the game still.