A macro in AION 2 is a single key that fires off a whole chain of skills for you, and the game gives you exactly one per preset. This guide won’t hand you a finished macro for your class, because no universally correct one exists. It shows you how to think about it: what belongs in it, what breaks your aura, what delay to use and how to save the whole setup into three presets you switch with one key.
We’re talking about the in-game macro that is part of AION 2. Keyboard and mouse macros are a completely different thing, and the next section explains why.
The key points in six bullets
- The game has only one macro per preset. You enable it in Settings → Key Settings → General → Gameplay → Macro, and by default it has no key assigned.
- Hardware macros violate the EULA and can get your account restricted. The in-game macro is a legal tool; the one on your mouse is not.
- Set the delay to 10 ms. It has nothing to do with your ping, even though half the guides out there say it does.
- Auras and permanent buffs don’t belong in a macro, because the macro switches them off again on the next rotation.
- Keep rushes and leaps on their own buttons. In PvP they decide whether you reach your target at all.
- There are three presets, and each has its own macro. One key also swaps your gear, arcana and pantheon.
Where to enable the macro in the game
You’ll find the macro in two places, and you need both:
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| The key that triggers the macro | Settings → Key Settings → General tab → Gameplay section → Macro row |
| The editor where you build the macro | the Skill screen → the Macro button in the top right |
| Macro preset switch | the numbers 1 / 2 / 3 next to the Macro button |
By default there is no key assigned. The game won’t offer you the macro; you have to bind it yourself, and until you do, it’s as if it didn’t exist. A side mouse button is a sensible choice, because the macro is held down, not pressed repeatedly.
Hardware macros: don’t do this
Two completely different things go by the name of macros in AION 2, and guides routinely mix them up.
The first is the in-game macro described in this article. It’s part of the game, runs through the game’s own interface, and nobody gets punished for using it.
The second is macros on your keyboard, mouse or in an external program. Those break the user agreement, count as cheating and can lead to account restrictions. If someone tells you to build something extra “on the side” on your hardware on top of that one in-game macro, they’re steering you toward a ban.
The difference is simple: what the game itself offers you is fine. What bypasses its inputs from the outside is not.
What a macro is good for: animation canceling
Every skill in AION 2 has an animation. Until it finishes, you can’t cast the next spell, and that delay eats directly into your damage per second. A macro gets around this by canceling the animation and chaining skills one right after another.
You can even see it. When you play without a macro, a shadow sometimes appears behind your character: the tail of the animation that is holding back your DPS. With a macro the shadow is gone, and your character acts noticeably faster, combat speed included. We cover how combat in AION 2 works as a whole in a separate article.
One thing is unrelated, though you hear it a lot in the community: “lower ping = higher DPS” is not true. It’s a claim used to sell VPNs and boosters. Lower ping helps with how responsive the game feels, not with your damage.
How the macro chains buttons
A macro doesn’t chain skills, it chains buttons, meaning positions on your hotbar. That’s an important difference, because a single button can carry a chain skill that pulls further skills along behind it.
In practice it looks like this. The editor has numbered slots, and each holds one skill with its own Delay field in milliseconds. You hold the macro key and the game runs from top to bottom: the first skill, the second along with the chain skills that follow it, the third with its follow-ups, then a basic attack, and back to the start. Round and round, for as long as you hold the key.
Anything on cooldown gets skipped and the macro moves on to the next skill it can use. It doesn’t get stuck and it doesn’t wait.
The setup you’ll see in our video runs on four slots: Judgment Thunder, Debilitating Mark, Chain of Torment and Earth’s Retribution, which is a Cleric build. All four have a delay of 10 ms.
Delay: 10 ms and nothing else
This is the most widespread misconception in the whole topic, so let’s be blunt:
Macro delay is not set according to your ping. It’s the pause between buttons inside the macro, not between you and the server.
You could have a ping of ten thousand and the delay would still be 10 ms. You want the lowest possible value there, and that is exactly ten. Advice like “set your delay to 60 because your ping is 60” takes two different numbers and mashes them into one.
You enter the value in the Delay field, which opens a number pad with MAX and Confirm buttons. Type 10, confirm, done.
What to leave out of a macro
Auras and permanent buffs
An aura is a toggle. You switch it on with one press, it stays up and doesn’t disappear until you die. But the macro reaches for it again on the next rotation, and the second press turns it off. You end up at the boss without your aura and don’t even know it.
This typically applies to things like Light of Protection on the Cleric, Mantras on the Chanter or the health buff on the Templar. Those belong outside the macro, on their own button.
The exception is classes with so many buffs that there’s nowhere else to put them, namely the Ranger and the Spiritmaster. There you can’t avoid putting some buffs in the macro; just keep track of which of them are auras.
Charged skills
The second group is skills that charge up: you hold them and the damage grows with each charge stage. In a macro they sometimes don’t go off fully: the spell fires early, with lower damage, and differently every time. One time it goes off at the first charge stage, the next time at the third.
On the Cleric that’s Bolt, on the Templar Punishment. Whatever you play, keep charged spells under your finger, not in the chain.
When you run out of hotbar space
Space is tight. Realistically you have about eight buttons plus Q, E and the left and right mouse buttons, and that has to fit damage, buffs, auras, charged spells and, for melee classes, rushes, leaps and teleports on top. The Assassin has five to six of those with stigmas, so it’s the first class to run out of room.
The rule boils down to two lists that people mix up most often:
| Where | Priority |
|---|---|
| Inside the macro, when something extra has to go in | a buff (not an aura) rather than a rush |
| Outside the macro, on free buttons | rushes → buffs → damage |
There’s no contradiction here. The first row tells you what to sacrifice when something won’t fit into your macro. The second tells you what deserves your free buttons first. Besides macros for smoother gameplay, you can look sharp outside the game too – check out the AION 2 merch at the GamersTogether shop.
Why rushes in particular
In PvP a fight starts with you pulling your opponent in or leaping at them. Then comes crowd control, and only then damage. But the first thing a Ranger or Sorcerer does is jump away, and suddenly they’re twenty meters off and you have to chase them.
That’s exactly the moment you need your rush ready. If it’s in your macro, it got wasted while you were standing a meter from your opponent and it was useless. That’s why rushes go outside.
In pure PvE it barely matters: mobs don’t run away, so nobody cares whether the rush fires inside the macro or not. The exception is bosses that run off and make you chase them on stamina; the ultimate crab at the end of Krao Cave is exactly that case.
Presets: PvP, PvE and one for experiments
This is the other half of the setup, and almost nobody talks about it. Next to the Macro button are the numbers 1, 2 and 3, and they are three independent skill presets. Each of them has its own macro, so you don’t have to rebuild anything. You just switch.
A split that works well:
- Preset 1: PvP. Crowd control, survival, rushes kept out of the macro.
- Preset 2: PvE. Pure damage, rushes can go inside.
- Preset 3: experiments. Whatever combination you’re currently testing.
It makes sense because some masteries and stigmas work only in PvE and some only in PvP. One preset can’t cover both.
Batch Preset Equip: everything at once
Presets aren’t just for skills. Your gear, arcana and pantheon have their own presets too, and in the Batch Preset Equip panel you set which numbers should be used together. The panel has three sets (SET 1 / SET 2 / SET 3); for each row you pick 1, 2 or 3 and confirm at the bottom with Save Changes.
The UI description says it precisely: “Equips the saved set of presets as a batch.” One key swaps your equipment, arcana and pantheon, and with them your title and wings.
The keys that switch them
| Action | Key |
|---|---|
| Batch Preset: Equip Set 1 | Ins |
| Batch Preset: Equip Set 2 | Home |
| Batch Preset: Equip Set 3 | PgUp |
| Gear Preset 1 / 2 / 3 | Alt + Num1 / Num2 / Num3 |
| Skill Preset 1 / 2 / 3 | Alt + Num4 / Num5 / Num6 |
They’re all in Key Settings under the Batch Preset, Gear Preset and Skill Preset sections, so you can remap them. Switching on the fly is confirmed by the message “Skills changed to Preset 2.”
How many stigmas there will be after the global release
One more thing that’s more connected to macros than it seems: on the Taiwanese version you have six active stigmas, after the global release there will be only four. Two skills more or less make a big difference in a macro, so factor that in when you build your chain.
In practice this means a macro built on the TW server might not fit into your slots after the global launch. That’s no reason not to try it now; it’s a reason not to treat it as gospel.
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FAQ
Not the in-game macro; that’s a feature of the game. A hardware macro on your mouse or keyboard is: it breaks the user agreement and can get your account restricted.
10 ms. Not based on your ping, not based on your class. Ten is the lowest possible value and it’s the right one for everyone.
Only one is active at any moment, but each of the three skill presets has its own. So you can set up one for PvP and another for PvE and switch between them with Alt + Num4 to Num6.
Because an aura is a toggle and the macro presses it a second time on the next rotation. Take it out of the macro and put it on its own button.
No. It depends on whether you play PvP or PvE, which stigmas you have and how fast you press keys. That’s why this guide gives you rules, not a ready-made list. If you’re stuck with a specific class, start with the class overview and its build guide.
The steps and keybinds come from our own play on the Taiwanese server on 8 September 2026. We break down how combat in AION 2 works as a whole in the article on the combat system, extra skills come from stigmas and Daevanion, and you’ll find the rest of our guides in the AION 2 guide.