Controller user here.. I only use K/B for crafting and other errands that don't involve tough fights and I want to become as good with KB as I am with controller in battle scenarios.

It's no secret that the UI in this game is absolute trash. For instance the fact that I have to press control or alt to access my macros... Why not just have the option be able to press the button and the macro activates? anyway...

Are there any tips, tricks, or hacks (figuratively of course) that can help me get better or make life easier with keyboard?

Also is there a way to make it so that the macro palette shows up without a delay so I can cycle through the options with the directional arrows?

Thanks,

practice, try compact keyboard, that seems to work better for some.

the macro pallette showing up quicker thing is done via : config > window > shared > window effect (it makes every UI feel snappy, well worth putting on, will let you do things a bit quicker too).

I suggest trying to learn your macros by heart. That way you can instantly press a macro. You dont have to wait for the palette to show up. For example just press ctrl+1 and it will instantly do that macro. Faster than cycling through them like you have to with a controller afaik. Unfortuantely the camera isnt as freely moveable while walking.
Something I do and what makes me cast quite fast is while you are casting a spell you should often already know what your next spell might be. Your magic menu saves the spot you are at. So if you learn by heart where the spells are, for example clicking left arrow while you are at Thunder4 will put you at X spell. Knowing those "shortcuts" will help you a lot with casting and that way you don't need a macro for everything.
I don't really have macros for nuking for example. Usually I am just fast enough with the menu and being able to navigate through it efficient.

You don't have to wait for your macro pallette to show up to use a macro. Just press the buttons, and they'll go off.

There's many things that could have been improved, obviously, but numbers without CTRL/ALT pushed also do something... so that's why they make it so CTRL/ALT active macros.

As for making it pop-up without a delay, there's definitely an illegal addon that fixes that. I've never bothered, because I've never really wanted my macros to pop up.

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Thanks. All very helpful tips. I’m hoping the window effect settings speed things up because sometime I find myself pressing my macro multiple times and it doesn’t activate. I wanna avoid button mashing if I have any /party text in my macros.

Using a properly recognized gamepad, ffxi should allow for the macro windows to appear immediately, and disappear upon pressing the corresponding trigger again, or pressing a macro itself. your UI is not functioning optimally. what type of gamepad are you using here?

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when using my gamepad it shows up instantly. the problem is if i want to bring it up by pressing alt or control it takes forever.

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IGN: Bolerion