Spellcast For Dummies!

Work in progress.

When I came back to FFXI I needed new Macros and everyone I talked to, recommended just using Spellcast. It's been around for a while, but every time I had looked at it in the past, it made my eyes bleed, and I was just overwhelmed with all of the information, possibilities and furthermore confused by the many different ways, people were accomplishing the same task. Even while reading through the guides, they appeared as if they weren't actually directed at people like me. (Completely clueless) The second option was to just copy/paste someone elses Spellcast and edit it to your liking, but again some of them are so complex, I was intimidated to even edit a simple line, yet alone attempt to comprehend what they next 870 lines did.

So I'm going to provide a simple guide, that I would have personally liked to see myself. Spellcast for Dummies!

Step 1: Windower 4
Download Here: http://www.windower.net/
This is the program that makes all of the fancy applications work.

Step 2: Notepad ++
Download Here: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
This is the program that you use to actually create and edit the 'code' that spellcast uses and runs off of. For all intents and purposes, it's no more than a word document really.

Step 3: Spellcast
Open Windower4
The default tab is listed as "Profiles"
Next to it you'll see "Addons" and "Plugins"
You can automatically Download any Addon or Plugin here
"Spellcast" is listed under "Plugins"
Download it, or make sure it's in the 'on' position

Step 4: Finding your spellcast script
Right click "start"
Select "Explore" (Windows Explorer)
Locate your Windower4 Folder
Default should be as follows: (I'm on Windows 7)
Local Disk C:
Program Files (x86)
Windower4
Plugins
Spellcast

Now, in here you should see an XML file listed as your Character name. At this point, I recommend you rename the file, and use specific files for each job. For the time being, just name the file: Cambion_Dnc
*Use your own Character name of course :)
*Each file you create for other jobs, will be named Cambion_War etc and Spellcast will automatically load the correct spellcast, as soon as you change jobs in your mog house.

If you attempt to open it, it will open in an Internet Browser
In order to actually edit the Spellcast file you will need to Right Click "Open With > Notepad ++"

Step 5: Editing your Spellcast
Once inside you'll see some lines, spaced out, indented etc. Feel free to just ignore it all at for the time being.
We're going to start with an extremely simple build, and slowly add on.

Part 1: Gear Sets

To begin Delete everything inside your current XML and paste the following into the document:


Okay. The above spellcast won't actually do anything.
But this is where you put your gear sets, and name them.
I name mine very simple:
"Idle" is the gear that will be equipped when you are just standing around, not engaged on a mob.
"TP" is the gear that will be equipped when you are engaged to a mob.
"Exen" is the gear that will be equipped prior to using Exenterator (Can be any WS)

You can use any type of gear you want in these situations, you can even use the same gear if you want, and copy/paste it into all 3 of these sets, until you get more gear. Personally I idle in Regen, -Physical Damage Taken, or Evasion gear and movement speed. Doesn't matter what you use, just go ahead and insert your own gear in each respective slot, for each set. (We'll add more sets later, but if you're feeling saucy go ahead copy/paste a set, change the name to any WS you want, and apply the correct gear. You can do this for any specific set you have, NOT just Weapon Skills. Waltz Sets, Evasion Sets, -PDT sets etc and so on.

*The tabs and spaces don't mean anything and are not required for correct execution or formatting. It just makes it easy to see where you Open and Close certain things, to prevent errors. (A Single error in your XML, and it won't load, meaning you can't use any of it.)
Because of this, I recommend you only add one thing at a time, and load it to verify it works, before you move on.
Alternatively, if you have/use Firefox browser you can open the file normally, and check for errors in your internet browser.

Part 2: Telling the gear sets how & when to be applied

This is considered a "rule" and therefor goes in between the
<rules>
</rules>
section posted above.

Paste the following between the rules lines:

In short, the above just tells spellcast what "set" to "equip" based on your current "status",
which at this current point, it just engaged, or not engaged.
If you don't care how or why it works, you just want it to work, then skip to part 3. If you want to understand what it's actually doing, check the spoiler.

Part 3: Weaponskills

Ok, now we'll input our Weaponskills and the gear 'set' associated with each one.
This also goes in between the <Rules> section, so place it just below the first rule we made:
The <!--- Stuff --> is just a note to yourself, that helps you easily locate specific sections later on. They are not needed, so you can delete them if you desire.



Now, I only have these 4 listed, but you can add as many as you want, there's no limit.

if spell="This is where you put the name of the Weaponskill"

Equip when="precast" just means you're installing the set before the weaponskill.
*It sounds silly for WSs, but for mages, you can use this to equip things PreCast, MidCast, and Aftercast.

set="This is the name of the Gear set you want equipped"
This "Set" is whatever you named it in part 1.

Now, if you did the first 3 correctly, you'll have a very simple spellcast that will work properly for gear swaps for engaged, idle and WS's. Should look like this: