AION 2 launched globally with one feature that has quickly become a talking point across the community: the in-game macro system. Originally added to the Eastern version after players developed strain from constant ability spamming, this feature now ships with the global release and shapes how nearly every player approaches combat. This guide walks through how the macro system functions, why it matters for class builds, and the best early game and endgame macro setups for all eight starting classes.
AION 2 Global Macros Guide for All Classes
Macros in AION 2 are not external cheats or third-party scripts. They are a built-in system that cycles abilities automatically so you can focus on positioning, aiming, and timing your long cooldowns. A proper macro acts as the engine of your build, running your core rotation while you handle the strategic plays. With that foundation set, let's look at how the macro system actually works inside your class build.
How Do the Macros Work in Class Build in AION 2?
1. The Vertical Stack System
Every slot on your action bar can hold more than one ability. You click an ability first, then pick a slot, and you can stack abilities vertically on top of each other. Each column acts like a priority ladder: the lowest ability has the highest priority, and the stack cycles upward as skills go on cooldown.
For example, if you assign four abilities to the Q hotkey, pressing Q will use Ambush first, then Hardcore, then Insignia Explosion, then Savage Roar. The system steps through them one by one and loops back to the top.
2. Builder and Spender Mechanic
Every class in AION 2 operates on a builder-spender loop. Your left click (LMB) is your builder, which fills your mana resource. Your spenders drain mana to deal heavier damage. Light attacks keep the resource flowing while spenders push the big numbers.
3. Nesting Stacks Into a Macro
The macro system takes this one step further. Instead of pressing multiple hotkeys, you can combine several vertical stacks into one macro. You open the Macro tab in the top right, add a macro, and select hotkey lines (not individual skills) to feed into it. Holding one macro button then cycles through every stack you added, following the priority you set.
4. Setting the Macro Keybind
By default, the macro key is unbound. Go to Escape, Settings, Key Settings, General, scroll down to Gameplay, and bind the Macro slot. Most players set this to right click because it pairs naturally with the left click builder.
5. Animation Canceling and Weaving
Almost every ability in AION 2 can be canceled with your LMB. This is called weaving. You hold left click and right click (macro) at the same time, and the game automatically weaves light attacks between spender animations. A black shadow silhouette appears on your character every time a cancel lands, giving you visual confirmation.
Some guides suggest putting LMB inside the macro so you only hold one button, but this reduces damage because the game weaves fewer light attacks that way. Holding LMB and the macro key separately is the stronger method.
6. Delay Timings
Each macro slot has a default input delay of 10 milliseconds. For leveling, leave this alone. At endgame, you may want to adjust delays to 100 or 150 milliseconds depending on the skill, especially for abilities with longer animations. Watching your macro run on a training dummy helps you spot timing problems.
7. What Not to Put in a Macro
Long-cooldown abilities, self buffs, mobility skills, and stigma activations should usually stay off the macro. These are tools you want to fire manually on elites, bosses, or during burst windows. Letting the macro waste a 90 second cooldown on a trash mob costs you real damage.
Best Macros for Each Class Build at Early & Endgame
With the mechanics covered, here are the recommended macro setups for every class at both the early leveling stage and the endgame.
Gladiator Macro
Gladiator is one of the simplest classes to pick up, and its macro reflects that. The class plays like a heavy hitter swinging a giant hunk of metal, and the entire kit revolves around Overhead Slam. What makes this ability so strong is its passive proc: when you hit targets that are incapacitation immune (stagger immune), Overhead Slam has a chance to trigger additional slams, and you can scale that proc rate higher later on. The rest of the leveling flow is just rotating between Overhead Slam and Rending Blow while Keen Strike acts as your builder. Gap closers like Leaping Slam, Crushing Wave, and Rush Strike give you plenty of mobility, but these play better as manual cooldowns than as macroed inputs. Gladiator is extremely beginner friendly, and once you learn the stagger window, you can swap into Ruinous Blow for huge single target damage.
Early Game Macro
Keen Strike (builder, LMB line)
Rending Blow
Overhead Slam
Overhead Slam is the centerpiece of the kit. When you hit stagger-immune targets, it has a chance to proc additional slams. Pair it with Rending Blow in a two-skill macro and cycle with your light attack.
Endgame Additions
Add Rage Burst and Lunge Stance lines into the macro for a two-column rotation
Keep Leaping Slam, Crushing Wave, and Rush Strike off the macro as manual gap closers
Ruinous Blow stays manual as your charge-up burst for single targets
Zealot's Blessing (2 minute burst buff) stays bound to a separate key
Assassin Macro
Assassin leveling comes down to three things: positioning, back attacks, and staying alive. The class is squishy, so turning on your back attack indicators in the Options menu matters from the first fight onward. Assassin also carries a huge list of gap closers like Shadow Step, Shadow Strike, and Flash Slice that let you reposition behind targets constantly. The core rotation sits inside a single macro line: mark the target with Insignia Explosion, hit Heart Gore to trigger off the mark, then follow with Savage Roar as the top-priority finisher. At early levels, Insignia Explosion and Heart Gore sit on real cooldowns, so most damage leans on LMB and Savage Roar. Once you reach the level 16 Hardcore specialty, every crit resets Hardcore, which transforms the rotation and lets the macro cycle much more aggressively.
Early Game Macro
Insignia Explosion (bottom priority, used first)
Hardcore (middle)
Savage Roar (top)
At early levels, most of your damage comes from LMB plus Savage Roar because the other two carry cooldowns. Keep mobility skills like Shadow Step, Shadow Strike, and Flash Slice off the macro.
Endgame Additions
After hitting the level 16 specialty that resets Hardcore on crit, you can spam Hardcore much more often
Target the Elusive Clone stigma and keep it manual to use before boss mechanics or burst windows
Never place Elusive Clone or self buffs in the macro during Season 1 because cooldown speed is limited
Spiritmaster Macro
Spiritmaster has one of the most stacked leveling macros because its rotation flows tightly. The gameplay loop is simple on paper: rotate through your pets, collect their elemental buffs, then fire off Elemental Fusion to trigger the bonus damage window. The macro handles both halves of that loop by splitting into two lines. One line summons your pets in sequence so the buffs line up properly, and the second line runs your spenders while prioritizing Elemental Fusion the moment it procs. Because the pet rotation is so smooth, almost everything can live inside the macro and still feel natural to play. The one ability you keep on a manual key is Soul's Cry, a 45 second cooldown saved for elites, tanky mobs, and burst targets where that extra damage spike actually matters.
Early Game Macro
Line 1: Pet summoning sequence to rotate pet buffs
Line 2: Spender rotation that prioritizes Elemental Fusion when it procs
Hold the macro and light attack together and the character handles the full fusion loop.
Endgame Additions
Keep Soul's Cry (45 second cooldown) manual for elites, tanky mobs, and burst targets
Add stigma pet variants into the summoning line once stigmas are available
Fine-tune the delay on the Elemental Fusion slot so it fires immediately when the proc shows up
Templar Macro
Templar's entire identity is built around Judgment. It is the spam skill, the damage anchor, and the ability that every other skill in the kit feeds into. Later in the game, you gain combinations that open specific windows where you can chain Judgment repeatedly, and the leveling macro is already set up to prioritize this ability so you learn the rhythm early. Beyond the macro, Templar has three leveling tools worth binding manually. Shield Rush is a conditional ability that two-steps into Annihilate, and dropping both on the Q button gives you a strong single target punish for elites and bosses. Pounce is a 15 second pull that drags targets into melee range, which is extremely useful while leveling through open world packs. Punishment is the charged ability that locks you in place but delivers huge damage once it reaches three charges on a target.
Early Game Macro
Builder
Judgment (heavily prioritized)
Core Templar spender
Manual Skills
Shield Rush, a conditional ability that opens into Annihilate for single target burst (good on Q)
Pounce, the 15 second pull skill for grabbing ranged mobs
Punishment, the charged attack that locks you in place but deals massive damage after three charges
Endgame Additions
Templars can macro longer cooldown stigmas because many of them feed directly into Judgment windows
Keep Shield Rush off the macro because the two-step combo rewards manual timing
Chanter Macro
Chanter is a fun hybrid class that mixes melee and ranged attacks, and like most classes, its lynch pin ability sits in the top right corner of the ability panel. For Chanter, that ability is Dark Crush, and the macro is built directly around keeping it on cycle. The leveling flow is straightforward: build with your light attack, let the macro feed Dark Crush and the follow-up spender, and clean up the pack. The one cooldown you want to keep in manual rotation is Rushing Smash, a 15 second dash that acts as your main gap closer. While leveling, use it liberally to bounce between mobs. Soft lock a target, hit the button, fly in, then hold your attack and macro buttons together to melt everything around you. Chanter also has the two-part cooldown combo and a charged punishment skill that work best when fired at the right moment rather than looped into the macro.
Early Game Macro
Builder
Dark Crush (top right corner lynch pin)
Secondary spender
Manual Skills
Rushing Smash, a 15 second cooldown dash used liberally to close gaps while leveling
The two-part cooldown combo that functions like a punishment hit
Group buffs stay off the macro to avoid wasting them on trash
Endgame Additions
Add Chanter stigma buffs into the macro only after you confirm the uptime justifies it
Keep healing-oriented stigmas manual for group play
Sorcerer Macro
Sorcerer is the slowest class to come online, but it ramps hard the closer you get to endgame. The reason the macro is a bit more involved here is that many Sorcerer spells lock you in place during the cast, which creates awkward moments early on. The fix is leveling your spells to pick up the Mobile Skill specialty, which converts those stationary channels into castable-while-moving abilities. The macro itself runs two lines: one steps through your cooldown spells to keep them firing on recharge, and the other handles the builder-to-spender filler. You hold left click alongside the macro so light attacks weave in between casts. The real heart of Sorcerer is Hellfire, a 45 second cooldown channel that drops a massive AOE on grouped targets. Other spells like Firestorm reduce Hellfire's cooldown as you cast them, so grouping mobs, dropping Hellfire, then stacking Firestorm on top creates a damage loop that defines the class.
Early Game Macro
Line 1: Cooldown rotation of core spells
Line 2: Builder-to-spender combo for standard filler
Hold LMB and the macro simultaneously so builders feed the rotation.
Key Point: Hellfire
Hellfire is the heart of Sorcerer. It is a 45 second channeled nuke, and leveling it adds the Mobile Skill option so you can move during the cast. Other spells like Firestorm reduce Hellfire's cooldown, so weaving them in matters.
Endgame Additions
Group mobs, drop Hellfire, then cycle Firestorm and other spells to reset the cooldown faster
Keep Hellfire manual because timing it with pulls is worth more than letting the macro waste it
Cleric Macro
Cleric is incredibly easy to pilot and does not even need a separate spender line in the macro. It is a hammer class that plays from range, which means you can stand back from a target and just hold left click to deal damage safely. The macro walks through Chains of Torment to apply your mark, then follows up with Condemnation Judgment to detonate the mark for bonus damage. Beyond that, Cleric brings two fun manual cooldowns that reshape how you fight. Divine Aura is a turret you drop in high-traffic zones for passive damage output, so place it in spots where you expect to stand for a while. Bolt is a channeled charge-up spell that works best after you pull a group together, giving you a satisfying AOE dunk. Cleric also carries a strong healing suite with Healing Light, Light Regeneration, and Radiant Recovery, all usable for self-cleanse or group sustain.
Early Game Macro
Chains of Torment
Mark proc
Condemnation Judgment
No separate spender line is needed early on.
Manual Skills
Divine Aura, the turret you drop in high-traffic zones for extra damage output
Bolt, the channeled ability for grouped packs after you pull them in
Healing Light, Light Regeneration, and Radiant Recovery for sustain or group healing
Endgame Additions
Target the group damage buff stigma if you play with others, or the Stone Explosion stigma for solo damage
Keep the Protection buff manual so you can time it before pulls
Ranger Macro
Ranger is the most preference-driven class on this list because so many of its abilities include built-in movement. You can run a very simple one-button macro using just Drill Dart, Gale Dart (Gale Arrow), and Burst Arrow if you want pure comfort. The reason I caution against stacking more into the macro is that Ranger cooldowns like Marking Shot and Explosive Trap physically move your character when they fire. You will see a small hop or shift on each cast, and holding the macro down means your character is constantly bouncing around. Some players enjoy that mobility and want traps looped in automatically for AOE clear. Others find it jarring and prefer to keep those abilities on manual keys. Either way, Snare Shot, Marking Shot, Explosive Shot, and Suppressing Arrow should all be used off cooldown. Deadshot is the long-cooldown charged burst for single target damage, and it works better as a manual button than inside the macro.
Early Game Macro (Simple Version)
Drill Dart
Gale Dart (or Gale Arrow)
Burst Arrow
Optional AOE Macro Additions
Snare Shot
Explosive Trap
Both deal strong AOE but add small hops and movement to your character. If that feels disorienting, pull them out and run the three-skill version only.
Manual Skills
Marking Shot (movement based)
Suppressing Arrow
Deadshot, the charged single target burst with a long cooldown
Endgame Additions
Ranger benefits from keeping Deadshot and marking abilities manual so you can line them up with burst windows
Players comfortable with the movement-heavy playstyle can macro traps for faster leveling clears
The macro system in AION 2 is not autoplay. It handles the repetitive side of combat so your fingers survive long sessions, but you still fire burst cooldowns, dodge mechanics, manage potions, and control positioning yourself. In content like Fire Temple three-star Conquest, the macro keeps your DPS floor consistent while the real gameplay happens around it.
Use the early game macros above to level smoothly to 45, then adjust delays, add stigmas, and refine priority lines as you move into endgame optimization. Each class has room to grow once you learn how its specialties, cooldowns, and burst windows interact with the rotation.