AION 2 Macro Guide: How Macros Work & the Best Macro for Every Class

What is a macro in AION 2?

A macro is one key that cycles through your skill chains and casts the first skill that is ready. It is a built-in feature of the skill menu, and more than half of the public builds use one: 4,039 of the 7,079 public Global skill builds we read on questlog.gg include a macro. The system has two layers:

The usual way to play is to hold the macro and your basic attack together. DrybearGamers explains why: the basic attack builds MP and cancels the end of other skills’ animations, and a dark afterimage on your character shows you that a cancel landed. The macro spends MP on your damage skills while the basic attack refills it.

How do you set up a macro in AION 2?

Build the chains first, then the macro, then bind a key. The steps, as the creators below show them in the Global client:

1. Build skill chains. On the skill bar, click a skill and then the slot it should go in; you do not drag it. Stack related skills on the same key. Each chain holds up to four skills.
2. Order each chain. The chain tries its skills in order and casts the first one that is ready, so put the longest cooldown first and your no-cooldown filler last. GunghoGuns shows what goes wrong otherwise: with an instant skill first, the chain never gets past it.
3. Add the chains to the macro. Open the skill menu (K) and use the macro section at the top right. Add a step for each chain and set the delay between steps.
4. Bind the macro. It has no key by default. Go to Settings, Key settings, General, and scroll to Macro, right after Mount. You can give it two keys. DrybearGamers says most players use right click.
5. Test it on a training dummy. Hold the macro with your basic attack and watch the skills. If something comes out too early, too late or not at all, change the order or the delay.

Two warnings appear in the client, as MistaWigglez shows. A mouse button bound as the macro key does not work in the AION 1 control mode, and because the macro keeps trying to advance, the step order is not guaranteed. A step it cannot cast, for example one that needs a target when you have none, is skipped.

DrybearGamers — AION 2 Macro Guide: The BEST Starter Macros for All 8 Classes — YouTube

DrybearGamers — AION 2 Macro Guide: The BEST Starter Macros for All 8 Classes

What should you keep out of the macro?

Charge skills, dashes, heals, your basic attack and the skills you save for a staggered boss. The public builds agree on this almost without exception. Among builds that have a macro and put the skill on their skill bar, these are the shares that keep it off the macro:

The creators explain each group:

• Charge skills. The macro releases a charge skill at its first charge level instead of the third, as Moxsy and Allyria found with Deadshot. EUTOPIA measured the cost on the Sorcerer’s Hellfire: about 15,000–16,000 damage per second with a macro-cast Hellfire against about 22,000 with full charges. Charge these by hand.
• Dashes and movement. A dash fired by the macro while you are dodging can throw you straight back into a boss. The Templar creators Xia and NoBS Game Guides keep both of their dashes on their own keys. Allyria warns that spamming the Ranger’s Marking Shot causes forced jumps.
• Your basic attack. Keen Strike, Quick Slice, Vicious Strike, Snipe and Earth’s Retribution stay on left click in most builds, so you can hold them alongside the macro. The Spiritmaster’s Cold Shock is the exception: 62% of Spiritmaster macros include it as a step of its own.
• Stagger skills. Some skills can only be used, or are only worth using, while a boss is staggered. Nellan97 found his Assassin macro stuck firing Storm Rampage during a stagger even when Insignia Explosion was ready, so he binds Insignia Explosion to a key of its own as well.
• Long buffs and stigmas. DrybearGamers advises caution with long cooldowns in a macro: it may spend them on a trash mob. Most players cast buffs such as the Chanter’s Undefeated Mantra and the Cleric’s Light of Protection by hand (each kept out by over 99%), but some classes build their macro around a stigma, such as the Gladiator’s Rage Burst, which 92% of Gladiator macros include.

What delay should you use?

10 ms between steps, unless your connection is slow. DrybearGamers names 10 ms as the default and the right setting while you level, and of the delays set in public builds, 86% are 10 ms. The creators adjust it for ping:

Skill Queue is the one setting the creators disagree on. GunghoGuns turns it off under Settings, Controls, General control mode settings, because with it on some skills with cooldowns or long animations do not fire properly. delcatta plays with it on. Try both on the dummy.

What is the best macro for each class?

Every class has one setup that most players share. These are the most common chains in public macros for each class, with the skills almost everyone keeps out. Shares are of the public Global builds with a macro for that class, checked on 2026-10-26.

Every class also has its own macro guide, linked from the class names above, with the top macros compared, what each chain does and the PvP macro. Each class’s PvE build covers the rest of the rotation.

Gladiator macro

Rage Burst → Overhead Slam → Rending Blow in one chain is still the most common Gladiator macro: 38% of public Gladiator macros use exactly that chain, including Grobs’s leveling build, the most-liked Gladiator macro on questlog.gg (55 likes). Many add a buff chain, Lunge Stance → Zikel’s Blessing (20%), and Ruinous Blow → Lifestealing Blade (16%). Ulfhednar’s builds split the kit instead: his PvE DPS build runs Zikel’s Blessing → Lunge Stance → Blade Toss → Ruinous Blow and Rage Burst → Overhead Slam, and his endgame build Rage Burst → Overhead Slam and Sword Aura Rampage → Rending Blow, a chain now in 28% of Gladiator macros. The full rotation is in the Gladiator PvE build, and the macro on its own, with the level 16 changes, in the Gladiator macro guide.

Templar macro

Judgment → Shield Smite → Warding Strike → Pummel (38%) is now the most common Templar chain. It is the chain of Leonis’s midgame and endgame builds, for Judgment at 16, when Judgment loses its cooldown, and it matches Xia and NoBS keeping their dashes out. Below 16, the standard is two chains: Doom Shield → Judgment → Shield Smite → Warding Strike (21%) and Debilitating Smash → Annihilate → Pummel (22%), exactly the pair in Leonis’s early offensive build. The Judgment-first chain grew from 7% of Templar macros on 2026-10-14 to 21% on 2026-10-19 and 38% on 2026-10-26, and Doom Shield is now in 33% of them. The Templar macro guide explains how Judgment gets unlocked; see also the Templar PvE build.

Assassin macro

Every popular Assassin chain starts with Insignia Explosion and ends on Savage Roar. The three most common versions are Insignia Explosion → Ambush → Storm Rampage → Savage Roar (25%), Insignia Explosion → Heart Gore → Savage Roar (16%), which is Grobs’s leveling macro and the most-liked Assassin macro (62 likes), and Savage Fang → Insignia Explosion → Heart Gore → Savage Roar (12%), his early level 45 macro. 46% of Assassin macros include Storm Rampage; read Nellan97’s warning above before you add it. The Assassin macro guide explains how the chain builds and spends Insignias; details are also in the Assassin PvE build.

Ranger macro

Gale Arrow → Drill Dart → Tempest Shot (45%), plus a chain that slows the target before Burst Arrow: Snare Shot → Explosive Arrow → Burst Arrow (34%) or J0EI’s Gale Arrow → Snare Shot → Griffon Arrow → Burst Arrow (18%). whelps’ build, the most-liked Ranger skill build on questlog.gg (169 likes), runs the first version alongside the Gale Arrow chain. Deadshot, Marking Shot and Explosion Trap stay out. The Ranger macro guide explains why Snare Shot comes before Burst Arrow; see also the Ranger PvE build.

Sorcerer macro

shr1kn’s three chains are the standard, each in 64–66% of public Sorcerer macros: Element Enhancement → Fire Wall → Cold Storm → Delayed Explosion, Winter’s Shackles → Bittercold Wind → Frost → Firestorm and Blaze → Frost Burst. His leveling build is the most-liked Sorcerer build (128 likes). Hellfire stays out of 98% of them, and 85% keep Flame Arrow off the macro too; shr1kn holds it on the other mouse button. The Sorcerer macro guide explains how the three chains work together; see also the Sorcerer PvE build.

Spiritmaster macro

Jointstrike: Curse → Elemental Fusion → Dimensional Control → Combustion (56%), with Cold Shock as a step of its own (62%), is the setup of init.rb’s builds. The spirits are in about four in five Spiritmaster macros, either in their own chain or in one with Corrode or Elemental Fusion. Grobs’s leveling build uses two chains: Elemental Fusion → Earth Spirit → Water Spirit → Fire Spirit, and Corrode → Jointstrike: Curse → Dimensional Control → Combustion; since 24 October his level 45 build puts the Wind Spirit in the Elemental Fusion chain instead. The Ancient Spirit and Spirit’s Benediction stay out of nine in ten. The Spiritmaster macro guide compares the two setups; see also the Spiritmaster PvE build.

Cleric macro

Clerics use short chains: Judgment Thunder (49%), Divine Aura (39%), Chain of Torment → Condemnation (37%), Debilitating Mark (36%), and Noble Aura → Prayer of Amplification → Earth Punishment → Light of Regeneration (33%). Those five are exactly MrRosaPony’s PvE macro, the most-liked Cleric macro on questlog.gg (139 likes). Th3Ruthless instead repeats his Condemnation chain in eight of ten steps. Heals and Bolt stay out. The Cleric macro guide explains why the macro keeps returning to Condemnation; see also the Cleric PvE build.

Chanter macro

Dark Crush → Spinning Strike → Impactful Crush → Incandescent Blow in one chain: 69% of public Chanter macros, including mourasb’s “Chanters2” and dimach’s PvE build, the two most-liked Chanter macros (77 and 35 likes). Grobs’s level 45 build puts Marchutan’s Wrath in place of Incandescent Blow. Undefeated Mantra, Sprint Mantra, Power of the Storm and Recuperation stay out. The Chanter macro guide explains why Dark Crush leads the chain; see also the Chanter PvE build.

For the rest of each class’s build, start from the builds directory, and to compare the classes themselves, see the AION 2 classes overview.

Where does this macro data come from?

• Macro shares: the macros in public Global skill builds on questlog.gg, read on 2026-10-26: 7,079 builds across the eight classes, 4,039 of them with a macro. questlog.gg shows only the first 900 builds for every class except the Spiritmaster.
• How macros work: DrybearGamers’ AION 2 Macro Guide: The BEST Starter Macros for All 8 Classes (2026-09-30), MistaWigglez’s How to Use Macros in AION 2 (2026-09-22) and GunghoGuns Gaming’s Aion 2 Macro Guide: How to Build Macros for Any Class (2026-10-05).
• Class macros and the creators’ reasons: the creators credited in each class’s PvE build, including Grobs, Ulfhednar, Leonis, Xia, NoBS Game Guides, Nellan97, delcatta, whelps, Moxsy, Allyria, shr1kn, EUTOPIA, aLuckyRO, init.rb, Hemi, MrRosaPony, Th3Ruthless, dimach and mourasb.