First up, using macros isn't necessarily botting at all. The SoR macro system imo is very good - it allows time/energy saving commands to be set up without building a bot into the game (ofc that's not to say it doesn't make it indirectly easier for botters, but that's a different story and not one I'm qualified to talk about).
As someone who dual-boxes (uses two paid accounts to operate two characters at once, without botting I might add) I've found some very handy uses of macros while digging, although mostly for careplanning I must admit.
Before I was at my current level, I used a macro with the digging character whereby once I'd found the source I was after (no use digging a source with 9 mats in it when you can pull 20+), I'd hit the macro which would selfheal my focus the amount that was used by the prospect action and then start extraction with the right action - you could also think about adding this to a source select/extract action if you're not yet bothered about source content but want to have a full set of focus for each dig. Because it was a relatively small selfheal (about 300 focus or something), it had recharged by the time I had finished digging the two/three sources I'd get out of that prospection.
As for the careplanner, I use the following macro after I've selected the source I want with the dig-character:
- Select the dig-character's target
- Start careplanning
So all in all, the normal procedure is:
- Prospect with dig character
- Find the source with the best content (sadly this is a manual and often infuriating step)
- Hit the "Dig" macro on the dig-character (or just the key with the right dig action if I don't need to selfheal)
- Hit the "Get target source and CP" macro on the CPer
For someone who doesn't dual-box, these macros can be used independantly to just make things easier... of course you still have to pay attention unless you've finetuned your setup so that you'll always get the max with no risk, or you'll end up blowing yourself up
Sadly I know of some people who use either these macros or modified versions of them in combination with "botting" programs to completely remove the need for almost any interaction with the game, but that's something I personally hate, and is definately not the topic of this thread (thankfully).
There is such a huuuuuge difference between this puny macro and botting.
