Do not advance to the next step

I set a step to not advance for x seconds. The step has actions that disable the step and set a timer. Disabling the step cancels the do not advance feature.

If I want step 1 to not advance for x seconds do I need to disable it in step 2 to set up a timer?

[lax]

It sounds like you're looking at it wrong.

Instead of disabling the Step, replace the current behavior of the Step you're disabling with a Do Mapped Key Action. Put all of the behavior in another Mapped Key, and Do that. Disable the Mapped Key. Now in your multiple Steps with Do Not Advance, you can disable the behavior without skipping the Step (and therefore keep your Do Not Advance timing, yet with the Step doing nothing).

I think I follow that. I set key map 1, step 1 to not advance and it executes key map 2, step 1. Key map 2, step 1 casts a skill and then disables and sets a timer.

But it brings up a new issue. I don't want key map 1, step 1 to pause on subsequent iterations unless the timer for Key map 2, step 1 has reset.

[bob]

You might benefit from a read through this post. There is also a linked video.
It sounds like what you are after is a method to disconnect the continuation of the rotation but only per a period of time when that step fires. This you can achieve via the virtualization by disabling the link between the hotkey and the underlying rotation, and it doesn't break/reset the rotation underneath it. Read through the post, watch the video, then do it all again, 3 times I reckon it took me, and even then I had to start configuring it up before it really sunk in...

It sounds like what you are after is a method to disconnect the continuation of the rotation but only per a period of time when that step fires.

I don't think that is what I'm trying to do.

I just want to apply 2 buffs that have a 3 second cast time. The buffs last an hour. I want to make sure those steps execute and then I want to ignore them for an hour.

I've gone through the post/video you posted several times in the last few months and I still don't understand it.

[bob]

That is pretty much what that post goes through. It is using the virtualization method. You can do it without virtualization but the setup is pretty much the same.

You have 3+ mapped keys, depending on the number of buffs/skills in the rotation.

Mapped Key 1, has the Hotkey, with a single step with a single action for Do Mapped Key, "Mapped Key 2"
Mapped Key 2 has your rotation in it, which calls each step of the rotation via Do Mapped Key actions.

Each Mapped Key rotation has a single Step with a number of actions.

1. Execute the buff/skill.
2. Disable the Step in Mapped Key 1
3. Re-Enable the Step in Mapped Key 1 (using a Timer) after the required cast time of the current buff/skill, so you don't interrupt the cast by pressing the Hotkey again (well you can press the hotkey but it doesn't do anything because there are no active steps in Mapped Key 1 until it has re-enabled). This will be your 3 second cast time
4. Disable the Step that executes this rotation Mapped Key in Mapped Key 2
5. Re-Enable the Step in Mapped Key 2 (using a different Timer) after the required cooldown time of the current buff/skill, so you don't cast it again before it is necessary. This will be your 1 hour cooldown.

The setup in the post goes a little further because there is also the virtualization mapped key in there (which, despite initial appearances, actually makes this easier to maintain and more portable between character sets), and some of the methods above, like the 2nd and 3rd actions are standardised via another set of Mapped Keys (how many skills have the same cast time?.. plenty). Because each buff/skill should have it's own timer, there is also a reset in there too, which in theory is unnecessary, but it keeps it all neat and tidy.

The reason behind the convoluted setup is that if you disable an mapped key, and then re/enable it, then it starts at the beginning again, so you only want to disable a specific step along the way. You also don't want a step to be disabling itself, but a higher level step in the chain is ok. If you try to use the Do Not Advance method, which is applicable to a Step, then you can't disable/enable that step because it will reset it, including any current timers on it (much like disabling the Mapped Key too), so instead you need to separate into layers. If you look at the description, the rotation mapped keys themselves never get disabled, and neither do any of the other mapped keys, just specific steps within them.

*note: Timers should be unique. i.e. don't use the same Timer for multiple actions. A given Timer might end up being called multiple times, which is OK, but if you use the same Timer in multiple places, and it resets different steps, then you might find that things get enabled when you don't expect them to.

bob, I read your post several times over a period of several hours and it is starting to make sense.

I'll try it out tomorrow.

Thank you for walking me through it.

Re-Enable the Step in Mapped Key 1 (using a Timer) after the required cast time of the current buff/skill

You seem to imply that it is possible to use different timers based on the cast time of the current skill. Is that right?

[bob]

Correct.
You should be using a different timer for each item that is being timed.
When setting up the Rotation mapped key, you can use the same Timer when disabling the step in Mapped Key 1 (actions 2 and 3), because while the step in Mapped Key 1 is disabled you can press the Hotkey all you like but it never runs anything further down the chain. When the timer expires and re-enabled the step, then it will run the chain again. Effectively you will only ever have 1 instance of this particular timer active at any time, which is what we are after. Each of the Mapped Key 3 (i.e. your rotations) can set a different cast time, but reuse the same named timer.

For the actions which are disabling the steps in Mapped Key 2 (i.e. the steps of your rotation, so actions 4 and 5), then each one of those should be using a unique named Timer, so if the cooldown of the skills were different times, you wouldn't end up setting the same timer to be ticking over at different times. Again, the aim is to only have 1 instance of a timer active at any time.

I created a simple test to see what happens when a mapped key calls another mapped key with multiple steps. It looks like all the steps are executed at once which defeats the purpose of using steps.