i'm going to make an update in terms of some recent tests i did using qmacro. maybe it could help out some people.
NOTES:
- all of the following values were calculated using a minimum of 40 tests each, save for the asterisked (spell check) value, which was tested 20 times before a conclusion was drawn.
- i played cabal using the x-trap disabler available on this site
- the monster i was comboing to test these were moscutter queens in GD, close to the dungeon entrance at the end.
- all the settings were done using minimal graphical demand, meaing: wearing no cape, no helmet, windowed mode, exited chat window, exited exp window, exited map, all settings using least possible and refresh rate at 60
- yes, i'm a nerd, and i literally did do this 40 times for each value.
- while doing combos, i was leveling sword skills (as a blader) and therefore used the force-change upgrade skill. However, from what i could tell, sword levels much faster than magic does in comboing.
OBSERVATIONS:
- "common work mode" seems to fluctuate much less than other mode. its general range of execution was shorter than that of the non-USB mode (or whatever its called)
- i was never able to draw conclusive results from the other mode, as the combos i got each time differed greatly. therefore, all values presented are from common work mode.
- i experimented leveling all the novice magic skills to 6 instead of 5, and found my combos stayed consistent for longer.
- it takes what would roughly be a 200 chain combo (or what would be a little more than 3 minutes) in order to gain 1 skill level
- the best monster to combo (though much more risky due to being a quest monster) are Bugshark+. this is due to the fact that there are 3 of them which spawn all relatively close to eachother, all who will pull aggro (as well as normal mobs) if you stand in the middle of the island. in terms of comboing, it takes roughly 430 combo hits to kill one, meaning you can gain about 2 skill levels for each Bugshark+ that you kill. i say bugshark+s are the best for macro grinding because i wasn't able to find ghoul+ or phantom crew+, and i havent gotten to fort ruina yet, so, yeah....
- the above conclusion was drawn after comboing stone golems, dark bladers, pertyon+ (sp check), and bugshark+
- instead of using no equipment to macro train, use either training equipment or the lowest grade you can, this way, you can still buff yourself. i saw the same damage output comboing bugshark+ with low equips as without, however, my potion intake was greatly reduced by being able to buff myself (def and def.rate buffs).
- having level 20 buffs greatly helps, because they last for 945 seconds, which is about how long it takes to kill 2 bugshark+
- demanding the absolute least of your graphics greatly affects the precision of your combos. so try to end as many processes as you can. with everything exited and using a much smaller window size, i found that my combos lasted much longer.
- if i constantly had a target to combo, and nobody around me, i averaged around 18 skill levels per hour.
- use above-head view. just trust me. it helps.
- letting auto mp-pot refil your magic WILL throw off the timing of the macro, so you WILL have to refil it yourself in order to keep your combo going. (same with using health capsules)
VALUE TESTING: so, 1027 miliseconds wasn't quite working for me, here are the average combos i was able to achieve using other settings (rounding up or down accordingly):
1027: 52
1025: 23
1029: 66
1035: 89
1031: 127*
so, 1031 miliseconds seems to work the best.
after using 1031, i combined that time setting with using the least graphical demands of my computer and found that my combos NEVER ENDED (as long as i had a monster to target). the highest combo i did before i (willingly) canceled combo mode was 923 (2 bugshark+). i just got paranoid thinking i might get banned if my combo hit 4 digits (not sure if that was something the server would have recorded)
anyway, i hope this helps. thank you to thread poster for introducing me to macros, and to user who tested 1027 miliseconds in common work mode, i probably wouldn't have made these adjustments without using common work mode.