[Guide] What a macro is allowed to do in Path of Exile

Oh I didnt know yolomouse was actually allowed. Thanks mate for nice thread!

@Sarno, you're not a GGG employee but you seem to know and have sources about a great deal of rules around macros.

One very common macro type is a stat check macro. Can you confirm/deny it's allowed?

What is does, if I'm not mistaken, is read the clipboard after you press Ctrl+C and compare the item stats to the list of known stat ranges and tiers and show you an overlay that summarizes them and, in case of weapons, additionally show pDPS / eDPS. All these calculations are perfectly doable by a human using available information, they just take more time.

It is the game client that puts the item affixes in the clipboard after you hover over it and press Ctrl+C, the macro only reads from there.

A variation of this macro additionally sends the item data from the clipboard to a 3rd party site to get a price prediction - again the only game client interaction is reading from the clipboard and showing an overlay, so it seems to me it should be allowed.

EDIT: I went ahead and confirmed with GGG support, that the PoE Trade Macro is currently allowed.

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Jadran wrote:

@Sarno, you're not a GGG employee but you seem to know and have sources about a great deal of rules around macros.

One very common macro type is a stat check macro. Can you confirm/deny it's allowed?

What is does, if I'm not mistaken, is read the clipboard after you press Ctrl+C and compare the item stats to the list of known stat ranges and tiers and show you an overlay that summarizes them and, in case of weapons, additionally show pDPS / eDPS. All these calculations are perfectly doable by a human using available information, they just take more time.

It is the game client that puts the item affixes in the clipboard after you hover over it and press Ctrl+C, the macro only reads from there.

A variation of this macro additionally sends the item data from the clipboard to a 3rd party site to get a price prediction - again the only game client interaction is reading from the clipboard and showing an overlay, so it seems to me it should be allowed.

EDIT: I went ahead and confirmed with GGG support, that the PoE Trade Macro is currently allowed.

Of course it's allowed, it has been for a very very long time. Otherwise, it wouldn't be posted to the forums with pages upon pages of replies to it...

This is such a good thread, thank you for that!

I would just like to be certain...
I am using two macro tools, that are even promoted on this forum
- mercury trade
- trade macro

Both don´t do anything that would give me any advantage playing the game. But they add so much to the "QoL" features.

Are those macros allowed according to these rules? I am pretty sure they are - but in case they are not, I´d remove them.

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Abdiel_Kavash wrote:

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IamLoco wrote:

This is such a good thread, thank you for that!

I would just like to be certain...
I am using two macro tools, that are even promoted on this forum
- mercury trade
- trade macro

Both don´t do anything that would give me any advantage playing the game. But they add so much to the "QoL" features.

Are those macros allowed according to these rules? I am pretty sure they are - but in case they are not, I´d remove them.

Both of these are allowed.

Note that this has absolutely nothing to do with how much advantage they give you or how much QoL they add. Neither of these is any consideration at all in deciding what is allowed and what is not. The only thing that matters is what the macro actually does. And all that both of these tools do is send a single chat message with a keypress, which is explicitly allowed.

Thanks so much Abdiel, that was all I was looking for.

I've never really used macro's, but, there are some things in this game that I thought would be nice to have done with 1 key press or whatever. Specifically, the trade macro stuff looks super awesome. I often have a hard time figuring out how much an item is worth.

I do have a question on the flask thing though. My current build requires me to use 4 flasks to gain a huge damage and defense bonus. I just simply keep my fingers on 1 2 3 and 4, watch my buff timers at the top of my screen and press 1 2 3 and 4 at about 1 sec of buff time left. This doesn't bother me at all and I have actually rebound my 5th flask, a life flask, to spacebar as resting my thumb there with all my fingers on the number keys is quite comfortable and perfect for the way this build plays.

What I'm afraid of is the game thinking I'm using a macro when I push 1 2 3 and 4 with my fingers at the same time. It's really confusing because of the whole popsicle stick thing.

Am I in danger of being banned because I press all my flasks with my fingers? I assume not, but, I feel the question is relevant as a line has to be drawn somewhere.

I am not trying to stir a pot or side with anyone, I just want to make sure it's okay for me to use 4 flasks at the same time using a finger on each key. After reading all these posts, this particular situation has the most conflicting information.

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Galactic_G wrote:

What I'm afraid of is the game thinking I'm using a macro when I push 1 2 3 and 4 with my fingers at the same time. It's really confusing because of the whole popsicle stick thing.

Am I in danger of being banned because I press all my flasks with my fingers? I assume not, but, I feel the question is relevant as a line has to be drawn somewhere.

I am not trying to stir a pot or side with anyone, I just want to make sure it's okay for me to use 4 flasks at the same time using a finger on each key. After reading all these posts, this particular situation has the most conflicting information.

IMHO, that should be all fine.
You are pressing four keys to create four actions. That is in accordance to the one-key-one-action rule. It is easy to detect whether you do this by hand or by a macro. Both have totally different patterns when observed over time.

Thanks, I figured it was fine, as I've not been banned yet, but, if you read all this stuff about macros, it can get really confusing.