• Scroll your hotbar back to version "0" by using the scroll key on the right side of your skill bar (it's set to "1" by standard)
• Place the "Assist Target" icon in the first slot of the main skill bar for your version "0" bar (you can find this by pressing K and selecting it from the actions tab)

Manually Setting Your Variables:
If you prefer, you can manually set your gathering variables each time you login by manually typing into your chat window. For example, if I intended to head off and macro gather a pile of Hasia with a delay of four seconds I would type the following text into my chat bar to assign the variables. In this case, I have assigned the item to variable 9 and the delay to variable 8, however you may choose any variable slot from 1-9:

Code:

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/Variable 8 4
/Variable 9 Hasia

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Using a Macro to set Variables:
As I mentioned, macro variables are only stored in Aion for as long as you remain logged in. This means each time you log into the game, you need to remember to manually set all your variables. This is fine if you only have 1-2 to remember, but once you start needing a few more it can become a hassle. To make this easier, I prefer to use a Macro to set all my variables for me when I login.

Using the following code, I am able to assign all my variables at once by clicking a single macro after I login to Aion. Notice that I have added my choice of gathering variables to the end as variables 8 and 9.

Code:

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/Variable 1 Healing Light II
/Variable 2 Healing Light IV
/Variable 8 4
/Variable 9 Hasia

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Deciding on the Delay:
The auto-gather process requires inserting a delay between gathering attempts in order to align with the amount of time it takes for your character to complete each gather. This will vary depending on the level of Extract Vitality that your character has. The lower your characters extract vitality skill is, the slower you will gather. You will need to time yourself based on manaul gathers of your chosen target and work out what average delay time suits your character.

After you have decided on a suitable delay time for whatever you are gathering, you should set the amount (in seconds) to the variable you have selected to represent your delay time. Setting variables is explained in further detail in section 1 of this guide above.

The Auto-Gather Macro Code:
Once you have decided on the required delay, the code for the macro is simple. Take note that the code repeats itself five times instead of three. This is a "just in case" functionality that is built into the macro to ensure that if there are any delays in the gathering process, your character will still continue to gather the node until it is dry.

Notice that I have used Variable 9 to identify the item that I wish to gather (refer to section 1. above), which corresponds to what I had used to define what I was gathering. If you have used a different variable number, you will need to amend this line of the code throughout the macro. In this example I have used a 4 second delay, which is what my character seemed to work best at for Hasia in this case.

Code:

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/Select [%Variable9]
/Attack
/Delay [%Variable8]
/Select [%Variable9]
/Attack
/Delay [%Variable8]
/Select [%Variable9]
/Attack
/Delay [%Variable8]
/Select [%Variable9]
/Attack
/Delay [%Variable8]
/Select [%Variable9]
/Attack

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How to Use It:
This couldn't be simpler. Simply move your character into the general range of a node you want to gather and click your macro button. You could even go further and bind the macro to a hot-key, allowing you to simply move your character in range of a node and hit a keyboard key. You barely even need to pay attention, depending on where you are gathering, so gathering this way gives you more flexibility to do other things to relieve the boredom of such a repetitive task.