Here's how things worked in patch 2.2:
- I press a button to cast a spell or activate an ability.
- My computer says, "Hey! Realm server! David wants to cast Frostbolt!"
- The realm server says "Okay!" 300 milliseconds or so later (this round-trip communication time is your "latency").
- My computer then starts a 1.5 second global cooldown, and shows me the Frostbolt casting bar.
- I cannot use any other abilities from the time I press the button to the time my Frostbalt casting finishes, unless I manually cancel the spell (as with a /stopcasting macro), or unless the server tells my computer, "Okay the spell is finished already!" or "Whoops! That spell got interrupted!"
- Either way, without a manual interruption on my part, I'm waiting on the server to tell me the outcome of the first spell before I can tell it to start casting the second.
- I press a button to cast a spell or activate an ability.
- My computer says, "Hey! Realm server! David wants to cast Frostbolt!"
- My computer goes ahead and starts the global cooldown for me, assuming the Frostbolt will succeed.
- The realm says "Okay!" 300ms later, and the casting bar shows up.
- Alternately, if there's a problem, then the realm says "No way, silly! David isn't finished casting Fireball yet! Wait a moment to try again, and cancel that global cooldown while you're at it!"
- Either way, I can send my commands to the server whenever I want, as long as my global cooldown isn't currently active -- and if it gets activated too early, I just have to wait for the server to tell my computer to cancel it before casting another ability.
All this is great unless you're "mashing" your buttons, pressing them repeatedly over and over in the hopes that one of your button presses will go through. Before, this kind of mashing didn't make much difference, and it could even speed you up if you happened to be pressing the button right at the moment that your computer is told that previous spell finished or failed. But now, button-mashing will make your computer constantly commence the global cooldown, and you'll have to wait for it to be cancelled through a spell-failed message from the server for your next button press to go through.
Spells with a casting time longer than 1.5 seconds don't encourage this sort of mashing, except towards the end of an earlier cast, but rogues and other classes with mostly instant abilities have been in the mashing habit for a long time. This is especially true in situations like PvP, where even though your client thinks you're in range and behind your opponent, by the time your "Backstab" attack gets to the server, that opponent might have turned around or moved already and your attack may fail. Previously, rogues (and others like them) could just mash buttons and hope that their attack would go through without getting a lot of error messages; but now they keep getting the global cooldown thrown up in their face, and it seems as though none of their abilities are working.
Now here is where things get really unclear. As far as I can figure out from my research on this subject, the actual success and failure rate should be the same if everything is working correctly. Before, you had to wait for latency with any spell-cast of any sort, but now you only have to wait on the ones that are cast too early. If you constantly button-mash, of course, most of your spell-casts will be cast too early, so you'll have to wait more often than one who can time his or her spells more perfectly. But overall the system should be better in many cases, or at worst, the same as it was before.
People really are getting failures though, so clearly there is some sort of bug involved. Some have claimed that all you need to do is "stop mashing buttons" and "time your attacks right," but Nethaera has said that the devs are aware of some real problems here and are working on ways to solve them. Blizzard has also applied a hotfix in order to help prevent excessive error messages, and it seems to have helped some players, though other players say it hasn't helped them at all. In addition, as Tigerclaw says, there are "both server side changes (some of which have already shipped) as well as client side changes targeted for 2.3.2."
For my part, I'm finding this new system to be very good for my hunter main. With the global cooldown now entirely on my computer's side, I can send one instant attack, then another one a few moments later, even if I get an ugly latency spike of some kind. In situations with bad latency like this, I've seen several instant abilities seem to go off at once because my computer sent them all and only belatedly got the message back to me that they all worked okay. Of course, the enemy in PvE is usually standing still, and playing as a ranged class means I don't have to worry about my enemy being up close to me all the time.
How do you feel about this change? Do you like how this encourages you to time your attacks rather than mash your buttons? Is it fair to expect melee classes to time their attacks better when they already have to worry about range and positioning?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-17-2007 @ 11:20AM
Recession said...
It's been really easy to notice on my Rogue. The habit of tapping 2 to continue using Sinister Strike is something that I've been doing since I began playing -- usually it racks up fairly quickly -- but since 2.3 went live it is easily the slowest "instant" I have.
I'm interested to see what comes about with this, to be honest. If it doesn't get a "fix" in the end, it'll mean getting used to this new system. I've been happy with pretty much everything I've seen in 2.3 so far, so if this is the one negative thing I've got to deal with, I suppose I can take it without any QQing.
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11-17-2007 @ 11:33AM
xzor said...
very well written article explaining just whats going on. another important side effect of the change is that it seems people have been having range issues. for example, trying to melee attack someone running by on a mount. before, the person could be intercepted as they passed. now, after the patch, the same circumstance will more than likely result in an 'out of range' error message, even when they are clearly within range. this seems to effect melee and also ranged attacks while moving.
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11-17-2007 @ 11:34AM
Baluki said...
I've encountered this too, I guess. I was wondering why all the extra error messages kept popping up (and looked for an option to get rid of them).
I'm a constant button-masher. I guess I've done it so my lightning bolts can go off as soon as a cooldown or casting is done, but this new system seems to eliminate that necessity.
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11-17-2007 @ 11:36AM
Liz said...
I can see how rogues would be greatly affected, they had to mash their buttons continuously, in hopes of firing off their specials asap.
however, I always used a macro for my PoM, AP, Trinkets and Frostbolt, so I ALWAYS had to time my button hit.
It hasn't affected me in the slightest. In fact, since I could take off the annoying /stopcasting in the macro, I now have a little leeway to mash when I see fit. And this whole idea behind it beginning the global cooldown? I've never experienced it yet, so dunno what you're talking about. My experience has only improved a ton.
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11-17-2007 @ 12:00PM
aradoc said...
@4 Casters are going to see an improvement because the changes were designed to make casting a more fluid, continual process.
I play with just 145 ms latency and can't get a hamstring off or even an execute sometimes because by the time my client has sent the message to the server and the server has responded that my target has moved out of range during that time (a total of about .5 seconds) I've been "locked out" from other attacks because the GCD has been activated that whole time instead of never starting if my target was out of range, or moved out of range.
On my warlock, this change has made PVE into a fluid process where I never have any downtime, thus maximizing dps. Which is what these changes were designed for...removing latency problems from the raiding success or failure equation...its had horrid effects on melee in PVP however.
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11-17-2007 @ 12:22PM
Erika said...
Well i was having problems defending xroads when i was trying to gouge it would be the right time and then to far away. My latency is about 150 all the time.
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11-17-2007 @ 12:43PM
hpavc said...
tanking sucks now, worse than before because of this.
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11-17-2007 @ 1:17PM
Miguel Lopez said...
they really need to change it back or make some option to make it work like before. ive always been a masher even as a holy paladin and this is making me look really bad.
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11-17-2007 @ 1:22PM
Matthew Rossi said...
On my restoration shaman, there's no point to PvPing anymore unless it's to heal. Which, thankfully, is what I do most of the time. But when someone is in my face, I can forget casting a shock to interrupt them half the time. I get constant range errors even when they're supposedly in range.
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11-17-2007 @ 1:33PM
Kyr said...
So this new system effectively encourages intelligent play and knowing your cooldowns rather than randomly mashing buttons.
So, where is the downside?
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11-17-2007 @ 1:41PM
kihaji said...
This is absolutely the worst possible solution to a non-problem. Now, instead of being able to reflexively just tap buttons, albiet repeatedly, and actually watch the game and art in front of me, I have to turn myself into a human metronome.
Blizzard needs to take a page from EQ2 and implement ability queueing.
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11-17-2007 @ 1:56PM
Crypt King said...
@Kyr
Wow man, just guess everyone can't be a pro-gamer like you!
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11-17-2007 @ 1:59PM
Crypt King said...
As for the issue. It's screwing sequence macros as well and causing serious reduction of FPS according to the massive number of posts in the Support forum.
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11-17-2007 @ 1:59PM
TonyMotorola said...
Stop mashing your keys like a ham-fisted retard and learn to play. Problem solved.
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11-17-2007 @ 3:25PM
Korialstrazs said...
I do see a problem with this, and not because I constantly mash buttons. With my talent points I can generally gouge an enemy at a certain energy level and backstab them right as the gouge is coming off them by mashing for about a half second. If this new change affects me too harshly I'll have to wait for another tick for ALL of my backstabs, this could really kill rogue dps.
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11-17-2007 @ 3:47PM
Lastembrace said...
raiding as a rogue, with combat potency, you're basically encouraged to spam sinister strike as fast as you can to avoid proccing too much energy that you hit 100/100 and thus waste energy. Spamming SS IS the only viable way to play a rogue at this level, we dont have time to stare at our action bars and monitor GCD all the time, when we want an instant attack.. we want it instant.
Seriously, to all you people saying "l2p, dont spam buttons" etc, don't be so damn ignorant and try looking at changes from other classes/specs points of view. Just cause you're a caster and you love this change doesn't mean it doesn't suck for other people.
The worst thing about this arguably is in PVP however, kick has become absolutely useless as 99% of the time you want to use it your still waiting for the GCD of some "instant" you used some time ago, so interrupting heals and other spells is now practically impossible.
Great change blizz, applaud.
last thing, if you DO play a rogue and you think this is a good change, you seriously do need to L2P.
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11-17-2007 @ 4:01PM
PeeWee said...
Once again, I agree with TonyMotorola 100%.
This change only effects people that can't play their classes. I have a rogue, and my DPS hasn't been effected the slightest. In PvP, if you don't have the precense of mind to stay clear of the Kick or Gouge or any other ability long enough for GCD to wear off, you simply deserve to take that frost bolt in your face. Yes, it IS as simple as that. Suddenly it's about who can use their abilities in the better way, not about who's mashing his buttons/toggling autofire the fastest. Be smart or be dead.
As for tanking, same deal. Don't try and use abilities that are on cooldown/you don't have rage for/when GCD is up. It IS as simple as that. I've seen posts in the EU forums with warriors QQing about losing as much as 300 TPS after 2.3 hit the servers. That shows just how much you were doing wrong before.
There never was a reason to mash buttons before, and there is none now.
Learn to adapt. Learn to overcome. It doesn't take a genious, even I could do it.
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11-17-2007 @ 5:09PM
Otal040 said...
I don't know if it's the new system or something else in the patch but since Tues, Everytime I begin a fight, be it in Heroic Arc. or random trash mobs., As soon as I start casting(mage) my screen freezes and I just stand there for upto 10 seconds.
My FPS is 50+ but my latency is always between 1500ms and 5000ms!!!! I used to get an average of 10fps and less than 100ms latency. Wtf is up with that?
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11-17-2007 @ 6:46PM
Direphoenix said...
So I was healing BM the other night on my Druid... No problem, right? I've healed this dozens of times already, and now I have gear from Kara so it should be even easier now... We get to the second boss, the tank gets big hit so I lay down a Lifebloom stack to pad for a long cast Healing Touch and get:
"You can't do that yet."
huh?
"You can't do that yet."
"You can't do that yet."
"You can't do that yet."
"You can't do that yet."
switch to rejuv
"You can't do that yet."
"You can't do that yet."
"You can't do that yet."
Augh!!! I need a HT STAT!!! Nature's Swiftness GO!
"You can't do that yet."
"You can't do that yet."
"You can't do that yet."
"You can't do that yet."
Tank dies. We all fall down. Reset the instance. Wipe a second time on the same boss. For the same reason. None of my heals would land.
Pressing any action button initiates a GCD on your computer, but when I pressed it again, the GCD would reset. When I get the error message, I'd press the button again, essentially locking me out of any actions as long as my button presses were mistimed with the GCD. Even if it's off by a few milliseconds.
This needs a fix now. Melee are having enough problems with trying to fire off actions and coordinating with the ranges their computers are displaying (which may or may not be what the server sees), but healing is affected as well, especially in higher stressed cases of "OMG tank is dying, why won't any of my buttons work!!!"
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11-17-2007 @ 9:28PM
Andelorn said...
I've been playing a Priest and Feral Druid since 2.3 and I have to say that these reports are confusing the hell out of me because I've had none of these problems (And in fact had the 'You can't do that yet' problem BEFORE 2.3).
With this, now I can wait until the last .5 of a second of a cast and cast again, having the next healing spell start instantly when the previous one has finished, improving my ability to heal through a 300-500 latency connection hugely. But this problem is about button mashing.
That brings me to my Feral Druid. I've been button mashing like crazy with him, and well, I've never had a problem with the GCD recommencing and delaying the use of the ability. In fact, button presses are going through as soon as I get the energy to perform the abilities, instead of 300-500ms later. Granted, I don't sit there ONLY button mashing like crazy, only just before I get the energy so I can make use of the new feature.
So maybe the real answer is just listen to TonyMotorola?
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