JaedxRapture
20-07-2007, 09:31 AM
I was browsing the official forums when I came across a rather curious post. It explained a way to increase your DPS for free by sort of bypassing latency. The exact method used includes NO hacks or exploits whatsoever and merely requires the human mind (with the help of a legal addon) to factor in latency times when casting in a very specific way. Most people realize that cast times could in theory be optimized by factoring in latency but I wasn't entirely sure of a reliable way to do it efficiently. Well, here it is.
A little bit ago, I was made aware of a trick that has literally increased my overall DPS by 10%.
For those that know and use this already, congrats. For those that don't...get reading:
Blizzard puts a buffer on the cast bar to attempt to equalize the advantage of someone with good latency vs someone with bad latency. While the server takes a variable amount of time to register that your spell has been cast, your client (the cast bar you see), is a flat amount of time.
Proof: Have you ever wound up a frostbolt or fireball or whatever and perhaps jumped a split second before the cast goes off, yet it still goes? Or jumped to start flying on your mount before the cast bar expires?
Blizzard makes it so that you can not cast before that cast bar is done. BUT THERE IS A WAY AROUND IT.
The way around this is the use of a "/stopcasting" macro.
For example for frost mages:
"/stopcasting"
"/cast Frostbolt"
Now, the problem with this is the inability to spam the button. When you hit the button, it will stop whatever cast you are currently casting and it will begin to cast the next frostbolt. If you hit it too early, it will cancel your current cast! So get ready to stop spamming your buttons.
Ok, next part is to get a mod called Quartz, which can be found on the WoWAce website. This mod will take the place of any cast bar you are currently using. What it will do is look at your latency and then mark your cast bar accordingly with a "red" section in it. The higher your latency, the longer the red part will be. The bar still shows the 2.5 second (frostbolt, 3 for fireball) length, but there will now be a varying amount of red on the bar.
All you have to do is hit your next frostbolt the split second that your bar reaches the red section of the bar.
To give you an idea of how much this helps:
2 nights ago I tested it against a fellow frost mage. I began casting when he was about 1/2 way through his first cast. He spammed the button.
My 3rd frostbolt left my hands before his did.
That is around a 20% increase in cast time, which DIRECTLY turns to a 20% increase in DPS.
I have made it mandatory for all my mages to use this...and not a single one has not loved it. I have no spread it out to the rest of the casters in my guild, including healers.
The last time I saw this thread, there were mentions of this being a possible exploit. I'm never one to cheat or hack, so I questioned a GM on my server. He said (and I took screenshots just in case it ever comes back to bite me in the ass), that he saw nothing wrong with what I was doing and that it seems to simply use Blizzard game mechanics to the best of my advantage.
Hope this trick helps some of you QQing about your DPS. And if you really want to top meters, don't tell the rest of your guild =P
This was quoted on the forums and Iriel and Slouken both responded saying that this method was 100% legal. Slouken also noted that the 2.3 patch will include an optimzation to make this trick obsolete, so that all users can enjoy the benefits of it.
Edit: The more I think about this the more it seems obvious. The game itself will restrict latency-avoiding pre-casting because of the animations and cast sequence timers it uses (which are meant to bypass literal cheating by exploiting casting). By using this method, you're cacelling out said sequence timers and allowing a new cast to be initialized, but before the cancel command reaches the server, the cast has already been completed on the server, and you end up with casts with close to 0 latency. Very smart idea.
A little bit ago, I was made aware of a trick that has literally increased my overall DPS by 10%.
For those that know and use this already, congrats. For those that don't...get reading:
Blizzard puts a buffer on the cast bar to attempt to equalize the advantage of someone with good latency vs someone with bad latency. While the server takes a variable amount of time to register that your spell has been cast, your client (the cast bar you see), is a flat amount of time.
Proof: Have you ever wound up a frostbolt or fireball or whatever and perhaps jumped a split second before the cast goes off, yet it still goes? Or jumped to start flying on your mount before the cast bar expires?
Blizzard makes it so that you can not cast before that cast bar is done. BUT THERE IS A WAY AROUND IT.
The way around this is the use of a "/stopcasting" macro.
For example for frost mages:
"/stopcasting"
"/cast Frostbolt"
Now, the problem with this is the inability to spam the button. When you hit the button, it will stop whatever cast you are currently casting and it will begin to cast the next frostbolt. If you hit it too early, it will cancel your current cast! So get ready to stop spamming your buttons.
Ok, next part is to get a mod called Quartz, which can be found on the WoWAce website. This mod will take the place of any cast bar you are currently using. What it will do is look at your latency and then mark your cast bar accordingly with a "red" section in it. The higher your latency, the longer the red part will be. The bar still shows the 2.5 second (frostbolt, 3 for fireball) length, but there will now be a varying amount of red on the bar.
All you have to do is hit your next frostbolt the split second that your bar reaches the red section of the bar.
To give you an idea of how much this helps:
2 nights ago I tested it against a fellow frost mage. I began casting when he was about 1/2 way through his first cast. He spammed the button.
My 3rd frostbolt left my hands before his did.
That is around a 20% increase in cast time, which DIRECTLY turns to a 20% increase in DPS.
I have made it mandatory for all my mages to use this...and not a single one has not loved it. I have no spread it out to the rest of the casters in my guild, including healers.
The last time I saw this thread, there were mentions of this being a possible exploit. I'm never one to cheat or hack, so I questioned a GM on my server. He said (and I took screenshots just in case it ever comes back to bite me in the ass), that he saw nothing wrong with what I was doing and that it seems to simply use Blizzard game mechanics to the best of my advantage.
Hope this trick helps some of you QQing about your DPS. And if you really want to top meters, don't tell the rest of your guild =P
This was quoted on the forums and Iriel and Slouken both responded saying that this method was 100% legal. Slouken also noted that the 2.3 patch will include an optimzation to make this trick obsolete, so that all users can enjoy the benefits of it.
Edit: The more I think about this the more it seems obvious. The game itself will restrict latency-avoiding pre-casting because of the animations and cast sequence timers it uses (which are meant to bypass literal cheating by exploiting casting). By using this method, you're cacelling out said sequence timers and allowing a new cast to be initialized, but before the cancel command reaches the server, the cast has already been completed on the server, and you end up with casts with close to 0 latency. Very smart idea.