New GCD Changes

[The IT Monkey]

You know... 2.3 has been up on the test realm for a few weeks now. Has anyone actually tested it or are we all just freaking out because Britney Spears hasn't done anything foolish today... oh wait... there she goes now. Nevermind.

[Stealthy]

People are crying wolf with no facts imo.

Client spell cast requests are now sent to the server even if your player is already casting another spell. This eliminates the need for /stopcasting in macros to compensate for latency.

Where in there does it say it triggers the GCD?

No, people are not crying wolf. Here's a link to blue posts about it:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...id=1&pageNo=11

The posts that highlight the problem:

Post from Pjamin, note - he's quoting Slouken (blue)

* The client can't initiate casts more often than the global cooldown, so it's only a problems for spells with longer cast times than the global cooldown.

So my 1.5 sec Flash of Light Spell is always penalized by latency?

Edit: With 500ms latency I might as well down rank my HL as it would heal for more and be more mana efficient or am I missing something obvious?

* in 2.2 you couldn't initiate a cast on the client before the client received notification from the server that the previous cast had completed.

But I could circumvent that with quartz and stop casting.

* This discussion doesn't really involve people using /stopcasting, because they aren't the ones spam casting. In 2.2 they would interrupt their previous cast, losing the time already spent casting, and in 2.3 they wait the round trip latency for the error message from the server, both of which are less efficient than getting the timing right.

But a click 1ms too quick triggers a penalty of GCD + latency, yes? Does it cancel my previous spell?


Post from Slouken (blue)

So my 1.5 sec Flash of Light Spell is always penalized by latency?

Nope, assuming constant latency your 1.5 second Flash of Light can be cast back to back.
0.0s: Client starts casting Flash of Light, starts 1.5 second global cooldown
0.25s: Server starts casting Flash of Light
0.5s: Client sees Flash of Light start casting
1.5s: Client finishes global cooldown, starts casting Flash of Light, starts global cooldown
1.75s: Server completes casting Flash of Light, starts casting new Flash of Light
2.0s: Client sees Flash of Light complete and new cast start

But I could circumvent that with quartz and stop casting.

Yep, now you don't need stop casting.

But a click 1ms too quick triggers a penalty of GCD + latency, yes?

Yes.

Does it cancel my previous spell?

No.

Cheers,
Stealthy

[Stealthy]

I'm more confused now than I was before.

Let me try and clarify - Casting a shadowbolt normally takes 3 seconds (untalented). Currently, becuase the checking of whether you can cast spells or not is only done at the client side, you can effectively shave about 1/2 a second off your spell casting time using the /stopcasting command in a macro.
When the cast bar gets about 5/6 the way to the end, you can hit your macro button to cast another shadowbolt. The client side recognises the /stopcasting command, so stops casting, sends the request to the server, and starts casting the 2nd shadowbolt. But by the time the server receives the /stopcasting command, the spell is already completed, so it's ignored. But by this time the client side is already into the 2nd shadowbolt. The only catch with this is if you do it to early, you actually do stop casting your spell, so it's all in the timing...

With the new method, the checking on spell casting moves to the server side, so you don't need to use the /stopcasting command anymore. The problem is now however, clicking the macro button again for the 2nd shadowbolt triggers the GCD first, then checks with the server if it's ok to cast the spell. If its ok, all good and the spell casts, GCD continues at it's supposed to. If you hit the button too early though, the GCD still triggers, it checks with the server, the server denies the spell, and sends back the denial along with a request to cancel the GCD. Now, once the GCD is triggered, all other spells that use a GCD are locked out until either the GCD finsishes, or the client receives confirmation from the server that the GCD was not justified. For players in the US, the low latency (200 ms?) means that this doesn't affect them too much (although they are still worse off), since the request to cancel the GCD will come back from the server much faster (< 0.5 sec). But for customers not in the US (400 ms) it will probably be around just under a second before the the client recevies the request to cancel the GCD.

So in a nutshell, we have gone from situation where at worst a spell cast was cancelled if you hit a button too early, to a situation where all your spells could be locked out for close to one second depending on what your latency is. This has the biggest effect in raids (where you are trying to maximise your dps by getting off as many spells as possible over a certain time frame) and pvp (where triggering a GCD without casting a spell can be a death sentence).

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
Stealthy

[Phate]

Stopcasting wasn't a hack.

This was a bug, they fixed it.

You're INFINITELY better off just spamming now. The sooner you can get your new request to the server, the sooner it will begin casting. Your best bet is to macro with a G15, or bind nuke to mousewheel up and down.

[Stealthy]

Stopcasting wasn't a hack.

This was a bug, they fixed it.

You're INFINITELY better off just spamming now. The sooner you can get your new request to the server, the sooner it will begin casting. Your best bet is to macro with a G15, or bind nuke to mousewheel up and down.

You been hittin da crack pipe again bro? :shock: You are worse off spamming spells now becuase of the GCD being triggered each time you press the macro button. You now have to wait for the server to send back a request denial and GCD cancel request. Spamming now only works on spells with a less than 1.5 sec cast time (i.e. less that the GCD). On any other spells, it will actually increase the time between castings.

[Stealthy]

Ok if anyone is still doubting the effects of this change, have a look at this post on the PTR forums here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...sid=1&pageNo=1

Download and have a look at the video's Serennia posted, they show how much this change screws PvP, particularly for warriors.

Btw, Serennia is the top ranked PvP warrior in the world, so it's fair to say he knows what he is talking about.

Cheers,
Stealthy

[kadaan]

Playing devil's advocate again, do you have links to any recent posts about it? There's a blue reply in that post dated 11/2 saying it should be tweaked/fixed on the PTRs but no confirmation/denial in the rest of the thread.

[Stealthy]

Playing devil's advocate again, do you have links to any recent posts about it? There's a blue reply in that post dated 11/2 saying it should be tweaked/fixed on the PTRs but no confirmation/denial in the rest of the thread.

Well thats only a few days ago...there might be something getting done in maintenance tonight? We can only hope...

Cheers,
Stealthy

[kayb]

This is actually a welcomed change for me personally. My main is Warlock, destruction. Although I don't need this (/stopcasting everything now) it will not have an impact on my playing style at all. If anything it will help casters who are not already /stopcasting to maximize their dps.

I can see warriors, rogues and hunters tearing their hair out though. You are right about the penalty of fucking up being harsher. Especially for those with high latency. But with anything above 3-400 ms I would seriously consider finding a new hobby.

[Phate]

Ok if anyone is still doubting the effects of this change, have a look at this post on the PTR forums here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...sid=1&pageNo=1

Download and have a look at the video's Serennia posted, they show how much this change screws PvP, particularly for warriors.

Btw, Serennia is the top ranked PvP warrior in the world, so it's fair to say he knows what he is talking about.

Cheers,
Stealthy

Did you read the thread? Hortus posted 4 days ago saying that it would be fixed in the next build of the PTR. GG fearmongering and QQtorrents.

http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t16979-m...fter_2_3_a/p3/

Post number 66. Imo manly is a comparable theorycaster to Murphid, and the like.