I was wondering why my dps was low compared to other elemental shaman. So I spent some time at the training dummies.

Just to cut to the chase, castsequence has some sort of lag with it, compared to using a direct /cast macro or clicking on the actual spell.

A very simple test:
Manually clicking /cast macros, I am able to easily click my 5th LB before lava burst is off cooldown, but when I use a castsequence (spamming the key), by the time my 4th LB cast is over, LvB is off cooldown. (which means I lost at LEAST 1 second of DPS) I can even notice slight delays between each cast with my castsequence macro. Maybe only .25 seconds, but they add up compared to non-castsequences. These delays are not there when I spam a /cast macro.
It almost seems that the delay between casts, using a /castsequence = my latency, which is about 220ms. The delay isn't there with /cast.


I did a few tests with my shaman (I did each rotation 4x with a full mana bar and was within 100 dps).
When I manually clicked on the cast rotation of Flame Shock, LvB, LB, LB, LB, LB, LB, LvB, LB, LB, LB, LB I did a solid 2.5K dps
When I used my castsequence to do it - I did a little less than 2K dps.
(/castsequence reset=6 Flame shock, Lava Burst, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt)

(To keep this simple, I didn't use chain lighting)
My Lightning Bolt has about a 1.7 sec cast time.
4 lighting bolts = 6.8 seconds
Lava Burst = 8 second cooldown
Since Lava Burst has a 8 second cooldown, that means I need to cast 5 lightning bolts before I cast another Lava Burst. (If I cast 4 LB, then I'd have to wait 1.2 seconds for LvB cooldown)

Result: net loss of 500dps in each test.

Has anyone else noticed the /castsequence lag???

EDIT: This is confirmed, you can try it yourself with /cast lightning bolt vs. /castsequence lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt macros. DPS loss and delay between casts with /castsequence is very noticeable vs. /cast. The higher latency you have, the bigger the difference. Very low latency might not notice any substantial difference.

-Kicksome