Mecurio's Cataclysm Multiboxing Macros

[daanji]

I did additional testing tonight using my 5x shaman setup. I wanted to do a more formal test of the /castsequence versus /cast for the Lava Burst proc.


In my setup, all shamans were not grouped with no buffs or totems deployed. Each shaman DPSed a training dummy for 5 minutes to get a nice solid average.

For the first test, I used Mercurio's elemental shaman dps 2 step macros, but I removed the totem drops and left only the Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, Earth Shock, and Lava Burst.

In the second test, I used my single macro with the /cast Lava Burst instead of a cast sequence.

Overall, the DPS was about the same across all 5 shamans between the two macros. This is odd, since I was seeing delayed Lava Burst procs with the castsequence the other night. Perhaps the difference is due to latency? Tonight my latency is 187 ms, which is pretty good.


In short, I believe the /cast Lava Burst and /castsequence Lava Burst are equivalent.

I'll try more testing with Mercurio's macros that drops totems in between Lava Burst if that affects anything.

[Altsoba]

Thank you very much for this very interesting post, both the OP as well as all others contributing and feeding the discussion.

I have one question though, what is the difference (technically, in terms of performance, logic, etc...) between:

a) Having both keys in different steps;
b) Having both keys in the same step as additional actions?

Aren't they still being "spammed" the same way by the hotkey we chose?

Thanking you in advance and have a good day,
A.

[daanji]

Ok, I think I found out the source of the discrepancy.

I'm using Aragent's setup in Isboxer to test out these macro differences. I went to the original setup and found the culprit.

In Aragent's setup, he has a /cast Lightning Bolt at the end. Since there is no cool down for Lightning Bolt and since there is a /castsequence Lava Burst, Lava Burst, ... Lava Burst there is a race condition as to which one goes off first. From my testing, when Lava Burst is available it won't always go off immediately when a /cast Lightning Bolt is present.

Now, when I take this out and have either /cast Lava Burst or /castsequence Lava Burst, the procs go off as soon as they can.