#0 - April 8, 2007, 6:04 p.m.
Well, everyone knows how to gain more DPS. Get more spelldamage, more hit/critrating, spend less talentpoints to Arcane Forti/Wand Spec, etc. But at one point you have the 'best gear' and the 'perfect talentspec'. More is impossible. Impossible? NO! There is a way!
In this text I will show you how much time passes between 2 consecutive casts and how to reduce this time.
1. How much time is passing there?
There is more than one way to find out. One would be to simply activate your combatlogging ( /combatlog ), cast some spells and then evaluate the time elapsed (which is indicated in miliseconds in the combatlog) between 2 spells and compare it with the casttime.
A more easy way is to use an addon i have written for this purpose:
Laginfo - http://www-en.curse-gaming.com/downloads/details/7147/laginfo/
Try it!
The time that passes there varies how often you push the key and how much latency is between you and server. Average is 400ms.
If you compare this time with the casttime, you will quickly notice that this is a huge loss from the theoretical possible value. 13.3% for Fireball-DPS and 26.6% for scorch...
2. How do I reduce my latency? Do i have to buy a new keyboard each month?
Reducing your latency will result in better DPS, but is not always possible. Converting your keyboard to scrap iron would also result in better DPS but is not sense and purpose of the exercise.
There is a way to go around this problem. We simply use the lag.
Healers know this phenomen: A too late interrupted cast will result into a not interrupted cast. This is easy to explain. The stopcast-command needs its time to reach the Server. When it arrives, the cast is already over. The Server will ignore it since there is nothing to interrupt.
If you send a cast-command together with this stopcast-command the server will begin to cast this spell.
This is what I use to reduce the time between my casts. A fireball-macro will look like this:
/stopcasting
/cast Fireball(Rank 13)
3) Timing
How do I know when the time has come when i have to use this macro? If I use it too early the current cast will be interrupted. If I use it too late I will loose more and more time. The exact time is the time of the key-press for the last spell plus the casttime.
I don't want to teach you how to measure time in miliseconds in your head. We need a display that shows this information. For exactly this purpose i have written another addon:
SuperCast - http://www-en.curse-gaming.com/downloads/details/7192/supercast/
SuperCast shows this information in your castbar. It displays a small red part that indicates when you have to use the macro.
This may take a little exercise. First you will concentrate on your castbar and forget to decurse. But after a while you will know and can focus on more important things in your raid.
If you succeed compare your new Laginfo values with your old ones.
Good luck!
4) Tips & Recommendations
- Don't use it for PvP!
- Don't use it for healing!
- If SuperCast doesn't work with your castbar use RapidCast (works with oCB, CBRipoff, eCastingBar, aUF, ...)
- Before you use it in your raid, test it on Dr. Boom extensively!
Original post: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=273197769&sid=3
