View Full Forums : simultaneous Moonfire / Starfire : no GCD(?) bug


Raging Epistaxis
01-19-2008, 02:26 PM
Following some advice I read here on spell rotation for my fledgling (lvl 23) balance druid Rhus, I've been doing this:
(Max Range)
Starfire, time Moonfire to hit at same time as Starfire, Wrath, Roots, Insect Swarm while backing away, Wrath spam until mob dies.

That's been working really well for her, but last night I noticed something odd. At least 5-6 times over the course of an hour or so when I timed the Moonfire/Starfire combo so that it truly appeared to hit simultaneously, the Global CoolDown did not kick in and I was able to start casting my first Wrath immediately. This was reflected in my Bongos2 action bar, as well as functionally, as in the game letting me immediately start Wrath.

Of course, in testing it a bit more this today, I couldn't get it to repeat when I'm specifically watching for it... and the GCD for Starfire and Moonfire worked as expected.

Am I misinterpreting what I was seeing? I would have dismissed it except for the fact that I could immediately start Wrath. Has anyone else ever noticed this happening?

Trixtaa
01-19-2008, 03:39 PM
h4x!

I've never noticed this happening with any combination of spells. If latency isn't an issue...I think we got ourselves a glitch here.

AppleJax
01-19-2008, 04:26 PM
My latency depends on the time of day, but usually it's pretty low, <100ms. Especially low traffic times it hovers between 45 and 80.

I've gotten the game to seemingly "ignore" the GCD. The buttons don't gray with the clockwise animation we're all familiar with. Problem is, the GCD is still in effect. If you rapid-fire press buttons, you still get the GCD error message till it's up. Just because my connection is fast enough that I can confuse my own piece of software (my copy of WoW running on my box) doesn't mean the server is confused.

Raging Epistaxis
01-19-2008, 04:49 PM
I kinda figured it was something like that, but I've never noticed it before and then several times last night. On the other hand, I've never ground (grinded?) mobs with that particular spell combination either.

My latency was running around 100ms, 'spiked' up to about 125 at times.

I'll keep a closer eye on it now... I wonder if it has something to do with WoW's asynchronous event handling, that maybe the Moonfire happened to land a msec or two before the Starfire, and the Starfire's already-run-out GCD overwrote the Moonfire's? Doesn't really make sense to me in my limited knowledge of how it works, but I just can't explain immediate casting otherwise.
Or perhaps it's a very specific glitch introduced by the changes they made to the /stopcasting mechanic. Something along the line of a long-cast spell (longer than the GCD) going off together with an instant.

Or maybe I should have just gone to bed earlier, rather than continuing to play. Y'know, seeing things and all.

Of course, now that I've said something 'in public' about it, it will never happen again anyway. :whistle:

Raging Epistaxis
01-21-2008, 04:20 PM
I now believe that what was happening was this: I'd start my Starfire and try to time the Moonfire to hit at the same time, but in reality I hit Moonfire too early, and it didn't go. Not so early it gave the 'not ready yet' warning (or I just didn't see it), but too early to actually fire. That would explain my belief that they were simultaneous, because I only heard one explosion and saw one flash (the Starfire one), and then had the ability to start casting Roots or Wrath immediately - because there was no GCD from the Moonfire that didn't fire.

I played her all weekend watching carefully, and the only times I wasn't hampered by the GCD was when the Moonfire didn't go.

Oh well. :boohoo:

AppleJax
01-22-2008, 03:34 AM
I now believe that what was happening was this: I'd start my Starfire and try to time the Moonfire to hit at the same time, but in reality I hit Moonfire too early, and it didn't go. Not so early it gave the 'not ready yet' warning (or I just didn't see it), but too early to actually fire. That would explain my belief that they were simultaneous, because I only heard one explosion and saw one flash (the Starfire one), and then had the ability to start casting Roots or Wrath immediately - because there was no GCD from the Moonfire that didn't fire.

I played her all weekend watching carefully, and the only times I wasn't hampered by the GCD was when the Moonfire didn't go.

Oh well. :boohoo: Hm. This is why the combat window is so handy. You can scroll up and see if both spells actually went off.

Raging Epistaxis
01-22-2008, 07:27 AM
Doh!

Obviously, I rarely look at mine. :bonk: Thanks.

AppleJax
01-22-2008, 09:03 AM
yw ^_^ I use a mod pack (Spartan) that lets me display both the chat window and the combat text at the same time. Because it's handy, I'll post a SS from my lowbie shadow priest. Chat in the lower left, combat in the lower right:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v373/IronGrey/howiroll.jpg

Annikk
01-22-2008, 10:01 AM
You can just do that with the default UI i think..?


-Annikk

Raging Epistaxis
01-22-2008, 10:05 AM
Yeah, just grab the combat tab and pull it to where ever you want the window. (right click drag maybe?)

Anyhow, I used to have a setup very similar to yours, AppleJax, but I re-united the two logs when I needed the space for meters (threat/damage) when I was running 5mans with my 70 hunter.

I guess I should reassess that decision, or at least remember to check the combat log when I think something odd happened.

AppleJax
01-22-2008, 10:10 AM
The default UI is for noobs that don't know better.

Annikk
01-22-2008, 10:25 AM
I customise my UI to an extent but there's no benefit in increasing your memory overheads with redundant addons.


-Annikk

AppleJax
01-22-2008, 10:47 AM
That's the point. There is benefit. In my case, less clutter and aesthetic is one. There's also efficiency of eye movement, which makes just playing the game more efficient ie successful. Especially with a widescreen monitor, the default UI has my health/status bar a foot and a half away from the minimap and not much closer to my action bar. Having it all within a few inches of each other is key for being able to see everything at a glance. As you can see my spell buttons are arranged according to situation: one section for regular use and grinding, one section for healing, an out of the way section for professions and then misc stuff where appropriate. (Mind Control isn't used so often as it should be included in the "general use" section, but is near it.)

There is a thing called "efficiency" and it is very real. It's why the Air Force doesn't use Blizzard's default UI in their fighter jets. My computer isn't a fighter jet but it does have enough ram that I don't have to care about "memory overheads."

But see, I do care. About my memory overhead, rather than those of my computer. Just who the hell is playing who here?

Annikk
01-22-2008, 11:30 AM
You're talking about having an addon do something that is already integrated (perfectly, as far as I can tell) into Blizzard's default UI.

That's a waste of memory. Other addons, such as unit frames, threatmeters and so on, aren't, because the Blizzard UI does not perform these tasks, or does so poorly or to an insufficiently customisable degree.

In fact, judging by the screenshot it doesn't look like you use any addon for the chat windows at all. Going only on what I can see, the appearance matches that of the default blizzard chat windows. Did you mean you use an addon for chat windows, or did you mean for something else?


-Annikk

AppleJax
01-23-2008, 04:00 AM
I didn't even know we were still talking about chat windows, and it seems to be chat windows are the only thing you think I was talking about.

Annikk
01-23-2008, 04:03 AM
From "I use a mod pack (Spartan) that lets me display both the chat window and the combat text at the same time. Because it's handy, I'll post a SS from my lowbie shadow priest. Chat in the lower left, combat in the lower right:"

Anyway, np..


-Annikk

AppleJax
01-24-2008, 06:59 AM
Then apparently I misspoke.

The Spartan chat mods don't have that particular effect, as its a default UI thing.

The Spartan chat window/combat window mods have the effect of simplifying and cleaning up those windows. You can't really see that from the blurry SS. (Photobucket automatically reduces the size of large pics).

So! I just opened a new account with angelfire. They have not reduced my screenshot:

http://thorns.of.amaranth.angelfire.com/thorns_of_amaranth/WoWScrnShot_120207_034950.jpg

Kyane
01-24-2008, 12:08 PM
You're talking about having an addon do something that is already integrated (perfectly, as far as I can tell) into Blizzard's default UI.

That's a waste of memory. Other addons, such as unit frames, threatmeters and so on, aren't, because the Blizzard UI does not perform these tasks, or does so poorly or to an insufficiently customisable degree.

I'm going to disagree with the waste of memory comment. First, "integrated perfectly" is an opinion not a fact, so what may be sufficient for you may not be the case for others.

I use 3 chat mods:
Prat
SimpleCombatLog
WIM ( WoW Instant Messenger )

Prat adds levels and extra colorization to the chat window, not a necessity, but I like the customization it gives me. ( see my post here http://wow.thedruidsgrove.org/forums/showpost.php?p=149286&postcount=5 )

The SimpleCombatLog makes it a LOT easier for me to evaluate what it is that happened to me in a battle. I can use something like WWS to figure out what happened to others and fix problems there for attempts on another day.