So I'm home from college for the summer and I'm stuck on HughesNet, possibly the worst ISP known to man (yeah, AOL, maybe even worse than you). I get around 1500-1800ms during most times and am re-rolling with a bunch of people. I want to be efficient even though I have 1-3 second delays all the time. What class could be least affected by that kind of lag in a 25-man setting?

I'd say most likely a warlock, as long as you have other locks around to do banishes/enslaves/fears. Really though, no class can operate at anywhere close to its full potential with that much lag.

Probably a Ranger or Cleric.

Barring that.. Not warrior, Not a healer, Probably not a rogue...
So I guess mage, hunter, or warlock.

I'm gonna go with Hunter.

Of course, the real answer is, get a better ISP, and choose the class that best suits yourself and make it work... but seriously, don't be a warrior.

Holy smokes. I don't think any 25-man raiding guild would find that acceptable.

You wouldn't be able to heal, interrupt, click cubes (or whatever), etc.

If it were me I'd probably just take a break from raiding for the summer and level some alts for fun and profit.

Huh?

Hunter would be absolutely the worst choice - they are one of the most timing intensive classes in the game. I'm not sure how much server-side lag effects it though, but UI lag is decimating.

Yeah, it's not really fair to the other 24 people there if you can't do your part because of a bad connection.

Trust me, I wish so badly that a better ISP was an option. We're in the hills of North Carolina, so sadly there is no kind of grounded service we can get. It's either this or dial-up, but even considering how strict Hughes is on downloads dial-up might be a better choice.

See, the problem is I quit WoW a few months back then joined a pre-made guild recently. We're rolling on a current server as kind of a back-up plan and then raiding, so it should take a least a month before we're in Kara (probably). They're willing to give me a chance to get used to the lag, which I think will take a while but is definitely doable.

I think a hunter with lag would be pretty abysmal at weaving shots and thus getting pretty sucky dps. I'd say mage or warlock.

You don't want a class that's going to be melee range dependent, you don't want anyone depending on you for heals, and you don't want to be unsure of a mob being too close to shoot with a bow. I'd agree that mage/warlock are what's left - no deadzone, no melee range, no healing.

Ouch. You'd have to have a dps role since tanking and healing are too time sensitive. Among the dps'ers you would want to have as little direct damage as possible (so not a mage). So I'd look at warlocks (due to dots), a BM hunter on autoattack (you couldn't thread specials with that lag), or possibly a rogue (you'd get killed if you had to move much).

Do rogue and hunter autoattacks require client/server interaction or merely a start/stop autoattack packet? I assume a hunter's does b/c of the inherent .5 second autoshot cast, but it seems like a rogue might be able to do something half respectable if client/server communication isn't needed for each autoattack. The specials are cast infrequently enough that you could keep below 100 energy once you get past a slow start. Of course, if you had to move in reaction to something, you probably won't make it. A lock seems like the best choice offhand.

I'm not familiar enough with the mechanics, but these are the issues you have to work through if you can't change your ISP. Good luck

Hmmm, thanks for the strong feedback so far. I'm curious to know though, if I pick a hybrid class, whether or not it is possible to "adjust" to the lag. Considering I'd only be raiding for about a month with this kind of latency, I'm not sure if it's worth worrying far too much over.

If you are just doing PvE, then rogue is probably your best choice due to the energy mechanic being extremely forgiving of timing. You might be useless for interrupting, but at least you will have some decent DPS. However, as a rogue with latency that bad, you will be completely useless in PvP. Any caster class is not an option, in high latency environments caster effectiveness goes to the toilet unless you are really good at timing stopcasting, which probably isn't humanly possible with latency that high.

My comp is somewhat of the FIsherPrice era, and struggles on most raids enough to limit what I can do. That said, I undoubtedly picked the correct class for that, because although any lag w/e hurts you, as an affliction lock, it's generally less devestating. I'm ever so glad I don't have to heal or tank, or maintain melee range or weave shots in my raiding environment, I would be a strict liabilty to my group. A mage could also work, especially combined with some solid /stopcasting macros.

Don't expect to be able to tank or heal, if your reaction time is already hindered significantly before events even reach you, you don't really stand a chance.

I'd definitely pick whatever class you want to be and deal with the lag for a month. If you're rerolling, raiding is relatively far off for you anyway. Playing a class you despise isn't going to magically get fun with a low ping.

I think someone missed a hilarious D&D joke.

If by "hybrid" you mean "Druid, shammy, pally", I think it could be doable.


For a paladin at least, your combat is very lag insensitive. (When leveling, activate 30 second self-buff, auto-attack, use judgement when you're feeling adventurous) At level cap, you won't have the best responses for tank/healing, but you should still be competent doing most 5 man stuff or being a backup tank/healer.


For Tanking:
Consecrate, Seal and Judgement, Holy Shield; 4 abilities every 10 seconds, and 3 of them don't require you to pick a target; Timely taunting will be a challenge, but your group can compensate for that.


For Healing:
Solo healing isn't a good idea on anything challenging to your group/raid, but you can provide decent supplemental healing with FoL spam. (You'd be more effective if you are able to cancel/cast; but even if you can't, you're still providing useful healing output)

Play a warlock. With liberal use of /stopcasting macros and a constant awareness of your latency, you can pretty easily keep your DoTs ticking. While it won't be anything near what you could without that kind of lag, you should still be able to push some decent dps until your lag problem is removed.

I don't know how you could play a hybrid in that lag, your specials would require too much consistent use.

As a warlock it is true you could run DoTimer and refresh your dots 3 seconds early, which would cause them to re-land at just the right moment considering your latency. You'll be missing a huge portion of dps though because with each DOT effectively being 3 second cast time(4.5 for UA and Immolate) you're missing out on all your shadowbolt dps, which typically causes more than 30% of an affliction lock's dps.

You can even use RapidCast (http://files.wowace.com/RapidCast/) to adjust your cast bar for latency. Another very good thing about a warlock (affliction specifically) is that many of your spells don't require you to be facing your target.

Hunter would be pretty bad with the timing, and melee classes could get pretty frustrating.

Enhancement shaman - you have to be in melee range but the only buttons you need to press for DPS are earth shock and stormstrike?

I guess you'd need to drop totems too. shrug

1800 ping is going to kill any class.

I wouldn't suggest a melee class at all, because we generally get pummeled by a lot of PBAoEs which would be impossible to avoid, and have to chase targets around a lot.

Well considering that he is rerolling, I can't imagine anything up to curator where chasing mobs around would be a problem, unless your tank is really really bad at holding aggro. Also there really isn't much movement required for dps in Kara until you hit Aran, and even then a rogue just needs to move out of the slow - which shouldn't be a problem at all with CloS to remove the snare. By the time he gets to netherspite, prince and gruuls lair, his latency issues shouldn't really be a problem.

EQ reference.


On topic: other than positioning being a pain - enhancement shaman drop totems then auto-attack, with SS + Shocks on long cooldowns. Should be relatively "twitch" free from an ability perspective (paladin would be similar).

From a ranged perspective - /stopcast macro's + a mage might be your best bet.

The issue with chasing them around would be a bigger deal while soloing/leveling. It can be very frustrating looking at your screen and getting lots of "You must be facing your target" spam. That's the biggest reason I suggested a warlock - dots curses can be applied without looking in the right direction, and you can use a pet to hold aggro (at least initial aggro). Definitely need to use /stopcasting macros and something like Rapidcast, though.