Cormack

I've been playing around with stopcasting on an alt mage and seen some good dps gains.

I've been having the same problem as others in this thread that my lag is not constant, and the "red bar" on quartz can vary substantially in size from one cast to the next. It can vary to the point where even obeying proper stopcasting rules will end up with me cancelling a spell and nerfing my damage.

I was wondering if there were a way to have quartz (or a similar mod) evaluate my lag two or three seconds into my cast. Basically, if the red bar were updated closer to the time I cared about it, or even dynamically, I think it would significantly reduce the clipping problem that I've experienced. Anyone know of a solution like this?

 

Marroc

I've NEVER had an issue with quartz's lag calculation being off, in fact it's more accurate than anything else I can think of. If you're trying to clip the red section exactly, stop. you're more than likely stopping the cast at the end of the cast bar, rather than the start of the lag bar (remember that your interface lags a little bit as well). Solution: wait till the bar is ACTUALLY in the red before you cast the second spell.

 

Akomos

Eh, I've seen Quartz get a little spiky with me. I just learned to not trust it when it's trying to tell me I have 700ms latency when I'm playing on a pretty stable 50-150ms. I suspect that whatever ping command it's using to measure latency just gets a little confused sometimes.

 

Demi9OD

I found it useful to position my casting bar lined up with my unit frames and use a gap as the "safe to cancel" zone.

Player, ToT, Target. Anywhere between ToT and Target is safe.

 

Kehoe

In response to the questions on hunters using this method, it does not seem to be particularly useful for MM hunters, especially if you have a fairly good connection (around 100ms here).

The reason is that it is not as forgiving as other classes, if you have a steady shot going (with quartz running), then follow it with an arcane shot that has the /stopcasting command entered ahead of arcane shot, you have 3 outcomes.

1. You hit it too early, and cancel your steady shot, and shoot an arcane shot
2. You hit it too late, and you cancel your following autoshot that has been ticking down
3. You hit it in the perfect latency, and steady shot goes off as well as a following arcane shot

With other classes, such as mages, if you hit that next frostbolt a little too late, you don't risk losing dmg (in this case, autoshot).

The command also does not help clipping autoshots with steady shot, since you can already do this with steady shot, and not risk canceling autoshot.

I can't imagine this being useful at all for BM hunters, although I have never played one, since I have read their dps consists almost completely of autoshots and steady shots. With the talents haste increases, you would not have the time to clip steady shot with arcane shots, and spamming steady shots would never let autoshots be shot (huge waste of mana).

 

Traek

I've just started using a /stopcasting macro, but it is not actually stopping or canceling any spells. I can use a one line /stopcasting macro, but a /stopcasting + /cast starfire macro is not working. It just casts like normal as though there were no stop casting macro. Anyone know what would make that happen or what I'm doing wrong?

 

Marroc

That's exactly what's supposed to happen.

the /stopcasting just lets you finish a cast early that has 'lagged'

In other words, the /stopcasting tells the client to 'give up' and start a different cast. While this is normally a bad thing, if done during excess cast time (cast bar is still filling after the server has processed the spell going off) you essentially start your spell a few hundred milliseconds early.

That is to say take a normal 3.5 second cast spell. Make all of your spells into macros like the one below:

/stopcasting
/cast spell


When you start casting the first spell, you can have a mod estimate how much you're lagging and show you the excess. Without a mod that cast bar would just go to the end if you lag, regardless of how long it took. In other words, the cast takes exactly 3.5 seconds from the moment the server gets the start cast, but on your end, the bar may take up to 4 seconds to fill and allow the client to cast again. With the combination of a lag bar and a /stopcasting you can force the client to abandon the spell in that extra .5 second time frame and start casting a second spell (/stopcasting to stop the client, and /cast to start another cast). This allows you to start your next cast earlier, but since the server has already processed and completed the initial spell, the first one goes through anyway.

edit:
I can't seem to find my space bar today >_<

edit2:
Clarification

 

Traek

*edit* I figured out what I did wrong, but I don't see how to delete a message.

 

Cormack

I don't trust my reactions nearly enough to time it so exactly.

What I tend to run into is a red bar series of:

150ms
100ms
650ms
95 ms
200 ms
etc.

If I hit the 650ms bar halfway through completion I'll end up cancelling a cast. I've taken to the same solution as Akomos, I was just wondering if there a were a more technical solution so I could mash 4 even more mindlessly.

 

Marroc

Like I said I've never had it act out of the ordinary. I always give it a few ms before I cancel a cast, but I've never had it cancel a cast while I've hit it in the red.

Are you sure you're not tapping the button twice?

 

Cormack

I don't believe so, but I'll pay some extra attention on my Kara run this weekend to make sure.

 

Monolitax

I'm sorry if this question is too noob for most EJ's but I'm new to macroing and had a couple of observations and a few questions regarding the use of the /stopcast command:

I used the following macro on a priest spamming smites along with the quartz cast bar since I have kinda high latency (~450ish). I got the general form for the macro in this thread.

#showtooltip smite
/stopcast
/cast smite

1. Pressing '3' (the macro's keybind) while in the red bar of the cast bar didnt automatically stopcasting and start casting the smite.
2. I expected at least to interrupt casting and tried to do so while the quartz bar was in the green portion.... still - no result. The 3 button on my action bar stayed highlit until the cast was completed.

Questions:
- Would putting /stopcast AFTER the /cast spell make the casting stop as soon as (as someone suggested) the client sends a "not aborted" token to the server? Or would it just break the cast? - Is there a way to insert a timed delay between /cast and /stopcast without having to use a F15?

 

Marroc

It's not working because the command is /stopcasting

you're loooking for:

#showtooltip smite
/stopcasting
/cast smite

 

• Maels

That's very elegant.

 

Cyn

WoW BlueTracker: Casting Latency Trick - Exploit or Legit?

"FYI, we're working on something for 2.3 to help make /stopcasting lag workarounds unnecessary. "

Intrigueing.. :o

 

Monolitax

Ohh okay. O_o Thanks.

 

Midnight

I am BM Hunter and use /stopcasting in my macro - albeit for a whole diffrent reason. With /stopcasting in the macro it´s possible to use the instant, non-GCD skill Kill Command in conjunction with Steady Shot with only one keystroke. The macro I´m using looks like this:

#show Steady Shot
/stopcasting
/cast [target=pettarget, pet, exists] Kill Command
/stopcasting
/cast Auto Shot
/cast Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

It works fine, but I really have to be careful to hit the key right after my Auto Shot in order not to clip my next Auto. I hope blizzard removes the necessity for /stopcasting to use instant, non-GCD spells in 2.3 too.

 

Towneh

Perhaps some kind of spellcast queuing, for example if you press the spell again midway through your currently casting spell?

 

songster

Follow the link - he said explicitly that it's not a queueing system. Only other options I can think of are (1) shift the cast bar calculation entirely to the client, or (2) Implement something like a /stopcasting macro automatically.

(1) looks fraught with security issues, but there may be a way to make something that can't be abused

(2) might require them to implement a second type of stopcasting function. That is, a "/stopcasting-because-I-believe-I've-finished" function, which will work to stop a lagged cast but won't stop the cast during the true cast time.

 

Towneh

Ah, sorry. Worldofwarcraft.com is blocked from my workplace so I only saw the information that was available in the blue.cardplace.com listing.

 

Demi9OD

As you start getting closer to perfect casts you start interrupting more, but I also noticed that my casts were only triggering when my key was released, not when pressed. I feel it is easier to time a single movement rather than two, so I've taken to pressing my macro half way through my cast and letting it go when I actually want to stopcasting.

 

Qizas

I know this is a bit off topic, but I'm new to the whole stopcasting thing, so I did have one question.

I downloaded Quartz about a week ago, and I definitely like it, but there's one small issue I've been running into: Quartz is usually displaying my lag time on the left side of my cast bar: i.e., cutting it off the beginning of my cast. Obviously, this doesn't aid at all with stopcasting (which is why I haven't used /SC yet). Is there an additional addon to Quartz that I should be using, or an option that I just totally missed? I'm using the latest version available on Curse.

Any tips would be appreciated. As a 0/21/40 Lock, I'm spamming nukes as often as a Frost mage, and any cut down in cast time would make a huge difference. Thanks.

 

Shai

Latency/Embed is the option you are looking for.

 

• Xenophon

A quick question:

As a mage with an average latency ranging from 20 to 80 ms, I'm trying to figure out if the marginal benefits of /stopcasting outweigh the dps lost to the occasional mis-canceled spell? Has anyone with a similar latency range switched to /stopcasting macros and noticed a substantive difference?

 

SOaD!

Hi all,

I'm sorry i lost my quote because it's my first post and i had to accept the Forum Rules.

In most posts i read, there's a use i think is forgotten.

- /Stopcasting stops a current cast, it's not an insane news. you have to CS someone, don't move, just hit you macro /stopcasting /cast Counterspell.

-But as said in some posts it's very usefull for instant casts, mostly for rogues/war. I'm really enjoying it for the use of my gnomeregan Autoblocker 600, the active time is exactly the timing needed to do 4 SS, but not possible to use it with 4 SS "Fluently". /SC allow to the client to stop the instant cast and launch exactly at the same time the first SS, but to make the 4 SS you have to play with the lag and launch the 3 following before the reset of the CD. I tested many times to do it w/out /SC and w/out any macro, for me it is impossible.

This was an example of use of /SC. It can be used before a spell, to stop the previous one (basic use), and after a spell if you want to launch 2 casts exactly at the same moment on a different GCD, so only efficient if the first cast is instant.

NB : Because it's my first post i'd like to congratule all the active community of EJ for the insane job they do, and the admin/moderators team because i know how hard it is to keep a healthy forum.