Hidden gem in 4.1 patch notes for Affliction Locks

[Zinnin]

Priest Bug Fixes
-Mind Flay should no longer lose a tick of damage when the last tick is clipped by another Mind Flay cast.

Bug fix for all channeled spells (aka drain life)

[Gohzerlock]

i'm not sure but they may be different spells

[Zinnin]

Different spells same change test it out its a good time

[Dubzil]

ooh i missed this, I was wondering why i was pulling 19k single target last night with no 15% buff and my guild all told me the only priest buff was mind sear.

it was changed in cata so clipping no longer works (may have been last patch of wrath even) but apparently it wasn't working correctly.

[Falconys]

It sounds like they are trying to fix the latency que problem with channeled spells. Unlike a cast time spell (shadow bolt) channeled spells (drain life) can be interrupted mid cast. Because of not having to wait until the current cast finishes to start a new one, the server cannot distinguish between a deliberate interrupt and a latency based casting que. This is the reason Aff/SB beats out Aff/DL for high latency connections, because a lot of the time a third of your DL will be clipped by the server even though you didn't intend it.

Personally, I'd rather they revert drain life back to a 10 second channel like it was in BC... so you would never be clipping one DL with another DL.

[Deleted]

Holy s**t! You can effectivly clip DL now to maintain 100% uptime. Sweet!

(I clipped my DL just after the second tick and let the second one run it's entire channel, and recount recorded 6 ticks!)

[Zinnin]

Yea its way amazing

[Resentful]

Too amazing :O

[vkei]

actually, how can u clip DL?

don't u need to stop the last cast b4 starting the new one?

[Deleted]

actually, how can u clip DL?

don't u need to stop the last cast b4 starting the new one?

As soon as the GCD has passed u can cast DL again, unless using nostopchannel(?) macro
Considering every1 is bound to have some amount of lag, just recast DL when there are like 0.2 secs left on the channel.

[Falconys]

actually, how can u clip DL?

don't u need to stop the last cast b4 starting the new one?

Drain Life has a base duration of 3 seconds and ticks every second. Clipping occurs when you loose a tick by recasting the channel before the last tick hits. This used to mean that casting DL 2 times resulted in 5 ticks, a dps loss. Now it seems to be behaving like any other dot, where recasting it between the last 2 ticks results in 6 total because the remaining duration of the first one is added to the new duration of the second one, but only if the first one had just one tick remaining. This is the same mechanic as any other dot. This way DL becomes a continual stream of damage, rather than having holes like swiss cheese the way it did.

[Greyarea]

OK it's early in the morning here and my brain isn't working quite as fast as it should be so this questions answer may be blindingly obvious:

Does this make drain life spec LESS latency dependant? IE: If my latency is in the 150-200 range would DL be more viable than SB? Or does that change or fix have no impact on the latency based 'restriction' on the viability of the DL build?

[Falconys]

You are correct, this change should reduce the latency impact on a drain life build. Excellant timing is still key, but thats the same with any of your other spells as well. Now latency shouldn't have much more impact on Aff/DL than it does on Aff/SB.

[Entropic]

Well, people should've been using a no clip DL maco in the first place.

[Zinnin]

Well, people should've been using a no clip DL maco in the first place.

Thats not necessarily true since that pretty much adds latency + reaction time to the end of your cast. It is what I did with 20ms but there was times I would do the math and I would still be losing .2 seconds of casting time using that macro, which is why they this change is so amazing.

[Deleted]

Source? Can't find it in the 4.1 notes neither in hotfixes

[Keosen]

Where is the source post for this can't find it.

[Zinnin]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2657803#blog

Under priest bug fixes

[randa]

Do this affects situations when you need to cast Bane of Agony after Drain Life, for example. Will Bane of Agony if cast during a time period between two last Drain Life's ticks clip it or not? Do we still need to use macros like this

/cast [nochanneling:Drain Life] Bane of Agony;

[Kaesebrezen]

Will Bane of Agony if cast during a time period between two last Drain Life's ticks clip it or not?

It only affects chaincasting channeled spells. You still can loose ticks if you clip with any normal spell.