Can AOEs like Consecration knock off potential debuff slots?

So last raid my guild leader told me I couldn’t use Consecration because he thinks it can knock off potential debuff slots. His reasoning is that on Warcraft Logs, a third party program that tracks combat during raids, considers and labels it as a debuff aura like any other debuff like for example Nightfall procc. As a WoW player who started in 2005 and has never stopped playing, a 13yr Paladin player, someone who has used Warcraft Logs when it came out in Legion, and someone who has knowledge on object-oriented programing used in games like WoW, I having a feeling that my guild leader is wrong. But without any solid way of proving it, I even asked a GM in game via ticket, and the GM didn’t fully know either, it will be hard to convince my guild leader otherwise. My logic is that if it visually does not knock off a debuff slot since it doesn’t have one like any other pure damage AOE, then it cannot knock off a debuff slot. It is considered a debuff in game as a way to classify the object to lessen the number of objects to make for spells (simpler coding), for there are debuffs and buffs a target can have on them. This certain debuff only damages the target if it is in certain range of its initial activation, but doesn’t actually stay on the target like a conventional debuff. It is bound to an object that’s a destination in the world rather than enemy object. Its a “pseudo” debuff since it still has the debuff label but doesn’t act like what the general public thinks a debuff should act like. I would love to have developer feedback for this as its difficult to even test it out in game. Without Consecration, my boring classic Ret paladin damage rotation (thank you guild for letting me be one in the first place) would be down to 2 buttons rather 3 buttons like a Frost mage or Lock. I dont care about my DPS, cuz lets be honest… classic wow parses? lol… I just don’t want to be bored to death in raid night for a reason that’s probably not even true. And I was main tank Holy healer for the majority of the time before I had the opportunity to become a Retardin, so I know the 1 button Flash of Light spamming is even more painfully boring. If the community has any constructive feedback, that would also be appreciated. Thanks!

Downrank spells, find a big mob and try it. But my 2c I think your GL is wrong and it doesnt occupy a slot. If it did why wouldnt, say, Arcane Explosion?

You can look and see in WCL the application of buffs and debuffs at the exact time that they happen; just click on debuffs & events and select enemies. That allows you to see precisely what’s knocking off what, although a lot of the reason for that is “higher priority” debuffs staying up when you don’t want them to. Go and count the debuffs active at a particular point and find out if Consecration occupies one of them.

Copy and paste this link: “cdn.discordapp(dot)com/attachments/469765334274932736/694365755197751396/bwlnef.PNG” and use “.” instead of “(dot)” Apparently I cant share links on here.

You can see that it counts it in the log, but so does any other AOE effect, like Rain of Fire. You can also see Spell Vulnerability later down the list, which is the Nightfall Procc I was talking about. When it actually happens, it has quite of a high priority and knocks off the typical Deep Wounds and such. I think this page is whats my guild leader’s reasoning behind it “potentially” knocking off debuff slots.

The thing is its ranked in highest uptime* so of course Consecration will rank higher than other spells. So IDK what more to understand from this.

The page gives you a high level overview of what debuffs were up and when. From that I can ask why Faerie Fire wasn’t up much, why there are 2 ranks of Shadow Word: Pain used, and other things like that.

It can’t be used for what exactly you care about, which is if Consecration pushes off another debuff. For example, during the first Consecration, it looks like there are these 14 debuffs:
Sunder
Hunter’s Mark
Curse of Shadow
Curse of Elements
Corruption - how many?
Deep Wound - how many?
Shadow Vulnerability (Priest)
Winter’s Chill
Curse of Recklessness
SWP - how many?
Mind Flay
Shadow Vulnerability (Warlock)
Consecration - how many?
Demoralizing Shout

Click on events and see a readout of what’s on. Are there multiples of stuff like Corruption and Deep Wounds, and Consecration is merely a 17th debuff? Or did Consecration push a Deep Wounds off?

Consecrate does take up a debuff slot for sure atm. There is a big bug thread about it.

So when I click on events, it does not talk about the other AOEs or things like Cone of Cold. It has multiple Deep Wounds casted by certain raiders and it ALSO has consecration. For some reason it tracks and considers it a debuff like Deep Wounds on when it is afflicted, faded and refreshed, yet it has no debuff slot you can see in game.

Here the full link since these are public anyways if you want to take a look.

classic.warcraftlogs(dot)com/reports/mj4CbgAJ3WtQzF97/#fight=last&type=auras&spells=debuffs&hostility=1&view=events

and @Maldorbarr Thanks I’m going to go look and read up on that. Almost phase 4, and this is a bug. Sheesh

edited* I guess this is a known bug for a long while now… JFC

TLDR - yes it takes up an invisible debuff slot cuz monkey coding at its finest…

Right before the first Consecration cast, these were the debuffs (15 of them)
Demo Shout
Sunder
Hunter’s Mark
Curse of Shadow
Curse of Elements
Corruption (laddy)
Deep wound (gucifer)
Curse of Recklessness
Deep Wound (metfighter)
Corruption (sorelock)
Winter’s Chill
Deep Wound (voc)
SWP (metronome)
Shadow Vuln (priest)
Mind Flay

Consecration was the 16th.

1.2 seconds later (17.385), Metfighter’s Deep Wounds got kicked off in favor of Delightful’s Shadow Vulnerability.

Had Consecration not counted as a debuff, Metfighter’s Deep Wounds would have stayed up. Had Consecration been lower on priority, it would have been knocked off instead of a Deep Wounds.

screenshots and video evidence of it:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/627181458670223380/646080818778734633/unknown.png

TLDR - EACH PALADIN’S CONSECRATION IS TAKING UP A DEBUFF SLOT AND REMOVING OTHER DEBUFFS

even though…

Consecration - No longer displays a debuff icon on targets in the area of effect.
https://wowwiki.fandom.com/wiki/Patch_1.9.0