First the solution, then my reasoning.
The fix seems simple enough; reduce the batch window from 400 to 200, maybe even 250. And while I personally think leeway should be removed entirely, a simple reduction of size could be applied here as well. This fix has been used by private servers in the past, and I feel allows for the best of both worlds.
Blizzard’s hyper bloated and universal version of spell batching, when paired with leeway, has immensely changed general game play, has shifted the ‘meta’ of many classes, and is seemingly largely abhorred by your player base. Some classes benefit hugely from such a large batch window, while others are severely punished for it, which, when paired with the comically large and varying ranges of spells and abilities thanks to leeway, has driven many people away from pvp’ing as much as they had in the past, myself included. This ‘hyperbatching’ has even affected the dps rotations of some classes, forcing them to slow down so the game can catch up.
Let me be clear, batching should definitely be in the game, but as both of these mechanics stand, they are in no way conducive to any kind of ‘classic experience’, they are in effect producing the opposite result of which they were put in place to achieve. This is not how the game was meant to be experienced, hindered by artificial lag induced to poorly mimic the bad connections of 15 years ago. Granted, I could very well be wrong about how large a portion of us hate it’s current state, but there are certainly enough of us out there for Blizzard to at least give the issue some thought, and maybe even ask the community itself in some sort of survey.
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Spell batching is unlikely to be changed. Like it or hate it, it was a part of Vanilla WoW all those years ago, and it’s removal or even alteration would drastically change the dynamic of how the game feels and flows.
Vanilla WoW was designed this way rather intentionally to reduce the server load on old internet connections, and as a result classes and combat were designed around this fact.
Every thread I see about this makes me wonder what precisely the consequences of the game balance there would be, and every thread I see don’t look at it from that point of view, merely it’s annoyance.
I wish they would just remove it, but I know that won’t happen 
Idk man I’ve played vanilla with the fixes i proposed and without, it feels a lot better with them.
They had a number of issues originally with spell batching (vanish & feign death not working amoungst others) but from what I can tell those seem to be fixed. To me spell batching feels just like it did back in the day, but back then I remember being able to cancel spells sooner and still have them go through, although maybe that is because my internet is better now. I played all classes back then, and a number of them today and the spell batching feels just like I remember, so no complaints here.
Spell batching is ridiculous… no one cares about the “fun” of 2 mages polymorphing each other when it creates so many issues especially in pvp
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Yeah it’s terrible. Anyone who’s played without massive spellbatching/leeway for even an hour could tell you just how much better the game feels in that state. It actually balances PvP as well since Warriors are the ones who benefit from batching/leeway in most matchups.
Fd/trap is definitely not fixed. It maybe works half the time, but it is unreliable, especially in pvp.
Spell batching doesnt work like it did in vanilla with the same window. They should either fix how it prioritizes things or drastically lower the window like private servers did.
Spell batching is the #1 most complained about feature of classic for a reason, and it should definitely get fixed.
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You’ve never been sapped during a charge have you? Batching in no way favors warriors. Leeway sure, but batching screws us really hard in almost every case.
The charge alone is half the reason warriors benefit from batching more than anyone else. You benefit from it far more often than it harms you.
Though Warrior vs. Rogue is the one matchup where I think Warriors are worse off as a result of batching/leeway so we’re not in total disagreement.
Scatter on charge, blink immunity lasting for 100 years, I don’t know dude. Getting feared because your dance didnt happen in the correct batch as you were charging
Scattering a charging warrior at the beginning/before his charge only to still get stunned, charging through traps…
you have to look at it from both sides.
I am, a scattered charge is GG vs a hunter, not getting your movement is much more important than the stun. And not once have I charged through a trap without eating it.
My fear is that batching was added because they were noticing some performance overhead trying to process independent messages from clients in 40-player raids. Batching may also reduce data transfer costs.
I can’t imagine they would intentionally cripple their game for no reason.
It isn’t crippling it, it is making it as close to an authentic 2006 experience as possible. You may feel reduced or no batching is better but that is not the way it was back then.
I think the game should aspire to be more responsive than ever, not less.
People loved Vanilla and love Classic for the gameplay design, not the technical limitations of yesteryear.
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You’re right. I love doing nothing more than spamming Frostbolt forever at my target until it dies with no changes whatsoever in what could be considered a rotation.
spellbatching is a toxic topic. there’s plenty of discussion already (personally i think batching is necessary, but the time window is too long and should be reduced down to around 250ms)
leeway on the other hand is the dumbest thing in the game because it penalizes you for strafing, thus it rewards you for backpeddling. Ive never played a game with such a system that rewards bad play and punishes good play.
Cant even count the number of times it has gotten me killed by frostnova’d mobs that were clearly out of melee range when nova’d … but suddenly able to hit me as soon as i start moving because I chose to strafe instead of backpeddle. Thats just plain stupid, horrible, bad game design.
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