Please find a way to reintroduce the spell batching system that was changed/removed in 2014

[Pwnbot-frostmourne (Pwnbot)]

Batching Needs to be in game. Frost mate unable to shatter combo with frost bolt + cone of cold or frost bolt + fire blast would break the classic feel of playing frost

[Warisbellum-draenor]

As a top end pvper from when batching was around. I can assure you that it was a mechanic highly spoken about and used in its time. When we asked for a authentic vanilla experience we lost the right to pick and choose what should stay and what should go. It should be as close to the original as possible. This includes a mechanic which many high end pvpers noticed missing immediately after trying the new vanilla client.

The only reference to it I can find is from 2008 where a guide tells you that if you time it right, you may be able to cheap shot someone as they blink and they are stunned at the other end of their blink. Can’t find anything before that referencing anything similar using Google.

[Cheesiecake-frostmourne]

The only reference to it I can find is from 2008 where a guide tells you that if you time it right, you may be able to cheap shot someone as they blink and they are stunned at the other end of their blink. Can’t find anything before that referencing anything similar using Google.

A quick google search and I see a page of reddit/bnet forum posts asking for batching to be reintroduced. Looking for early comments regarding batching is pointless. The forum posts would have only come after its removal.

[Warisbellum-draenor]

I think I would find people talking about gutshotting a mages blink if it was a common place thing.

[Vaelxo-frostmourne]

It impacts PvP, and it’s inclusion would make PvP players (and Classic players on this forum in general) happy, yes?

Yes. Because it recreates the core gameplay experience.

I think I would find people talking about gutshotting a mages blink if it was a common place thing.

It wasn’t a common place thing. It was a mechanic that rarely a lower end player would be able to do (very rarely), and a mechanic that was heavily used to counter many all ins and lock downs in world pvp and arena.

If you’d like to see this mechanic being used in action, try youtube reckful 3 (simply because it is the most popular), or even searching “mage blink gouge”.

[Melaned-blackrock (Melaned)]

For those arguing against batching.
It effects class balance, they’ve already stated they wish not to alter the balance of the game. And if you wish to argue that it was a flaw or bug to be exploited then I will have to quote my statement in the other thread.

@Melaned-blackrock

It was… by design.
"I don’t want to get too deep into the under-the-hood workings of WoW servers, but here’s a super short version. Any action that one unit takes on another different unit used to be processed in batches every 400ms. Some very attentive people may have noticed that healing yourself would give you the health instantly (minus client/server latency), whereas healing another unit would incur a delay of between 0ms and 400ms (again, on top of client/server latency). Same with damaging, applying auras, interrupting, knocking back, etc.

That delay can feel bad just due to the somewhat laggy responsiveness feeling, but also because the state of things can change during that time. For example: Holly the Holy Priest is healing Punky the Brewmaster. Punky spikes low, and Holly hits Guardian Spirit in a panic. The server verifies that Holly is able to cast it, and that Punky is alive (great!). The cast goes off, Guardian Spirit goes on cooldown, and a request is placed for the Guardian Spirit aura (that prevents dying) to be placed on Punky. That request will be filled next time the 400ms timer loops, which happens to be 320ms from now. 250ms later, the boss lands another hit on on Punky. Punky dies. Sadface. Another 70ms goes by, and the Guardian Spirit aura request pops up, and goes “Hey guys, I’m here!.. Aww… damn, I missed the party. Sadface.”

We no longer batch them up like that. We just do it as fast as we can, which usually amounts to between 1ms and 10ms later. It took a considerable amount of work to get it working that way, but we’re very pleased with the results so far; the game feels noticeably more responsive." - By [Celestalon] [on 2014/06/18 at 2:30 AM] (Patch 5.4.7)
Not a flaw.
Also by technicality, batching still exists but it was shortened to such a degree that it is ridiculous.

As such, being a piece of design during the Vanilla warcraft era it was default part of Vanilla. Not a bug, not a flaw, not something to be fixed. It was not an issue to be exploited and not a cheat to be abused. You compare using two classes but that very design allowed fights to work in that manner. Changing it alters the balance of the game.

To alter the balance of the game is to go against what Blizzard staff have directly stated.

[Lãrrel-akama (Lãrrel)]

Is this how I once spellsteal’d my brother’s pally’s bubble? We cast them at the same time.

[Vaelxo-frostmourne]

Is this how I once spellsteal’d my brother’s pally’s bubble? We cast them at the same time.

May have been a bug. This system didn’t allow for interactions that were impossible like spellstealing and unspellstealable buff.

[Melaned-blackrock (Melaned)]

Yeah that sounds more like a bug than spellbatching. If anything what would have happened is his bubble would of come up and your spellsteal would have acted as if it worked but you’d of gotten nothing from it.

[Slientknight-blackrock (Slientknight)]

I remember Double saps, double gouges happening alot in rvr. I mean 2 guys spamming the same target/sap macro 10 times a second running into eachother are going to sap eachother. Gouge is the best move after recovering from sap so if your not casting that really fast as sap wear off your probably going to lose.

I wonder if we will be able to just walk forward through them to hit a backstab still?

[Bangnfire-kiljaeden (Bangnfire)]

I wonder if we will be able to just walk forward through them to hit a backstab still?

That’s based on batching, so if it’s removed you can’t back stab anymore outside of stealth.

[Fallanaa-area-52 (Fallanaa)]

I never really PvP’d, so I can’t comment about batching from personal experience.

However, if PvP players like it, it can’t be a good thing and should not be replicated.

[Lokubi-zangarmarsh (Lokubi)]

I don’t really see spell batching as more “skill”. Its just a different approach. Batching allows you to make an action after you see another player make an action, while a first in first out or FIFO setup means you need to anticipate another player’s actions.

Both have elements of skill, though the latter has more “uncertainty”. Arguably anticipating uncertainty and predicting your opponents move is the greater test of skill. Being able to react after the former’s actions makes a simple “pokemon” counter situation. At that point you know “X beats Y or negates Z”, and simply press it. The outcome is more certain, and merely a result of knowledge, not reactionary or strategic skill.

So I would argue its less skillful. But maybe that’s what you want! After all, this is supposed to be a museum preservation of the old way of doing things. As such, if it is feasible for them to do so, I would support them going back to the old spell batching way to preserve the history.

[Vaelxo-frostmourne]

That’s based on batching, so if it’s removed you can’t back stab anymore outside of stealth.

You’re thinking of ambush. Backstabs only requirement in vanilla was that you were behind your target, and had a dagger equipped in your main hand. Your actual positioning was not based on batching.

Have you ever noticed when playing next to a friend that your character is in one spot on his screen, and in another on yours? This issue has improved a lot over the years, and is why you are unable to walk through your target or spam strafe on a mob to get free backstabs off.

[Bangnfire-kiljaeden (Bangnfire)]

That’s based on batching, so if it’s removed you can’t back stab anymore outside of stealth.

You’re thinking of ambush. Backstabs only requirement in vanilla was that you were behind your target, and had a dagger equipped in your main hand. Your actual positioning was not based on batching.

Have you ever noticed when playing next to a friend that your character is in one spot on his screen, and in another on yours? This issue has improved a lot over the years, and is why you are unable to walk through your target or spam strafe on a mob to get free backstabs off.

you do realize that had nothing to do with frontstabing, and Ambush required stealth so even more not apart of frontstabing.

Front stabing used the .4s that the server has where it states something along the lines of ‘mob X to player X = behind; ability used = backstab, backstab hit’ (not a coder btw but you get the jist)
Because of that .4s delay you can make the system state the mob’s back is pointing towards you, allowing you to use an ability that requires you to attack from behind. This also allowed dagger spec rogues during leveling to be viable.

Not only that but there is even more applications, another instance is you had a .4s window to ‘stop casting’ but have the ability to go off. This was useful during movement phase, and was widely used during speed leveling runs as you can chain 2 auto’s and an ability (if the ability had a AA reset function) allowing you to have a higher burst and killing mobs faster.