“In the past, back when servers had less computing power than phones nowadays have, these windows could be very large, with some games having up to 200ms windows of batching, including WoW. With better technology and servers, this system was improved over the years and, while it still exists, and effects from it can still be seen, the windows are much smaller, being 20ms wide for abilities in retail WoW. This means that abilities cast within 20ms of each other are considered simultaneous in the eyes of the retail WoW servers, while this window was about 200ms during Vanilla.”
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.
Yeah, that post is referring to Classic… 4Head.
It’s referring to the way unit on unit actions were batched prior to them changing it in WoD.
400ms.
You both are absolutely, unequivocally incorrect. It is time to close this thread to focus on real bugs, not QQ balance changes requests. Shatter combos, elemental mastery combos, clear sting combos etc. were not only in vanilla, they were an integral part to it. It is what makes vanilla, vanilla - the weird, quirky things like this. The people complaining just want stealth balance changes disguised as “bug” fixes.
I’m sorry to disappoint you, but combos like this existed in vanilla. They have always existed in vanilla and did not get changed until later - sometimes much later. This is true to vanilla. If you don’t like it, I suggest a different game: retail WoW, where they have balance changes regularly.
As far as the grounding totem eating more than one spell, that was 100% there in vanilla, and is by design. It blocks incoming spells until it is destroyed, and it is not destroyed until the spell projectile hits it. Sort of like fire nova totem; it will still erupt and do damage until destroyed…so, an incoming frost bolt that takes a second to reach it won’t destroy it if it doesn’t reach it in time to hit it. Grounding totem is working 100% as it did in vanilla, as is elemental mastery, clear casting, frost shatter combos, etc.
Qualifications: I played a shaman almost exclusively from 2004-2010.
Seems you are right. I missed the “used to be”. Personally, my trust in Blizzard’s statements on the current/previous state of their game is little to none, especially after the Hearthstone fiasco that resulted in mass forum censoring and their lockdown of the Blizzard subreddit, as well as how they have handled (or mostly ignored) the very apparent issues with their Classic Client/API. This thread details my feelings on the subject… Williams is spot on, imo. You obviously feel differently, but there’s little Blizzard can do to regain my trust. If they botch the TBC launch, I’m not going to bother paying in any more than I have to their poorly executed cash grab that played off the nostalgia and good will of their community, despite how much I miss that game and the time I spent playing it.
Look, I hate spell batching as much as the next guy. The difference between me and everyone else is I think it does us NO GOOD to believe that it’s not functioning correctly.
I think the better course of action is to admit the community was wrong to advocate for a system that was changed years ago for good reason. I think it’s better to ask nicely and give detailed reasoning as to why Blizzard should reverse their implementation of this archaic batch system.
I just believe we have a much better chance of getting rid of it by asking nicely instead of constantly accusing Blizzard of getting it wrong. Even if by some small chance they don’t have it right, they think they do and that obviously hasn’t changed in 7 months.
Look at the delay in vendor interactions back in Joana’s leveling guide videos from Vanilla:
Spell batching sucked, and still sucks. Every time someone comes up with a reason as to why they think it isn’t working like it did in Vanilla, I find a video showing it is.
You can literally play the real 1.12 Client/Server right now if you want to. The source code was decompiled in the early 2010’s. Good private servers play smooth as butter compared to Classic and still have the batching interactions (as they were, not as they are in Classic) that one should expect out of Vanilla.
As for the functioning of the current system of batching, here’s my perspective: I don’t have my HWL lock anymore, but this is my (Ezgg) TBC reroll after I… “lost”… that account. I’ve played a massive amount of PvP from Vanilla->WoTLK and not much since, so my view of the game has not been “tainted” by retail. It’s actually insulting to have Blizzard claim this is how the game played back then. I knew almost every in and out of class PvP interactions, animations, and timings. The poorly batched interactions I see nearly every BG were never a part of the countless hours I spent grinding BGs.
I’m sure I’m naive of some odd batching interactions that were less common, but I’m seeing myself/guildies eat counterspells on already cast spells like it’s going out of style. Hell, I’ll often fake cast a flash heal, throw a renew, THEN eat a holy counterspell. People are getting locked out of non-cast spell schools like it’s going out of business. I’ve seen people that were kidney shotted swing through the entire stun. It’s absurd to call this anything near what the game was, tbh.
Just as an addendum, have you considered that Blizzard hasn’t fixed the issues (if there are issues) out of risk management concerns/financial analysis, rather than confidence in their IP? If the cost to fix all the issues is more than the revenue generated by the number of people who unsub because of said issues, why would Blizzard ever fix them? That’s not to mention that admitting the faults in the current game would likely result in a drop in stock price and many unsubs, whereas stonewalling and gaslighting the community is a much less risky option if Blizzard has confidence that the nostalgia factor will win out. This isn’t the Blizzard that existed in Vanilla. Do you remember the GM support in Vanilla? It was TOP NOTCH. I mean, truly next level customer service. Now? It’s a joke. You’re lucky to even reach a customer service rep. I again point to the Hearthstone fiasco… all Blizzard sees these days is dollar signs.
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Well put, and this is the essence of why I started this thread. Perhaps I focused too much on a single issue, but at the time it was the most glaring. I too played primarily through WOTLK then stopped and I think my response is to how glaring the difference is between the actual Vanilla. I have always been bug into pvp, and it seems like the easy way out to simply slap a batching delay made for a 2004 game on a game released in 2019. Things have changed and the game will never be as it was although I think it is still possible to get closer to the original “feeling” of Vanilla without breaking the game.
“Theres no way to counter or mitigate the dmg”
Pre pop greater nature protection potions before the match? CC them? Have ur mage poly the shaman?
you’re not very good at this…
Nature Protection
Instant 1 sec cooldown
Requires level 40
Absorbs 1950 to 3250 nature damage. Lasts 1 hour.
Dispel type Magic
https://classic.wowhead.com/spell=17546/nature-protection
Purge Rank 2
10% of base mana 30 yd range
Instant
Requires Shaman
Requires level 32
Purges the enemy target, removing 2 beneficial magic effect.
https://classic.wowhead.com/spell=8012/purge
Yeah because if u got a buff on 10 people its completely practical for a shaman to purge it off of them before starting their rotation??? Not to mention u will have plenty of other buffs as well… So they will not be purging that one first per say.
Video from 2012. Conversation about Vanilla.
Hmm…
yes very good, the video was uploaded in 2012. the video is from original vanilla however. https://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=11234
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My attempt to be sassy has backfired! Abort! Abort!
I realized that was most likely the case shortly after posting but couldn’t be arsed to edit or delete my post.
I recall reading that it was possible but for the life of me I cannot find where.
Enjoy being a bug exploiter? You laugh, but you know you have double crit you not supposed to have. For me it’s pretty easy to kill a shaman as a Frost Mage. The time they spend removing my buffs is the time I turn these noobs into a sheep to restart the Pvp on my terms. It’s pretty nasty a shaman in the mid of a battle full of people one-shot ppl at all times. Bad players thinking they are good players just because they are enjoying their spell batching exploit and taking advantage of this. The funny thing? I don’t remember seeing shamans playing Pvp since TBC (for some reason… 
)
Shatter combo is not an exploit. Two crits can land at once if one is instant cast and the other lands at the same time. Lightning Bolt does not crit always due to timings, Chain Lightning does since it lands instantly.
If you read the tooltip for Shatter it specifically states ALL spells. If you read it for Elemental Mastery, it specifically states your NEXT spell. This means one spell not multiple, therefore spellbatching is allowing this to be utilized in an unintended way.
My opinion and this could totally be wrong, is that the devs enjoy it, so they let this one slide. I was a marshal back in the end of vanilla and I don’t remember Shaman’s criting like this. They are wayyy more dangerous today than they were back then and it isn’t just because of skill.
The Shaman had RED latency at the timestamp you linked. You can’t batch together two spells while clicking and having 800 ping.
Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): Elemental Mastery: It is no longer possible to get two consecutive guaranteed critical strikes from using this ability.
This is the guy that wrote Shaman guides and had his topics stickied back in Vanilla. I think he knows what he’s talking about.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060503155601/http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=36840&p=1&tmp=1#post36840