The Big 3 - Leeway, Layering, & Spell Batching

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Layering - Leeway - Spell Batching

Layering = Highly exploitable & seems inconsistent

No doubt Blizzard has been testing it on these stress tests and the beta server. This system needs exploit guards and needs removed for gameplay and economy concerns SOON after launch.

  • Players have already figured out how to hop layers on demand
  • players have attained 3 arena chests in a minute using layering
  • Players have dodged PvP combat using layers
  • Players have hopped layers to attain quest mobs
  • Players have hopped layers to acquire more minerals/herbs
  • There is no solid & satisfying fix to this system. Players must of necessity be able to join their friends and therefore, change layers on demand. There is no consistent way to monitor abuse for this system.

Leeway = Awful; Gamebreaking implications

Leeway is inexcusable. Taking the “no changes” movement to a ridiculous degree, this simply breaks the game. Obviously with dial modems the game needed such systems. This is one of those obvious points where the old setting needs removed, since it is no longer needed and actually makes the game significantly WORSE by having it in.

  • Tauren can literally melee attack from 10+ yards away
  • Hunters & mages will be nearly impossible to play in PvP at a high level with any amount of consistency
  • The system actually encourages bad gameplay; IE - backpeddling or standing still
  • The system was designed to counter an issue that no longer exists (bad connection speeds).

Spell Batching = Gamebreaking; Feels & looks terrible

Many people thought spell batching was a must since the window of opportunity to land spells on each other occured in Vanilla. Essentially everyone in the beta and watching can see how poorly this system is actually functioning.

  • Combat Text Numbers are showing up after people are dead
  • People are able to seduce w/pet and abuse this to land multiple shadowbolts
  • I am seeing people sheeped in the game, hit with an iron grenade, and it won’t break the sheep
  • Two people landing spells is TOO consistent; That which used to be possible in Vanilla with dial up modems is now a sure thing in many cases

These three systems pose the biggest threat to Classic WoW’s success.

Layering must be removed asap from the game. It should also be adjusted in some way to be harder to abuse on demand. Launch for this game is shaping up to be an absolute joke if players can swap layers as a 3 mage team and instant aoe farm like madmen, not to mention the acquisition of massive gold in higher level zones.

An alternative solution that seems good is to disable layering in contested zones.

The solution to spell batching and leeway seems to be simply to remove them. Leeway has no place in the game anymore and was a solution to a problem that no longer exists but instead CREATES a problem.

Spell batching is an interesting addition to attempt to mirror quirky vanilla gameplay but in reality it makes the game feel & look awful! It needs tuned down at MINIMUM to compensate for modern internet speeds.

TLDR: Layering needs removed soon after launch and modified to tone down abuse at launch. Leeway needs removed entirely because it is a solution to a problem that no longer exists, but instead creates a new problem and destroys gameplay for multiple classes. Spell Batching needs toned down or removed because it was also a solution to a problem that no longer exists and as it stands is significantly altering gameplay, looks & feels awful, and overall makes the game feel broken.

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Well, 1 out of 3 ain’t bad right?

Leeway is unnecessary.

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Spell batching definitely needs to go, I get that it was necessary on hardware from 15 years ago. But now it just feels bad.

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It feels like Vanilla. In the same way that we have old character models despite all the technology changes available…

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Yes, leeway and batching need serious tuning. As far as layering is concerned, the ban hammer can solve that problem.

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Spell batching is working as intended and it feels great. If you are a good player and can use it to your advantage it feels perfect.

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Agreed. Toss layering into the compost bin.

It looks messy; it looks gross. You know it, I know it.

A better way is needed

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I like your list.

I agree on 2 of the 3 with layering needing some major work, but we are going to need it at launch. It should only be for a short time and we need a way to report those who abuse it if the checks and balances have not been put in place.

Another thing to add to your list that NO one is talking about yet.

How to combat gold sellers. . It’s coming. . They are on the test servers now perfecting their bots. I do NOT want tokens, but man I don’t want gold sellers!!! That one is a HARD one to tackle.

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Got any ideas?

It actually rewards bad play. A delay on actions gives fast reacting players a handicap, as it gives a window to slow responding players fumbling on their keyboard.

Watching mages sheep and counterspell each other stops being amusing after awhile.

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I’m puzzled by this. Doesn’t it make it significantly the same as it was in vanilla? I think that you’re twisting things to make Leeway look like it’s bad when the reality is that it’s just that Leeway is the normal way things were and removing it should be perceived as a general improvement.

I’m not arguing that it’s good, but the way you’re wording it feels very dishonest.

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Aren’t leeway and layering a retail (:nauseated_face:) “feature”? I’m fine with spell batching but these last two need to go away for good…

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Blizz is going to have this still in the game on release. They have said that they always work under the premise that they know better.

Theres gonna be leeway, layering and it will take 18 months of gameplay before they even acknowledge its an issue

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but why would they spend resources to get GMs to watch for layering abuse when the GMs could answer tickets instead?
like, even though the former is more important

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I disagree it feels unnecessarily dated, like intentionally running at 1024x768 on my 1080p wide screen would.

It feels entirely artificial and forced whereas in vanilla it kind of felt okay because in general everything else was also slower.

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You planning on running the game on an old pentium running windows xp?

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Lol. GMs have never sat around watching people play waiting for them to abuse something. They’ve always relied on server data and player reports.

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Dunno about leeway but there is no layering in retail. That’s sharding.

And batching exists in all games that call to a server and talk to a client to some degree. The issue with classic is they are playing with making it laggy on purpose.

Because we all have fond memories of lag…

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I think this list is on the money - Spell batching needs tuning; the window is too big given how fast all our technology is these days, they could half the window and still achieve the same feeling/possibilities as was in Vanilla.

On Leeway, being hit from what feels like 20 yards does not feel good. You calculate to be out of range, play perfectly, and still get clocked and die.

Layering, remove ASAP

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Changing batching to say 100 or maybe 150 MS batch instead of 400MS would help a lot. That leaves the mechanic in there but takes into account how much faster the internet is in general now.

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It actually rewards bad play. A delay on actions gives fast reacting players a handicap, as it gives a window to slow responding players fumbling on their keyboard.

Wrong. It’s actually the opposite.

If you’re playing a rogue and a warlock uses death coil you have, depending on distance, around 50-200 ms to react. You not only need to predict death coil but you need the reaction time to vanish it or gouge it depending on the distance.

Someone with a slow reaction time won’t be able to make any good use of spell batching. Let’s say a warrior is dueling a mage and the warrior wants to tidal charm a polymorph. The warrior has about 2 seconds to use tidal charm to stun polymorph, or more accurately 1.7 to 1.8 seconds taking into account spell canceling and server lag. If the warrior reacts with a decent reaction time he will use tidal around 1 second into the cast, if he has poor reaction time he might use it 1.5 or 1.8+ seconds into the cast and spell batching will take effect, stunning the mage but still polymorphing the warrior.

If you are a good player you can use spell batching to your advantage and it punishes people with bad reaction time or small game knowledge, AS IT SHOULD.

Thank you, Blizzard, for keeping it in the game!

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