The author is completely wrong about the relationship between latency and Haste rating, especially when instant queuing is now an official feature.

The game was not designed around Latency. Just because you live overseas should not change stat values/ratings for a class.

With queueing, I should be able to use the standard CS>Filler>CS with 1000 Haste rating without losing DPS because I ‘stacked too much haste for my latency’.

There are too many misconceptions surrounding this matter already. It almost looks like people think latency reduces the cooldown of Crusader Strike in place of Haste and therefore have an advantage if they have high ping. This is a completely stupid idea that started spreading around and I’m glad to have found the source.

READ THIS FOR CLARIFICATION:

The message the author is trying to convey is that latency limits the number of GCDs you can execute within a certain time frame. At the moment melee GCDs are 1.5 and these include TV, CS and Judgement. Spell GCDs including Holy Wrath and Exorcism SCALE with Haste to a minimum of 1 second GCD unlike Melee GCDs. Supposedly, latency adds to the end of the previous GCD and the beginning of the next GCD as latency is the amount of time a command takes to reach the server and back. Therefore 100 ms latency will equate to .1 second delay in reaching the server and back, which is multiplied by 2 as the first delay is from the server telling your client that the cooldown for CS has ended. You then execute the next command which takes .1 second to reach the server and your CS is executed in-game.

However the above is assuming that there are no mechanics implemented in-game to counter this, which in the author’s mind disadvantages classes with higher latency and therefore must remove haste as it is conjecturally ‘useless’, and move it into another stat. This also in no way ‘disadvantages’ people with better ping and better location, as they are actually getting more benefit from Haste as it scales in rating better than crit and mastery until it’s maxed.

Unfortunately, the author had overlooked the fact that Blizzard had in fact implemented an early version of the Spell Queuing feature which more or less reduced the disadvantage people got from higher pings. The spell queue works on the client instead of having to communicate with the server. It’s like ‘buffering time’. Obviously the first command the high ping player sends to the server suffers from lag, but commands thereafter do not have to wait for the cooldown of the previous spell to end before ‘buffering’ the command. This is evident when you press say CS then Judgement about halfway through the GCD (seems to be the mininum trigger point), the Judgement icon is highlighted. About 1 second later, Judgement is used but the GCD (not Judgement cooldown) is already halfway done. At this point you can press CS again and it will activate in less than a second. At the moment this feature only works with GCD, but will work with actual cooldown skills in Cataclysm and will also have improved features such as a slider bar to increase/decrease trigger point for people with varying levels of latency.

IN SHORT

Latency no longer plays a role in a GCD based rotation. Even with 1000 ping I will still be using 1 CS 1 Judgement and another CS in 3 seconds.

THUS THIS ARTICLE IS DISPROVEN AND SHOULD BE DISREGARDED

STACK HASTE RATING UNTIL CAPPED AND PROCEED WITH STAT PRIORITIES REGARDLESS

I’m glad to put this out there, and I’m sure Khor will understand the need for public knowledge regarding this matter. Writing this has helped myself to better understand the issue, and for that I thank you, Khor.

Thank you in advance,

Overall I’m quite happy with the result and I guess with this tendency, it will be much enjoyable class to play in Cata. New rotation with a lot to watch for, new abilites, more straightforward buffs and stats…all that’s good.

And thanks Khor for your information. Of late I found myself looking at your site for info on retripals, instead of reading walls of text on elitist, who often tend to overburden themselves with theoretical info.

Thank you so much for the website and your consistent and vigilant efforts.

I used to enjoy WOW but after this new patch, I am just beyond frustrated. My dps is way down (went from 10k on Saur to 8k), and overall the new mechanics make no sense.

Your site is so informational and I am trying, but I am approaching my limit with the new changes. No real reason for it all.

Might be a dumb question, but when I am combat, I see yellow script like figures that flash in the center of the screen. What do I do next?

My rotation icons keep lighting up, spinning around, etc, very confused at that as well. What do you think?

thanks, you rule as always!
RR