A Guide to The Dirge - A Perspective

Autoattack Coordination

This is another example of bad casting that portrays how the act of casting delays an autoattack.

Try NOT to delay autoattack at all not even by .2s or .3s.

==3.5s autoattack==
Tarven's Crippling Crescendo HO macro (.8s)
Rhythm Blade (.9s)
Chimes (2s)
(autoattack delayed .4s)
(weapon delay is now 2.7s due to a haste buff)

== 2.7s autoattack==
Zander's Choral Rebuff (1s)
Scream of Death macro (1.8s)
(autoattack delayed .3s)

(numbers in paranthesis is the casting plus recovery speed)

Auto-attacks can seem to activate during the recovery of some abilities except this is not what is occuring. To prove this, cast a "fun spell or pet"** that has a ten second recovery and try to autoattack a target.

I am told the appearance of autoattack during recovery is more likely due to network lag between the client application and the server.

Try to anticpate for lag.

Scenario to better explain. On a training dummy, I cast Banshee causing my autoattack to delay, only for this example, and queue Ludas Nef.Wail. Autoattack activates each and every single time the instant Banshee is finished and before Ludas Nef.Wail casts. It still executes like this when in-combat in an actual dungeon with players populated in the zone, weapon delay 3.3s, i cast 3 of my 1.1s casts then queue a following cast; after the 3rd 1.1s cast, my autoattack bar indicates swing and ACT supports it by a beep, and then my queued cast instantly begins progressing and all done without the slightest hint of autoattack delay. However, I would be cautious in implementing this.

Do not queue** casts when an autoattack is not going to activate the exact moment before the queued cast begins casting such as when, weapon delay is 2.4s, Banshee (1.7s cast for this exmaple) is cast with Luda's Nef Wail (1.1s) in the queue; this particular queueing of casts will delay autoattack .6s (assuming .2s lag) which is .6s too much.

Anticipating lag is helpful when choosing abilities to coordinate with autoattacks.

When a volume of lag is present, your autoattack may activate when the animation progress bar above is only 95% complete. If the lag is quite high, then an autoattack may activate when the animation progress bar is only 80% complete. ACT beep is much more accurate since the autoattack progress bar animation can be affected by lag. When lag is quite high, then you will hear the ACT beep when the bar animation is only 70% complete and the animation then restarts according to the beep.

No method is 100% accurate.

Depending on your computer's data access speed, the ACT beep may lag behind. The above picture indicates an example when I would start casting if there is a small amount of ACT lag; however, be cautious when implementing this since it can backfire by starting an ability cast before the autoattack actually activates. If this does backfire, then be ready to press your "cancel casting" button the instant you have doubts. I use the ACT beeps like a musical metronome to anticipate when an autoattack would activate. On the other hand, if this is successful, then it might mean an extra ability cast between autoattack. Profit's autoattack progress bar gives a good indication of the amount of lag present between autoattacks.

Observing your character swinging is the most ineffective approach to autoattack coordination. If you were to enable your damage numbers and watch your character autoattack swing, then you will notice a time delay between the numbers and swing animation. This is even more so true when there is a fair amount of server side lag.

The best route is to never focus on swing animation, never solely rely on the autoattack progress bar animation, and never solely rely on the ACT beep. Once again, the best route is to know your ability cast times to the best of your ability, to know when your in-combat weapon delay changes, and judge to the best of your ability the amount of lag present. During an encounter, figure out the ability combinations you can cast, without delaying autoattacks, and this will give you a good idea on how to judge the amount lag.

If believe an autoattack will be delayed, then be ready to press your "cancel casting" button.

Overhead combat feedback is another tool that can help with autoattack coordination as well. To do this, enable the "Name and Chat Bubble" option under Options>User Interface and check "Show overhead combat feedback". This will only show your damage output on enemy. After some time watching it, you can easily differentiate when your autoattack misses, is avoided, and when it lands; the exact moment you notice this is when you start your ability casting. However, you will not be told, or aware, of when an autoattack is going to be delayed.

Remember, keep that "cancel spellcasting" button ready to push if you think an autoattack will be delayed. The "cancel spellcasting" button is a hotkey found in your EQ2 Options window, under Controls, then to "Spell Keys".

No method is 100% accurate.

So, use the tools available to mitigate the inaccuracies.

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