Tee
4th June 2007, 09:28
Quartz Casting:
A successful arena match is one where everyone does a simple job well, and it comes together with teamwork and timing seamlessly. As an Elemental Shaman, you are there not only for your disruption and healing, but your considerable burst damage. Even with totem cycles, spot healing, shocking healers, and purging magical classes, sometimes you simply need to put out a lot of DPS, all at once. I’ve found that with the help of a particular addon/macro technique, I can improve my casting DPS by nearly 20% when chaining Lightning bolts at a single target. This technique was intended originally as a way to improve PvE DPS for mages, but it was fairly obvious that anything that gives an advantage concerning the most precious commodity in Arena play (Time!) was golden, and should be explored.
Tools:
The Addon:
Quartz Modular Casting Bar Addon (http://www.wowace.com/wiki/Quartz), developed by Nymbia, is the addon that allows greater precision while casting by macro. Aside from the cosmetic and other functional uses of this mod, the main feature is the “Latency” bar, which measures your lag and provides a visual indicator on the cast bar itself. At the end of any spell you are casting, you can see the a red section with your latency printed in it (70ms for example)
The Macro:
Two very simple macros accompany the Quartz mod, one for your Chain Lightning, and the more commonly used macro for your Lightning bolt. In both cases, it’s a simple two-liner:
/stopcasting
/cast Lightning Bolt
and
/stopcasting
/cast Chain Lightning
Identical macros can be written in and used for your two primary heal spells as well, with equally impressive results~
The Technique:
The technique is really rather simple, but requires some adjustment for hotkey spammers like myself. Bind your macros to the normal keys you’ve been using for LB and CL, and push once to initialize the cast, then again when the casting bar is half-way into the red area. Hit the button too soon, and you’ll stop casting the first bolt altogether. Too late, and you’ll lose the time you have gone through such lengths to save in the first place. With practice, hitting your key in the red zone becomes easy, then eventually becomes habitual, as you learn to stop spamming the key (to minimize casting downtime), and play precisely. It’s a great thing to practice while farming BG’s, or during raids, where you can focus solely on your timing, and not on the actual fight.
Many thanks to Zeph for showing me this trick, it is a wonderfully productive thing to learn and utilize in day to day pvp.
Link! (http://www.shadow-gaming.com/?p=119#more-119)
A successful arena match is one where everyone does a simple job well, and it comes together with teamwork and timing seamlessly. As an Elemental Shaman, you are there not only for your disruption and healing, but your considerable burst damage. Even with totem cycles, spot healing, shocking healers, and purging magical classes, sometimes you simply need to put out a lot of DPS, all at once. I’ve found that with the help of a particular addon/macro technique, I can improve my casting DPS by nearly 20% when chaining Lightning bolts at a single target. This technique was intended originally as a way to improve PvE DPS for mages, but it was fairly obvious that anything that gives an advantage concerning the most precious commodity in Arena play (Time!) was golden, and should be explored.
Tools:
The Addon:
Quartz Modular Casting Bar Addon (http://www.wowace.com/wiki/Quartz), developed by Nymbia, is the addon that allows greater precision while casting by macro. Aside from the cosmetic and other functional uses of this mod, the main feature is the “Latency” bar, which measures your lag and provides a visual indicator on the cast bar itself. At the end of any spell you are casting, you can see the a red section with your latency printed in it (70ms for example)
The Macro:
Two very simple macros accompany the Quartz mod, one for your Chain Lightning, and the more commonly used macro for your Lightning bolt. In both cases, it’s a simple two-liner:
/stopcasting
/cast Lightning Bolt
and
/stopcasting
/cast Chain Lightning
Identical macros can be written in and used for your two primary heal spells as well, with equally impressive results~
The Technique:
The technique is really rather simple, but requires some adjustment for hotkey spammers like myself. Bind your macros to the normal keys you’ve been using for LB and CL, and push once to initialize the cast, then again when the casting bar is half-way into the red area. Hit the button too soon, and you’ll stop casting the first bolt altogether. Too late, and you’ll lose the time you have gone through such lengths to save in the first place. With practice, hitting your key in the red zone becomes easy, then eventually becomes habitual, as you learn to stop spamming the key (to minimize casting downtime), and play precisely. It’s a great thing to practice while farming BG’s, or during raids, where you can focus solely on your timing, and not on the actual fight.
Many thanks to Zeph for showing me this trick, it is a wonderfully productive thing to learn and utilize in day to day pvp.
Link! (http://www.shadow-gaming.com/?p=119#more-119)