[Wrathblood]

A number of folks have asked about the new mod from the other day, so I figured a post was a good place to put up the info.

First, credit to Sobe for pointing me to it. I've been using it for a couple weeks and have become a big fan. I encourage other folks to use it, with one caveat I'll get into later.

Ok, a quick overview. Its called autohotkey (AHK), and what it does is make it so that simply holding a key down is read by WoW as someone frantically hammering that key over and over. The impact of this is to save you fractions of a second on key inputs. Unless you've really had a lot of caffeine and have good reflexes, even with quartz you will likely cast your spells some fraction of a second later than you potentially could (because of latency, slow reflexes, quartz being slightly vague, etc). While losing, for example, 0.3 seconds on every cast doesn't seem like a lot, it adds up.

If all you did was spam a 1.5s cast time spell over a 5 minute fight, those 0.3 seconds would result in almost 35 fewer casts. If you could cut that lost time down to, say 0.1 seconds by using AHK, you'd increase your # of casts (and thus dps/hps/tps) by 12% during the fight. Also, for those who derive value from not annoying a significant other by incessant keyboard hammering, this is much quieter and easier on your keyboard. Instead of frantically hammering a key or clicking, you're just holding a button down.

Here's the link to AHK itself: http://www.autohotkey.com/

Note that AHK is not actually an addon. It is a stand alone mod that you run separately. People might have various issues with this, but its worked fine for me and its resource consumption is dinky, so I haven't had any complaints.

Now for the caveat. Blizzard has previously stated the using pre-programmed systems to automate your play is a ban-able offense. Using g15 keyboards to turn your character into a bot, for example. Technically, AHK falls into the same category and in theory could get you banned. Personally, I think the risk is minute as its aimed at bots and serious automation, rather than something like this. I feel comfortable using it, but other folks should be aware of this going in. Below are some notes from Sobe along with a link to a discussion on the topic at EJ.

As for actually using AHK, I strongly suggest following the link to EJ and following the instructions. That having been said, its a little daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it you'll realize its actually very simple (and I mean like a 2+2=4 kind of simple).

Instructions
In a nutshell, download AHK and install it. Then start it and go to the default scrip it provides (which will be a wordfile or notepad file or something), delete everything in it, and replace it with the little basic file that people reference a couple times (see below):

#ifWinActive World of Warcraft
{
$2::
Loop
{
if not GetKeyState("2", "P")
break
Send 2
sleep 0
}
return
}

Just copy and paste exactly that text above into the file. The above command will make it so that if you are in WoW and you you hit "2" it will repeatedly hit 2 with a sleep time of 0. If you put sleep 1 it'll slow it down slightly. Then if you want to do it for more keys, copy and paste the same thing again below what you did the first time, and change the "2"s to "3"s or "Q"s or whatever you want to automate. Do as many as you want to use. I personally have 1 through 6 set up this way.

Then save it, ideally to your desktop or somewhere you can reach quickly, and when you save it be sure to save it with the name .ahk at the end (so, randomfilename.ahk) that way it will recognize it as an AHK file. Then whenever you are going to play WoW or raid or whatever, double click on the file you saved (not AHK itself, that will start a new file) and it will automatically start it. You'll get a little icon down on the bottom right of your screen that its running. If you want to turn it off, right click the little icon and make it go away like any other program. That's literally it.

It can be annoying, because it'll repeat anytime you hit "2" (like if you're trying to bid on loot, for example) so you want to be able to easily turn it off and turn it back on.

Comments from Sobe:

It's fairly straightforward:

* Download program
* Create AHK script file
* Copypasta code a couple of times, changing variables for the buttons you want to mash
* Double click script file
* Winnar


Here's the old thread on EJ - http://elitistjerks....ohotkey_thread/

It never quite caught on with the raiding masses, I'm guessing it wasn't really publicized because of the whole "bannable offense" thing. I've been using it for raiding since late 2007 (go go chain heal spam) and never had any issues with it, but ymmv.

A post from Gurgthock that echoes my sentiment about the whole thing:

Quote
It's one of those things that's hard for me to wrap my head around. I mean, I'm a healer. I have a G15 keyboard but I have zero macros for it -- I own the keyboard for the LCD display to see exactly who's talking on vent and when I get tells/queue while alt-tabbed, and my "G keys" do things like make WMP or Windows Calculator open. This rule doesn't affect me at all. And I generally follow Blizzard's rules/ToU fully, and I don't want to get into a position of advocating for something that Blizzard says is illegal, but it's hard for me to swallow such a thin distinction.

Spamming 2 really hard, many times a second: Legal
Spinning your mousewheel to generate lots of inputs per second: Legal
Holding down 2, sparing yourself carpal tunnel, to generate lots of inputs per second: Not legal?

Basically, I understand the reason for the policy. If they say you can use AHK or G15 or whatever to make holding down a key cause multiple keypresses, then they've just allowed scripted AFKing. Make your spacebar repeat, put a roll of coins on it, and walk away, to use the simplest example. And if they punished someone for it, that person could just say "wtf, you guys said it was legal to have repeater keys...." So I see why they have the policy.

I still feel like the reasonable thing to do is to follow the spirit of the rule. If they allow the software (and they have to, unless they want to ban people who have Logitech's keyboard drivers running, which would be a terrible idea) then I don't see how they could possibly ever detect someone who holds down 2 vs. someone who mashes 2 really quickly (assuming you have a Sleep interval built in and aren't generating thousands of events per second or something).

[Sobeyet]

Just reposting the link to the EJ thread since the forum broke it while copying: http://elitistjerks....ohotkey_thread/

You can do more fancy things with it (alternators, mouse functions), but I'd personally steer clear of things like the dual-boxing/window automation - trudging further into the gray area there.

It really is simple to use, but feel free to ask if you have any questions.

One note to add, if you're the type of person who never restarts their computer, I'd close AHK every now and then - the app does have some basic logging that could get clunky if you leave it on for a (long long) while depending on how you have it set up.

[Forte]

This mod is freakin sweet. Lemmy show you guys the difference

Our Festergut kill from last week 6.9k DPS 254 Lightning Bolts

Our Festergut kill this week 8k DPS. 272 Lightning Bolts

Only about 10 seconds difference in the fight times. Now I did pick up my 2p t10 this week, but that's only about 250 more DPS according to my spreadsheet, so the other 800 is from this mod. I picked this fight since there isn't a significant difference in how I played in one vs the other, it's the same thing for both since I stand in his pocket.

[Sobeyet]

Bump for Ryan:

#ifWinActive World of Warcraft
{
$1::
 Loop 
 {
	if not GetKeyState("1", "P")
 	break
 	Send 1 
 	sleep 0
	}
return
$2::
 Loop 
 {
	if not GetKeyState("2", "P")
 	break
 	Send 2 
 	sleep 0
	}
return
$3::
 Loop 
 {
	if not GetKeyState("3", "P")
 	break
 	Send 3 
 	sleep 0
	}
return
$4::
 Loop 
 {
	if not GetKeyState("4", "P")
 	break
 	Send 4 
 	sleep 0
	}
return
}

[Passa]

Sobe do you use this addon?

[Charlagain]

Yes he does.

[Puddingcup]

I was thinking.. this addon coupled with a non-cancel channeling macro would be amazing for Mind Flay to reduce clipping the third tick. I downloaded an addon to give me stats on how many ticks I clip and it's staggering how much damage you can miss out on a fight where you don't have the luxury to stare at the quartz bar.

Edit:
I downloaded it and tested it on a target dummy doing my normal rotation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mind Flay tick statistics
116 ticks
7 clipped (5.7% of possible ticks)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mind Flay casting estimatiosn
Channeling: 75.3s
Effective Casting: 85.2s
Cast Time Lost: 9.9s, 11.6% of total
-----------------------------------------------------------------



Then to eliminate human error I afked for a minute with my Mind Flay key held down.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mind Flay casting estimations
174 ticks
23 clipped (11.7% of possible ticks)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mind Flay casting estimations
Channeling: 112.9s
Effective Casting: 124.7s
Cast time Lost: 11.7, 9.4% of total
-----------------------------------------------------------------

So with it spamming my hotkey faster than I literally can... I lost 9.4% of my cast time? I'm running with 124 ms at the moment so latency shouldn't be a problem.

I'm also not sure how so many ticks got clipped with the non-cancel macro. I'm assuming the mod i'm using for this info is just faulty...

Edit again:
It's still really nice to not have to look at my channeling bar.

[Hecatus]

Mind flay's last proc is 0.5 seconds before the cast time ends. In short you can actually clip it juuuuust right and it'll show half a second later (invisible missile dealio)

That said, a macro doesn't let you clip, spamming the macro prevents clipping period. This is one of the few spells in game where it pays off to micromanage. (In most cases)

[Puddingcup]

The point is to prevent clipping between MFs.
The autohotkey coupled with the macro should reduce the time between channels to milliseconds with latency or not.

However, my mod is telling me that i'm still clipping my MF. So i'm tossing the mod aside and keeping ahk.

[Hecatus]

Well yea.

I'm saying that there's two options.

You can never clip and ahk/macro...or you can non-macro manually do it.

The primary yields the safest bet. As far as efficiency goes, you will never be top. The latter yields maximum efficiency provided you do it right. It's really a choice and preference.

[Puddingcup]

How can you possibly be more efficient than ahk+macro

[Guinthel]

I tired your macro, it slows dps way to much

[Sobeyet]

If the MF mechanic works as Hec describes (last tick hitting 0.5 sec before end of the channel), you wouldn't want to let the channel run to completion.

I forget if Drain Soul works that way, but it's rare to let DS run to completion since there's usually something to refresh. There's no mod that tells you when the 3rd tick goes off? I use a mod that tells me each time DS ticks so I can refresh crap immediately after a tick.

And yes Passa, I've been using it since 2007 or so.

[Puddingcup]

Then Hecatus is clipping his MF.

[Hecatus]

The mechanic works as I said. I'm almost positive, like 95% sure. I clip occasionally, but only because of certain scenarios or occasional lag. It's not too bad though.

[Sobeyet]

Puddingcup, on 17 April 2010 - 09:09 PM, said:

Then Hecatus is clipping his MF.

Depends on your definition of clipping. He's clipping the cast portion, but getting the full damage. In that sense you'd want to clip, since why would you waste time casting when it's no longer doing damage? Again this all hinges on MF working as Hecatus says it does.

If the mod tells you if the channel is clipping, but not if the damage is clipping, then it sounds like a pretty useless mod.

Bottom line, one of you should figure out exactly how it works.

Also, is there a proc or something that drastically changes the cast time of MF? Once I play a class for a while I can usually tell how long things take to cast without looking at a cast bar. Same goes for dots, CDs, etc. Staring at a MF cast bar must be killing your awareness. (and yes, I realize that both of you usually do fine in terms of not standing in fire, doesn't mean you're doing as well you could/should.)

[Hecatus]

Welcome to that other night where I put the ice tomb on the wrong side >>

[Puddingcup]

Sobeyet, on 17 April 2010 - 09:38 PM, said:

Puddingcup, on 17 April 2010 - 09:09 PM, said:

Then Hecatus is clipping his MF.

Depends on your definition of clipping. He's clipping the cast portion, but getting the full damage. In that sense you'd want to clip, since why would you waste time casting when it's no longer doing damage? Again this all hinges on MF working as Hecatus says it does.

If the mod tells you if the channel is clipping, but not if the damage is clipping, then it sounds like a pretty useless mod.

Bottom line, one of you should figure out exactly how it works.

Also, is there a proc or something that drastically changes the cast time of MF? Once I play a class for a while I can usually tell how long things take to cast without looking at a cast bar. Same goes for dots, CDs, etc. Staring at a MF cast bar must be killing your awareness. (and yes, I realize that both of you usually do fine in terms of not standing in fire, doesn't mean you're doing as well you could/should.)

The initial reason for getting ahk was because quartz does not adjust the latency as it changes throughout your channel which causes a staggering count of MF clips over 6 minutes.

The animation is a little buggy ever since 3.1 so you can get all 3 ticks before the animation ends with x haste but it's not reliable and you lose more dps from clips than what you made up by doing that in cast time lost.

To answer your question, t10 4pc drops MF cast time and interval drastically.

[Hecatus]

Puddingcup, on 17 April 2010 - 10:33 PM, said:

Sobeyet, on 17 April 2010 - 09:38 PM, said:

Puddingcup, on 17 April 2010 - 09:09 PM, said:

Then Hecatus is clipping his MF.

Depends on your definition of clipping. He's clipping the cast portion, but getting the full damage. In that sense you'd want to clip, since why would you waste time casting when it's no longer doing damage? Again this all hinges on MF working as Hecatus says it does.

If the mod tells you if the channel is clipping, but not if the damage is clipping, then it sounds like a pretty useless mod.

Bottom line, one of you should figure out exactly how it works.

Also, is there a proc or something that drastically changes the cast time of MF? Once I play a class for a while I can usually tell how long things take to cast without looking at a cast bar. Same goes for dots, CDs, etc. Staring at a MF cast bar must be killing your awareness. (and yes, I realize that both of you usually do fine in terms of not standing in fire, doesn't mean you're doing as well you could/should.)

The initial reason for getting ahk was because quartz does not adjust the latency as it changes throughout your channel which causes a staggering count of MF clips over 6 minutes.

The animation is a little buggy ever since 3.1 so you can get all 3 ticks before the animation ends with x haste but it's not reliable and you lose more dps from clips than what you made up by doing that in cast time lost.

To answer your question, t10 4pc drops MF cast time and interval drastically.

I only trust Quartz for when to start casting dots etc for the most part. If you practice long enough on a dummy, you can eyeball when to clip the MF cast. It's not exactly a cake walk, but somewhere after the last tick mark on quartz, and about mid way before casting ends (not including the quartz lag zone) will usually get the last tick, saving you bout a quarter of a second on each cast still.

Does MFClip even update anymore? Last I heard the maker had incorporated it into a different addon he was creating and halted it.

[Sobeyet]

Puddingcup, on 17 April 2010 - 10:33 PM, said:

The initial reason for getting ahk was because quartz does not adjust the latency as it changes throughout your channel which causes a staggering count of MF clips over 6 minutes.

Yes, but you shouldn't be going off the cast bar anyway, whether you're using Quartz/AHK or not. There really is no mod that tracks ticks (not cast time) of MF in real time?

Puddingcup, on 17 April 2010 - 10:33 PM, said:

The animation is a little buggy ever since 3.1 so you can get all 3 ticks before the animation ends with x haste but it's not reliable and you lose more dps from clips than what you made up by doing that in cast time lost.

Shouldn't be looking at the animation either.

Puddingcup, on 17 April 2010 - 10:33 PM, said:

To answer your question, t10 4pc drops MF cast time and interval drastically.

Not what I asked, if your MF cast is usually constant in combat (accounting for BL and Trinket procs obviously) you should have a feel for when the ticks hit, at least after a few months of playing a class. For example, after playing on my lock I knew when my dots were falling off even without looking at a timer. As a healer, I'd memorize the swing timer for bosses so I could time when to land heals immediately after the tank gets hit, etc. Just an extension of muscle memory.