So ProfitUI has an autoattack bar that "fills up" as your autoattack approaches. How am I meant to use this to time my CAs? Basically, should I only cast a CA when the bar is filling up, and stop when it gets near full?

As a level 80 zerker tanking heroic instances, does it really matter how I time my CAs?

More than 60% of your damage comes (or should come) from auto-attack. The general idea is that you see the bar fill up and then just "sit there", you're spamming CAs that are preventing you from maximizing your damage output. So, yes, when it's near full, you shouldn't be using any attacks that have a long cast time that would prevent the auto-attack swing.

ACT has a plug-in that's similar in purpose; it'll "beep" when you auto-attack/double-attack and you should hear a regular rhythm of <beep><pause><beep><pause>, with the length of the pause being determined by your swing speed. If it's erratic and/or it stops beeping, then you know that you're not auto-attacking; either you're spamming CAs, or you're out of range of the mob.

As to whether you should worry about auto-attacking in heroic instances, I would say that you should always worry about optimizing your gameplay and doing the best that you can; and timing your auto-attacks is part of that in this game. YMMV.

By the way, an interesting thing with the timer bar is that for dual-wielding, it clearly demonstrates in a visual way why using two weapons with different speeds is a big fail.

Kordran wrote:

More than 60% of your damage comes (or should come) from auto-attack. The general idea is that you see the bar fill up and then just "sit there", you're spamming CAs that are preventing you from maximizing your damage output. So, yes, when it's near full, you shouldn't be using any attacks that have a long cast time that would prevent the auto-attack swing.

ACT has a plug-in that's similar in purpose; it'll "beep" when you auto-attack/double-attack and you should hear a regular rhythm of , with the length of the pause being determined by your swing speed. If it's erratic and/or it stops beeping, then you know that you're not auto-attacking; either you're spamming CAs, or you're out of range of the mob.

As to whether you should worry about auto-attacking in heroic instances, I would say that you should always worry about optimizing your gameplay and doing the best that you can; and timing your auto-attacks is part of that in this game. YMMV.

By the way, an interesting thing with the timer bar is that for dual-wielding, it clearly demonstrates in a visual way why using two weapons with different speeds is a big fail.

I completely agree, you should ALWAYS play the best you can, and two different dual-wield speeds is fail.

You have to turn off the frames in the window to get a bar for both weapons. As it is installed, you just see one bar (if I remember correctly).

Phlotsam@Lucan DLere wrote:

You have to turn off the frames in the window to get a bar for both weapons. As it is installed, you just see one bar (if I remember correctly).

Better to match your delays so this isn't an issue.

The results of timing attacks varies quite a bit between classes.  On my dirge, it can easily vary my  parse by 30-35%.  On my guardian only about 10%.  Hybrid classes, and those classes with abilities that have longer cast timers will see more value from timing attacks.

Classes that have .5s or less cast times on 90% of their abilities will see only marginal differences timing the attacks. 

You should be timing attacks solo, in groups, and in raids, there is no reason not to play your best regardless of what you are doing.

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Phlotsam@Lucan DLere wrote:

You have to turn off the frames in the window to get a bar for both weapons. As it is installed, you just see one bar (if I remember correctly).

Better to match your delays so this isn't an issue.

The results of timing attacks varies quite a bit between classes.  On my dirge, it can easily vary my  parse by 30-35%.  On my guardian only about 10%.  Hybrid classes, and those classes with abilities that have longer cast timers will see more value from timing attacks.

Classes that have .5s or less cast times on 90% of their abilities will see only marginal differences timing the attacks. 

You should be timing attacks solo, in groups, and in raids, there is no reason not to play your best regardless of what you are doing.

 

I'm not sure what gear your using... but for your dirge your auto attack should be in or around the 50% area

PandaExpress wrote:

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Phlotsam@Lucan DLere wrote:

You have to turn off the frames in the window to get a bar for both weapons. As it is installed, you just see one bar (if I remember correctly).

Better to match your delays so this isn't an issue.

The results of timing attacks varies quite a bit between classes.  On my dirge, it can easily vary my  parse by 30-35%.  On my guardian only about 10%.  Hybrid classes, and those classes with abilities that have longer cast timers will see more value from timing attacks.

Classes that have .5s or less cast times on 90% of their abilities will see only marginal differences timing the attacks. 

You should be timing attacks solo, in groups, and in raids, there is no reason not to play your best regardless of what you are doing.

 

I'm not sure what gear your using... but for your dirge your auto attack should be in or around the 50% area

You failed to read my post.  Timing or not timing the autoattacks causes parses to vary by as much as 30-35%.

Yes, autoattack is around 55% of my parsed damage, but that wasn't what I was saying.  The act of tming them or not timing them results in a net difference of 30-35% for that class.   Other classes see a smaller amount.  For example on my guard it is only about 10% difference in total parse timing or not timing.

Many factors affect this, but guard with the lower delay weapons, and rarely using a ca over a .5s cast time, not paying attention to timings causes an average additional delay of around .25 seconds.  Over a 2 min fight, that doesn't translate to all that many additional swings.  However a dirge with some abilities on a 2s cast times with 4s delay weapons, its possible to delay a melee swing by several seconds if not timed, and that can more rapidly add up to significant dps.

I was attempting to explain the revelance of the activity, not demonstrate what % of bard dps is potentially from auto attack.

I just recently started using the Autoattack timer bar.

I am seeing the bar 'stall' more often than I had expected....I had been using the 'metrodome' approach using ACT and thought I had a good rythm going...but it seems I am delaying things

Another problem I have is I have yet to find a decent 3sec delay weapon to offHand. 

Had a question, searched and found this. Doesn't quite answer it. I am using the same thing here.

I am a bruiser that is dual wielding, same delay weapons, 3 sec I believe.

I am assuming since I have a top and bottom bar they represent both weapons. I notice that sometimes they are not synchronized. Is that normal for same speed weapons? Sometimes one will stall for a bit too. Is that just a problem with the autoattack add on?

Gaylon@Mistmoore wrote:

I just recently started using the Autoattack timer bar.

I am seeing the bar 'stall' more often than I had expected....I had been using the 'metrodome' approach using ACT and thought I had a good rythm going...but it seems I am delaying things

Another problem I have is I have yet to find a decent 3sec delay weapon to offHand. 

Use your longest casting CA right after the autoattack fires. Then follow up by shorter casting ones. You may want to rearrange your hotbars into 'slow cast' and 'fast cast' CAs.

Also note that the weapon delay varies by haste/attack speed and so being a bard or having a bard in your group will affect that substantially.

Brag@Antonia Bayle wrote:

So ProfitUI has an autoattack bar that "fills up" as your autoattack approaches. How am I meant to use this to time my CAs? Basically, should I only cast a CA when the bar is filling up, and stop when it gets near full?

As a level 80 zerker tanking heroic instances, does it really matter how I time my CAs?

I normally don't pay huge amounts of attention to the bar. I use it for two things:

1. I try and use my long-firing AOEs only when the bar's below 50%, to keep them from stalling out my autoattack swings.
2. If the bar hits full and stalls, I hold my next CA until the bar resets. Usually the stall's caused by recovery time. If it's nearly full I'll also usually hold my next CA to let autoattack go off on time.

I make exceptions to both for emergencies. With most of my CAs being .5s base, and hastes and buffs speeding various things up, I'm not usually stalled for very long even if I miss the timing and the bar runs so fast it's hard to actually time it perfectly anyway.

It also depends on level and gear. I've found at low levels auto-attack isn't nearly as great a contributor to overall DPS as it is at higher levels. You're probably using mastercrafted weapons and all you've got is their basic damage, so CAs can overwhelm autoattack. In the upper tiers you're probably using weapons with better basic damage than mastercrafted, and you'll have gear that gives additional damage to your weapon. In T1 a single CA may do several times the damage of an autoattack swing, so you lose more than you gain by holding off on a CA. In T8 your autoattack can do almost as much damage as some CAs, so if you stall it you effectively lose a free CA worth of damage.

The timer for ACT works better and is more accurate than the profit timer.

Noen@Guk wrote:

The timer for ACT works better and is more accurate than the profit timer.

Would you please explain what makes this so?

The programing of the actual UI is not wrong in the final version. The problem is now with the Dynamic data. To prove this here is my test file, all it contains is the three bars and no scripting to hide or show.

Download the following file. www.lithin.com/razieh/UI/Beta/Razc_Attack2.zip

Place the file into your custom UI folder.

Add the following to your eq2ui_customl.xml file.  <include>Razc_Attack2.xml</include>

In game type the following. /show_window Custom.Attack2

Then you will have a window that shows all three bars 100% of the time no scriping to hide or what not. The dynamic data is either lagging or not being updated correctly. Some where down the line that happend. The UI itself is working perfectly fine though.