Efficient Casting in Classic WoW: Spellcaster's Guide to Classic Era, Hardcore, Season of Discovery

yo what is good everyone in this video I'm going to show you six essential spellcasting mechanics in WoW classic that will enable you to become the best possible Caster you can be mastering these mechanics is really what separates a good spell Caster from a great spell Caster in the classic world of Azeroth now these mechanics apply to every class that cast spells using mana and function not only in classic era but also hardcore and now the upcoming season of Discovery so if you're planning on becoming a god tier Arcane healing Mage or maybe an invincible warlock demon tank practicing and eventually mastering these mechanics will be very beneficial for your journey these mechanics are the 5-second rule the two-c tick chugging Global moving jump kiting and latency cancelling now they might sound a little confusing but I promise you they are not they're actually quite simple and the ideas sort of build on each other to where once you understand them casting efficiently in the classic Universe becomes much more intuitive okay let's start out with the one you may be familiar with if you've played any amount of classic already and that is the 5-second rule so basically what this means is that anytime you cast a spell that uses Mana there will be a 5-second window immediately following that cast where your Mana regeneration will be completely turned off during these 5 Seconds you will generate exactly zero mana and your spirit stat will be completely useless now there are a few exceptions to this the main one being through Talent so Mage Druid and priest all have access to a talent that will give them up to 15% Mana regeneration while casting so if you see this verbiage what this means is that you will get access to 15% of your normal Manor generation from Spirit during the 5-second rule it has nothing to do with your actual cast bar and it's important to note that starting a cast will not trigger the 5-second rule you have to actually cast the spell so if you start casting a spell but cancel it before it goes off your Mana regeneration will stay active but as soon as you reach the end of that cast bar or as soon as you cast an instant spell or start channeling a spell the 5-second rule will kick in okay so how can we use this information to actually become better spellcasters basically what this mechanic implies is that if you want to be efficient with your Mana you should try to cast spells together in groups or batches like back to back or one right after the other so let's use an example to simplify things imagine a scenario where we need to use three instant cast spells within a 15-second window so let's say we cast one spell right away at the start of the fight then we're waiting to see what happens and cast another one 5 seconds later and then maybe we try to heal ourselves 5 seconds after that in this scenario the 5-sec rule will have been activated a new after each of those casts so our Mana regeneration will have been completely turned off during the entire 15 seconds now let's imagine we cast the same three spells except we do it back to back right at the beginning of the 15-second window just like before the 5-second rule will begin a new after every cast but we can actually completely cancel its effect simply by casting again which starts a new 5-second window so in this example where we cast three spells back to back we only have to wait out a single 5-second rule after the third cast since the first two were canceled by immediately casting again if we compare the two scenarios casting the Spells spread apart will give us zero Mana generation during the 15 seconds since we waited through three separate 5-second rules whereas casting them back to back will allow us to regenerate Mana for the last 8 Seconds of the 15-second window so simply by casting the Spells together we got 8 Seconds of Mana regeneration more than the zero we got from the first scenario and this my friends is the beginning of efficient spell casting now just because you know this doesn't you should always do it combat in this game is quite Dynamic and there are plenty of situations that require you to react and cast something immediately regardless of your Mana regen or when your last cast was but now that you understand exactly how it works you'll always know in the back of your head that casting spells together in batches will always be the most efficient in terms of mana and so if you just start implementing this idea wherever and whenever you can you'll always be generating the most amount of Mana possible okay so the second mechanic is the two-c tick and this one is fairly simple basically under the hood and wow classic there is a constantly moving 2cond timer that determines when you get health and Mana from regeneration both health and Mana do not regenerate consistently over time like they do in future versions of the game instead you will get little chunks every two seconds this 2second tick timer is completely independent of anything you do it will always be ticking exactly every 2 seconds for everyone on the server spirit is the attribute that determines how much health and Mana you get with every 2C tick health will regenerate with every tick but only out of combat Mana will regenerate with every tick both in and out of combat and will only be turned off by casting which activates the 5-second rule we just discussed any ticks that happen during the 5-second rule will be missed now it's important to note that the 5-second rule is independent of the two-c tick meaning the two-c tick is constantly running at the same rate and the 5-second rule can kick in at any time depending on when you cast a spell what this means is that with good timing your 5-second rule will run out just before the 2-c tick hit hits and so you'll get a tick of Mana immediately and conversely with bad timing the 5-second rule will run out just after the 2cond tick hits and so you have to wait almost another two seconds before you get a tick of Mana now this one admittedly is a bit harder to play around and it's only worth paying attention to if you're really trying to Mid Max but basically if you cast a spell just before the 2cond tick is halfway through so like just under one second into the tick timer like 0.9 seconds that will result in the 5sec rule from your cast timing out just before the next tick comes through giving you the maximum amount of generation possible now where the 2cond tick becomes super important is with the third mechanic which is chugging as a high warlord Mage my conquest of the Battlegrounds became much more enjoyable once I really figured this out because it actually allows us to move while drinking now this is most cost efficient on Mage because we can summon unlimited water but can be done on any class and works not just with water and Mana but also with food and health so it functions based off the two-c tick mechanic we just discussed whether you're you're regenerating naturally from your spirit or sitting down to take a drink the two-c tick works the same all drinking or eating does is add the amount given from the food or water buff to the amount you're already regenerating from Spirit it still only comes with every two second tick you just get more of it so as long as we have the food or water puff active when the 2C tick hits we will get that bonus added on top of our natural regeneration what this means is that the only time we actually have to be eating or drinking is right when the 2C tick hits and so if we have a enough food or water we can actually move in between each tick and simply activate our food or water again exactly 2 seconds later which is right before it hits again if we repeat this Cadence we can actually continue moving at close to our normal Pace while generating the same amount of Mana as we would just sitting in one spot drinking the only difference is we are consuming much more water and so if you're playing Mage I think you should do this basically all the time and if you're playing another class it's just a matter of cost versus efficiency and so if you have a bit of extra gold you can do it all the time but if not you can choose to only utilize it in important situations like healing a dungeon where you have to keep up with the Zug tank who isn't watching your Mana you could also become friends with a Mage and nicely ask them to make you some when you log on but please be sure to tip them well because it's still taking up their time and I can confirm that it's really annoying to be treated like a vending machine so to perform this amazing feat all you have to do is consume a food or water right before the two second TI hits and almost immediately after it does you can get up and start moving in for two seconds then do it again repeat this until you're full Mana or in position to engage the enemy I used to be a lot better at this during my high warlord grind but with practice you can get it feeling really fluid and once you get the Cadence down you can even do it without looking at your HUD or the tick timer just based on feel if you want to do both food and water at the same time you can make this easy chug macro so they are on the same button for whatever reason I find it easier to move with my mouse when I do this like hold both left and right click down because my water is bound to control C on my keyboard so moving completely with the mouse lets me have perfect timing on that keystroke without having to worry about pressing W before or after now I use lvi which has a really good visual on the castar for both the 2C tick and the 5sec rule but everything we've discussed can be done without these visuals which is how I used to do it basically just watch your health and mana and you'll be able to see when it goes up every couple seconds with the two-c server tick and then just know that every time you cast a spell your regeneration will be turned off for 5 seconds and it seems like the 5-sec rule is only engaged by spells that consume Mana so spells that give you Mana so like life tap on Warlock and like evocation on Mage actually do not start the 5-second rule so now that we understand how to chug it's important to realize that our water buff can actually override the 5sec rule and so basically what that means is as soon as we get out of combat like as soon as you kill something your 5-second rule is likely going to be going if you are a caster and had casted something at it to kill it even though you won't be getting generation from your spirit during those 5 Seconds you can sit and drink and you will get the Mana every 2 second tick from your water during the 5-second rule just not your spirit and as soon as the 5-second rule is up then you will be getting it from both your spirit and your water and so if you're trying to have maximum Mana efficiency like moving between mobs as soon as you get out of combat is the best time to start drinking because you can sort of override a little bit of that 5-second rule uh with some extra Mana from your water and then as soon as you see that first tick come through with both your uh in your water you can get up and move and start your chug sequence quick caveat here because it's really relevant to the next mechanic there are basically three ways spells get cast in wow Hard casted channeled or instant most spells in classic World of Warcraft are hard casted meaning you have to stand still and charge up the cast before it goes off and the spell will only trigger once the cast bar is fully charged and this is also when the Mana cost of the spell is consumed and when the 5-second rule kicks in channeled spells trigger instantly but you still have to stand still to cast them and the effect usually happens with ticks over the time you are channeling so like a mage's Arcane missiles or Blizzard or a druid's tranquility and unlike hard casted spells these consume the Mana cost and start the 5-second cooldown at the beginning of the channel and then finally we have instant cast spells which trigger right away and thus can be cast while moving it's worth noting that hard casted and channeled spells are generally more Mana efficient than instant cast spells meaning you are going to get more damage or healing for the amount of Mana it costs and this is the trade-off of actually having to stand still and cast them versus getting to cast them instantly while moving all right so the fourth mechanic is global moving AKA using your Global cooldown to move and this is probably the most important of the mechanics to understand because it will really allow you to maximize your DPS or healing output while still being able to reposition it's a fairly simple concept almost every ability and spell in the game inflicts what is called a global cool down which is essentially a 1second window where all your other spells and abilities are disabled the only thing you can really do do during the gcd is auto attack or move knowing this if we're trying to maximize our DPS or healing as a Caster we should try to use this 1 second Global cooldown time to reposition this will give us the same DPS as if we're standing in one spot because the only time we are moving is when the gcd is triggered so we can't do anything during that window anyways now unlike the 5-sec rule the global cooldown kicks in when you begin casting a spell not when it actually gets cast since most spells take longer than 1 second to cast most of the time your Global cooldown will be reset by the time your cast actually goes off this means that to maximize your output when standing still you'll almost always want to try to immediately follow up a cast with another cast either hard casted or channeled since the global cooldown starts at the beginning of our cast this will make it so we are always utilizing this one second downtime to do something useful which in this case is charging up the next cast or channeling something instead of sitting there doing nothing grouping cast together like this not only maximizes DPS but also leverages the Regeneration TCH itics from the 5sec rule that we discussed earlier now when you do need to move a reposition instead of instantly following a hardcas or Channel with another hardcast or Channel you'll want to immediately follow it with an instant cast spell unlike hard casted or channeled spells where you are charging or channeling the next cast during the global cooldown instant cast spells trigger right away and so you will have a full second of global cooldown time where you can't cast again so this is your opportunity to move as a Caster trying to maximize your DPS or healing you should always be thinking about if you're going to need to reposition or not if you don't need to reposition you want to focus mostly on utilizing hard casted or channeled spells as these are generally more Mana efficient than instant cast spells meaning they do more damage or healing per Mana cost as soon as you do need to move a reposition you should follow the spell you are currently casting or channeling with an instant cast spell and use this 1 second Global cooldown window to move and then go right back into your casting rotation if you have to move far you want to try to change several instant cast together while you move so there is absolutely no downtime in your damage or healing rotation someone who is using the global cooldown effectively to reposition will be able to get off several more casts during the same fight than someone who is not and really the only time you don't want to do this is if you are trying to conserve or regenerate Mana so for an easy example on Mage when I'm blasting stuff and it starts to get close to me I'll follow whatever I'm casting at that time with an instant fire blast and use this 1 second cool down to hop backward before I begin my next cast you can use this same concept to increase your efficiency when leveling or mowing through dungeons by using an instant cast spell for the killing blow and using that gcd to move forward instead of backward and this idea leads us right into the fifth mechanic which is Jump kiting basically what this means is that when you're using these 1 second Global cooldowns to move you can turn and jump in the direction you want to travel which ends up being backward a lot of the time if we're trying to kite and then instead of having to keep our character or the camera facing away from our Target backward as soon as we jump we can spin the camera back around while we're in the air and our character will be facing the target while still traveling backward through the air not only will this let you keep tabs on what your target is doing but will also prevent you from getting dazed very often in PVE because the only time your back is facing the target is the Split Second where you turn and jump you'll also find that this turn jump spin in land sequence takes about a second which lines up perfectly with our Global cooldown so right after we follow a hard casted spell with an instant spell to reposition we want to turn the camera towards the direction we want to move a lot of the time backward jump in that direction C then spin the camera back around in the air and by the time we land our Global cool down has timed out so we can go right back into our casting rotation now the other situation where you want to utilize jump kiting is when using a wand so just like casting a spell as soon as you trigger your Wand Action it will initiate the global cool down and so you can use this same 1se second window right after you shoot to turn and hop backward between each wand shot and it doesn't always have to be backward it's usually backward if you're kiting but it can be forward if you're chasing or to the side if you are repositioning out of the fire once you get good at it you can move between each wot and still get almost as many shots off as someone who is just standing still now while we're talking about wanding it's a great time to bring up the swing time which basically determines how often you can Auto attack with your melee and ranged weapons if you look at the stats for any weapon in the game you'll see a speed in the top right this speed is the swing timer meaning that is exactly how often your character will swing that weapon at the target with an auto attack when wielding it it's very important to know that almost all spells reset the swing timer when they get cast and so if your staff has a 3se second speed and you swing it to bop something you have to wait 3 seconds to whack it again and in general if you cast any spells during this window that 3se second timer will reset so you have to wait another full 3 seconds after the cast to get that swing to go through this means the best and most efficient time to cast a spell when Auto attacking something is right after your melee swing hits now there's a really interesting interaction between the wand and the melee swing timers where using the wand action reset the melee swing timer just like a spell does but the melee swing action doesn't reset the wand timer and so you can actually get an almost instant wand shot in immediately following a melee Auto attack the main time you'll want to utilize this idea as a wand user is when you're trying to conserve or regenerate mana and something is running up to you basically what you can do is right click it and start your melee swing timer before it gets into melee range which makes it so the instant it enters your melee range your character will make a melee swing which you can follow up with an instant wand attack and then move right into your wand jump kiting that we just discussed also quick tip if you hate the way the default Wand Action toggles off when you press it again you can use this macro that I use instead and this is basically just the first part of the default Wand Action to start the attack without the second part to cancel it and this will let you sort of spam that button without worrying about the wand attack getting canceled or toggled off all right so the last mechanic is very simple and easy and it is called latency cancelling if you have any kind of casar add-on almost all of them will show you your lat latency to the server when you input that cast with this little red section at the end what this is showing you is the delay between your client and the server and so if you have a lot of latency this red section will be a sizable chunk of your cast bar and if you have low latency it shows almost nothing which is how mine appears most of the time all you have to do to maximize your efficiency with this knowledge is treat the beginning of the red section as the end of the cast bar meaning as soon as your cast animation reaches that very first part of the red in the bar you can act like your cast has completed because the cast actually has completed on the server side but is lagging slightly behind on your client side so right when it reaches the first part of the red you can consider that cast completed and immediately take your next action either starting the next cast or using an instant cast into a global move like we just discussed okay so putting it all together here's what we got we're trying to cast spells together in groups as often as possible both to maximize our DPS or healing and also leverage the functionality of the 5-second rule to maximize our Mana regen Windows we're staying aware of the 2cond tick and using this to to chug so we can continue moving while drinking if we just killed something with a cast we want to drink immediately after combat drops to override the 5sec rule with our water and as soon as the 5-second rule times out we can begin our normal chugging to regenerate while moving again we're trying to stand still and hard cast or Channel as much as possible to get the most efficient damage or healing out of the Mana we have available in our pool and then as soon as we need to reposition we want to follow up our current cast with an instant cast spell and use that 1 second global cool down to move by jump kiting if we need to continue moving we can either chain together more instant cast spells so we don't leave a gap in our rotation or if we're trying to be Mana efficient we can begin jump kiting with our wand and finally if you put all these mechanics together and begin practicing them soon they will begin to feel like second nature and you will find yourself becoming a classic Caster God by outputting the most amount of damage and healing possible while utilizing your Mana in the most efficient way boom that's all I got for this one I hope it was useful I've currently been messing around with all four versions of the game meaning classic era hardcore classic wrath and Retail but I'm going to be focusing a ton on this season of Discovery coming up in about a week because I absolutely love Theory crafting and testing new builds and with the new spells getting added in the artificial level bands it's going to be the wild west a completely open meta where no one has anything figured out yet and that just sounds amazing to me and so I'll be doing everything in there PVE PVP uh and probably playing a bunch of classes besides just Mage but I will be starting off for sure on an Arcane healing Mage at the beginning so during that I'll be doing my best to create build guide videos on any cool builds I discover uh and I'm actually going to try to use this opportunity to sort of kick off my stream and I've streamed before for like a couple day chunks several times in the past but have never uh fully committed to it cuz I honestly wasn't even sure if I wanted to try to do it uh but this version of the game seems like the perfect storm of everything I love about wow and so I'm going all in on it and I'm going to try to be live for most of the time I'm playing while still making solid videos so if you want to hang out in theory craft with me in the season of Discovery I will be live on Twitch at ziger with a zero um but besides that uh thank you very much for watching uh take care of yourself and I will catch you in the next one peace

Channel: Zikorik

Views: 108,556

Keywords: wow classic, season of discovery, classic wow, hardcore wow, classic era, wow season of discovery, wow classic season of discovery, hardcore, era, classic, world of warcraft, mage, druid, shaman, paladin, priest, warlock

Id: 1JSccWIvk44

Length: 20min 15sec (1215 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 23 2023