Critical Mass Melee Wizard

[Karth]

Whats this swing timer you mentioned? I get the important part, explosive blast and diamond skin wont interrupt the others. But can mashing nova interrupt or get in the way of diamond skin, how does that work? Assuming theres enough AP, why cant they always be cast if their respective cooldown is up?

Some skills use the 'swing timer' and these skills cannot be used at the same time. Much like a barb can't cleave while he's using frenzy, a wizard cannot cast frost nova while casting wicked wind. Other skills do not use the swing timer and can thus be cast while you're taking other actions, like you can cast diamond skin or explosive blast while casting frost nova or wicked wind.

I haven't really tested it thoroughly, but there seems to be a limit to the number of non-timered skills being used. For example, it seems that I can spam explosive blast faster if I stop trying to spam diamond skin. There are all sorts of ways I could be wrong about this though.

[MrNajsman]

Thanks for the info! Nice disclaimer in the end there

[galzohar]

I was watching a video I made frame-by-frame and did notice that occasionally there would be a delay (much higher than my 100-200ms I should get from my internet connection) for casting explosive blast while spamming everything. Though I'm really unsure what is causing this, as sometimes even diamond skin doesn't seem to cast in time and I die even though again it seemed like there was too much time between my cast and my death to shrug it off as "latency". Keep in mind, though, that while I'm dying I'm running away and thus not really spamming explosive blast anymore.

[magicrectangle]

I don't know what explanation there would be for that other than latency.

Teleport is on the swing timer - that fact has resulted in my death a bunch of times. But I've never died because diamond skin wouldn't cast.

[Karth]

It might (partly) be that I'm simply hitting the explosive blast key faster when I'm not also mashing the key for diamond skin. If I get bored or curious enough and find that people aren't getting banned for g13 macros I might make one to eliminate human error and see what happens.

[magicrectangle]

It might (partly) be that I'm simply hitting the explosive blast key faster when I'm not also mashing the key for diamond skin. If I get bored or curious enough and find that people aren't getting banned for g13 macros I might make one to eliminate human error and see what happens.

Honestly, if they ban you for saving yourself from carpal tunnel, they can choke on a phallus.

In all seriousness, it may be in technical violation of the ToS, but I know lots of people who've been using g15 macros since the game's release and haven't been warned or banned. They write the ToS to be overly broad, but they only actually target the botters for banning, not people relieving wrist strain.

[Kyrone FX]

Hey guys!

Just wanted to show my new upgrades, got them really really cheap

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/1562/built.png

Yet somehow, when I was playing this morning in Act 3, I got absolutely destroyed. Death after death after death. Horrible mobs are one thing, but I'm guessing that the connection was really bad (playing on US servers from Austria, win.), as sometimes I literally smashed the teleport button in desperate hope to survive but it just wouldn't execute... :'D

Do you guys also die that often or is it my own/my connections's fault? I thought my resistances (900+) and 9000 armor should now really be more than enough, but Act 3 still kills me so fast, it's ridiculous.

Now I don't know whether to switch to a source from a shield, because I don't plan on dying much more -.-'

Glad for any advice, cheers!

[Kyrone FX]

It might (partly) be that I'm simply hitting the explosive blast key faster when I'm not also mashing the key for diamond skin. If I get bored or curious enough and find that people aren't getting banned for g13 macros I might make one to eliminate human error and see what happens.

When I was still using MF gear I used a script to quickly swap it, just out of lazyness...I highly highly doubt that they will ban someone because of that, since you're not changing the game or sth. like this. Also I wonder if they could even detect that?
Well hit me up if your script is ready, my fingers are getting sore as hell

[Karth]

When I was still using MF gear I used a script to quickly swap it, just out of lazyness...I highly highly doubt that they will ban someone because of that, since you're not changing the game or sth. like this. Also I wonder if they could even detect that?
Well hit me up if your script is ready, my fingers are getting sore as hell

As I understand it, the EULA for Blizzard games essentially says that only one action should come from one keystroke. Catching someone using a simple macro on a timer would be supremely simple; log the timing of keystrokes and examine how much they vary. If they don't, you have a macro. Is it worth the time to Blizzard? Probably not; actual bots are a far bigger threat to the game after all.

It would just be a standard g13 macro, not a script or anything complex. I also don't think that they're discrete files; I think the macros are just part of the profile you have for a particular game.

[magicrectangle]

Yet somehow, when I was playing this morning in Act 3, I got absolutely destroyed. Death after death after death. Horrible mobs are one thing, but I'm guessing that the connection was really bad (playing on US servers from Austria, win.), as sometimes I literally smashed the teleport button in desperate hope to survive but it just wouldn't execute... :'D

This isn't actually caused by lag. Teleport is on the weapon swing timer. If you've just cast a wicked wind or frost nova, you have to wait ~2/3 of a second (whatever your swing time is) before you can teleport. Definitely the worst thing about teleport, and something that killed me a lot when I was learning the build (and still kills me occasionally). You have to immediately stop your frost nova and wicked wind spam when you realize you're in trouble, and just spam diamond skin and teleport. Teleport will go off whenever your swing timer comes up again.

Do you guys also die that often or is it my own/my connections's fault? I thought my resistances (900+) and 9000 armor should now really be more than enough, but Act 3 still kills me so fast, it's ridiculous.

I run with 1000 res all and 7k armor, so your mitigation is quite a bit better than mine. That's not your problem. I described the teleport situation above, but it is also possible that lag is getting to you in a separate way. Your frost nova lockdown can be weakened/broken by lag, as essentially every spell you're supposed to be spamming gets a delay introduced. I usually have under 100ms latency, but last night I had 200+ (spiking to 600+ sometimes) for some reason, and I definitely died a lot more than usual.

A typical death count for me on a full clear of act 3 is 2-4 deaths. Last night was like 10 because of lag - but I still made a substantial profit.