Stop Cast

[StouterTaru]

Using /stopcast at the beginning of a macro can be a substantial DPS increase over a moving or jumping to clip cast times or hit procs.

Macros in this game don't work like that, your stopcast and bloodletter would try to execute at the same time. See any thread about dps macros and why they are bad.

Also, DoT ticks on the 3 second timer server-side, procs happen on that timer. There is no reason to cancel a 1.5s cast to use a proc.

[Tsilyi]

Not for bard. You can easily get two procs back to back. If you could stop a hard cast, fire off a proc then go right back into hardcasting, its not gonna be a dps loss. Not to sound like a broke record, but since I keep getting the same replies, look at how things worked in 2.3 or earlier WoW. Thats the same system we have going here, and there is a reason people used stopcast and addons to give them a view of when the cast had areached the "point of no return" as it were so they could stop cast and begin another one.

Even for bard, the chances of you getting a back to back proc is extremely rare. When you do, if you stopcast macro assuming it exists, to hit your BL proc and it procs again, the mental recognition time to realize you have gotten a proc while your next ability is casting, interrupt it and then recognize the second proc and hit it again would delay your next on-gcd attack anyway, resulting in a loss.

In wow, no good dps player interrupted casts for procs unless it was something that would refresh a very, very important buff. Every guide I ever read and every advice I ever got from stellar players in that game was if you have started a cast and didn't notice your proc, or if a proc happened in the middle of your cast, just let the cast finish. Stopcast macros were basically used for CS/shear or other ranged interrupts. That I could see being useful, a stopcast macro for say head graze/blunt arrow. Don't use a stopcast for procs.

[RajaVamberaux]

On controller the button for stopcast is Triangle (or Y on Xbox). There might already be a button on the keyboard setup.

[Shirobi]

It actually is a dps loss since you're delaying the use of your weapon skill by half a GCD if you have to cancel it.

AN in exchange for that half a gcd you're gaining another shot fired. its just not gonna be a dps loss. Its not like that half a GCD just passes without getting anything out of it. You're still gaining a shot fired.

[Shirobi]

Macros in this game don't work like that, your stopcast and bloodletter would try to execute at the same time. See any thread about dps macros and why they are bad.

Also, DoT ticks on the 3 second timer server-side, procs happen on that timer. There is no reason to cancel a 1.5s cast to use a proc.

Stopcast wouldnt try to go off at the same time. Its not an ability and it wouldnt be on any sort of cool down. Why would you think that?

And yes, you most certainly can get back to back bloodletter procs. It is not always a 3 second wait between procs.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

AN in exchange for that half a gcd you're gaining another shot fired. its just not gonna be a dps loss. Its not like that half a GCD just passes without getting anything out of it. You're still gaining a shot fired.

You don't seem to comprehend why it's a DPS loss for wasting a GCD. Canceling a cast in general means you've been standing still for the time you've been channeling up to the point where you have been casting. If you were to split this down into 3 GCDs with 1 bloodletter proc inbetween, you'll finish 3 casts + the bloodletter faster than doing 3 casts, canceling one, using that bloodletter and re-casting that canceled cast. If you're betting on that one chance to get that re-proc within the next GCD, you're betting on the low chances as I've explained to you in my other post:

As for losing procs as a bard, there are actually intervals for river of blood between each procs. You could easily finish your current cast to use whatever proc you have after that aside from Straight Shot.

Even if you consider the chances of losing procs:
River of Blood has a 2x 10% chance to proc, assuming 20% crit rate
Straighter shot 20% chance to proc

Odds are much higher that you don't get a proc in comparison to wasting a proc. Where in most casts you may interrupt your cast for a proc and don't get a proc after your next cast; You simply lose GCD time like this.

For every cast you cancel in favor for a proc, you'll waste time in the long run. On average you'll waste your time spend casting by canceling it four times out of five.

And yes, you most certainly can get back to back bloodletter procs. It is not always a 3 second wait between procs.

River of blood can only be activated when damage is actually dealt from your DoTs. Apply it on a dummy and look at the numbers. You'll realise they appear at a timed interval and are not continuous. Ergo: Bloodletter can't proc faster than 3 seconds. If it's happening it's because the DoT damage happened shortly after you use bloodletter.

Sources for you to read up about that confirms this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ots_explained/
http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/117...=1#post6154837

If you don't want to read those, here is a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQGGTKgL8-g

In particular this bit of that video:
https://youtu.be/aQGGTKgL8-g?t=5m

[MrCookTM]

AN in exchange for that half a gcd you're gaining another shot fired. its just not gonna be a dps loss. Its not like that half a GCD just passes without getting anything out of it. You're still gaining a shot fired.

No. No, you don't gain anything. Since a proc can only happen every 3 seconds and a weaponskill is on a 1,5 second cast, you will ALWAYS be able to use all your procs while finishing all your weapon skills, without ever having to interrupt anything. I don't get what's so difficult to understand about that.

And yes, you most certainly can get back to back bloodletter procs. It is not always a 3 second wait between procs.

No, it can't. See post above me. Just stop pretending this bs already, it's seriously dumb.

[StouterTaru]

Stopcast wouldnt try to go off at the same time. Its not an ability and it wouldnt be on any sort of cool down. Why would you think that?

Unless you put a full second wait after it, it would attempt to go off at the same time. And unless your ping is 0 nanoseconds and this non-ability occurred faster than instant abilities, it wouldn't work (again look at why macros are bad for dps threads, abilities don't queue).

And yes, you most certainly can get back to back bloodletter procs. It is not always a 3 second wait between procs.

Back-to back being 3 seconds apart, yes. DoT ticks on the 3 second game timer with HP/MP regen. Procs happen when a DoT tick hits critical.

[alphamax112]

Can the macro be executed instantly in server-side without dealing with the same server-client delay? And why bother to use macro, when u can just tap strafe button

[AniCelestine]

Description in one of the posts saying you could essentially cancel the cast at the same time you'd stutter step to get the same effect + you could instantly after start casting the next skill.(on phone, quoting small parts from big posts is hard)

That might have worked in Wow or some other MMO but as far as I know in this game casting and recasting times are not linked. So even if you'd do the stopcast and get the cast bar off the screen and still fire off the cast. You'd have the recast timer running until you can do the next skill because server registered your skill as cast so it'll finish the recast timer. (Pretty sure that if you'd cancel your cast early enough to not get the "stutter step" effect on it and it wouldn't cast, then your recast timer would reset too. But that means lost GCD time which we all know what that means)

As said many times. If you have cast time of 1.5s and DoT ticks every 3 second you can't lose a proc unless you don't use the proc after the cast you just started. The only time you can get the reset of BL in under 3 seconds of using the skill is if you used non-proceed BL and right after using that you get the proc. But that means you still won't get the next proc during your current cast.