Using ACT to time auto attacks

[Clarrice]

I've heard that you leet fellows do this.  Can anyone tell me how or - if it's a bit complicated - direct me to a guide?

[Dirty Jack Rackham]

<p>It's not too terribly difficult. Just configure ACT as in the image below. I personally use a different WAV than the default to help  differentiate the <i>YOU hit</i> ding from the combat is over ding. You will need to turn Logs on. /log will do the job. I don't run the logging feature all the time so I have it macroed.</p><p><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y10/Paedric/ACT_Trigger.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="800" height="608" /></p>

[Baish]

Using ACT does that only make the sound when an auto attack hits?  Or will it make the sound for CA's too?

[Ranja]

<cite>Dirty Jack Rackham wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>It's not too terribly difficult. Just configure ACT as in the image below. I personally use a different WAV than the default to help  differentiate the <i>YOU hit</i> ding from the combat is over ding. You will need to turn Logs on. /log will do the job. I don't run the logging feature all the time so I have it macroed.</p><p><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y10/Paedric/ACT_Trigger.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="800" height="608" /></p></blockquote>Don't you want to know when you miss as well. Is the idea to know when auto-attack goes off regardless of whether it hits or misses, correct?

[Dirty Jack Rackham]

<cite>Baish wrote:</cite><blockquote>Using ACT does that only make the sound when an auto attack hits?  Or will it make the sound for CA's too?</blockquote><p>I've really only noticed it dinging when an autoattack goes off and when it crits. Fire off your CAs between the dings. </p><p><cite>Ranja wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Don't you want to know when you miss as well. Is the idea to know when auto-attack goes off regardless of whether it hits or misses, correct?</blockquote><p>I haven't figured out how to make the ACT respond to misses as of yet. I've tried placing a <i>YOU miss </i>but do not receive notification of the autoattack having missed. If anyone has some knowledge on how to make this work, please elucidate.</p>

[EomerFarst]

<p>Does this work in 3rd person view ? <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I read that it was first person only and I really don't like that for raids lol.</p>

[Dirty Jack Rackham]

This has nothing todo with your camera angles. This is an auditory indication only. ACT reads your log file and dings when one of the conditions have been met.

[Giland]

I seen a profitUI mod at a guild website once that replaces the status values at the top and it showed timers for both melee and ranged auto attack. The guy who wrote it quit the game I believe, so it probably doesn't work anymore, but if someone knows how to do ui mods it would be worth it to have it.

[Clarrice]

This didn't work for me.  In fact ACT stopped parsing altogether <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[LoraJ]

<cite>Clarrice wrote:</cite><blockquote>This didn't work for me.  In fact ACT stopped parsing altogether <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /></blockquote>Same thing happened to me.

[Clarrice]

Drusella Sathir - pain in the behind!

[JAFO74]

<p>Here are your triggers you need to use</p><p>(?i).*you critically hit^(?i)(?=.*?byou try to (crush|pierce|slash)b)((?!with).)*$(?i).*you hit(?i).*dispatch</p><p>I have dispatch in there to let me know when to fire up focus aim and go crazy. this will trigger sounds on any autoattack, hit/miss/parry/deflect/dodge or crit. Works great. Turn it off if you are in a melee fight or you are likely to go insane.</p><p>Iago</p>

[Clarrice]

<cite>JAFO74 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Here are your triggers you need to use</p><p>(?i).*you critically hit^(?i)(?=.*?byou try to (crush|pierce|slash)b)((?!with).)*$(?i).*you hit(?i).*dispatch</p><p>I have dispatch in there to let me know when to fire up focus aim and go crazy. this will trigger sounds on any autoattack, hit/miss/parry/deflect/dodge or crit. Works great. Turn it off if you are in a melee fight or you are likely to go insane.</p><p>Iago</p></blockquote>Can I trouble you for a screenshot?  So I can make sure I have everything else on the page right.

[Shaulin Dolamite]

<cite>Clarrice wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>JAFO74 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Here are your triggers you need to use</p><p>(?i).*you critically hit^(?i)(?=.*?byou try to (crush|pierce|slash)b)((?!with).)*$(?i).*you hit(?i).*dispatch</p><p>I have dispatch in there to let me know when to fire up focus aim and go crazy. this will trigger sounds on any autoattack, hit/miss/parry/deflect/dodge or crit. Works great. Turn it off if you are in a melee fight or you are likely to go insane.</p><p>Iago</p></blockquote>Can I trouble you for a screenshot?  So I can make sure I have everything else on the page right.</blockquote>sorry for the very late bump but was hoping for a bit more detail on this one : )

[Clarrice]

<cite>Shaulin Dolamite wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Clarrice wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>JAFO74 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Here are your triggers you need to use</p><p>(?i).*you critically hit^(?i)(?=.*?byou try to (crush|pierce|slash)b)((?!with).)*$(?i).*you hit(?i).*dispatch</p><p>I have dispatch in there to let me know when to fire up focus aim and go crazy. this will trigger sounds on any autoattack, hit/miss/parry/deflect/dodge or crit. Works great. Turn it off if you are in a melee fight or you are likely to go insane.</p><p>Iago</p></blockquote>Can I trouble you for a screenshot?  So I can make sure I have everything else on the page right.</blockquote>sorry for the very late bump but was hoping for a bit more detail on this one : )</blockquote>I don't think they like us <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Clarrice]

Bumped in the hope someone will help <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[PakMonyet]

<cite>Dirty Jack Rackham wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>It's not too terribly difficult. Just configure ACT as in the image below. I personally use a different WAV than the default to help  differentiate the <i>YOU hit</i> ding from the combat is over ding. You will need to turn Logs on. /log will do the job. I don't run the logging feature all the time so I have it macroed.</p><p><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y10/Paedric/ACT_Trigger.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="800" height="608" /></p></blockquote><p>At first I couldnt get this to work as described......ACT just stopped parsing all togather.....but then I found the trick:  "?YOU hit .*"  <--Note the space after the "t" in hit!  Once I added that low and behold it worked.....and even better is actually 'kinda useful!</p><p>P.S.  HAha....took a Swash to work it out for the poor lil' rangers.....hehe</p>

[darkauron0]

<p>Yeah, i tried both of those and it just stopped parsing.</p><p>EEK!</p>

[PakMonyet]

Hey Darkauron001, sorry to hear its not working for you....the space didnt help, huh?   strange.....I thought I'd found the magic trick.....

[Kage8]

go to the forums....http://actparse.freeforums.org/plugin-downloads-f8.htmlthere is a autoattack plugin that i have been useing for a while and some others that u may like...

[Effidian]

<p>Here are the two I use for auto-attack notification:</p><ul><li>.*YOU( critically)? hit.*</li><li>.*YOU try to (crush|pierce|slash).* </li></ul><p>These work for me to detect both hits, critical and normal, and misses.</p>

[ChodeNode1]

<cite>Effidian wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Here are the two I use for auto-attack notification:</p><ul><li>.*YOU( critically)? hit.*</li><li>.*YOU try to (crush|pierce|slash).* </li></ul><p>These work for me to detect both hits, critical and normal, and misses.</p></blockquote>Does this pick up any combat arts, including melee ones?

[Effidian]

No, just auto-attacks.  Both melee and ranged auto-attack.  No CAs.

[Corwinus]

<cite>Kage848 wrote:</cite><blockquote>go to the forums....http://actparse.freeforums.org/plugin-downloads-f8.htmlthere is a autoattack plugin that i have been useing for a while and some others that u may like...</blockquote><p>I did actually downloag the plugin called single/double attack detection/notification v1.0.1.2, installed it and used it in raid. </p><p>(read the sticky notes called using plugins in ACT at the top of the forum)</p><p>Works very well with the latest version of ACT for Auto attack single arrow and double arrow. </p><p>Thank you Kage, it made my day.</p><p>Cheers</p><p>Cor</p>

[Kage8]

Np. I cant play without it now. When i play and i don't have ACT up i dont hear the beeps and it bothers me not to hear them lol.And hey lets face it us rangers need all the extra tricks we can get to work our class to the fullest.

[Penstar]

<cite>Effidian wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Here are the two I use for auto-attack notification:</p><ul><li>.*YOU( critically)? hit.*</li><li>.*YOU try to (crush|pierce|slash).* </li></ul><p>These work for me to detect both hits, critical and normal, and misses.</p></blockquote><p>I use a bit different format which works for me. There are no ? or . or * at the beginning of the line. My understanding from the ACT help file and support forums is that this approach is less CPU intensive as it is not searching for the phrase at any place in the logfile, but only at the beginning of the line.</p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU hit+</span></p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU critically hit+</span></p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU try+</span></p><p>I haven't updated mine since the new messages, but you will need to add <span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU double attack+ </span>and <span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU critically double attack+  </span>now.</p><p>So you will need 5 ACT lines to cover all the autoattack options. You might want to add YOU miss+ in there to count missed swings too. </p><p>This has worked flawlessly for me.  The reason I haven't updated it with the doubleattack stuff is because a guildmate made a nice standalone program to do this and I was testing it for him and just kept on using it.  Now I run his program to see when I hit, and I use ACT to make a different (clicky) sound when I am standing too far away. </p><p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Your target is too far.+ </span> (I am not sure why the period is there after the word far, but I think that means a space to ACT.  At any rate I have that up all the time that I raid and it works every time.</p>

[Malchore]

<p>You can have every combination in one line.  This is better than five seperate lines in terms of CPU cycles and processing efficiency:</p><p><span style="font-size: small;font-family: terminal,monaco;">^YOU (hit|critically|try to|double)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">The hat symbol ( ^ ) is important at the beginning of the expression.  It means the match must start at the beginning of the line.  Bascially, any line that doesn't start with "YOU" will be immediately ignored by the expression.  (All of the combat arts and procs start with the word YOUR, which will be ignored.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;font-family: Book Antiqua;">I found a AA melee attack on my Mystic which writes the phrase "YOU hit" or "YOU try to" which the parse picks up.  I /buged it because combat arts should start with "YOUR".  (Although because it's an AA ability, I'm not sure it technially counts as a combat art.)</span></p>

[Moltove]

<cite>Penstar@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Effidian wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Here are the two I use for auto-attack notification:</p><ul><li>.*YOU( critically)? hit.*</li><li>.*YOU try to (crush|pierce|slash).* </li></ul><p>These work for me to detect both hits, critical and normal, and misses.</p></blockquote><p>I use a bit different format which works for me. There are no ? or . or * at the beginning of the line. My understanding from the ACT help file and support forums is that this approach is less CPU intensive as it is not searching for the phrase at any place in the logfile, but only at the beginning of the line.</p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU hit+</span></p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU critically hit+</span></p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU try+</span></p><p>I haven't updated mine since the new messages, but you will need to add <span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU double attack+ </span>and <span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU critically double attack+  </span>now.</p><p>So you will need 5 ACT lines to cover all the autoattack options. You might want to add YOU miss+ in there to count missed swings too. </p><p>This has worked flawlessly for me.  The reason I haven't updated it with the doubleattack stuff is because a guildmate made a nice standalone program to do this and I was testing it for him and just kept on using it.  Now I run his program to see when I hit, and I use ACT to make a different (clicky) sound when I am standing too far away. </p><p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Your target is too far.+ </span> (I am not sure why the period is there after the word far, but I think that means a space to ACT.  At any rate I have that up all the time that I raid and it works every time.</p></blockquote>Instead of YOU try+, use YOU try to+. The former was reading some other text and would confuse me. For some reason it's not reading the try so much. Adding the 'to' to it narrows it down some. Honestly, if that's not working just as "YOU try+" then I doubt YOU needs to be capitalized. But I'm not sure. It works, so I can't complain! =)When timing this, I do a hit around every second. My goal is to -hit- throw one combat art -hit- throw another, right?And anyone have any good .WAV files? I found a sword clash from the Princess Bride and it works, but on my misses I'm using the default beep. I found all the Windows .WAVs by searching my hard drive, but nothing too interesting. I've been trying to find a whoosh or swoosh sound, but something loud and noticeable.

[ChodeNode1]

I'd say look for the ACT thread in the Ranger forum on eq2flames. Somebody there posted a link to a site with many system sounds. I chose a blip that doesn't get annoying and isn't too loud.

[Ranja]

<cite>Moltove@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Penstar@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Effidian wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Here are the two I use for auto-attack notification:</p><ul><li>.*YOU( critically)? hit.*</li><li>.*YOU try to (crush|pierce|slash).* </li></ul><p>These work for me to detect both hits, critical and normal, and misses.</p></blockquote><p>I use a bit different format which works for me. There are no ? or . or * at the beginning of the line. My understanding from the ACT help file and support forums is that this approach is less CPU intensive as it is not searching for the phrase at any place in the logfile, but only at the beginning of the line.</p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU hit+</span></p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU critically hit+</span></p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU try+</span></p><p>I haven't updated mine since the new messages, but you will need to add <span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU double attack+ </span>and <span style="color: #00cc00;">YOU critically double attack+  </span>now.</p><p>So you will need 5 ACT lines to cover all the autoattack options. You might want to add YOU miss+ in there to count missed swings too. </p><p>This has worked flawlessly for me.  The reason I haven't updated it with the doubleattack stuff is because a guildmate made a nice standalone program to do this and I was testing it for him and just kept on using it.  Now I run his program to see when I hit, and I use ACT to make a different (clicky) sound when I am standing too far away. </p><p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Your target is too far.+ </span> (I am not sure why the period is there after the word far, but I think that means a space to ACT.  At any rate I have that up all the time that I raid and it works every time.</p></blockquote>Instead of YOU try+, use YOU try to+. The former was reading some other text and would confuse me. For some reason it's not reading the try so much. Adding the 'to' to it narrows it down some. Honestly, if that's not working just as "YOU try+" then I doubt YOU needs to be capitalized. But I'm not sure. It works, so I can't complain! =)<b>When timing this, I do a hit around every second. My goal is to -hit- throw one combat art -hit- throw another, right?</b>And anyone have any good .WAV files? I found a sword clash from the Princess Bride and it works, but on my misses I'm using the default beep. I found all the Windows .WAVs by searching my hard drive, but nothing too interesting. I've been trying to find a whoosh or swoosh sound, but something loud and noticeable.</blockquote>No you will be attacking every 4 or 5 seconds depending upon your haste and your bow delay. So more than likely it will be 2 ranged CAs, wait for auto-attack, 2 more, wait. This depends on what CAs you are using obviously. If you are attacking every second, you are using melee auto-attack which is a big no-no unless you are just chain killing in a group.

[ChodeNode1]

Agreed. 2 Ranged combat arts at most when at boosted haste using Focus or Honed. When running at normal attack speed (so with your constant haste buffs going), you can sometimes add in a 3rd one if the 2 ranged CA's you used were quick-casting. For melee CA's, I think getting in 3 works during boosted haste and 4 during normal attack speed.To get a good feel for it if you don't want to do the math, start on the weaker side of dps. That is to say, maybe use only one CA in between CA's so you can see how much time is left until your next auto-attack fires off. That gives you an idea of what CA's will delay you too long and which will fit in nicely.Suffice it to say, you will be pausing in your button-mashing for at least .5 - 1.5 seconds to wait for AA to fire off, depending on which CA's are down. I had to recondition myself (having played a wizard beforehand) to realize this was okay.I was playing in RE2 last night and was doing pretty good dps the whole night. We took a quick break and I started getting real tired. I realized as we were finishing up a fight that I was continually just mashing my CA's without regard for waiting on AA. I looked at my parse for that fight and it was 1100dps under my zone-wide average.

[JAFO74]

<p>Moltove is an assassin, which is why he is stating 1second or so on his autoattacks. While using this feature of act may provide some benefit for assasins, I am not sure that is something for them to worry too much about.  Assassins and rangers are designed differently, rangers do 50%+ of their dps from ranged autoattack. That number for assassins is typically less than 30%. Moltove go check the assassin forums either here or eq2flames. I am pretty sure that generally they dont even worry about their autoattack damage, it lands when it lands. A solid CA order and efficient use of a good concealment chain is what makes assassins so (over)powerful on DPS.Your CA's hit hard and they hit often, and the cast fast, unlike rangers. Autoattack damage is an afterthought. Hell I would go insane hearing a tone while hasted,dual wielding every time an Auto attack was triggered.</p><p> Iago</p>

[Alenna]

<cite>ChodeNode1 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Agreed. 2 Ranged combat arts at most when at boosted haste using Focus or Honed. When running at normal attack speed (so with your constant haste buffs going), you can sometimes add in a 3rd one if the 2 ranged CA's you used were quick-casting. For melee CA's, I think getting in 3 works during boosted haste and 4 during normal attack speed.To get a good feel for it if you don't want to do the math, start on the weaker side of dps. That is to say, maybe use only one CA in between CA's so you can see how much time is left until your next auto-attack fires off. That gives you an idea of what CA's will delay you too long and which will fit in nicely.Suffice it to say, you will be pausing in your button-mashing for at least .5 - 1.5 seconds to wait for AA to fire off, depending on which CA's are down. I had to recondition myself (having played a wizard beforehand) to realize this was okay.I was playing in RE2 last night and was doing pretty good dps the whole night. We took a quick break and I started getting real tired. I realized as we were finishing up a fight that I was continually just mashing my CA's without regard for waiting on AA. I looked at my parse for that fight and it was 1100dps under my zone-wide average. </blockquote>Would it be a good idea for me to start thinking of macros for chaining my CAs and auto attacks. and I downloaded the zip file for ACT how do I install and what do I install? or would it be better just do it from the site?

[ChodeNode1]

<cite>Alenna@Guk wrote:</cite><cite></cite><blockquote>Would it be a good idea for me to start thinking of macros for chaining my CAs and auto attacks. and I downloaded the zip file for ACT how do I install and what do I install? or would it be better just do it from the site?</blockquote>On macros, no. Your CA's have different refresh timers, so macros won't work on longer fights, like raids. There's only two kinds of macros I'd recommend: 1) Melee combat art + turning on ranged auto-attack and 2) An assist macro + turning on ranged auto-attack. The second one I've noticed has really helped me in not auto-pulling because I forgot to turn my auto-attack off in cases where the mob died before my auto attack got turned back on. In these cases now, my auto-attack is still on, but I have no target because I assisted as opposed to having the implied target of the tank.As for how to install, go to the ACT site - there's probably instructions there.

[Alenna]

<cite>ChodeNode1 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Alenna@Guk wrote:</cite><cite></cite><blockquote>Would it be a good idea for me to start thinking of macros for chaining my CAs and auto attacks. and I downloaded the zip file for ACT how do I install and what do I install? or would it be better just do it from the site?</blockquote>On macros, no. Your CA's have different refresh timers, so macros won't work on longer fights, like raids. There's only two kinds of macros I'd recommend: 1) Melee combat art + turning on ranged auto-attack and 2) An assist macro + turning on ranged auto-attack. The second one I've noticed has really helped me in not auto-pulling because I forgot to turn my auto-attack off in cases where the mob died before my auto attack got turned back on. In these cases now, my auto-attack is still on, but I have no target because I assisted as opposed to having the implied target of the tank.As for how to install, go to the ACT site - there's probably instructions there.</blockquote>ty

[Alenna]

<span style="font-size: small;font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I have finally been able to install ACT on my computer now what do I do? I heard about /log command in EQ2 but how do you get the log to ACT? and I have also downloaded the </span><span style="font-size: small;font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="postdetails">Single/Double Attack detection/notification v1.0.1.2 </span><span style="font-size: small;font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">plugin in how do you put it in ACT?</span>

[Ranja]

<cite>Alenna@Guk wrote:</cite><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I have finally been able to install ACT on my computer now what do I do? I heard about /log command in EQ2 but how do you get the log to ACT? and I have also downloaded the </span><span style="font-size: small;font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="postdetails">Single/Double Attack detection/notification v1.0.1.2 </span><span style="font-size: small;font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">plugin in how do you put it in ACT?</span></blockquote>This is why everyone was telling you to use the regular expression instead of the plug-in. I have no idea how to use that plug-in and you will have to keep it updated each time ACT updates. Use the regular expressions as posted in this thread and you will not have these problems.

[speedycerv]

i use the plug in and it works fine after i update act. You don't have to update the plugin(which has only had one update as i recall)

[Alenna]

<cite>Ranja wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Alenna@Guk wrote:</cite><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I have finally been able to install ACT on my computer now what do I do? I heard about /log command in EQ2 but how do you get the log to ACT? and I have also downloaded the </span><span style="font-size: small;font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="postdetails">Single/Double Attack detection/notification v1.0.1.2 </span><span style="font-size: small;font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">plugin in how do you put it in ACT?</span></blockquote>This is why everyone was telling you to use the regular expression instead of the plug-in. I have no idea how to use that plug-in and you will have to keep it updated each time ACT updates. Use the regular expressions as posted in this thread and you will not have these problems.</blockquote>Actually I figured it out the plug in and it seems to work fine.  now how do I use Act to better my performance. I'm not sure how to read the stuff in the history. and how do I get it to concentrate on my fights and not those around me?  Is there an easier way then check boxing the stuff I want added to the spreadsheet and graphs after each session? sorry for all the questions but this is new to me.and I shall keep the regular expressions that have been posted in mind if I have problems with the plug in right now as I said it seems to be working fine.

[PRALL]

<p>Ok.. I'm learning my ranger alt here, so bear with me...</p><p>I have ACT running and have the trigger set to ping me when autoattack goes off.. </p><p>My question has to do with the previous comments about macros and such. I tried to set up a macro list that would allow me to hotkey 1,2,3,4,5,6 in a group with two CA's per button and always setting ranged auto at the end. However, this is hurting my DPS instead of helping most of the time. I'm making sure I hear the autoattack ping before I hit the next macro. </p><p>So, can I get you guys to elaborate on a good DPS technique? I see a few of you saying most DPS comes from ranged auto, so should I be less active on CA's and let the autoattack ping a few times in between? </p><p><i>(BTW... I'm level 54 at the time of writing this, but trying to be sure I top parses from now till level 80 and beyond.)</i></p>

[Boramyr]

<cite>Sutures@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>However, this is hurting my DPS instead of helping most of the time. I'm making sure I hear the autoattack ping before I hit the next macro. </p></blockquote><p>Honestly thats all I ever found trying to Time Autoattacks to do.  My advice work on your casting order and then play keep all the icons blacked out.  But none of that really matters until you get into raiding.  Most group fights are over way to fast to even bother.  By work on your casting order I mean try not to stack to many of the long casting time things together and pay close attention to your recast timers and watch your parse to see which CA's are really doing the damage and play to them.  </p><p>Most of our CA's cast at .3 seconds with .5 second cool downs in between for autoattacks to go off.  The Haste cap for a 9 second delay bow will be 4 seconds.  So for most of your CA's you might at most delay your autattack by less than 8% of its recast time assuming you had max haste which you almost never will have.  But that also means that .5 out of every .8 seconds is already reserved for doing autoattacks.  You do need to watch to not stack up many of your longer casting time CA's but at the same time most of them do as much damage as an autoattack so letting them ride is just hurting the other side of the coin.  </p>

[Gaige]

<p>Wow, that post ^^ up there is a lot of misinformation.</p><p>Auto attack should always be at least 45% if not 50% or more of your zonewide.  Delaying your auto attack at all is bad.  You do not want to spam CAs and play "keep the icons blacked out" as that will lower your dps substantially.</p><p>You want to cast as many CAs as you can while your auto attack is basically refreshing, stopping before auto attack hits so you don't delay that auto attack.</p><p>Using ACT is probably the easiest way of doing this until you learn your rhythm.  Rule of thumb is 2 ranged CAs between autos and 3 melee CAs.  However that can vary by a lot depending on which CAs you're doing and your buffs, so you have to learn to compensate.</p><p>I repeat:  Do not spam CAs ever.  Do not.  Auto attack is huge for a ranger and delaying/slowing it for a CA is silly.</p>

[Boramyr]

<p>I was waiting for this.  Someone to step up and repeat the party line with no logic or reasoned argument behind it.  Someone with their EQ2 Players locked down so you can't see where there gear is at.  No new arguments, no counter to where my math or logic is flawed, just parroting the same old crap that has new folks coming to this game and this class talking about how they know the class sucks before they even hit level 60 but they really love the ranger archetype.  </p><p>But I'm not going to fight with Gaige, because I can't convice him.  I would just ask that for the rest of you, try it both ways.  Discuss casting order with me if you have questions, and see which has you on par with your equally geared and buffed guild assassins and wizards and which has you wondering where 500 to 1000 dps went.  </p>

[Boramyr]

<cite>Sutures@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>So, can I get you guys to elaborate on a good DPS technique? I see a few of you saying most DPS comes from ranged auto, so should I be less active on CA's and let the autoattack ping a few times in between? </p></blockquote><p>I typed this up in a PM so I might as well paste it here for everyone to see.  Here is my basic casting order ideas.  </p><p>I've acutally got all MY CA's set up on 2.5 hot bars in ascending order of recast time.  I try to start every fight at 2m behind the mob and on long fights I start off with all my 10s recast CA's then move up the line in order of recast (the exception is I have stealth combo abilities set up by combo. The exception is if I know a fight is under 30 seconds I shift to my big hitting ranged attacks right out of the gate then work in all the smaller recast timers.  Those short recast CA's rack up alot of damage when you work at keeping them down.  And notice I didn't say anything about ranged or Melee, you have to use both and thats where 2m comes in.  </p>

[Krakelkr]

<cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I was waiting for this. Someone to step up and repeat the party line with no logic or reasoned argument behind it. Someone with their EQ2 Players locked down so you can't see where there gear is at. No new arguments, no counter to where my math or logic is flawed, just parroting the same old crap that has new folks coming to this game and this class talking about how they know the class sucks before they even hit level 60 but they really love the ranger archetype. </p><p>But I'm not going to fight with Gaige, because I can't convice him. I would just ask that for the rest of you, try it both ways. Discuss casting order with me if you have questions, and see which has you on par with your equally geared and buffed guild assassins and wizards and which has you wondering where 500 to 1000 dps went. </p></blockquote>I reckon most rangers start out spamming CAs and only change later. I gained a lot of dps by timing CAs between autoattacks on a 7 second bow and won't change it back now with a 9 second bow.In the parse the wall thread half a year back or so the highest parse (unbuffed other than ranger buffs) was this one by Millerz: <a href="http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/9075/parsewallfb6.gif" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/...arsewallfb6.gif</a> . Autoattack dmg at 52% (might have been before the autoattack nerf, can't remember). Why don't you try out timing CAs around autoattacks? Perhaps you'll squeeze out a bit more dps that way, heh <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I absolutely agree about CA order which is the area where I will work on improving.

[Ranja]

<cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Sutures@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>So, can I get you guys to elaborate on a good DPS technique? I see a few of you saying most DPS comes from ranged auto, so should I be less active on CA's and let the autoattack ping a few times in between? </p></blockquote><p>I typed this up in a PM so I might as well paste it here for everyone to see. Here is my basic casting order ideas. </p><p>I've acutally got all MY CA's set up on 2.5 hot bars in <b>ascending order of recast time.</b> I try to start every fight at 2m behind the mob and on long fights I start off with all my 10s recast CA's then move up the line in order of recast (the exception is I have stealth combo abilities set up by combo. The exception is if I know a fight is under 30 seconds I shift to my big hitting ranged attacks right out of the gate then work in all the smaller recast timers. Those short recast CA's rack up alot of damage when you work at keeping them down. And notice I didn't say anything about ranged or Melee, you have to use both and thats where 2m comes in. </p></blockquote>You actually should be ordering your CAs according to DPS efficiency. The highest DPS efficient arts are cast first. Recast time has nothing to do with it. THis is how you should be ordering your CAs.Damage/Cast Time + Refresh Time = DPS Efficiency. ORder your CAs from highest to lowest and always use the highest art first when it refreshes . Using this formula you will see that Bloody Reminder and Kunark Blade are actually are best CAs. I know go figure <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Do the same for your melee. Not all arts are the same. Recast time really has nothing to do wuth it. If you are hitting snaring shot before triple all the time you are hurting your DPS.

[Boramyr]

<p>That parse was definatly before the Arrow Revamp because he was doing Peircing Damage, and it looks like with a Mythical.  </p><p>I've actually changed my dps techniques four major times in the last year.  The biggest gain of course was when I macroed my melee arts and included them in rotation.  I got another big gain when I changed my casting order to focus more on my faster recast arts.  Trying out a smokebomb spec didn't work.  Trying out never interrupting my Ranged Autoattacks with CA's did have the affect of increasing my autoattack to 50% of my overall dps as advertised at the cost of 500 to 1000 overall zonewide dps.  </p><p>Again though I'm not trying to argue with anyone that "won't change"  I'm just trying to share what has worked very well for me with the people asking for help.  </p>

[Krakelkr]

Well there is this rather recent change of autoattack damage to account for of course. It may have tipped the scales towards CAs more than I thought. I should probably try out your way when I get more masters.

[Boramyr]

<cite>Ranja wrote:</cite> <blockquote>You actually should be ordering your CAs according to DPS efficiency. The highest DPS efficient arts are cast first. Recast time has nothing to do with it. THis is how you should be ordering your CAs.Damage/Cast Time + Refresh Time = DPS Efficiency. ORder your CAs from highest to lowest and always use the highest art first when it refreshes . Using this formula you will see that Bloody Reminder and Kunark Blade are actually are best CAs. I know go figure <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Do the same for your melee. Not all arts are the same. Recast time really has nothing to do wuth it. If you are hitting snaring shot before triple all the time you are hurting your DPS.</blockquote>Your theory is sound but you can't blanket say which ones will be better since there are all kinds of factors that will change the formula like which spells you have at master and which are at Adept III, the amount of proc gear your wearing, Items like the maestro's flame and the SoH werewolf hat,  The amount of +CA gear you have.  Buffs you are getting in you group.  The efficiency is going to change not just throught he course of each individual persons gear, but dynamically through the course of a fight.  And really if we are going to go full out on the Efficiency as king though then you need to factor in the opportunity cost of what you won't be able to cast as a combo.  Like the 10 seconds you are letting combustion strike sit idle to use Kunark Blade or do you have enough open in your cycle because you got jester's capped right before your long recast went off on cycle before that you can afford to cast regular stealth to use it.  And you'd have to factor in the difference of letting Triple burst sit an extra second to get focus Aim Back up.  Or what if you were about to hit focus aim because all of your big hitting ranged CA's were back up but your MT Dirge with the his Mythical just shot off a Raidwide CHime of Blades and now maybe you might want to roll out as many hits as possible. 

[Gaige]

<cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote>Trying out never interrupting my Ranged Autoattacks with CA's did have the affect of increasing my autoattack to 50% of my overall dps as advertised at the cost of 500 to 1000 overall zonewide dps.</blockquote><p>I don't know what kinds of facts you want me to post?  If you ask the highest parsing rangers in the game if they time their CAs around auto-attacks all of them are going to say yes, because its the single most important thing you can do to up your dps.  I'm not sure where you lost 500 to 1000 zw dps as I'm doing between 6 and 7k zonewides with 52% ~ 55% auto attack normally.</p><p>Standing in sweet spot + using melee and ranged CAs + timing auto attacks = parsing high as a ranger.  Its pretty straightforward.</p><p>I've unblocked players so you can just go ahead and say its all my mythical, which I'm sure is why you're interested in my gear.</p><p>If you want to see some of my zw's I can show you that too, or any particular encounter you're interested in, but I'm not sure what that would prove other than my auto attack is always 50%+ of my zw.  Which makes it pretty obvious that you should be playing to your auto attack and filling in with CAs and not the other way around.</p>

[Ranja]

<cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ranja wrote:</cite> <blockquote>You actually should be ordering your CAs according to DPS efficiency. The highest DPS efficient arts are cast first. Recast time has nothing to do with it. THis is how you should be ordering your CAs.Damage/Cast Time + Refresh Time = DPS Efficiency. ORder your CAs from highest to lowest and always use the highest art first when it refreshes . Using this formula you will see that Bloody Reminder and Kunark Blade are actually are best CAs. I know go figure <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Do the same for your melee. Not all arts are the same. Recast time really has nothing to do wuth it. If you are hitting snaring shot before triple all the time you are hurting your DPS.</blockquote>Your theory is sound but you can't blanket say which ones will be better since there are all kinds of factors that will change the formula like which spells you have at master and which are at Adept III, the amount of proc gear your wearing, Items like the maestro's flame and the SoH werewolf hat, The amount of +CA gear you have. Buffs you are getting in you group. The efficiency is going to change not just throught he course of each individual persons gear, but dynamically through the course of a fight. And really if we are going to go full out on the Efficiency as king though then you need to factor in the opportunity cost of what you won't be able to cast as a combo. <b>Like the 10 seconds you are letting combustion strike sit idle to use Kunark Blade or do you have enough open in your cycle because you got jester's capped right before your long</b> recast went off on cycle before that you can afford to cast regular stealth to use it. And you'd have to factor in the difference of letting Triple burst sit an extra second to get focus Aim Back up. Or what if you were about to hit focus aim because all of your big hitting ranged CA's were back up but your MT Dirge with the his Mythical just shot off a Raidwide CHime of Blades and now maybe you might want to roll out as many hits as possible. </blockquote>It is not a theory. Please just b/c you think you are king of the EQ2 Official forum ranger boards does not mean you know everything. Your highest DPS art will always be the highest no matter what . I am not sure what oyu are talking about. If I get jester's cap and I have been using snaring shopt the whole time - whippee my snaring shot comes up quicker. Wow big up in DPS there. However, if I was using my high DPS arts to begin with then kunark blade and triple will be comign up faster.Let me say it again. Nothing is going to make snaring a better art than Kunark. Nothing. You dont wait for arts to refresh. You hit the highest DPS arts first over the others. If kunark bade is not up I use combustion I dont sit there and wait for kunark. By ordering your arts by DPS you are making sure you are always hitting the highest DPS art as it comes up. This means that if triple and snaring are up I would hit triple, but it sounds like you would hit snaring for some strange reason. Now obviously if focus is  about to refresh I might wait a second before hitting triple and use something like snaring. But there is no waiting around.I used to order my arts by cast time and my DPS suffered. Because what haoppens it you start hitting snaring all the time. Looking at my ZW with my arts casted that way was showing snaring and blame as some of my best arts which is not true. It was only true because of the way you have your arts ordered. So in affect you are hitting snaring shot too much. You know just enough to hurtt yourself<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Take a venture over to EQ2FLames and learn a little more.

[Boramyr]

<cite>Gaige wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote>Trying out never interrupting my Ranged Autoattacks with CA's did have the affect of increasing my autoattack to 50% of my overall dps as advertised at the cost of 500 to 1000 overall zonewide dps.</blockquote><p>I don't know what kinds of facts you want me to post?  If you ask the highest parsing rangers in the game if they time their CAs around auto-attacks all of them are going to say yes, because its the single most important thing you can do to up your dps.  I'm not sure where you lost 500 to 1000 zw dps as I'm doing between 6 and 7k zonewides with 52% ~ 55% auto attack normally.</p><p>Standing in sweet spot + using melee and ranged CAs + timing auto attacks = parsing high as a ranger.  Its pretty straightforward.</p><p>I've unblocked players so you can just go ahead and say its all my mythical, which I'm sure is why you're interested in my gear.</p><p>If you want to see some of my zw's I can show you that too, or any particular encounter you're interested in, but I'm not sure what that would prove other than my auto attack is always 50%+ of my zw.  Which makes it pretty obvious that you should be playing to your auto attack and filling in with CAs and not the other way around.</p></blockquote><p>Acutally My point about players was two check on two things.  One I had someone arguing with me a couple weeks ago on here that was a level 74 in crap legendary gear with pure melee weapons on.   Which is clearly not the case here, but you do have all the sweet sweet ranged double attack gear from Trak, Byzola and Avatars to the tune of about 22 RDA, and given the combination of Ranged Double Attack and Mythical that will most definatly swing you more toward Autoattack Damage.</p><p>I'm sorry I came off a bit defensive this morning, but you came out not on the debate but on the I was wrong.  </p><p>My point all along is that 1. Ranger dps doesn't suck.  2.  People have to play to what works for them and be willing to try new things as they progress.    3.  Its not good for the class for new folks to read a forum full of negativity and be down on the class before they are even high enough level to really know whats going on for themselves.  </p>

[Ranja]

<cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Gaige wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote>Trying out never interrupting my Ranged Autoattacks with CA's did have the affect of increasing my autoattack to 50% of my overall dps as advertised at the cost of 500 to 1000 overall zonewide dps.</blockquote><p>I don't know what kinds of facts you want me to post? If you ask the highest parsing rangers in the game if they time their CAs around auto-attacks all of them are going to say yes, because its the single most important thing you can do to up your dps. I'm not sure where you lost 500 to 1000 zw dps as I'm doing between 6 and 7k zonewides with 52% ~ 55% auto attack normally.</p><p>Standing in sweet spot + using melee and ranged CAs + timing auto attacks = parsing high as a ranger. Its pretty straightforward.</p><p>I've unblocked players so you can just go ahead and say its all my mythical, which I'm sure is why you're interested in my gear.</p><p>If you want to see some of my zw's I can show you that too, or any particular encounter you're interested in, but I'm not sure what that would prove other than my auto attack is always 50%+ of my zw. Which makes it pretty obvious that you should be playing to your auto attack and filling in with CAs and not the other way around.</p></blockquote><p>Acutally My point about players was two check on two things. One I had someone arguing with me a couple weeks ago on here that was a level 74 in crap legendary gear with pure melee weapons on. Which is clearly not the case here, but you do have all the sweet sweet ranged double attack gear from Trak, Byzola and Avatars to the tune of about 22 RDA, and given the combination of Ranged Double Attack and Mythical that will most definatly swing you more toward Autoattack Damage.</p><p>I'm sorry I came off a bit defensive this morning, but you came out not on the debate but on the I was wrong. </p><p>My point all along is that 1. Ranger dps doesn't suck. 2. People have to play to what works for them and be willing to try new things as they progress. 3. Its not good for the class for new folks to read a forum full of negativity and be down on the class before they are even high enough level to really know whats going on for themselves. </p></blockquote>/agree with 1,2 & 3.

[PRALL]

<cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>3.  Its not good for the class for new folks to read a forum full of negativity and be down on the class before they are even high enough level to really know whats going on for themselves.  </p></blockquote><p>Yeah dangit (had to censor myself there!) </p><p>On a side note, I went fairly even with an assassin last night. While he got me on the zone-wide parse, I was the top parse on over 50% of the named mobs we faced. We had a brigand in the group as well, so his abilities complemented the assy more than me because of burst damage. Still, as I try new things with my ranger at level 54, I find myself doing more and more damage. I will try all suggestions I see here and see which helps me the most. I understand that you all have what you believe to be THE answer, and (since my ranger is my alt) I won't dispute anyone in these forums. At least not until I am beating or on par with assassins all the time and can confidently say what worked for me. </p>

[Boramyr]

<cite>Ranja wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ranja wrote:</cite> <blockquote>Damage/Cast Time + Refresh Time = DPS Efficiency. </blockquote></blockquote>Let me say it again. Nothing is going to make snaring a better art than Kunark. Nothing. </blockquote><p>Ok I'll try to clarify my point.  </p><p>Your formula D/(C+R) is excellent its great.  </p><p>My point was that D, C, and R can be affected by so many factors both at the individual (gear, spell upgrade, and AA, etc) level and at the dynamic flow of battle level (group, raid, and temp buffs)  That I don't feel that you can blanketly state that one CA is always better than another for every ranger.   Though I will admit that after I run through VP this saturday I'm probably going to throw that parse into excel and look it over a bit more.  </p><p>As an example since I'm at work and don't have access to real numbers  Lets say you have a 1000damage CA on a .5 second cast with a 10 second recast and a 6000 damage CA on a 1 second cast with a 60 second recast.  </p><p>Plug those into the formula and you get </p><p>1000/10.5 = 95.2 </p><p>6000/61= 98.3</p><p>clearly the second one is better.  Now say we manage to get buffX that adds 200 to each CA's raw damage number. </p><p>1200/10.5=114.29</p><p>6200/61=101.64</p><p>Now the first CA is better than the second.  </p><p>Thats my point.  My point was that a fight is fluid that not everything that works for you will work the same for me or for some other guy.  Not everything that has worked for me will work the same for everyone else.  None of us have the exact same gear or raid force.  </p><p> I don't think I'm King of the Ranger forums.  I'm just trying to help some folks out with what has worked for me.  And if I have stated anything as THIS IS THE WAY IT IS as opposed to This is what has worked for me and why I think this way about anything on how to do dps then that wasn't my intention.  </p>

[Ranja]

<cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ranja wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ranja wrote:</cite> <blockquote>Damage/Cast Time + Refresh Time = DPS Efficiency. </blockquote></blockquote>Let me say it again. Nothing is going to make snaring a better art than Kunark. Nothing. </blockquote><p>Ok I'll try to clarify my point. </p><p>Your formula D/(C+R) is excellent its great. </p><p>My point was that D, C, and R can be affected by so many factors both at the individual (gear, spell upgrade, and AA, etc) level and at the dynamic flow of battle level (group, raid, and temp buffs) That I don't feel that you can blanketly state that one CA is always better than another for every ranger. Though I will admit that after I run through VP this saturday I'm probably going to throw that parse into excel and look it over a bit more. </p><p>As an example since I'm at work and don't have access to real numbers Lets say you have a 1000damage CA on a .5 second cast with a 10 second recast and a 6000 damage CA on a 1 second cast with a 60 second recast. </p><p>Plug those into the formula and you get </p><p>1000/10.5 = 95.2 </p><p>6000/61= 98.3</p><p>clearly the second one is better. Now say we manage to get buffX that adds 200 to each CA's raw damage number. </p><p>1200/10.5=114.29</p><p>6200/61=101.64</p><p>Now the first CA is better than the second. </p><p>Thats my point. My point was that a fight is fluid that not everything that works for you will work the same for me or for some other guy. Not everything that has worked for me will work the same for everyone else. None of us have the exact same gear or raid force. </p><p> I don't think I'm King of the Ranger forums. I'm just trying to help some folks out with what has worked for me. And if I have stated anything as THIS IS THE WAY IT IS as opposed to This is what has worked for me and why I think this way about anything on how to do dps then that wasn't my intention. </p></blockquote>It is not recast time - it is cooldown or refresh time which is .5 secs for all CAs.So your formula is off. Here is an example:600 CA with 1 sec (.5 cast .5 refresh) = 6001000 CA with 2 sec (1.5 cast .5 refresh) = 500Add 200 CA to each one. 800/1 = 8001200/2 = 600The top one is still better.

[Ranja]

<cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ranja wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Boramyr wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ranja wrote:</cite> <blockquote>Damage/Cast Time + Refresh Time = DPS Efficiency. </blockquote></blockquote>Let me say it again. Nothing is going to make snaring a better art than Kunark. Nothing. </blockquote><p>Ok I'll try to clarify my point. </p><p>Your formula D/(C+R) is excellent its great. </p><p>My point was that D, C, and R can be affected by so many factors both at the individual (gear, spell upgrade, and AA, etc) level and at the dynamic flow of battle level (group, raid, and temp buffs) That I don't feel that you can blanketly state that one CA is always better than another for every ranger. Though I will admit that after I run through VP this saturday I'm probably going to throw that parse into excel and look it over a bit more. </p><p>As an example since I'm at work and don't have access to real numbers Lets say you have a 1000damage CA on a .5 second cast with a 10 second recast and a 6000 damage CA on a 1 second cast with a 60 second recast. </p><p>Plug those into the formula and you get </p><p>1000/10.5 = 95.2 </p><p>6000/61= 98.3</p><p>clearly the second one is better. Now say we manage to get buffX that adds 200 to each CA's raw damage number. </p><p>1200/10.5=114.29</p><p>6200/61=101.64</p><p>Now the first CA is better than the second. </p><p>Thats my point. My point was that a fight is fluid that not everything that works for you will work the same for me or for some other guy. Not everything that has worked for me will work the same for everyone else. None of us have the exact same gear or raid force. </p><p> I don't think I'm King of the Ranger forums. I'm just trying to help some folks out with what has worked for me. And if I have stated anything as THIS IS THE WAY IT IS as opposed to This is what has worked for me and why I think this way about anything on how to do dps then that wasn't my intention. </p></blockquote>It is not recast time - it is cooldown or refresh time which is .5 secs for all CAs.So your formula is off. Here is an example:600 CA with 1 sec (.5 cast .5 refresh) = 6001000 CA with 2 sec (1.5 cast .5 refresh) = 500Add 200 CA to each one. 800/1 = 8001200/2 = 600The top one is still better.Oh and sorry about the king of the forums comment. You are very helpful on the ranger forums. It was early and I had just gotten into work<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Honestly, you should go over to eq2flames and read the ranger board there. The math can be quite in-depth and the knowledsge is much more extensive there.

[Safana.]

<cite>Ranja wrote:</cite><blockquote>Honestly, you should go over to eq2flames and read the ranger board there. The math can be quite in-depth and the knowledsge is much more extensive there.</blockquote><p>It's because I dont want to write everything twice and I rather post there <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Back to topic, its the same like for every class ... If you have to chose from different CAs or Spells you have to know, what does the most damage for its cast time you invest when you click it, so that is what the formula of ranja says. Also you have to make sure you dont lose time for your autoattack. ACT gives you great info on that when you look at avg delay. So you can check on your ZW if you tend to delay your autoattack because of "unclean" CA casting. Also it can tell you if you make the most efficient use if your CAs, because even if you always use the best CA like I mentioned before if may happen that you lose possible DPS if you cast the other way round and make better use of recasts. So you have to consider both: the DPS per cast and the ext DPS, thats why I prefer to cast roped shot before some other higher ranged CA. Because of its quick recast its back up after i cast the others... if I would not cast it before, I lose one possible cast. Only if I know the fight will be very very short I start with the big hits, because I would not be able to cast them otherwise.</p><p>Btw, what ranja means is called recovery.</p>