[#SomeChanges Suggestion] Adjusting batching slightly to preserve the ability to counter CCs

[perpabc]

Intro: Countering CC was always a major cornerstone of PVP of the era, and remains so to this day. Many of the most storied, inspiring and memorable PVP videos that have carried and driven attention to PVP for over a decade, feature players pushing the ability to counter each other, in abundance. Players should be rewarded for having the ability to outplay each other through multiple toolsets, as this is one of the main reasons why early era WoW PVP is so special and why we should protect it, not dull it's teeth.

This was possible due to spellbatching, and throughout Wrath of the Lich King, spellbatching was set to a maximum of 400 ms. In PVP, this meant a bridge was created between the fluctuating differences in internet connections, and winning was more about your decisions rather than your internet connection, as two spells could simultaneously occur even when one player had higher ping; allowing for the skillful countering of your opponent.

The Problem: A lot of players don't understand the workings under the hood of the game that causes these interactions as it's not obvious - and will have a stark reality check when Wrath drops. The original spellbatch window of 1-400 ms was too large, and the current spellbatching window adjusted to a maximum of 10 miliseconds is too small, as it completely removes the ability to perform the above actions. This is true regardless of the internet connections we have now and why I'll suggest we adjust the values, as even a disparity of 30 ping between players will mean the player with less ping will always have their instant cast ability applied first, and why instant cast CCs which disable your character completely are not counterable anymore.

In play, if you are down in important cooldowns relative to your opponent due to factors outside of your control, in the past and in Wrath of the Lich King, you have been able to still outplay your opponents through the countering of CCs thanks to batching, rather than the outcome being purely down to luck and/or lower ping alone. Essentially, you create an advantage for yourself through your own skill, opening up new, personal & dynamic playstyles and opportunities to win.

Some Examples: Please see this short video I made with a few concise and talked through examples from multiple class interactions (3 minutes): https://youtu.be/m6P-fHQ-guI

A few more:
a) There's an incoming Deep Freeze on you as a Druid. You see the Fingers of Frost proc and reactively shift into Bear Form to eat the Deep Freeze that the mage is spamming, to be tankier for the incoming damage.
b) You get sapped first in 2v2 as Rogue + X. You cannot trinket, because you will be Blinded, with no way to counter it (incredibly common in 50%+ of matches in TBC with the abundance of Rogues).
c) A warlock is running towards you to fear you off Shadowfury. You're behind a box, you jump out and Bash him as he Shadowfuries.
d) A paladin is running towards you to Hammer of Justice you as a Priest, you're low HP. You have no Pain Suppression and the enemy Warrior has trinket procs. If you don't Shadowmeld the HoJ, you're dead. You're able to do it with a little spellbatching.
e) You get Death Gripped into a melee cleave and you're about to be stunned and therefore killed. You Shadowmeld the stun and are able to heal yourself through the damage.
f) You're a Mage fighting a Death Knight at the end of a long battle in Wintergrasp. Your only CD left is Ice Block and you're almost oom. If you get Death Gripped, you're dead regardless of blocking because you'll have no mana when you leave it. You read him and Ice Block the Death's Grip, immuning it and keeping your range.
g) Any interaction whereby one player trinkets and casts an instant CC, where you have a way to react to the trinket visually and cast a spell of your own (Fearing trinket, HoJing trinket, Death Coiling trinket, Shadowmelding Psychic Horror etc)

How we solve it: We preserve the smoothness of the game, without sanding down the skill-cap by increasing the current spellbatching window to 150 ms maximum. Internet connections are quick enough now that we can narrow the window down from the original 400 ms, to a value enough to allow for cross CC to occur and the countering of them, without affecting the smoothness of the game. 1-150 ms is barely noticeable for the vast majority - the most popular private servers for past era versions have their own spellbatching values adjusted to this amount, and in some cases 200 ms. It's worth noting that self cast spells however aren't delayed ever even through batching, and this should be consistent with the reference client.

To conclude, the average visual reaction time is 250 ms. With proper sleep and practice, this can be brought down to 150 ms. Meaning, with no delay or batching on CC spells, it's impossible to not only react to players' trinketing and casting an instant spell (since they'd always get it off before you had the chance to react), the window for (non-trinket into) cross instant cast CC to occur through outplays, is almost non-existent, and therefore not consistent enough for it ever to be a smart choice to attempt.

I'd be really happy to jump in a call and discuss this / help playtest to better demonstrate if necessary.

[Aggrend]

We've come full circle :)

Joking aside, thanks for the feedback. I'll pass it on!

[perpabc]

We've come full circle :)

Joking aside, thanks for the feedback. I'll pass it on!

Thank you!! We went from one extreme to the other with Classic and then TBC. Time to find the perfect balance!