Arcane Instability (4 Set) Munching

[Stressball]

Wondering if anyone else has noticed this. I was playing around on a target dummy and just happened to notice that a missiles cast that I expected to be empowered by the 4 set wasn't firing off 10 missiles.

Replicated it and saw in the log that after chaining two AMs back to back, with a proc getting generated by the first and consumed by the second, I was getting 10 total ticks instead of the 15 I should have. Seems that this happens only when chaining two AMs together, and I'm guessing only if you queue the second between the fourth and fifth missile to seamlessly chain the two together.

[Komma]

This sounds like a bug. Can you produce a log of this happening?

[Stressball]

Yep.

Here's a video of it happening. Pretty easy to reproduce if you use non-charge generating sources of damage to stack AM to 3, so it procs right away with your first AMs.

http://www.twitch.tv/stressbawl/c/6128394" target="_blank

Tweeted Celestalon, see if we get a response.

[Mageski]

Have 4p, just replicated it in my garrison. If you cast AM too fast after AB, you start your cast before the buff shows up so you don't get a bonus, but it's still consumed at the end. Not sure how often this happens practically.

[Calo]

Could no-channeling macros prevent this issue ?

[Chev]

No, the No-channeling macros are to prevent you from clipping a channel what it happening is:

Start AB
FInish AB
Get AC stack
Start AM
Buff appears
Finish AM, clear buff.

I dont have the 4 set to test, but you might be able to get around it if your latency is high enough to be able to queue your 2nd AM cast while the buff is still up.

[Ghanjo]

The buff doesn't appear until either the AB or AM cast is over, since that is when you get the AC charge. The problem, as I have understood it (and as I've noticed ingame a few times), is that this happens:

Start AB
FInish AB + get AC stack
Start AM
Start new AM just as old one ends + get AC stack + get buff
Finish AM + clear buff.

Since the last AM is cast at the same time as the buff is gained, it doesn't benefit, but still clears it when the cast is over. Calo might be on to something with the nochanneling macro.

Edit: I tested this a few times on a target dummy, and could easily recreate the problem by doing the same as Stressball does in his video. I then tested it with a nochanneling macro for AM, and haven't had the bug for five tries.

[Stressball]

I haven't seen it happening unless I use two AM casts. Following AB with AM isn't a problem. You have to generate the 4 piece proc with an AM cast, then immediately consume it with a second (this is the one that should be empowered but isn't).

I haven't tested nochanneling macros, but I would expect it to work as noted above. The problem seems to be when you use the time between the 4th and 5th tick to start you new cast so you seamlessly cast two AMs together. But nochanneling macros obviously prevent that from being possible.

[Boomop]

I'm seeing this too. But I'm not seeing it 100% of the time in any predictable way. Here's what I'm seeing.

Cast AB > AM -- Arcane Insanity procs and is consumed. Doesn't give 5 extra missiles.
Cast AB > AM -- Arcane Insanity procs and is consumed. Gives 5 extra missiles to the AM that was JUST cast. Basically, it happens immediately.

Same thing happens with chaining AMs. It doesn't always munch. Sometimes it just immediately applies to the AM.

I've intentionally clipped the end of AMs to lose a missile (for science! Mainly because I thought it was a problem with spell queuing) and it doesn't seem to make a difference in reproducing this bug. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn't.

I also had interesting double procs that should have given 25 missiles but gave 20. Got 3 stacks then cast AB. Result was: AB > AM - AI procs (consumed) > AM - AI procs (not consumed) > AM (previous AI consumed)= 20 missiles.

I've also had a couple times (1 or 2) where AI proc'd, I cast AM, and AI wasn't consumed at all, but was consumed on the following AM, resulting in the correct number of missiles. (15).

CURIOUS: Kinda curious what happens if AO (the 2nd half of it) procs Arcane Insanity while you're channeling an AM.

The inconsistency of reproducing this leads me to believe its a problem with lag. But I really have no clue. Def can confirm I've seen it getting munched (proc with no extra missiles despite being consumed).

[Komma]

Can someone test if this bug is still active?

[Stressball]

It is, just reproduced it chaining two AMs together.

[Caimion]

So what do we do in the interim, just never chain AMs together?

[Thoras]

Is Blizzard even aware of this issue? This shouldn't be hard for them to fix.

[Chev]

Is Blizzard even aware of this issue? This shouldn't be hard for them to fix.

The answer to your question lies in the 3rd post.

[Babsy]

I think this may have been changed with a recent hotfix as I am unable to reproduce this bug using nether tempest to generate 3 missiles procs and than chaining them together.. out of 10 times doing this I wasn't able to consume the buff without gaining the extra missiles.

[Komma]

EDIT: Has not been hotifxed.

[Mageski]

Tested: Not fixed. If you are casting several AM stacks in a row, you can still have AM consume the charge without firing the extra missiles.

[Komma]

I'm able to reproduce this, but it actually took some intentional effort. I had to intentionally clip the first AM cast to see it happening. I don't remember this affecting me during raids. Do you guys have it happening all the time in raids, or is it just an occasional annoyance thing?

[Babsy]

as far as I can tell this hasn't affected me in raids as of yet. However I will have to try and clip the AM cast to see if that affects it. Though clipping AM's is rare to begin with I don't think this will have a large affect on me personally.

[Stressball]

I haven't seen it happen in raids, but I'm not usually paying attention all that closely to how many missiles I get out. And if you consider how often you cast AM back-to-back the chances of it happening are pretty low given the proc rate of Arcane 4-piece. I'm sure it's happened to me in raids though since I noticed it right away on a dummy when I focus 100% on my rotation instead of the encounter.

I still reproduce it very easily just by casting back-to-back AMs like I normally would. If others have more difficulty reproducing maybe it's latency related? I assume everyone chain casts channels by starting the next between the current cast's 4th and 5th tick?