New way to use Arcane Power?

[isaac2314]

Greetings,

I have recently came across an article describing (yet) another possible way to (ab)use AP (which you can find here).

Basically, it revolves around this macro:

/castglyph Arcane Power major3
/cast Arcane Power

In the situation where the AP glyph is already equipped in the lower-right corner, the macro removes the glyph, but still casts a 30s AP with 90s cooldown, like this.

I suspect this is heavily contingent upon environmental factors; the original author said this has a high chance of failure in raids (or places with many people), and while I can get it to work in Ironforge (and Darnassus), I couldn't in Stormwind.

I don't raid (anymore), so I'm not sure about the efficacy of this, besides from the obvious benefits on Fel Lord (which is the example he used in his video). I'm very curious as to everyone's thoughts on it.

PS: cgll's method is persistently successful, although it probably can be smoother:

this one works for me even in 30ppl raid,
just rightclick the glyph for the popup "are you sure you want to remove glyph of arcane power ..."
you can close the glyph window after and just use the following macro before pull

Code: Select all

/click StaticPopup1Button1 /use arcane power

if you double click the following macro u will get 30 second ap on pull and another 30 seconds after 90 seconds like isaac mentioned

Code: Select all

/click StaticPopup1Button1 /use arcane power /castglyph Arcane Power major3

[Searix]

Interesting

[Searix]

Tried it in Warspear, worked so tried to pug with it.

Gave it a try twice in pugs, first time glyph didn't go away so i was stuck with 3 minutes APs, 2nd time glyph didn't go away and i still only had 15 second APs the first time.

Edit: 3rd try same thing, 15 second AP, glyph stayed on and was stuck with 3 minute APs after that point

[isaac2314]

The original author also said using the macro possibly decreases the chance of it working - apparently the original version is to manually remove the glyph right as you use AP.

[Searix]

The original author also said using the macro possibly decreases the chance of it working - apparently the original version is to manually remove the glyph right as you use AP.

Probably need a more consistent version for this to be useful, and it may just have to do with finding the right way to macro it

[isaac2314]

Perhaps. Personally I'm more curious than anything about how exactly this works. Making it practical isn't my intention.

[Curnivore]

That doesn't look safe for the account.

[Amonhotep]

not sure how you guys do it but i have tried it like 20 times (manually) in the capital and never fail one

[isaac2314]

Well, I seem to have misread him - supposedly in instances it is better to change glyphs manually.
Also, it seem to be possible to re-glyph immediately after using the macro, giving you two 30 second AP in 90 seconds, which is no doubt utterly overpowered on Fel Lord.

[Glitzerbling]

You want to get banned, because that is how you get banned :3

[cgll]

this one works for me even in 30ppl raid,
just rightclick the glyph for the popup "are you sure you want to remove glyph of arcane power ..."
you can close the glyph window after and just use the following macro before pull

Code: Select all

/click StaticPopup1Button1 /use arcane power

if you double click the following macro u will get 30 second ap on pull and another 30 seconds after 90 seconds like isaac mentioned

Code: Select all

/click StaticPopup1Button1 /use arcane power /castglyph Arcane Power major3

[Rinoa]

This is quite interesting. It's one of the things that I think may enter the realm of pure exploiting rather than clever use of game mechanics through snapshotting. Obviously it's a very large DPS increase if you can do it, but I'm not sure how wise it is. Time will tell.

[DyLemma]

Seems like a heavy exploit and bannable I'd imagine.

[Quetesh]

This is definitely an exploit and pretty big one. Go on, if you want to risk it - only think what we can do is to report it.

[isaac2314]

Well, I won't be using it, but it is interesting to see this commonly agreed to be a serious exploit. I personally think it is not that different from the P4T12 trick (which should be flagged and still isn't flagged), but I can see how, if you re-glyph it immediately, this can mean too much of a DPS increase in fights around 2 minutes of length.

As a note, the original article has been set to "hidden." I suspect it's either because the moderators find it too much of an exploit as well, or that someone published another even worse offender in the thread.

Although I'm no expert, I'd venture to think this can be flagged easily? At any rate, this trick will die at prepatch, if not before, since it is contingent upon glyphs.

PS: Should I remove the descriptions in the first post then? I'm primarily here to discuss the phenomenon anyway, not the concrete set-up.

[skiz]

Similar things were used by rogues through entire cataclysm expansion. Haven't seen a ban.

Edit:
A) Casting vendetta prefight. Even as subtlety / Combat.
B) pretty sure there was a glyphe xploit. Can't remember it.

[Quetesh]

Similar things were used by rogues through entire cataclysm expansion. Haven't seen a ban.

Edit:
A) Casting vendetta prefight. Even as subtlety / Combat.
B) pretty sure there was a glyphe xploit. Can't remember it.

They probably will not ban you for using it, but do you want to risk it? If they ignored it in Cata doesn't mean that they will ignore it now, but it's still an exploit so don't be a f*****g cheater.

[skiz]

The fastest way to get it fixed is to write a bug report, use it, link log, spread it to public and it is usually fixed soon. Just... don't use it during progression. Or any kind of early challengemodes....

[Curnivore]

We should have a similar behavior towards the tier swaps. They are not clever use of mechanics and that is proven with a simple fact. The game is not balanced around them since not all classes can do the same so by definition by what we know for a fact on how Blizzard designs the game, they are clearly unintended and on a queue to be fixed as bugs.

[Rinoa]

Snapshotting AP is intended, that's how it's coded, for better or worse. The fact that we can take advantage of this through equipping tier sets which augments certain portions of it pre-pull like many are is clearly unintended, but it most certainly goes under clever use. It's the same thing as pre-pull mastery snapshotting for Rogues. Unintended, but it's there. Blizzard knows about it, it's been happening for literally years, and no changes have been made.

This is in contrast with being able to use 3 trinkets as a Mage, for example, which was hotfixed fairly soon after it was brought to their attention. (I have written bug reports on all of these things). Abusing UI elements through macros isn't just unintended, but it certainly also enters the territory of exploiting. I would be very surprised if this also wasn't fixed fairly swiftly as it has a profound impact on in-game performance. It is also a much bigger performance in most cases than just snapshotting AP with -20% mana spent. This tremendous difference contributes to it, I think.