With the new coding of adding mind flays ability to crit comes dire consequences.

BLUE PLEASE address this issue and fix it asap.

After reading about how MF is bugged to hell on shadowpriest.com I decided to take to the dummies and test it out for myself. Here's what I've noticed about mind flay post 3.0:


-MF randomly misses on bosses (this should be IMPOSSIBLE) at hit cap with misery up on the target
-The last two ticks of MF happen at the end of the cast bar and tick very close to each other (as opposed to before 3.0 when it ticked in even intervals)
-When MF's debuff dissipates from the target the last tick occurs AFTER it has fallen off the target. (This is not the case with other dots- the last tick happens before SWP and VT dissipate. Blatant bug.)
-MF's last tick occurs AFTER the casting bar is over and often gets clipped
-With the use of a no channeling macro MF can still clip the last tick because it is occurring after the cast is over. FYI for those of you blaming lag this NEVER happened pre-3.0 and should be impossible with the usage of the following macro when spamming only it over and over:
#showtooltip
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay

With my tests MF is getting clipped unintentionally & after the cast bar is finished casting about 30% of the time. To clarify this means roughly 3 out of 10 Mind Flays have the chance to clip the last tick when spamming MF over and over with use of the above no channeling Mind Flay macro.

Blizzard please fix this. This is a huge disappointment especially after the VT and utility nerfs on us.

Reference: http://www.shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=16987
Other Shadow Priest bugs: http://www.shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=17086


I was hoping that people might have a discussion about this as well and share their experiences with buggy MF.

Also like to get the word out in case most people hadn't noticed it was being clipped. I know I hadn't.

More people that know the more that will bug Blizzard to get this issue fixed. It is a sizable DPS loss.



Edit: Updating with my later post from below.
Okay so I was bored and decided to play with MF again, was averaging 70ms.

Waiting out my cast bar to hit zero with MF casting and if I cast ANYTHING other than MF after it finishes casting it's a guaranteed 3rd tick clip with and without a nochanneling MF macro applied to VT, mind blast etc. It's not just averaging up to 30% chance of clipping like with spamming the MF macro over and over, it's a guaranteed third tick clip.

Terrible. I really hope this wasn't intentional... If you pause a second after the mind flay cast bar is over it tends to hit but that's a dps loss as well and prevents us from being able to spam our keys like other classes can.


If there is still some speculation regarding this issue then try this:

Log on a shadow priest, locate a test dummy and make these macros:

#showtooltip
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Blast

#showtooltip
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Shadow Word: Death

#showtooltip
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Vampiric Embrace

#showtooltip
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Devouring Plague

#showtooltip
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Vampiric Touch


Now cast one Mind Flay before each one of the above macros and you'll see what we are all so upset about. Mind Flay is being clipped whenever we cast one of these spells or any spell directly after the cast bar is finished (it is not just exclusively affected by those in our main dps rotations). These nochanneling macros do not prevent Mind Flay tick clips ever since 3.0! They always prevented it before, what happened? This is proof that the last tick is occurring after our cast bar is over. Using these macros we should be seeing zero Mind Flay clips no matter how fast we spam our keys as the next spell we hit should not be casting before Mind Flay is over. However it clips Mind Flay each and every time.

To the devs: It would be great if you could acknowledge that you are having the same problem and we aren't all just crazy. & please please say you'll do something about it. This problem is going to hurt us in Wrath.


WOTLK update:

I'd like to confirm that I'm having further problems with MF in Wrath as others have reported late in this thread. Despite being hit capped sometimes when I hit my Mind Flay button nothing happens but it starts the GCD and I lose the mana it costs to cast it. Furthermore there is no Miss evident in my combat log. I have seen this randomly happen up to four times in a row.

I have also noticed resists while above the hit cap (17%) on mind flay, but not any dots, as well as buggy last ticks that happen very late if at all, with or without [nochanneling] macros.

on beta ive had times where i mind flay failed to go through 3-4 times in a row for seemingly no reason multiple times (16.5% hit chance off of gear) which shouldnt be happening

Arcane Missiles are also not in perfect 1-second intervals. They are rarefied at the beginning and compressed at the end.

I suspect lag has a lot to do with this.

I've noticed the inconsistent damage as well. I found it quite odd on low level mobs that I got hit AFTER mindflay finished and then the mob dies at my feet from seemingly nothing. I figured it might have to do with my reduced fps since 3.0 came live or maybe some strange lag spikes.

I've also noticed the increased mf failures while other spells seem unaffected. I considered myself simply unlucky, but now that I think about it, I thought the 1% miss was removed? Hmm.

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Q u o t e:
I suspect lag has a lot to do with this.

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Then why did it never occur before 3.0 with the usage of the no channeling macro? It shouldn't be happening.

I don't lag. I get about 60-70ms on average. Never above 100ms.

I had a friend test it out on his priest in case it had something to do with me and he had the exact same findings. Are you trying to say him and I and all the priests over at shadowpriest.com forums have latency issues and are wrong about this bug?

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Q u o t e:
sounds like mindflay works like arcane missiles now o.0

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I think they reused the code in order to make it crit.

You think you got problems... i hate you.

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Q u o t e:
sounds like mindflay works like arcane missiles now o.0

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I wouldn't be surprised if it is the same spell file with a different graphic now. Previously it was exactly like a warlock's drains and the damage was evenly periodic. Though I do not know if it the pushback change or what, but I never seem to lose ticks any more. Maybe I am, but not noticing because of the 0.175s channel time lost per hit (lag more than covers that any more). Anyone that say I'm wrong on that, please do.

i've noticed this as well.

i posted it in the bug forum but i never got any response.

it really needs to be fixed.

Okay so I was bored and decided to play with MF again, was averaging 70ms.

Waiting out my quartz cast bar to hit zero with MF casting and if I cast ANYTHING other than MF after it finishes casting it's a guaranteed 3rd tick clip with and without a nochanneling MF macro applied to VT, mind blast etc. It's not just averaging up to 30% chance of clipping like with spamming the MF macro over and over, it's a guaranteed third tick clip.

Terrible. I really hope this wasn't intentional... If you pause a second after the mind flay cast bar is over it tends to hit but that's a dps loss as well and prevents us from being able to spam our keys like other classes can.

So they nerfed our utility into the ground, gave us bad - low mediocre DPS at best and broke mind flay. Things better get better or I foresee shadow being a dead pve spec =(

Noticed this as well, also, and have had Mind Flay fail on mobs four or five times in a row despite being over the new hit cap. Extremely irritating.

As far as the final tick clipping... I'm not sure how in the fark this came to be, because I don't recall having that issue on the 3.0.2 PTR at all. >.<

And I'm still trying to figure out how I was putting out 1600+ dps on the PTR despite the horrendous lag, and can barely squeak out 1100 on Live while doing the same things without the lag. >.>

Anyone else see individual ticks from mind flay "missing" even though the spell lands?
My guild did a raid on some city bosses where the resist rate is insane and I seemed to be getting instances where MF would land and go through the whole channel but some or all of the ticks of damage would miss.

Rev.

Have noticed as well, strongly assume it's skewing test results done internally.

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Q u o t e:
We'll look into it. I don't have the bug list right in front of me at the moment.

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Most of the issues with Mind Flay also apply to Mind Sear btw.

*edit* And I've also reported all of these issues a few times on the beta forums and live forums over the past few months (for some issues) as have other people.

If they rebuilt it using Arcane Missile code, maybe there are invisible 'missiles' that get cancelled in mid-flight when we cast another spell.