So I just came back to the game a few days ago, and I've noticed that if you time your skills correctly, you can receive the damage from an auto attack without having the auto attack animation occur. The animation for the skill you use (with the correct timing) occurs instead, and you see the dmg from the auto attack come up when it would have if the auto attack animation had occurred normally (even though it didn't), as well as the dmg from the skill you used.
Now it's possible the damage is being displayed on the screen but not actually affecting the mob. I would have to investigate further to check if that is the case but I'm wondering if/hoping that someone else has a better understanding of this phenomena.
I don't remember this ever being possible before, but maybe I just never noticed?? O_o
Also note that I'm not 100% sure yet whether there is any benefit from doing this in general (because the time until the next auto attack starts may take just as long regardless of whether or not the animation played out - or it may not). In the case where you follow up with an instant skill (eg: burglar's crit chain skills!!), significant gains do seem to be possible by using this method - that is, follow up the skill you used to override the auto attack animation with an instant one.
If I focus really hard on dpsing (and nothing else), I can consistently manage to pull this off (just by timing my skills very well).
Also note this was on a Burglar class, and seemed to be possible for all skills (I did find it more difficult to achieve for some, but I think that's just because I'm not 100% down on the timings of when auto attacks kick in after certain skills).
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EDIT: Ok, I just read up on the Mirkwood changes to combat (specifically to how auto attacks work), which kinda seems to explain this. Also I noticed there is also a "display optional animations" option (which I presume is off by default and hence why I don't see the auto attack animation).
But the question remains, do you gain a significant benefit by timing your skills to go off immediately as the auto attack is about to begin/just beginning, and hence override the animation (or perhaps see the animations blend if you are displaying optional animations) ... or do you not?
Detailed explanations welcome =P
Now it's possible the damage is being displayed on the screen but not actually affecting the mob. I would have to investigate further to check if that is the case but I'm wondering if/hoping that someone else has a better understanding of this phenomena.
I don't remember this ever being possible before, but maybe I just never noticed?? O_o
Also note that I'm not 100% sure yet whether there is any benefit from doing this in general (because the time until the next auto attack starts may take just as long regardless of whether or not the animation played out - or it may not). In the case where you follow up with an instant skill (eg: burglar's crit chain skills!!), significant gains do seem to be possible by using this method - that is, follow up the skill you used to override the auto attack animation with an instant one.
If I focus really hard on dpsing (and nothing else), I can consistently manage to pull this off (just by timing my skills very well).
Also note this was on a Burglar class, and seemed to be possible for all skills (I did find it more difficult to achieve for some, but I think that's just because I'm not 100% down on the timings of when auto attacks kick in after certain skills).
----------------------------------------------
EDIT: Ok, I just read up on the Mirkwood changes to combat (specifically to how auto attacks work), which kinda seems to explain this. Also I noticed there is also a "display optional animations" option (which I presume is off by default and hence why I don't see the auto attack animation).
But the question remains, do you gain a significant benefit by timing your skills to go off immediately as the auto attack is about to begin/just beginning, and hence override the animation (or perhaps see the animations blend if you are displaying optional animations) ... or do you not?
Detailed explanations welcome =P