by Hulkling » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:23 am
ok here's the explaination for the seemingly random duration of the HoT buff:
The client clock (thats your PC) needs to sync up with the server clock (thats SOE), and when WoT procs in the middle of a server tick (server ticks are 6 seconds) the HoT buff will appear to the client to add that many more seconds to it.
Example: Server ticks at 6 second intervals. Tick, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Tick, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Tick and so on.
Lets say WoT procs at the 3 second mark. Those extra 3 seconds will be added to the HoT buff icon for a total of 9 seconds. If the client and the server are perfectly syncronized, the HoT will then heal you when it the Buff timer counts down to 6, and again at 0. If you get a proc at the exact same time as a server tick (the 6 second mark) the HoT will give a duration of 6 seconds and immediately heal you, then heal again when it reaches 0. So on and so on.
Now, If your client and server syncronization is borked, the heal ticks will go off at wacky intervals. Apparantly I have bad sync, because my heal ticks are all over the place, at like 3, 8, 5, etc etc.
Basically, the HoT buff time is adjusted to the server clock to give exactly 2 ticks worth of heals before fading.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, in addition to all of this, there is a nifty little bug that will sometimes cause a client to miss the 2nd Heal tick when the buff icon reaches 0. Those clients with bad syncronization will see a majority of 1 HoT heals, and those with good syncronizatioin will see a majority of 2 heals.
Devs and coders are fully aware of this, and have reportedly fixed the problem. They didn't want to send it live just yet because this is a huge change and it was already a big patch to begin with, and we all know what happens in big patches...more bugs! So it should be coming soon.