WITH 10.1.5 THIS WA DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE
Overview
This WA completely stop you from pressing barrage until your client know that the cast is over. Just like how the vanilla client worked. It will only do that when your target have between 1 and 3 spark vulnerability.
Usage
This WA doesn't need any specific configuration, it should detect your barrage keybind automatically.
In case some of your keybinds aren't detected, for example if you overrode an action button to another spell with #showtooltip spell, you can manually input keybinds in custom options.
Why is that WA needed?
This WA try to solve a common problem with radiant spark. Rather than trying to explain it here, you can find an explanation by Porom here: https://www.wowhead.com/guide/classes/mage/arcane/faq#radiant-spark
You can find the dps difference between queuing and various pause time on this sim: https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/report/qtLmftSQxJWH2ZjGZWBNnq
On average with this aura, I have a pause of 80 ms, that 0.6% more dps than queuing.
A simple /cqs isn't enough to fix the problem, also this WA can conditionally allow you to queue or not depending on spark vulnerability stack.
How does this work?
When you press any key, the WA will receive your keyboard input first and decide if it let the input propagate or block it.
Limitation
This WA will not work when clicking the spell directly on the bar. It will also not work with any mouse keybind like scroll wheel or side buttons.
Alternative
- https://wago.io/ABarrFakeQueue: A similar WA that instead of blocking the spell, freeze your game until the cast is over to simulate queuing. It might be able to create a lower gap between spell and might be a bit better with higher latency but freezing your game even if it's for a fifth of a second can be annoying, and it's possible with aggressive setting to fail.
/castsequence Mana Divining Stone, Arcane Barrage: This is a no external code alternative, that work by using another ogcd item or spell before barrage in this example we are using Mana Divining Stone. For it to work, you have to press this macro two times. It also doesn't automatically stop queuing or not depending on situation, so you might need a normal barrage bind if you also want to use a queued barrage. I wouldn't recommend it unless you don't want to use external code or limitation of this WA stop you from using it, and you dislike the working of the fake queue aura.