Can I use a metronome to help with light attack weaving?

ms_sophysticated

Morning all. I’m in console and I’m finding it hard to get my light attacks right. I know that pc players have addons to help them

Is there something that I can use to help me with the light attack timing? Like say a metronome? Until I can get the hang of it?

If not, What would it be and how would I set it up?

Grianasteri

Ive never use a metronome but I have heard folk have done so.

I will give you the same piece of advice that took my LA weaving to the next level... see if it works for you.

Try not to think of it as LA, skill, LA, skill and so on. Subtly change your thought process to LA+skill, LA+skill. What I mean is shift your thinking from being about light attacks and skills. Think more about almost every single skill you use (depends on rotation), should be preceded by a LA you animation cancel. They are one unit. This is a difficult concept to write in text I think.

Also, different skills can have different timings to weave light attacks with. This is a further complication but you get used to the skills you are using. I find some skills very easy to light attack with, while others (Elemental weapon I am looking at you) are more difficult, due to the timing and animations etc.

There are some pretty decent guides online. Not all of them, but there are some good ones. Hunt around and watch them, hopefully you will find one that helps it click.
.

kylewwefan

Listen to how slow 60 bpm is. That’s the speed of your light attacks.

Pull that trigger fast as you can. No more than one every second goes off. This is due to a global cool down (gcd)

Light attack followed by a skill. Congratulations you are now animation cancelling.

ms_sophysticated

kylewwefan wrote: »

Listen to how slow 60 bpm is. That’s the speed of your light attacks.

Pull that trigger fast as you can. No more than one every second goes off. This is due to a global cool down (gcd)

Light attack followed by a skill. Congratulations you are now animation cancelling.

Thanks! I see ur on the ps4 may I ask what it psn is?

GrumpyDuckling

The ESO combat team should aim for more fun and interesting combat that goes beyond managing timers, rotations, and weaving. That's the sad truth about ESO. End game is the target dummy, and it's all about how more efficiently robotic you can become with your rotation and weaving.

Tamriel is simply the back drop for game play that discourages creativity and encourages mechanical combat process. The fact that you are asking about a metronome for weaving should be really telling to the devs about the kind of game play that they are pushing.

kylewwefan

It’s the same.

Nestor

I guess we do have a Metronome Addon, who would have thought...

We do have an addon that can tells us when a skill timer runs out, but the stock UI can tell you that too.

WrathOfInnos

Yes you can, there are addons on PC that function as a metronome for exactly this reason. I wouldn’t do 60 bpm though, that is impossible to achieve and will end up still missing some Light Attacks. The best players in the game end up doing 0.96-0.97 Light Attacks per second, corresponding to about 58 bpm. It’s probably a good idea to start around 56 or 57 bpm.

IMO anything that low is hard to feel a rhythm for, so I prefer doubling the bpm and timing skills to every other beat. You can also look for songs that are in the correct bpm range and play those instead of a metronome. https://getsongbpm.com/tempo/112-bpm

WrathOfInnos

Just realized I said some things backward in the post above. 60 bpm is impossible, you need to aim LOWER, so try bpm slightly under 60 or 120. Fixed the post now. @Davadin would you mind requoting to remove the misinformation previously in my post?

Davadin

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

Just realized I said some things backward in the post above. 60 bpm is impossible, you need to aim LOWER, so try bpm slightly under 60 or 120. Fixed the post now. @Davadin would you mind requoting to remove the misinformation previously in my post?

done.

Sephyr

I usually have one going in the background after every major patch just to test and see how things 'feel' when parsing, that way I can get an accurate feel on how ability changes run. I usually use 54-58bpm.

SeaUnicorn

When i didn't know that combat metronome addon exists I used this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/gsJEMH_emBM
YouTube doesn't have 58 bpm version of it though.

SeaUnicorn

Oh also you know what helps - drum'n'bass music on the background. Gotta find a track with suitable bit rate

Gunner19K

The math above is incorrect. 1st, free metronome phone apps are available. 2nd, weaving two attacks within average 0.965 seconds is 62 beats per minute, not 58 (60 sec / 0.965). "Megaserver" uses 1,000 milliseconds as whole second and
0.965 seconds is 965 milliseconds. This is what PC users refer to in their combat metrics add-on for PC.
I'm on console and used a metronome app set 62 BPM with a tick-tock sound so every whole second was "tick" for LA and each interval between was "tock" for each skill. The reason to aim for 0.965 seconds, or 62 BPM, is to account for potential human latency (time from hearing tick-tock, pressing a button, and server acknowledgment). If you go over 1 second, you will miss LAs. For example, Relentless Focus skill requires 5 attacks (LA or HA) before converting to Spectral Arrow. If you watch the icon counter (below health bar), it counts the attacks and at 5 you can fire arrow for 13k-20k damage (depending on CPs). If weaving is slower than 1 sec, you'll notice the counter doesn't advance even though you're (frantically) pressing buttons. Making slow and deliberate attacks, you'll see the counter never misses (except other latency reasons). Practice 1 LA per second then one skill per second (2 seconds) and gradually speed it up. You have to get used to methodical rotation and buffs before speeding up. With full buff foods, potions, and enchants, practice killing 21mil dummy many, many, many times and watch text chat pop up with your your DPS, which will improve. And practice watching buff/skill timers run out and reapply to keep up. (Forgetting to spam Essence of Weapon/Spell Power in fight, you lose miss Maj. Brutality and Savagery!) In a dungeon, try to be deliberate in standing behind tanked boss and be methodical in your weaving. Getting 5 complete weaves over 7 secs and firing spectral arrow is better than madly pressing buttons over same time and finding only 4 attacks counted and no arrow when needed. Go into delves (or easy public dungeons) with Bastion companion and he will tank for you and you can practice with less lethal enenemies. Around CP 300 I could solo many world bosses with Bastion tanking. Or add DPS friend with their Mirri healer and you become a 4 person group and can clear many normal base game dungeons.

DrSlaughtr

You can also look up songs that are 120 bpm. Make a playlist. 4 beats a measure. Skill, Light Attack, Skill, Light Attack.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Not only can you, I recommend it. I am no great musician, but I always think of my rotations in terms of Counts and Tempo.

In terms of Counts:

Lets say I am playing a Sorc with a rotation based around Daedric Prey. Well, I know that Prey needs cast every 6th skill, so I count to 6, with Prey Always on the 1:

Prey, 2 ,3, 4, 5, 6, Prey, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...

Same could go for Templar and POL. On my NBm, its a 5 count rotation with my spectral bow (i usually put bow in the 5 instead of the 1, because you need to build it). On a Warden or Necro, its a 3 count, with Blastbones, Shalks always on the 1. Back in the day when DK was based around Talons, did the same with that. Etc. Most rotations have a centerpiece skill that you can base a rotation around. Counting your rotation is a good way to ensure good uptime on that skill and help learn to manage the rest dynamically. When I cast Prey, I know I have 5 choices to make before I cast Prey again.

In terms of Tempo:

Milliseconds and funny math aside, you are trying to cast a skill and a LA every second. That said, its sort of like "the price is right". You want to get as close as you can without going over (too fast) or you will miss a skill or LA. 1 skill per second is essentially a theoretical limit, not a practical one. A really really good LA+skill/Sec Tempo is like .95. A really good one is anything over about .9. 0.9 LA/Sec will see you north of 100k on most classes/specs.

I recommend starting with about 50 BPM. That is going to give you about 0.83, which aint terrible. I would then slowly increase to about 55 BPM, which is just under .92. If you can maintain 55 BPM AND manage your DOTs/Buffs, you are in the top 1% of DPS in this game. If you can do that, push it further.

Now, good luck using one in actual combat. I find it way two distracting, but when practicing on a dummy, it is a very good tool. I put my LA on the beat, not the skill. I try to keep the time between my LA and skill as constant as possible. I think of it has a heart beat:

Bump, Bump,... Bump, Bump,... Bump, Bump...

Oreyn_Bearclaw

kylewwefan wrote: »

Listen to how slow 60 bpm is. That’s the speed of your light attacks.

Pull that trigger fast as you can. No more than one every second goes off. This is due to a global cool down (gcd)

Light attack followed by a skill. Congratulations you are now animation cancelling.

Actually that is not quite true with LAs (your premise is correct). It is true with skills. LAs can be cast faster the 1/sec (Not sure what the actual number is). LAs are NOT subject to the same GCD as skills, that is why we can weave them in.

Spam LAs, the Spam something like Force Pulse. The LAs are faster. Not that it really matters because its rare you would actually spam consecutive LAs for anything. Been a while since Molag Kena was in the Meta Discussion.