- Author: Pride
- Date: April 7, 2022
- Updated: April 7, 2022
- Expansion: TBC Classic
The release of patch 2.5.4, bringing us Zul’Aman and a host of other content, was one that many players met with excitement. However, it was clear that Blizzard made significant changes under the hood which were not fully documented in the main patch notes, and hence we got helpful changes like buffing all hunter pets at once, as well as some unexpected bugs, such as the annoying druid stuck in form bug.
One of the newly discovered bugs with patch 2.5.4 is that the UNIT_ATTACK_SPEED event, which gets fired when a player’s attack speed changes, is broken. This is extremely painful for classes that use swing timer addons or WeakAuras in order to track their auto attack timers (Retribution Paladins, Enhancement Shamans, Arms Warriors, Beast Mastery Hunters, etc) as part of their DPS rotation, as all of those relied on the UNIT_ATTACK_SPEED to track when the player’s attack speed changed, and thus the swing timer needs to be updated.
All of the popular addons and WeakAuras were thus left broken as a result of this. They may seem to work okay in general, but players with a keener eye — particularly those on higher-parsing guilds where tracking your swing timer can make a massive difference on your DPS — will have noticed that when your attack speed changes (for example, by gaining or losing the Heroism buff or using / losing a Haste Potion) the swing timer will be incorrect for that swing.
Thankfully, a player by the name of Anonomit has developed a fix for this issue: The ZA Patch Haste Fixer WeakAura. Simply install this WeakAura just like you would any other WeakAura — click “Copy Import String” on its page, and then import it to your WeakAuras addon in-game. Voila, your swing timer addons and WeakAuras will once again all work correctly! While Anonomit states that this fix can theoretically cause “taint issues in combat”, those appear to be imperceptible to most players, who will greatly appreciate having functional swing timers once again.
Note that it is highly likely that Blizzard will eventually fix the UNIT_ATTACK_SPEED event once again, and judging by how quickly they fixed the druid stuck in form bug, it will likely be sooner than later. Once it is fixed, you can safely uninstall the WeakAura as it is no longer needed — but until then, it’s strongly recommended that you keep it active if you’re a DPS player that relies on their swing timer!
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