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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsDebuff limit removed
by Adam Holisky 
Dec 3rd 2008 at 6:00PM
Previously you could only have 40 debuffs up on a single mob. That might seem like a lot, but when you got in a raid with 25 other people all putting up their own set of debuffs and dots, etc... things tended to get a little full.Daelo, the Lead Encounter Designer, announced today that the debuff limit has been removed*. This is a subtle yet important change for many raiding guilds.
He notes that the default UI won't normally be able to show all the debuffs, but that's just a bug in the UI. The debuffs are still there and working. We don't have any verifiable information yet as to if custom mods can display an infinite number of debuffs.
It's interesting to note that back in the day there was a limit of 16 debuffs. That was increased to 40 for the Burning Crusade expansion in 2007. And even before that there was a limit of 8. Elizabeth Harper talked about it in an article back in August of 2006.
Oh how the times have changed.
*It should be noted that Daelo said the debuff limit has been "effectively removed." I take this to mean that the number of possible debuffs on a mob is so high that no one can possibly reach it. The way games are built necessitates a limit on all numbers due to restriction on numerical data types in the programming language / computer system. An example of a hard coded limit on a seemingly infinite item is how much gold you can have. Daelo is likely referring to this situation, in that there is some "upper bound" on the number of debuffs dictated by programmatical means. But don't fear, even if the number of debuffs is contained in a byte-sized array, you're still looking at total possible debuff limit of 255 debuffs. More likely the debuff list is kept with a 32 bit word-sized array, in which case the number of possible debuffs would be 2,147,483,647 if the word is signed (which is likely the case given that gold is stored in a signed word), or 4,294,967,295 if the word is unsigned.
Filed under: Patches, News items, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Sherp Dec 3rd 2008 6:58PM
Whoa. WoW Insider was around in 2006?
PimpyMicPimp Dec 3rd 2008 7:31PM
Excellent! This was the main concern for Affliction locks in 25 mans. Awesome, awesome news.
Now, if they could just make the rotation a little less retarded.
Lab Monkey Dec 4th 2008 2:49PM
What's with the QQ about DoTlock rotations? Having to pay attention to DoT durations to maintain max DPS makes the encounters far more involving that just spamming Shadow Bolt like Destrolocks used to. It's fun and strangely satisfying, at least to me.
PimpyMicPimp Dec 4th 2008 5:05PM
There is a difference between having to pay attention and a convoluted mess of different durations for 5 different DoTs.
Personally, I find the Destruction rotation, at least Choasbolt at 70, to be the ideal.
Will Dec 3rd 2008 7:34PM
This change most likely came about due to DK's diseases/debuffs and with warlocks they'd be competing for the debuff slots and getting near that 40 limit. I think they made it 40 just because they didn't see people getting close to it but now with WOTLK it will happen. Good move but hopefully we don't see nerfs to some of the debuffs now.
http://www.wowconfidential.com
Jack Spicer Dec 4th 2008 12:23AM
You won't see any nerfs to the classes, but you can bet that all new content, especially raids, will be made assuming that you're going to go nuts with the debuffs.
Armath Dec 3rd 2008 7:37PM
Regarding the footnote, I think your analysis is flawed in that the debuffs are probably stored in a variable-length structure (e.g. the C++ STL vector or something similar), so the limit on the number of debuffs is based on the amount of available memory, rather than a particular numerical representation.
Regarding the speculations on infinity, I'd take part in that discussion, but I work in a drug-free workspace... :-)
Brian Arnold Dec 4th 2008 9:48AM
I agree. There's simply no way they could be storing buff/debuff info as simple bitwise checks against an char/int/whatever. There'd be no room to track all the things that make such buffs/debuffs unique, such as time remaining, any spell power bonuses in play at time of cast, who cast it, and so on.
I've worked on a MUD engine before, which isn't nearly as complex as WoW is, and it was pretty impressive how buffs/debuffs were handled there. There were literally no implementation limits aside from the fact that eventually, the RAM of the system would be full (doubly linked lists FTW).
I'm guessing that Blizzard put their limits in place simply because the game engine is so notably more complex that if there were more than a set number of debuffs allowed, it'd probably slow down processing to the point where it couldn't accurately keep track of them all, but as technology has made some notable leaps in the past few years, they can now safely bump the limits up.
Angel Dec 3rd 2008 7:42PM
I've always played a healer, I have no clue how this affects me... but i guess this is a good thing for DPS lol
mike Dec 3rd 2008 7:52PM
MORE DOTS!!!
Cyanea Dec 4th 2008 3:17AM
I am SO glad that I wasn't the only person who read this article and thought this.
Kanuris Dec 3rd 2008 9:19PM
And it's about sodding time. Losing debuffs was the single most irritating part of raiding, specially back in TBC as a Ret Paladin and the Judgements got knocked off the mob by the debuff limit. Or worst, Aff locks losing there source of DPS.
I can't help feeling slightly irritated though, why was there a debuff limit in the first place?
InsaneAssault Dec 3rd 2008 9:51PM
Raise your hand when you remembered the debuff limit being 8... *shudders*
apoxic Dec 3rd 2008 11:01PM
*raises hand*
I wasn't allowed to raid with my awesome Skullforge Reaver :/
The Claw Dec 3rd 2008 10:43PM
Ah, the good old days, when if a rogue turned up to raid with a Barman Shanker, he was told to go away and come back with a weapon that didn't cause a bleed.
apoxic Dec 3rd 2008 11:03PM
Yea seriously. 8 Debuff-slots on 40 people? Doesn't take a rocket-scientist..
Tresk Dec 4th 2008 5:17AM
IT'S OVER 9000!!!!!