Analyzing bash via logs

[Tecmos Deception]

Intro

Ok. So. Me playing a troll shaman and there being a recent patchnote about bash changes and the never-ending debate over the best sham race finally motivated me to examine my logs closely. Here are me infoz and conclusions:


What is a "bash interrupt?"

Spells can be interrupted if you are hit with melee damage, pushed, or move, and then fail a channeling skill check. When this happens, your spellcast bar will count all the way down to 0 and then you will get the message that your spell was interrupted. These are normal interruptions.

A "bash interrupt" is a spell interruption caused by a certain type of bash. It isn't an interruption due to stun, or due to damage/push that you could potentially channel through. A "bash interrupt" INSTANTLY stops your spellcast bar and delivers the "your spell is interrupted" message when the bash hits, unlike the normal interruption types where your cast bar finishes before you receive the interrupt message.

This is pretty easy to notice happening if you are looking for it during normal gameplay.


More evidence it's a different kind of interrupt:

Here is the log of a bash that does not stun or interrupt:
[Wed Nov 06 06:10:45 2019] You crush an aviak guard for 18 points of damage.
[Wed Nov 06 06:10:46 2019] An aviak guard slashes YOU for 34 points of damage.
[Wed Nov 06 06:10:48 2019] An aviak guard bashes YOU for 2 points of damage.
[Wed Nov 06 06:10:49 2019] An aviak guard tries to slash YOU, but misses!
[Wed Nov 06 06:10:50 2019] You crush an aviak guard for 20 points of damage.


Here is the log of a bash that stuns to interrupt:
[Wed Nov 06 06:49:50 2019] You begin casting Spirit Strike.
[Wed Nov 06 06:49:51 2019] Your spell is interrupted.
[Wed Nov 06 06:49:51 2019] You are stunned!
[Wed Nov 06 06:49:51 2019] An aviak guard bashes YOU for 2 points of damage.
[Wed Nov 06 06:49:51 2019] An aviak guard tries to slash YOU, but misses!

Note that the interrupt and stun message appear above the bash message in the log, and this message comes well before the 2.5-second cast of Spirit Strike, which was begun at :50, could have finished.


Here is a log of me getting bashed and otherwise hit during a spellcast, but channeling successfully:
[Wed Nov 06 07:03:42 2019] You begin casting Spirit Strike.
[Wed Nov 06 07:03:42 2019] You can't use that command right now...
[Wed Nov 06 07:03:42 2019] You haven't recovered yet...
[Wed Nov 06 07:03:43 2019] An aviak guard bashes YOU for 6 points of damage.
[Wed Nov 06 07:03:44 2019] An aviak guard pierces YOU for 42 points of damage.
[Wed Nov 06 07:03:45 2019] You regain your concentration and continue your casting.
[Wed Nov 06 07:03:45 2019] an aviak guard was hit by non-melee for 81 points of damage.
[Wed Nov 06 07:03:45 2019] An aviak guard staggers as spirits of frost slam against them.


Here is the log of an interrupt caused by melee damage (which may or may not be a bash, but in this case it was a bash) and/or push, coupled with a failure to channel:
[Wed Nov 06 07:33:33 2019] You begin casting Spirit Strike.
[Wed Nov 06 07:33:33 2019] An aviak guard bashes YOU for 7 points of damage.
[Wed Nov 06 07:33:35 2019] Your spell is interrupted.

As you can see, the spell interruption message comes a couple seconds after the bash here, which is the point at which spirit strike finished attempting to cast. Note that the interrupt message appears AFTER the bash entry.


Here is the log of a "bash interrupt":
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:31 2019] You begin casting Spirit Strike.
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:31 2019] You can't use that command right now...
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:31 2019] You haven't recovered yet...
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:31 2019] An aviak guard tries to hit YOU, but misses!
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:31 2019] You can't use that command right now...
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:31 2019] You haven't recovered yet...
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:32 2019] Your spell is interrupted.
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:32 2019] An aviak guard bashes YOU for 8 points of damage.
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:32 2019] You can't use that command right now...
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:32 2019] You haven't recovered yet...
[Wed Nov 06 06:54:32 2019] You begin casting Spirit Strike.

And you see the spell interrupt message, without a stun message, appearing BEFORE the bash entry, before the 2.5-second spellcast could have finished.


Looking at the stats from my logs:
I looked at my logs for today with my 23-24 troll shaman on green, first fighting aviak guards (levels 16-20 I believe) and then fighting the level 20 barbarian fishermen in WK. I also had one crocodile attacking me at some point in lake rathe, and killed frostbite in WK once (both green cons).

Using gameparse, I learned that there were 353 total bash attempts against me. 158 were misses, 6 were dodged, 189 hit. Of the 189 hits, 42 stunned me, and of those 42 stuns, 9 times I had been trying to cast a spell. Of the 147 bashes that hit but did NOT stun me, 19 were "bash interrupts." Over the course of this, only 5 times did I get bashed while casting a spell and succeed in casting the spell.



Takeaway relevant to FSI:

I got bashed during a spellcast 32 times so far today. 9 of those times the bash stunned me, and therefore also interrupted my spell. 19 of those times the bash "bash interrupted" me. Only 5 times did I get bashed while casting and go on to finish that spellcast successfully.

An ogre would have not been stunned those 9 times. An ogre still would have been "bash interrupted" 19 times. And it is possible, though unknowable from my testing as a non-ogre, that some of those 9 bash stuns would also have been a "bash interrupt."

"Bash interrupt" penetrating FSI makes FSI significantly less potent than it used to be, assuming my few hours of sample size is remotely representative of the larger scheme. I think. Or something like that. I'd test more, except finding the times bash interrupts spells is a pain in the ass cause gameparse doesn't find them so I had to look for them more manually in the log file.