There are some old tests on Ranged Delay that have been lost as far as I can tell, but recent changes to Windower (LuaCore) have given us the opportunity to investigate this topic with higher accuracy than was previously possible.
Methods:
I have written a Lua plugin that analyzes incoming "action packets" for their category messages. Category 12 messages indicate the initiation (or interruption/failure) of a ranged attack and Category 2 messages indicate completion. I record the time between each of these packets arriving. Thus, the variance should look like this:
Category 12: I send the message, the server receives it and acknowledges that I have tried to shoot, sending me a message to that effect. This value should be Server Initiation Time + Server-Client delay.
Category 2: The server decides I have shot. This value should be Server Completion Time + Server-Client delay.
Both measurements are obscured by the Server-Client delay, which should be variable but equal on average between the cases. Thus, I expect to get a range of results but the average of them should be the true delay on the server.
I use this plugin and a RA spamming script to throw stuff at Hpemdes for hours with fSTR=-1, then I analyze the resulting data.
Results:
This is a histogram of ranged attack times collected as a 99 SMN with no sub and only -STR gear (Hoard Ring, Malflame Ring, Acerbic Sash) using Mamoolbane:
Spoiler: show
Mean is 2.7578 seconds :: 106 Delay per second
Mode is 2.8555 seconds :: 103 Delay per second
First off, three things to note:
1) I am using a Chakram rather than a weapon that actually has ammo. It is unclear exactly how ranged delay is calculated, so it is unclear whether this is important.
2) I would not have expected nearly so large a distribution. The minimum value is 20% less than the maximum value with no Rapid Shot or Snapshot or anything. What the hell is that?
3) Because there is such a large distribution, it is unclear how anyone ever have determined snapshot values down to single percent values using a lower resolution technique (frame counting).
Tests to be done:
* Ranger 99 with Snapshot merits. - Rapid Shot proc rate for 99 RNG and Snapshot Merits
* Ranger 99 without Snapshot merits. - See the change from losing 10 Snapshot, which will allow us to determine the base trait potency at 99 and confirm that 1% Snapshot is -1% Ranged Delay.
* Ranger 99 with Velocity Shot. - Determine the real potency of Velocity Shot.
* Ranger 99 with Ranged Weapon/Ammo. - Figure out how Ammo delay factors in now.
* Corsair 99. - Determine Rapid Shot potency at 99.
* Equipment tests - Going to be much easier to do ones without STR than with it.
* RNG AF3+2 body - Going to be a hard test to do