Thankyou, I haven't played in four years Edited January 21, 2020 by Adramalech

percentage goals are still exactly the same as before

1.0 = 50.00% (only obtainable by lightning sorc w/ Polarity active)

1.1 = 36.36% (only obtainable by lightning sorc w/ Polarity active)

1.2 = 25.00%

1.3 = 15.38%

1.4 = 7.14%

1.5 = 0.00%

(Values rounded to 4 places, actual value is [(1.5 / Target_GCD) - 1]

 

Void_Singer, much respect, but a Sorc doesn't need to be Lightning spec to make 36%

My Corruption Sorc can make it with Polarity Shift also.

Can someone clear something up for me regarding Alacrity and GCD? I still see people talking about the thresholds for GCD, but in the 6.0 patch notes, under Items + Economy, there's a line stating "The global cooldown and cooldown of stims is no longer affected by Alacrity."

 

So does this mean all the talk about Alacrity thresholds for GCD reduction is rendered obsolete?

Can someone clear something up for me regarding Alacrity and GCD? I still see people talking about the thresholds for GCD, but in the 6.0 patch notes, under Items + Economy, there's a line stating "The global cooldown and cooldown of stims is no longer affected by Alacrity."

 

So does this mean all the talk about Alacrity thresholds for GCD reduction is rendered obsolete?

No, that was a poorly worded patch note. I don't have time to dig up the original discussion about it, but basically it was referring to stims only, and the GCD thresholds still exist.

No, that was a poorly worded patch note. I don't have time to dig up the original discussion about it, but basically it was referring to stims only, and the GCD thresholds still exist.

 

Ah gotcha! So only the CD & GCD of stims are affected. That makes sense. Thanks for clearing it up!

Void_Singer, much respect, but a Sorc doesn't need to be Lightning spec to make 36%

My Corruption Sorc can make it with Polarity Shift also.

good catch, my bad, I edited the previous post..

Ah gotcha! So only the CD & GCD of stims are affected. That makes sense. Thanks for clearing it up!

TLDR

it was affecting how long they were active (erroneously), but now fixed

good catch, my bad, I edited the previous post..

 

I have spent some time messing with this on both my Corruption Sorc and my Seer Sage. I can manage 4654 Alacrity, which gives a permanent Alacrity of 19.44%

 

With Relic and Mental Alacrity (Sage equivalent 20% Alacrity boost) I can temporarily get that to 43,72%

 

My guildmates are insisting that crit is currently "broken", and Alacrity-heavy builds produce more DPS/HPS for now

 

The thing is, Sage doesn't have a "basic attack" type heal to spam for testing purposes; that is, there is no available heal which is insta-cast and has no CD

Sage has access to saber strike.

Find a training dummy and saber strike it to oblivion.

 

You'll count the activations, not the hits.

I have spent some time messing with this on both my Corruption Sorc and my Seer Sage. I can manage 4654 Alacrity, which gives a permanent Alacrity of 19.44%

 

With Relic and Mental Alacrity (Sage equivalent 20% Alacrity boost) I can temporarily get that to 43,72%

 

My guildmates are insisting that crit is currently "broken", and Alacrity-heavy builds produce more DPS/HPS for now

 

The thing is, Sage doesn't have a "basic attack" type heal to spam for testing purposes; that is, there is no available heal which is insta-cast and has no CD

I know nothing about Crit being broken, but for all my non-sorc, non-arsenal/carnage toons, I only go for 1.4s GCD, (with the relic to pop it down to 1.3) and then spam crit..... just too expensive to go lower on other classes.

Right now its better damage on Lethality Operatives to run 1.3s GCD due to the strength of Synox Shots.

With the upcoming nerf it too might be shifted down to the 1.4s GCD.

Right now its better damage on Lethality Operatives to run 1.3s GCD due to the strength of Synox Shots.

With the upcoming nerf it too might be shifted down to the 1.4s GCD.

 

UH oh, what upcoming nerf?

Does anyone know the new calculation to go from rating to percent?

Sage has access to saber strike.

Find a training dummy and saber strike it to oblivion.

 

You'll count the activations, not the hits.

 

(Last Activation Timestamp) / (Total Activations - 1 Activation) = Raw GCD

 

=8-)

Edited July 12, 2020 by orig_mrrabbit

Alacrity noob here. I see people talking about using StarParse to record their APM and calculate their GCD that way. Is the in-game cast time not accurate for determining GCD? For instance, a 1.5 sec cast ability that reads as 1.40 sec in the tooltip means I am at the 1.4 GCD threshold, right? Also, is the time on the in-game castbar accurate? Because I've noticed that <x.4 rounds down... does this mean a 1.5 sec cast ability that is now 1.34 sec cast but only shows 1.3 on the castbar when casting = 1.3 GCD or am I slower than that?

Alacrity noob here. I see people talking about using StarParse to record their APM and calculate their GCD that way. Is the in-game cast time not accurate for determining GCD? For instance, a 1.5 sec cast ability that reads as 1.40 sec in the tooltip means I am at the 1.4 GCD threshold, right? Also, is the time on the in-game castbar accurate? Because I've noticed that <x.4 rounds down... does this mean a 1.5 sec cast ability that is now 1.34 sec cast but only shows 1.3 on the castbar when casting = 1.3 GCD or am I slower than that?

 

No, you are confusing casting time with the global cooldown and they are separate things. The global cooldown counts for all your skills (a few skills ignore this but then it mentions that specifically) so you can't spam skills faster than the global cooldown. But casting time =/= cooldown (individual skill) or global cooldown (all skills except those that ignore it).

 

All three of those things are calculated differently and separately.

No, you are confusing casting time with the global cooldown and they are separate things. The global cooldown counts for all your skills (a few skills ignore this but then it mentions that specifically) so you can't spam skills faster than the global cooldown. But casting time =/= cooldown (individual skill) or global cooldown (all skills except those that ignore it).

 

All three of those things are calculated differently and separately.

 

Doesn't alacrity have the same effect on all three though? E.g., 10% alacrity = 10% speed boost to GCD, casting times, channel times, and cooldowns for most skills? It's just that the default GCD = 1.5, so 10% alacrity = 1.36 repeating, which the game rounds up to 1.4 GCD (i.e., the surplus alacrity is wasted)?

Edited September 19, 2020 by TheAdoringFan

Doesn't alacrity have the same effect on all three though? E.g., 10% alacrity = 10% speed boost to GCD, casting times, channel times, and cooldowns for most skills? It's just that the default GCD = 1.5, so 10% alacrity = 1.36 repeating, which the game rounds up to 1.4 GCD (i.e., the surplus alacrity is wasted)?

 

Yes, that's how I understand it in regards to GCD -- and how fast you can mash buttons. For channeling and ability CD timers, the extra alacrity is not wasted. It works properly.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Rion_Starkiller

Yes, that's how I understand it in regards to GCD and how fast you can mash buttons. For casting times and ability timers, the extra alacrity is NOT wasted. It works properly.

 

I see, so if I have a 1.5 sec cast ability that now takes 1.34 seconds to cast (according to tooltip) and the castbar itself says 1.3s, it will cast in that amount of time, but there will still be a .06 second delay before I can activate my next ability (because I'm still at 1.4s GCD)?

1.0 = 50.00% (only obtainable by Lightning Sorcerer w/ Polarity active and Focal Lightning procced)

1.1 = 36.36% (only obtainable by Any Sorcerer w/ Polarity active)

1.2 = 25.00%

1.3 = 15.38%

1.4 = 7.14%

1.5 = 0.00%

 

So I'm curious how these numbers get derived a bit...they seem a little bit higher (to a lot bit higher) than I would think. 0.1 out of 1.5 is roughly 6.67%, so why isn't each Alacrity threshold drawn at that line (as in, 6.67% for 1.4 GCD, 13.34% for 1.3 GCD, 20% for 1.2 GCD, etc)?

 

Does the formula somehow not work in the way the up-front numbers would indicate?

Edited September 21, 2020 by JLazarillo

So I'm curious how these numbers get derived a bit...they seem a little bit higher (to a lot bit higher) than I would think. 0.1 out of 1.5 is roughly 6.67%, so why isn't each Alacrity threshold drawn at that line (as in, 6.67% for 1.4 GCD, 13.34% for 1.3 GCD, 20% for 1.2 GCD, etc)?

 

Does the formula somehow not work in the way the up-front numbers would indicate?

 

NewCD = BaseCD / (1 + Alacrity%) where Alacrity% is expressed as a rational number.

 

Meaning, the new ability cooldown duration is equal to the base (original unmodified) cooldown divided by (1+Alacrity percentage as a decimal value.)

 

You can replace "cooldown duration" with activation time or channel duration as applicable to the specific ability.

 

This is why goal Alacrity Percentage breakpoints for certain GCDs don't change between level cap increases.

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by phalczen

Meaning, the new ability cooldown duration is equal to the base (original unmodified) cooldown divided by (1+Alacrity percentage as a decimal value.)

Thanks for that, and for the more detailed explanation which I snipped but gave some good examples.

 

Whelp, this sucks. I was all excited to get a Combat Sentinel that managed to break 20% Alacrity because I thought I was hitting a GCD of 1.2 seconds. I don't think I'm going to be able to close the gap by another 5%. Back to the drawing board, I guess (but seriously, despite being bummed about this, thanks helping me not be ignorant about it).

Edited September 21, 2020 by JLazarillo

Thanks for that, and for the more detailed explanation which I snipped but gave some good examples.

 

Whelp, this sucks. I was all excited to get a Combat Sentinel that managed to break 20% Alacrity because I thought I was hitting a GCD of 1.2 seconds. I don't think I'm going to be able to close the gap by another 5%. Back to the drawing board, I guess (but seriously, despite being bummed about this, thanks helping me not be ignorant about it).

 

Yeah, you can't hit a long-term GCD of 1.2s, that would require, in the case of Carnage/Combat or Arsenal/Gunnery, 22% alacrity from alacrity rating in gear. That requires 5893 alacrity rating:

 

 

which is possible but you sacrifice significant power (though that is irrelevant in capped content), most of your accuracy, and your only critical rating comes from your mastery and color crystals, and the proficient stim.

 

 

However, not all is lost. You can carry enough alacrity rating to reach a 1.0s GCD during your Berserk/Zen windows since B/Z buffs alacrity percentage by 30%. You only need 3728 alacrity rating to hit 17% plus another 3% from your discipline path. You don't have to sacrifice any accuracy, either, and you can still wear Descent of the Fearless. I talk about it in this thread.

Doesn't alacrity have the same effect on all three though? E.g., 10% alacrity = 10% speed boost to GCD, casting times, channel times, and cooldowns for most skills? It's just that the default GCD = 1.5, so 10% alacrity = 1.36 repeating, which the game rounds up to 1.4 GCD (i.e., the surplus alacrity is wasted)?

It affects them the same but whereas the gcd is only affected by alacrity, individual skills can have other bonuses affecting them. So if a skill has a 1.5 cd base and then reads as 1.4 it could be just the effect of the alacrity but it could also be that there are other effects like from your skill tree or utilities in effect.

 

Also with your example of 1.36 the casting and cd times are not rounded off. So you will be able to cast skills faster with surplus alacrity even if you don't get to the next threshold in gcd. So it's not wasted as such, but rather the difference may be so small that it's better to put the points in something else.

 

There are a couple of possible reasons to have more alacrity than the threshold and those are that the rotation runs smoother for you because of casting time and cd being just a little less and therefore matching the rest of your rotation and because of delays in data exchange between your PC and the server meaning that a little surplus can cover such delays.