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The higher GCD on abilities is an interesting design choice


Angedechu

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By interesting, I mean that it's genuinely an interesting concept, and actually a pretty game changing one.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but TOR, with it's higher GCDs, don't actually have the dreaded ''DPS rotation''. Unless alacrity reduce the GCD by a large margin, there is not really a ''good'' rotation on abilities, but rather a priority system (IE, spells and abilities that you need to have ''up''). The system, which is somewhat slower than the...basic...one, can have it's charms, especially in PVP (IE, having slower GCD in PVP will probably help a LOT to learn the ropes of it...and it's a Mage that refuse to do any PVP in ''the other game'' on the account of not having good enough reflexs that say it...)

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I'm sorry to say this, but the GCD is clearly slower on TOR.

 

Well, you are clearly wrong considering some folks have done frame breakdowns when attempting to discover the effect of Alacrity on GCD.

 

The difference is you are probably used to playing a caster with a lot of spell haste in WoW, which does cause the GCD to decrease, whereas in this game instant cast abilities do not have their GCD modified by Alacrity (though activation time abilities do).

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I think the gcd might "feel" slower for WoW players, at least visually, because it's represented by a line moving straight down the ability buttons. What we're used to seeing is a radial line traveling in a circle, which means it has further to move in the same amount of time, so the visual representation of the gcd is faster.
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I think the GCD here only feels slower for several reasons:

 

- Rogues etc. in WoW indeed had a shortened GCD, while no class in SWTOR has such

- Many abilities with cast time, especially for DPS, already have 1.5s cast time, and that being the GCD, too, gives the false expression of GCD being as slow as the casts, while actually the casts are as fast as the GCD.

- Many abilities perform multiple attacks by themselves, like a 3-hit-melee-combo or a salvo of blaster shots, so your character's actions are faster than the GCD, while in many other games the character tends to just stand around doing nothing between abilities.

 

In the end, I will trust the numbers more than the flawed thing that is human perception of time, and 1.5 seconds = 1.5 seconds after all.

Edited by Mephane
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By interesting, I mean that it's genuinely an interesting concept, and actually a pretty game changing one.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but TOR, with it's higher GCDs, don't actually have the dreaded ''DPS rotation''. Unless alacrity reduce the GCD by a large margin, there is not really a ''good'' rotation on abilities, but rather a priority system (IE, spells and abilities that you need to have ''up''). The system, which is somewhat slower than the...basic...one, can have it's charms, especially in PVP (IE, having slower GCD in PVP will probably help a LOT to learn the ropes of it...and it's a Mage that refuse to do any PVP in ''the other game'' on the account of not having good enough reflexs that say it...)

 

same as wow except for rouges and feral druids

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I think the gcd might "feel" slower for WoW players, at least visually, because it's represented by a line moving straight down the ability buttons. What we're used to seeing is a radial line traveling in a circle, which means it has further to move in the same amount of time, so the visual representation of the gcd is faster.

 

This- most of what makes combat seem slower is the animations- which I think makes it look better than the cluster-youknowwhat that WoW combat is. Also, since you're not spamming the same ability (generally because most abilities have a CD in this game), AND you have no auto attack happening at all times, plus of course spell haste was pretty OP in that game- these things do make the game both seem and be slower.

 

To be honest, the change I could feel between this and say my pally or rogue or mage. It doesn't feel that different from my hunter though as all the good hunter damaging abilities were on a CD.

 

The more interesting design choice is to make energy/force/whatever regenerate slower and give fewer abilities to constantly replenish it. I had gotten too used to being able to just steady shot or life tap my way back to full with little or no penalty (consumption is considerably harsher than life tap).

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