Alacrity?

[Octayvius]

I'm not positive but It feels like having alot of alacrity seems better then having alot of Aim, Where does alacrity sit on our stat priority? (pardon the poor use of the word stat, I'm only level 30 on here so I'm still learning a bit about the game)

[jaGator]

doing stuff faster is not always better since you will heat up faster also.

 

Aim improves almost everything. Damage, crit damage, crit chance etc.

 

Aim will always be your most important thing unless endurance is and then it will be number 2.

[Octayvius]

doing stuff faster is not always better since you will heat up faster also.

 

Aim improves almost everything. Damage, crit damage, crit chance etc.

 

Aim will always be your most important thing unless endurance is and then it will be number 2.

 

Good deal, Is their like an Ideal cap we should aim for i.e the cast time we want TM at?

[Iandayen]

1.5 seconds.

 

You want zero alacrity - if you have alacrity you will be giving up crit/surge for it - and that is bad.

[Fizbanic]

1.5 seconds.

 

You want zero alacrity - if you have alacrity you will be giving up crit/surge for it - and that is bad.

 

As a healer you'd be way off, as dps/tank then ya, as a healer having faster cast time is better then relying on a crit, surge is a more of a "well better then nothing, kind of second thought". Although as stated too much alacrity is bad.

[Naracion]

I'm not aware of any cap but as you get more alacrity, it will become less and less effective.

 

On a side note, if you have an ability that has a cast time of 1.5 normally and you have alacrity that will decrease that to 1.2 the global cool down will become 1.2. Alacrity doesn't affect instant abilities so the global cool down is still 1.5 for those.

 

and on yet another note, alacrity is more effective against abilities with longer cast times because its all based on percentages. If you have an ability that takes 2 seconds to cast normally and alacrity reduces 10%, it will now take 1.8 seconds. If you have an ability that takes 5 seconds to cast, with 10% reduction it will be 4.5. In the first example, it is reduced by .2 in the second it is reduced by .5

[Pwny_Express]

As arsenal I try to have the least alacrity possible (0 if I can).

[Yazule]

arsenal or pyro zero alacrity

 

healer as much as possible, my guildie BG merc is up to 23% and his healing scan is the same speed as my rapid scan... its sick and wrong

[PessimiStick]

and on yet another note, alacrity is more effective against abilities with longer cast times because its all based on percentages.

The fact that it's percentage based actually means that it's equally effective on every (cast time) ability.

 

If you have 15% Alacrity, you cast 15% faster. How long the actual casts are is completely irrelevant.

Edited January 26, 2012 by PessimiStick

[Vaedyn]

The fact that it's percentage based actually means that it's equally effective on every (cast time) ability.

 

If you have 15% Alacrity, you cast 15% faster. How long the actual casts are is completely irrelevant.

 

That's not really true though, because you can't go below 1.5s.

 

 

I don't understand why people say to stack alacrity as a healer outside of PvP. We have only 1 skill over 1.5s cast time. Surely that skill alone isn't worth it if you're doing sustained raid healing? In PvP, I get it, but elsewhere? Doesn't make sense to me.

[Phoenicis]

Looking around about alacrity, the response of "how much should I get" (in regards to a healer) is "when you begin to have heat problems". At first thought, I was thinking, now what in the blue hell does that mean. But after needing to go DPS for a couple of Ops and switching back to healing for some HM FP, it's very obvious if you are stacking too much alacrity (as compared to healing before) or I was just terrible inefficient when I healed again. The only problem now is that the 4 set for our tier gear is pretty damn nice, but literally every piece has alacrity and it would definitely be more beneficial to rip out the mods in the DPS pieces in order to balance out the stats.

[Naracion]

The fact that it's percentage based actually means that it's equally effective on every (cast time) ability.

 

If you have 15% Alacrity, you cast 15% faster. How long the actual casts are is completely irrelevant.

 

HI Pessimistick.....miss you ^^

 

You are right....the percentages don't change. I'm just suggesting that the percentages impact abilities with larger cast times more than abilities with short cast times.

[Naracion]

That's not really true though, because you can't go below 1.5s.

 

 

I don't understand why people say to stack alacrity as a healer outside of PvP. We have only 1 skill over 1.5s cast time. Surely that skill alone isn't worth it if you're doing sustained raid healing? In PvP, I get it, but elsewhere? Doesn't make sense to me.

 

You can get under 1.5 but it only applies to abilities that require casts. Instant casts are not affected by alacrity so the global cool down stays at 1.5 for those.

[Octayvius]

Very silly the Global is 1.5s instead of 1s. Thanks for the information everyone. Very helpful.

[Vaedyn]

You can get under 1.5 but it only applies to abilities that require casts. Instant casts are not affected by alacrity so the global cool down stays at 1.5 for those.

 

But does going under 1.5s on cast times actually help? It was my understanding that the GCD applies to both casts and instants, isn't that true? Or can you cast non-instants faster than the GCD? Didn't think you could. Even if you get your heals down to 1.2s, you still can only cast one every 1.5s, right?

 

If that's not the case, the GCD needs to be renamed, cause its not global.

[Aedn]

Skills do not ignore the GCD. regardless of how fast you channel a skill or ability, your limited to 1 skill per 1.5 seconds, even if you channel it in 1.2 or 1.0.

 

So the only real impact for alcrity is for skills that channel over 1.5 seconds, namely concussion missile, unload, and rapid scan, and death from above off the top of my head.

 

so basically alcrity is very useful for healers, because of rapid scan, even with talents only drops to 2.0 seconds. If you can lower it beyond that, what it does is allow for more spam healing, or more healing overall since you can weave in rapid shots as bonus healing, while still maintaining the same number of rapid scans over a period of time.

 

It is less useful for damage skills,although it does impact how fast you tick damage on unload & DFA. As an example, a 3 second skill with 3 tics @ 1 second each, would be .8 if you got the skill to 2.4 seconds overall meaning you do more damage in a shorter time frame.

 

Last but not least, rumors i have heard indicate that it reduces the timer on dot damage, meaning that it shortens the gap between each tick of a dot. while i have tested everything else in this post, i have not tested this, and my observations are that alcrity does not impact each tick of a dot, or if it does, its marginal at best.

[Naracion]

A video I did demonstrating how alacrity affects the global cool down(don't forget to change the resolution to the highest settings):

 

[Vaedyn]

They should rename the GCD then. Nice information to have.

[_Nyth]

As a healer you'd be way off, as dps/tank then ya, as a healer having faster cast time is better then relying on a crit, surge is a more of a "well better then nothing, kind of second thought". Although as stated too much alacrity is bad.

 

This really depends. Faster healing doesn't give us all that much if you think it through.

 

We are resource capped mostly, which means that in a certain timespan we can only do a certain amount of heat producing abilities.

 

So say that in a 5 second window you have enough heat to do 1 healing scan and 2 rapid scans.

If you get more alacrity, that doesn't change. You can still only do 1 healing scan and 2 rapid scans in that same time frame; because alacrity doesn't affect heat.

 

So if you are purely looking at throughput the only thing alacrity allows you to do is cast more rapid shots, because that is the ONLY thing you gain (again throughput wise) from alacrity.

 

If you look past throughput, alacrity does give you more mobility and less chance to be interrupted. That is definitely a good thing for PvP; but again you give up much.

 

Remember that alacrity:

a) Doesn't increase throughput, as mentioned it doesn't allow you to cast MORE heals because you're limited to resources rather than to your cast time. (I don't really count 1 more rapid shot as more throughput )

b) Doesn't affect a majority of our skills. Quite frankly it only helps for Healing Scan and Rapid Scan. And although that is the beef of our skills, it's not everything.

 

Those are 2 major points that reduce the effective value of alacrity below that of possibly even crit and surge.

For PvP the rules are slightly different; but even here crit and surge have some serious value. Healing Scan is already hard to interrupt and fast to get off. Emergency Scan is instant too. Critting those hard can make your opponent cringe more than having a faster rapid scan.

 

There is a lot of extra layers people tend to forget when judging attributes.

I value crit and surge for example for its ability to give me high burst throughput; It is unnecessary in a lot of situations; but when push comes to shove, that might make the difference between staying below the 40 heat mark and having to push past it to keep your tank alive.

[Ewert]

Skills do not ignore the GCD. regardless of how fast you channel a skill or ability, your limited to 1 skill per 1.5 seconds, even if you channel it in 1.2 or 1.0.

People should stop posting nonsense they have not tested, period. (<- that there is a period)

 

It's been very thoroughly tested, read this:

 

THERE IS NO GCD FOR CAST-TIME / CHANNEL SKILLS

 

End of story.

 

For instacasts it is 1.5secs, not modified by alacrity.

[DarkenDragon]

People should stop posting nonsense they have not tested, period. (<- that there is a period)

 

It's been very thoroughly tested, read this:

 

THERE IS NO GCD FOR CAST-TIME / CHANNEL SKILLS

 

End of story.

 

For instacasts it is 1.5secs, not modified by alacrity.

 

you really should take your own advice, cuz your claim that there is no global cooldown for cast-time/channeled skills is fairly wrong

 

this is because if you are interrupted during that cast time or channel, your still effected by it's global cooldown of 1.5 or less depending on what the cast time/duration for that ability is

[zeroburrito]

just because alacrity makes you heat up faster doesn't mean it's not useful, especially in pvp. sometimes you want to empty your entire heat bar as fast as possible to take someone down. you do have vent heat you know. Edited January 28, 2012 by zeroburrito

[Ewert]

you really should take your own advice, cuz your claim that there is no global cooldown for cast-time/channeled skills is fairly wrong

 

this is because if you are interrupted during that cast time or channel, your still effected by it's global cooldown of 1.5 or less depending on what the cast time/duration for that ability is

Ahh, a special case that comes up only in pvp testing really. Now mind you I did test the cast/channel/insta casts personally to figure out the lack of GCD for casts/channels.

 

This special case can just as well be argued to not be GCD, but Global Silence with a time of MAX(finish_cast, 1.5sec). Are you sure you can cast near instantly if you get interrupted at the end of a cast? Would need to test that if you are not certain. If you are not certain (tested), then it can as well be a 1.5sec Silence. If you are certain, then as I said it can be just as well be inferred to be a Silence effect.

 

Anyways a nice-to-know special case, thanks for that, have to test it out sometime for myself.

[Waffletost]

This really depends. Faster healing doesn't give us all that much if you think it through.

 

We are resource capped mostly, which means that in a certain timespan we can only do a certain amount of heat producing abilities.

 

So say that in a 5 second window you have enough heat to do 1 healing scan and 2 rapid scans.

If you get more alacrity, that doesn't change. You can still only do 1 healing scan and 2 rapid scans in that same time frame; because alacrity doesn't affect heat.

 

So if you are purely looking at throughput the only thing alacrity allows you to do is cast more rapid shots, because that is the ONLY thing you gain (again throughput wise) from alacrity.

 

If you look past throughput, alacrity does give you more mobility and less chance to be interrupted. That is definitely a good thing for PvP; but again you give up much.

 

Remember that alacrity:

a) Doesn't increase throughput, as mentioned it doesn't allow you to cast MORE heals because you're limited to resources rather than to your cast time. (I don't really count 1 more rapid shot as more throughput )

b) Doesn't affect a majority of our skills. Quite frankly it only helps for Healing Scan and Rapid Scan. And although that is the beef of our skills, it's not everything.

 

Those are 2 major points that reduce the effective value of alacrity below that of possibly even crit and surge.

For PvP the rules are slightly different; but even here crit and surge have some serious value. Healing Scan is already hard to interrupt and fast to get off. Emergency Scan is instant too. Critting those hard can make your opponent cringe more than having a faster rapid scan.

 

There is a lot of extra layers people tend to forget when judging attributes.

I value crit and surge for example for its ability to give me high burst throughput; It is unnecessary in a lot of situations; but when push comes to shove, that might make the difference between staying below the 40 heat mark and having to push past it to keep your tank alive.

 

The problem here is that you are forgetting that the heat for all our heals is put on at the end of the cast.

What this means is that if you cast your Rapid Scan for 25 heat and follow it with another, you are actually able to Vent most of the heat cost over the cast time, granted as we stack alacrity beyond a certain point this will cause us to not have enough time to vent heat "naturally."

Personally I am sitting at 8.(something)% with CR up and am having no heat issues and can heal most fights I have access to (lvl 43) almost indefinitely only weaving in 1 Rapid Shots as a "top-off."

 

I have also noticed that the "cooldown" timer does seem to be reduced by alacrity, as the majority of our heals have cooldowns outside of it, is it possible it's just the "cast" window for your classes "basic" ability?

[_Nyth]

The problem here is that you are forgetting that the heat for all our heals is put on at the end of the cast.

What this means is that if you cast your Rapid Scan for 25 heat and follow it with another, you are actually able to Vent most of the heat cost over the cast time, granted as we stack alacrity beyond a certain point this will cause us to not have enough time to vent heat "naturally."

Personally I am sitting at 8.(something)% with CR up and am having no heat issues and can heal most fights I have access to (lvl 43) almost indefinitely only weaving in 1 Rapid Shots as a "top-off."

 

I have also noticed that the "cooldown" timer does seem to be reduced by alacrity, as the majority of our heals have cooldowns outside of it, is it possible it's just the "cast" window for your classes "basic" ability?

 

Thing is that that doesn't matter.

 

Even with 0 alacrity there is no rotation, that I am aware off, that has 100% activity (meaning you're always casting something without delay); and can do that rotation without using any rapid shots.

 

And that is where my point comes in. At this point the only thing one would add with alacrity from a pure healing output point of view is a rapid shot.

 

Not saying that alacrity is the worst stat or anything. I'm just saying that people seem to only think in 1 dimension: "Alacrity increases heal speed, thus it is a great stat".

 

When in fact there are a ton of layers one has to consider.