Alacrity?

[Naracion]

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.

 

Totally agree. You give up other stats that is important if you only stack alacrity. You can shoot at .5 seconds but you hit like a wet noodle because you don't have anything in your other stats. Plus the fact that as you get more alacrity, it becomes less and less effective.

[Ewert]

Totally agree. You give up other stats that is important if you only stack alacrity. You can shoot at .5 seconds but you hit like a wet noodle because you don't have anything in your other stats. Plus the fact that as you get more alacrity, it becomes less and less effective.

Actually alacrity is the secondary stat that seems to have the least DR so far on returns ... well power does not seem to have DR at all, just it's effect is a straight up bonus not a percentage based, so it naturally has less effect the stronger you are already.

 

The argument is on theoretical sustained max HPS and practical needed HPS fulfilled.

 

Sustained max HPS, in a fully 100% non stop casting all heals fully healing (not overheals), sure stack crit/surge to DR knee, then power till you start to overcome the knee compared to more power then all 3. 100% non stop casting situations are not however the norm in _practice_. Only one fight so far comes to mind that was almost a non-stop healing was HM boarding party end fight. Then again I was undergeared back then so ...

 

For "fulfilling needed HPS in practice" as in "bursts are required", alacrity is king after crit/surge knee. Nearly all hard fights (pvp or bosses) require intermittent bursts of healing and have slower baseline periods to cool off. These situations are the norm, not the theorycrafting 100% non stop heat resource starved situations ... Personally I can pump out approx 4 heals out compared to every 3 someone who has switched out alacrity mods in gear. No matter how you dice it, you ain't getting 20% more oomph (14% alacrity, 9% talents) from +power/+crit/+surge with 500 or so of stats in high end gear.

 

Examples for me currently on my gear 400 power is approx +7.5% in heals. Having 25% alacrity is +33% more heals, I have bit less around 24% so about +30% more heals (note it is an inverse relationship with haste, without DR the more you had the more powerful the next point would get). Calculating how much of that is from alacrity gets harder but lets approximate at +20%.

 

185 crit 185 surge (relic) results in approx +8.5% in heals, _but I have intentionally left myself a bit under the knee on surge_ (since crit heals are often just overheals), if I switched a few mods to more surge that increase would be much lower. But I rather have more +power for my baseline so I'm intentionally reliccing for crit/surge and adrenal for +power.

 

So if I dropped my alacrity as some say it is worthless, I would lose 17% of my absolute healing output, and gain about 8% heat free healing output. Also would need to switch to +power relic for again a little less gain from relic slot (about 2% less from my testing with myself), since my crit/surge would be so much higher that the crit/surge relic would be very bad. So we are talking here about losing around fifth of my burst healing ability for a _THEORETICAL_ minor heat efficiency increase of around 8%.

 

Did we forget something? Yep we did. Rapid shots. Builds gas points, heals. Oops. Rapid shots heals about 1/3 of rapid scan.

 

So lets see, in the time you do healing scan, rapid scan x3, I do healing scan, rapid scan x3 AND rapid shots (I used bout 5% more time). With my stats that extra rapid shots in there is actually +12% healing AND 3 gas points. No matter how you slice that, that is gonna be more healing with same heat cost, same cast time as than someone with 0% alacrity and those alacrity stat points in crit/surge/power compared to my current stats.

 

Alacrity rules. Too.

 

-edited for rechecking some of the stats in game

Edited January 29, 2012 by Ewert

[Smos]

Alacrity rules. Too.

 

I just hit 50 and was unsure on what to do. But your reasoning just helped me make up my mind: I'm not going to ignore alacrity anymore.

 

Thanks for the great write-up!