Use a special ability, then either block or light attack immediately after (even though the animation is still technically going) in order to increase dps. Then after the light attack, use another special.

Certain skill animations in particular are very long and drawn out. You can spam the button all you want, but that animation is only doing one attack every second or two. A second can be a long time, especially when you can cut that attack length in half (or more, for some abilities) and attack again in the meantime.



While I don't advocate intentional animation cancelling, I will state this: smart players use light attacks between special attacks, often one after another. Doing nothing but using specials is very inefficient. Light attacks don't cost stamina or magicka, give you a moment to recoup spent resources, and can have fairly decent overall damage.

As a nightblade archer, I can usually cut the animation for poison arrow off about half a second before it actually finishes, allowing me to 'weave' light attacks with poison arrow attacks. You can hear it when it hits 'bam bam', and the dps increase can be significant.

But certain animations cannot be cancelled. Like Snipe, making it overall inefficient for most fights.

So, the game actually tracks attack speed in two ways. Attacks and abilities have a Cast Time and an Animation Time. It's very rare that these two times are the same.

Say you have an ability with a cast time of 1.0s and an animation time of 1.5s. After 1.0s, you can cancel the animation of the attack into something else (sometimes a light, always a block, shield bash, or roll) and the effect will still occur.

So you could, for example, do the following:

Charge a Power Attack > use an Ability with Instant cast time while charging > shield-bash.

If you input it correctly, the power attack charge will cut short, the skill will animate briefly, and the shield bash will occur, having all three hit almost simultaneously.

Attack speed is still relevant, since it alters the cast time of light and power attacks, allowing you to cancel even sooner.

This is good for things besides DPS. When using a channeled ability, it allows you to perform a shield bash to interrupt a casting enemy without completing the entire animation, or to dodge out of the way.

As much as people complain about it, there's no getting around the fact that it seems to be an intentional design choice, and it has a number of benefits. Coming from a fighting game background, I love it to pieces, and it's saved my hide on a few occasions.