WrathOfInnos wrote: »For bar swap "canceling", there's nothing crazy going on to break the GCD. It just means swapping to the other weapon immediately after the skill cast registers, so that 1s later you are already on the other bar and ready for the next light attack + skill there.
James-Wayne wrote: »Also note your ping will determine how fast you can weave (something I never see people talking about), anything over 200 ping and you will need to always go slow which will lower your DPS as the game server wont register your clicks fast enough.
People have historically confused me with this as well. More in the context of PvP. It felt like superstition at times.So what's the point of bar swapping/blocking to cancel your instant spell if you can't cast another spell before the GCD is up?
This whole thread has been one of the most insightful and easiest to understand explanations of this mechanic and has also taught me that it's not as overly complex as I assumed it to be. Much appreciated.
People have historically confused me with this as well. More in the context of PvP. It felt like superstition at times.
What I do know is that your GCD is best thought of as beginning with the light attack, then a skill, then bar swap or dodge roll or bash (or block cancel). This sequence, light attack -> skill -> something else, is relevant. It allows you to perform 3 actions within a single GCD, whereas if you use the wrong sequence, for example if you tried skill -> light attack -> bar swap, that does not work. The light attack would not fire.
While you can block during a skill, if the skill is not a channel, PvPers have also been telling me that skills, such as shields, get enacted faster, if you block right after casting the skill. However this does not increase your throughput. You won't do more damage as a PvEer with your damage dealing skills. You can still only cast one skill per second, but animation canceling may alter the exact timing of the skill within the GCD. It appears that way on the client. It may, in fact, alter the timing of the skill server side as well. For example a skill like the magblade's execute, Impale, is a projectile that has a travel time. I believe that, at least in older patches, block canceling Impale would cut out that travel time. Thus, if you canceled the skill against a player who was just about to line-of-sight you by running around a corner, you had a better chance of still hitting them via block-canceling.
Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »
@fred4
FYI, this is not true. The timing is a little different, but you can go Skill>LA>Bar Swap>Skill and maintain pace. Now you cant go Skill>LA>Bar Swap>LA>Skill, but as long as its only one LA, it does work.
This was a pretty common move on stam setups a while back with DW/Bow builds. A lot of stam rotations were fairly static and didnt require much bar swapping, as you would pretty much run through most of your back bar skills all at the same time, basically a 14 second static rotation with only two bar swaps.
It actually made sense to squeeze in that extra LA on your front bar before you swapped to your back bar because a DW LA did more damage than with a bow. It also seemed to be a little more fluid when you were swapping to your back bar to cast a ground DOT like Endless Hail (ground DOTs are always a little wonky). So you would often go, LA>Front Bar Skill>LA>Bar Swap>Endless hail. Its a pretty niche thing these days and I would never advise it on any type of dynamic rotation, but it can be done.
This whole thread has been one of the most insightful and easiest to understand explanations of this mechanic and has also taught me that it's not as overly complex as I assumed it to be. Much appreciated.