wow Racials and Trinkets Off the GCD Again Soon (Beta)

[Starym 3,800]

 

The great GCD wars of the BfA beta continue, as the no-cooldown side strikes a victory today. We got some new info from a forum post that in an upcoming beta build, probably next week's, racial abilities and on-use trinkets are going back off the GCD!

Beta GCD (source)

Yeah, we agree that having racials on the GCD isn't feeling great. Having to press multiple buttons in a row that don't do anything but increase throughput isn't particularly engaging. While we can resolve that issue within the context of a spec's toolkit, racials (as well as on-use trinkets) add an extra layer on top of that.

So, in an upcoming beta build (likely next week), we'll be taking racials and on-use trinkets back off of the GCD.

There's been a lot of discussion on the issue before, and it was covered in the recent developer Q&A. Here's the relevant portion:

Global Cooldowns [Learn More]

Quote

Why would we ever make a change that doesn't feel good?

• Blizzard knows that the change to GCDs would be negatively received, but it is healthy for the game in the long term. Ion compares it to the convenience of teleports back in Cataclysm, where there were portals to capitals in all major cities. They will continue tuning Class abilities to accommodate the changes:
  • In one of the upcoming builds, Heroic Leap / Disengage will be off GCD.
  • Some Warrior abilities will receive an upfront damage increase.
• GCD changes in Battle for Azeroth are primarily aimed at offensive cooldowns. *Fury Warriors*
• All specializations have rotational adjustments that are on the table.
• They see WoW as a fast-paced game (a series of rapid-fire decisions), and GCD sets the pace for the game.
• World of Warcraft should be about planning your actions in short time frames, not blowing all your cooldowns at the same time.
• Charge/Dash are on a GCD, but Sub Rogue's Shadowstep is off GCD right now. It adds flavor to the Rogue "ninja-esque" Class fantasy.

[Yridaa 490]

3 hours ago, Starym said:

Having to press multiple buttons in a row that don't do anything but increase throughput isn't particularly engaging.

Only took you like 4 months of trying to re-invent the wheel to figure that one out.

 

[Lawrenz 105]

Isn't there a soft GCD as well? Of course a hard GCD with 1.5 seconds of doing nothing feels bad, when it was free before. But why dont they just use the soft GCD, or even make a new micro GCD that lasts for .1 sec or so, just to have those silly insta-gib "i use 8 Cds and 2 Trinkets at the same time" macros made impossible.

Or did i miss any statement of Blizzard of why they want to put the hard GCD on all of those?

[Lawrenz 105]

And what about making Skills hybrids maybe? They could be uneffected by GCDs but CAUSE GCDs.

I am thinking here of Heroic Leap for example. On live, i can use heroic leap and break the jump with my charge (inmidst the air!). It not only looks silly, it doesnt make sense as well. If the Leap now, would be usable whenever i like, but would force me to at least let the jump go through and land because it causes a GCD however, i would be totally fine with that.

Same goes for disengage. I mean... ok... firing your next arrow mid jump is badass, but if blizzard wants to slow down the game, and make the use of skills more tactical, it would be the right way in my opinion.

Or are such hybrid-GCD skills impossible to realize, or am i overlooking skills that already work like that? :D

Would like to hear some other thoughts on that. cheers.

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/05/2018 at 9:36 AM, Lawrenz said:

Isn't there a soft GCD as well? Of course a hard GCD with 1.5 seconds of doing nothing feels bad, when it was free before. But why dont they just use the soft GCD, or even make a new micro GCD that lasts for .1 sec or so, just to have those silly insta-gib "i use 8 Cds and 2 Trinkets at the same time" macros made impossible.

Or did i miss any statement of Blizzard of why they want to put the hard GCD on all of those?

Having certain spells trigger a reduced GCD isn't a new thing either - Fel Rush for Demon Hunters triggers a much shorter GCD than a normal spell would. As you said, they could just introduce this and it would make things a lot less clunky.