Spell Haste will affect global cooldown, to minimum of one second
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 1st 2008 at 3:25PM
The CMs are doing a real drive-by on the forums this afternoon. The latest tidbit dropped by Drysc (in an only barely related thread) is that spell haste will reduce the global cooldown on spells, to a minimum of one second. It will not apply to melee or ranged attacks. Previously (and currently, as of this writing), Spell Haste was capped out by the Global Cooldown-- it doesn't matter how fast your spellcasting went, because you were stuck with the 1.5 second Global Cooldown every time you cast. But as of 2.4, that cap will go bye-bye for casters, leaving them to rack up as much Spell Haste as they can, aiming towards a 1 second global cooldown.Now, Drysc does say that it would take a lot of Spell Haste to reach that one second-- more, he supposes, than is possible in the game at this point. One player speculates that it would take 785 Spell Haste rating to go from 1.5 to 1 second (+50% spell casting speed basically), and while I'm not sure about the math on that, there's no question that you'll need a lot of Spell Haste with the current gear to cast that fast. In the expansion, however...
Non-casters are unhappy, to say the least-- especially hunters, who are distraught that while mages will be able to shoot off fireballs faster, they won't be able to shoot off Arcane Shots any quicker. Melee don't have much of a leg to stand on (their attacks aren't limited by mana as caster attacks are), but hunters may have a point-- they get charged mana and can't go faster. They shouldn't get too ruffled yet, though-- odds are we haven't heard the last of the big changes in patch 2.4.
Filed under: Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Arabelli Feb 1st 2008 3:32PM
Holy mother of pearl. That sort of explains the ZA spell haste insanity though. This probably has been in the works for awhile now, and the itemization makes a little more sense in context.
Jonas M Luster Feb 1st 2008 6:51PM
"Melee don't have much of a leg to stand on (their attacks aren't limited by mana as caster attacks are)"
You have to be kidding me. With the exception of Shamans, all attacks are limited by some form of energy/focus/rage for all melee classes. But that's irrelevant. What IS relevant, is the fact that GCD affects mostly instant cast and short cast time spells, which melee has more of and depends more on.
Especially with the 2.3 changes to server-side GCD, Rogues have had to learn to live with "Out of Range You can't do that yet You can't do that yet Out of Range Out of Range You can't do that yet" issues in most PvE and all PvP. A shortening of the GCD benefits melee classes as much as it does benefit caster classes.
Todd Feb 1st 2008 3:34PM
Great for mages. I'm not really sure why hunters have a reason to complain about this...
Matthew Rossi Feb 1st 2008 3:35PM
Melee DPS might not have cause to complain, but tanks are going to be pissed that all their threat moves are still locked down by the GCD AND Rage (in the case of warriors and druids) while already high threat DPSers are now going to be even worse.
makishima Feb 1st 2008 3:42PM
Actually I would think the only mages who would be concerned about this are the PVP players. PVE mages arent going to try to cast faster cause they know they'll just grab more threat.
makishima Feb 1st 2008 3:45PM
I meant spell casters, not just mages :P Sorry, the picture just threw me off for a sec
Shat Feb 1st 2008 3:49PM
Yes we are, Mak.
makishima Feb 1st 2008 4:21PM
@Shat If you mean "yes we are" going to go after spell haste for PVE then your an idiot. Being at the very top of the DPS chart means NOTHING. Sure you get bragging rights, but one of 3 things will happen if you go that
1) Your going to run out of mana faster and probably spend more of the fight trying to get it back
2) Your going to make the tanks job harder. Theres a smart idea, piss of the guy that keeps the monster from murdering your frail cloth covered body (Yes I play mostly clothies not meant as an insult)
3) Your going to grab too much threat, grab aggro, die, and upset everyone in your guild from the tank, to the healers, especially if you end up wiping the raid.
So have fun with that. Im sure your guild will love you for it.
Oh and if you meant "yes we are" for pvp players being the only ones concerned about this, then disregard the previous rant :P
theRaptor Feb 1st 2008 7:24PM
You have never even been in a raid have you makishima?
Raiding mages are generally smart enough to use the tools available and not pull aggro. And make the tanks job harder? wtf? If a raiding tank isn't hittting his TPS cap he needs to l2p. This is great for fire mages who in T6/7 gear will be able to minimise the amount of time they spend stacking scorch, and get more fireballs in between scorches.
Haste is no different then +damage or +crit when it comes to increasing your DPS, so I have no idea why you are ranting about people pulling aggro. Your only valid point is loss of DPM, but I am given to understand that isn't an issue for most high end raids.
TomFury Feb 3rd 2008 2:32PM
[quote]your an idiot[/quote]
Priceless.
Blake Feb 1st 2008 3:36PM
Not really the biggest set of news. I guess it's nice for scorches and spells that are restrained by the global cooldown, but it would take an insane amount of spell haste gear to even see any difference. Would be interesting to run the numbers to see what a moderate amount of spell haste could get you - down to 1.3sec cooldown? I guess every 0.2 or 0.1 seconds count.
Fireflash38 Feb 1st 2008 3:43PM
Actually, the amount of haste is not that ridiculous, especially with spells like Icy Veins and Bloodlust. I forsee 40/0/21 as a great spec come 2.4.
And the hunter's QQing about this is just bullshit. Hunters have scaled very well in end game, while mages have trouble keeping up in DPS. Hunters even got a huge buff last patch, so it is really just a 'they got buffed, we didn't we' QQ.
infection Feb 1st 2008 3:50PM
yet we have a thread today where people are saying that only pvp'rs are the ones that are complaining about being unbalanced... and pve is suffering because they never complain about other class's in raids....
funny
Jack Feb 1st 2008 3:47PM
It's about time they made spell haste anything but useless for resto druids / affliction locks / etc.
Ted Feb 1st 2008 3:49PM
I wonder where Enh shamans will fall into this.
They stack melee haste, but use mana and spells and are very limited by the GCD.
Magnetic Feb 1st 2008 4:11PM
As an SL/SL Warlock, dotting up 5 people will go from the hypothetical minimum of 22.5 seconds to 15 seconds.
Hello "nerf locks" posters, it's nice to drain you.
Sloegin Feb 1st 2008 4:16PM
Aye, sorta meh for most casters, but a big buff for Affliction locks.
bloodlight Feb 1st 2008 4:17PM
Spell haste stacked on my holy pally, can we say 1 sec flash of light spams. Any Tank should be drooling at that kind of healing backing him up.
Tridus Feb 1st 2008 4:41PM
Melee doesn't have a leg to stand on, because their AUTO ATTACKS are affected by haste.
A caster using instant spells gets zero benefit from haste right now, and will get something in 2.4. Melee always gets a benefit from it.
Balasan Feb 1st 2008 4:43PM
Rogues (and kitty druids) ALREADY HAVE a 1s global cooldown. The purpose of haste on rogue gear is to boost white damage. Haste has (probably) no effect on yellow damage. It is *not* comparable to the change to GCD casters get.
As a holy paladin I am very very very very very very very very excited with this change!!! Finally it's worth grabbing those plentiful haste rating healing gear in BT, as I can keep spamming flash of light without getting halted by the GCD; this is extremely noticeable with http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28370 . It really makes me want to keep spamming FoL (higher raiding paladins say they get a bigger bang for the buck by casting holy lights instead). Looking forward to this buff.