Caster GCD cap in cataclysm?

[Plasmon]

So as most of you know, the global cooldown of casters could not be lower than 1.0 second in WotLK.

In Cataclysm I see a few talents that "lower the GCD by 0.5 sec" of specific spells that are either instant cast or 1.5 second cast.
Some examples:
Arcane Mage: Improved Arcane Explosion - lowers arcane explosion GCD by 0.5 sec
Resto Druid: Swift Rejuvenation - lowers rejuv GCD by 0.5 sec

So in Cataclysm are these spells still limited by the traditional 1.0 second GCD cap? Or is it now 0.5 sec?
I want to know how haste affects an arcane mage spamming AE or a resto druid chaining a few rejuv's when their talents already make the spells have a 1.0 sec GCD with 0 haste. Does anyone have any insight here?

[HawynLegend]

I'm pretty sure those talents only lower the GCD for the spells they are for.

[DotDotDot]

amplify curse has lowered the GCD of our curses for all of WoLk, so no its not a new cata thing. Tree's also currently hav one that lowers GCD of lifebloom

If u hav the talent + the haste to go down to 1sec GCDs, yes them spells with hav 0.5sec GCDs, nothing new same ole stuff

[Rivin]

If u hav the talent + the haste to go down to 1sec GCDs, yes them spells with hav 0.5sec GCDs, nothing new same ole stuff

That's not the way it works in Wrath. If you have a 1s GCD from haste, the talent does nothing.


Most likely the mechanics haven't changed and these talents are to compensate for the big drop in haste. It would be great to see someone confirm though.

[DotDotDot]

That's not the way it works in Wrath. If you have a 1s GCD from haste, the talent does nothing.


Most likely the mechanics haven't changed and these talents are to compensate for the big drop in haste. It would be great to see someone confirm though.

Wel when i use curses my addon tells me 0.5sec GCD, wen i use other spells it tells me 1.0 sec GCD, OmniCC timers ftw nice shiny addon

[bahumut5]

Tried: Glyph of Life Tap (reduces GCD by 0.5 sec) reduces GCD of all spells. Not just Life Tap.

Not sure how it is with druids though.
If I look at the spells they should have effect on, I would say it only works on those specific spells for Druids.

[Rivin]

Wel when i use curses my addon tells me 0.5sec GCD, wen i use other spells it tells me 1.0 sec GCD, OmniCC timers ftw nice shiny addon

I dunno why it would say that. According to information on Wowhead:

Saying you gain 0.5 seconds every rotation also assumes you have zero haste, which means you are practically naked. This talent becomes less and less useful the more haste you have, because you can't go under the 1 second gcd. With IC level gear you can EASILY gain 1100 haste rating (~33.55%) with spellstone, which sets your global cd to 1.12 seconds.

That means you should be able to spam cast CoA in ~0.75 second intervals, if the 0.5 second gcd reduction is applied before haste, and with other spells this is so.

I saved my combatlog and started spamming CoA using my whole mana pool, approximately 70 casts.
Without the talent: Average time between each SPELL_CAST_SUCCESS message was ~1.20 seconds. That's 0.08 seconds over the "expected". Basically this is the real latency for everything what happens between my fingers, keyboard and the WoW server (~80 ms). Edit: You actually can't queue spells until after the GCD so that's why your "minimum GCD" will be 1 second + your latency.
With the talent: ~1.08 seconds. That's the same delta value of 0.08 seconds over the 1 second hard-capped global cooldown. If the GCD could be reduced below 1 second, the expected value would've been 0.82 seconds.
Without talents - With talents = 1.20 sec -1.08 sec = 0.12 seconds, which in fact is the difference between my global cooldown and the hard capped global cooldown (1 second minimum gcd + 0.12 seconds = 1.12 seconds = my hasted gcd.)

Tried: Glyph of Life Tap (reduces GCD by 0.5 sec) reduces GCD of all spells. Not just Life Tap.

Not sure how it is with druids though.
If I look at the spells they should have effect on, I would say it only works on those specific spells for Druids.

It doesn't affect Life Tap itself, but rather the GCD Life Tap incurs. That way you can cast a spell sooner after you cast Life Tap, instead of waiting for the whole normal GCD.

[Plasmon]

I understand that the GCD is only lowered for those specific spells. What I am referring to is how often you can use arcane explosion button when you are spamming it in Cataclysm.

Example: On live, say I have enough haste for a 1.5 second cast time to be reduced to 1.1 sec, and therefore my GCD is also 1.1 seconds. Now in Cataclysm I get the Improved Arcane Explosion talent that lowers the arcane explosion GCD by 0.5 seconds.

What is my new arcane explosion GCD? Is it 0.6 seconds (capped as low as 0.5 sec) or is it still held at the 1.0 second cap? I know that all my other spells would still be at my 1.1 second GCD. I'm not in beta or PTR so I can't test this myself.

[Plep]

That's a good question and it doesn't seem anyone really answered it. Does anyone on the PTR or Beta know if you can go below the 1 sec GCD for an instant cast spell if the spell has a talent that reduces GCD by 0.5 sec?