Softcaps discussion

[RuQu]

(02-07-2012 10:48 PM)LagunaD Wrote:  Although I'm not familiar with Commando healing mechanics, I think I understand what your explanation. But I still don't see how more Alacrity can ever reduce your HPS, for the reasons given previously. The worst effect that resource constraints should ever have is making Alacrity HPS-neutral.

Let me try to explain my mental model.

Suppose that with 0 Alacrity, your highest HPS, ammo-neutral rotation heals for an amount H in time T. Thus, your 0-Alacrity HPS is H/T.

You also have a no-cost heal which heals for h in unit time.

With Alacrity q, you heal for H in time (1-q)T, for the same amount of ammo, and the no-cost ability heals for hqT in time qT.

The total time elapsed is still T, and your ammo consumption hasn't changed. Your HPS is now

(H + hqT)/T = H/T + qh

Thus, even in the worst case where you are resource-bound with 0 Alacrity, your HPS increases linearly with Alacrity, but the slope is determined by your filler, not your good stuff.

Maybe that is the point you are trying to make, but showing a decrease in HPS with Alacrity in your graphs suggests to me that the problem hasn't been formulated properly.

Your reasoning is perfectly sound in isolation, but breaks down during actual rotations.

We can burst heal for 10 seconds every time we cast Supercharge Cells (SCC). This removes the cooldown on Adv Probe (AP), which means we can follow it with a cheap Med Probe (MP). It also provides a 10% healing buff.

Now, assuming there there are always injured people out there in need of healing, you will cast AP/MP combos as long as you can inside that 10s window, and you will not waste any of those 10s on casting the free weak heal. Since the time of SCC is fixed, but the amount you can spend in it is not, increased alacrity can have you burst your way into a lower regen zone than a lower alacrity would have put you at. You then have to recover after the fact. While we cast Hammer Shot during regen, it actually doesn't return any Ammo, it is simply free so its EC is -1*regen. Casting HS is the same as standing around, but you can do some light healing while doing it.

In fact, this appears to be exactly what happens in the 25% case. An extra AP slips into the SCC cooldown, followed by an extra 1 Ammo MP, and this extra expenditure of 3 Ammo drops you into lower regen, thus slowing the rotation as a whole.