Alacrity - Little effect on sustained HPS

[Jagare]

I have done a study on alacrity's effects on our sustained HPS, and have discovered that it is really minor. My updated spreadsheet (available HERE) uses a more advanced HPS determination than I previously had and shows that the overall impact on sustained HPS by increasing activation speed is very minor since our limiting factor is our tiered regen, not our cast rate. This is in a single-target situation where we get the most use out of Kolto Injection and thus where alacrity would have the most effect.

Keep in mind this assumes all other values are kept equal, which is obviously not the case. If you ditch alacrity you can get tons of crit/surge in its place which would have a much stronger effect on HPS. For example, taking my crit from 38.44% to 39.44% has the same effect as taking my activation speed bonus from 4% to 10% - but one requires about 25 crit rating and the other over 200 alacrity.

I recommend (as raid healers) we ditch alacrity on our gear for crit/surge by getting crit up to a solid 40% then trying to max power/surge. The overall impact on our sustained HPS by alacrity is not worth it. I recommend you download my spreadsheet and play with the values to see for yourself. It really is an objective analysis that I don't think will be disproved. I do still recommend getting the alacrity talent, simply because it is an HPS gain that doesn't screw our energy regen and isn't replaceable by any better talents.

(Cross-post from the healing compendium - thought this might deserve it's own discussion)

[Jagare]

I updated the spreadsheet to better show the effects of 0%, 4% (talent), 10% and 15% activation speed. This really reinforces the idea that you don't get more casts of KI because they cast faster, since energy is the limiting resource. It's not until 15% activation speed bonus that you get enough extra Diagnostic Scans in there that you actually are able to cast *ONE* additional Kolto Injection.

[Azaranth]

I disagree with both your methodoly and your analysis.

I think this conversation has to start by understanding that healing is very rarely applied in a perfectly sustainable vacuum. A large majority of the time, you're simply refreshing some Medpacks (Kolto Probe), until the burst hits.

When the burst hits, it's often about maximum healing throughput. Factoring in a Diagnostic Scan into your rotation math is what's throwing the numbers off. When a boss enrages, sustainability goes out the window. Your rotation becomes Injection -> Infusion -> Injection -> Infusion ->Injection -> Infusion ->Injection -> Adrenaline Probe -> Injection -> Infusion -> Injection -> Infusion -> Wipe.

IMO, these are the important numbers. Most healers can handle the general HP maintenance that happens during normal encounters. The better equipped healers really only standout when the isht hits the fan. In these situations, I think Alacrity has legitimate value.

Let's take a look at a more simple (Inj -> Inf) x3 rotation. Using my own healing spreadsheet (which was originally based on yours), and my current healing stats, I get the following numbers:

Cast Speed - Healing/Second
00% - 1841.03
05% - 1937.93
10% - 2045.59
15% - 2165.92

Those are substantial increases in HPS. Now, I'm not here to argue that Alacrity is our best stat. I just think that your previous analysis was in error.

Furthermore, I think it's dangerous to 'strongly recommend' avoiding Alacrity in a vacuum. The mods with Alacrity on them in the Columi PvE Set are level 56, and I think that removing them in favor of level 51 mods will be a net loss. Even with comparable mods, the math says that +200 Alacrity Rating (assuming you're starting at 0) will increase your HPS output significantly more than adding +200 Crit Rating (assuming you're somewhere around 20% base) due to diminishing returns.

Az

P.S. - I do want to commend you on your spreadsheet. As previously mentioned, my own spreadsheet is based off yours, and I took the time to reproduce it to better understand the math behind your reasoning. It's well done, and a good contribution to the community.

---

After reading your second post (you submitted while I was composing my response), I believe that this fundamental conversation hinges upon your inclusion of Diagnostic Scan.

I don't believe that it's particularly important to analyze any rotation involving Kolto Injection with regard to sustainability. The conversation of Alacrity should be used to analyze maximum throughput in emergency situations.

In summary, Alacrity is a very cost efficient way to increase your HPS when healing through intermittent damage spikes. The other secondary stats (crit/surge) are more valuable in group-wide maintenance healing situations. I feel that you're incorrect to dismiss the former and only analyze the later.

Az

[Jagare]

(02-01-2012 04:11 AM)Azaranth Wrote:  I think this conversation has to start by understanding that healing is very rarely applied in a perfectly sustainable vacuum. A large majority of the time, you're simply refreshing some Medpacks (Kolto Probe), until the burst hits.

I don't usually spend my time rolling HOTs on multiple targets. Rolling HOTs is only valid on targets that are guaranteed damage, else they might tick 5/6 times against full HP and go to waste. Usually I roll them on the tank and *maybe* melee DPS and I do reactive healing in the rest of the raid. If someone took a bit of damage and won't take more I usually just do KI or SP, depending on how much they took.

(02-01-2012 04:11 AM)Azaranth Wrote:  IMO, these are the important numbers. Most healers can handle the general HP maintenance that happens during normal encounters. The better equipped healers really only standout when the isht hits the fan. In these situations, I think Alacrity has legitimate value.

In Nightmare EV/KP (which we currently run) it is all about sustained HPS. I need to reach a point where me + the other healer >= boss DPS. You will not get that with burst healing, you will simply get out of energy. Good DPS and Tanks make a fight consistent. If you don't have good DPS and tanks then alacrity may be a way you can save people that have made silly mistakes. But it is in no way the proper min/max for our healing style.

(02-01-2012 04:11 AM)Azaranth Wrote:  Let's take a look at a more simple (Inj -> Inf) x3 rotation. Using my own healing spreadsheet (which was originally based on yours), and my current healing stats, I get the following numbers:

Cast Speed - Healing/Second
00% - 1841.03
05% - 1937.93
10% - 2045.59
15% - 2165.92

Those are substantial increases in HPS. Now, I'm not here to argue that Alacrity is our best stat. I just think that your previous analysis was in error.

They are indeed huge increases in HPS, that are maintainable for only a few seconds. Compare this with an HPS increase that applies to an entire 300s fight and you end up doing a few thousand extra healing vs tens of thousands extra. In crazy burst situations your tanks/dps should be using their defensive cooldowns intelligently. Healers are meant to offset boss damage, not save bad players from certain death due to mistakes.

(02-01-2012 04:11 AM)Azaranth Wrote:  Furthermore, I think it's dangerous to 'strongly recommend' avoiding Alacrity in a vacuum. The mods with Alacrity on them in the Columi PvE Set are level 56, and I think that removing them in favor of level 51 mods will be a net loss. Even with comparable mods, the math says that +200 Alacrity Rating (assuming you're starting at 0) will increase your HPS output significantly more than adding +200 Crit Rating (assuming you're somewhere around 20% base) due to diminishing returns.

I am not recommending anything in a vaccum. A very common healing rotation is to roll your HOT on the tank and reactively heal the raid. In this most common situation alacrity has a neglible impact. I can still do 1900 HPS sustained for a few seconds to save a wipe and then pop adrenaline probe and get back to my sustained rotation. The extra 200 HPS you'll do for those 6s due to your stacked alacrity has very little impact on the overall fight.

It's all about min/max and fulfulling our role as effectively as possible. Healers are meant to offset boss damage. Period. The more boss damage we offset in an encounter, the better we are doing. To sacrifice our primary purpose to be able to "save" people that are poorly executing is simply not worth it.

(02-01-2012 04:11 AM)Azaranth Wrote:  P.S. - I do want to commend you on your spreadsheet. As previously mentioned, my own spreadsheet is based off yours, and I took the time to reproduce it to better understand the math behind your reasoning. It's well done, and a good contribution to the community.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

[Azaranth]

This is a great conversation, and an excellent change from the trash on the bioware forums.

Your point about a role in an Operation is well taken, and I believe that reinforces my point that Alacrity is only as valuable as the context allows it to be. If your role in a raid is topping off some of the DPSers, then I'd agree with your analysis that Alacrity is not extremely useful to you. I'd counter this by saying that Alacrity is extremely valuable in as the sole healer in Nightmare Mode flashpoint runs, where maximum throughput for short periods of time is usually more critical than sustainable maintenance heals. If your analysis is purely from the context of operations, that's fine. I only take issue with title of this thread, as Alacrity has demonstrable value outside of Ops.

The thing that your healing spreadsheet doesn't factor in is the diminishoing returns on secondary stats. Here's an example, which your spreadsheet should be able to reproduce with fairly similar results (I'm sure there's a few minor rounding differences):

Given
Bonus Healing 400, Crit Chance 40% (about 300 crit rating), Crit Mult 75%, Activation Speed 104% (0 alacrity rating, talents only), and excluding any set bonuses from the PVE gear. Pugnacity ticking.

Rotation
This rotation is pretty close to energy netural, so I'll use it as the example:

- Underworld Medicine (Injection)
- Emergency Medpack (Probe)
- Underworld Medicine (Injection)
- Kolto Pack (Infusion)
- Diagnostic Scan

Results
HPS, with given stats: 1406
HPS with +200 Crit Rating, +0 Alacrity Rating: 1455
HPS with +0 Crit Rating, +200 Alacrity Rating: 1500

There's no doubt that adding +10% crit increases our average HPS by more than adding 10% alacrity. However, adding a fixed amount of Crit Rating vs Alacrity Rating are going to give different results, due to the diminishing returns. In most cases, I think that adding the first 200-300 points of Alacrity is more valuable than stacking more crit once you're already over 300ish Crit Rating.

[Manachanter]

From 11 years of primary healing experience I can say that the level-based regeneration rate that Ops have is the limiting factor in deciding the stat balance. On paper, yes, Alac is going to come out on top for HPS, but only for either a short burst healing period or in a situation where you are reaction healing instead of looking for sustained heals (i.e.: incidental raid healing or with spike tank damage as opposed to sustained healing on the tank).

With linear regeneration healing classes (Sorc/Sage) you can ignore the regen factor as their force regen is always at or higher than their initial regen value and doesn't decrease with extended use. With the Op/Scoundrel you can't assume that you will always have the max regen, on prolonged fights you will usually be sitting around the 2+1 or 3+1 mark unless you have a healer rotation in place. That value needs to be factored into any calculations when trying to determine stat weight.

The more alac you have the more you can cast heals, yes, but the more heals you cast the lower your energy gets and therefore the lower your regen will be. This is where the DiagScan is a necessary addition to your healing rotation. Yes it will lower your HPS but if you are doing nothing for the 1/2/3 seconds it ticks you are missing out on a potential of 3 extra energy. Then if you prioritize crit over the haste you are looking at increasing the chance each tick will give you that energy.

Yes, I'm not going to swap out a 56 +alac mod for a 51 +crit mod but I am actively looking to prioritize crit/surge/power until alacrity is shown to affect the energy regen tick rate. Note that this is going to be the major factor affecting endgame raiding. Until a method to improve regen is put in it doesn't matter how many heals you can theoretically cast in x amount of seconds if you don't have the energy pool to cast them. Therefore bigger, slower heals are going to be the way to go, as is the case in most other MMOs. Fast heals are only used in emergency situations as you aren't able to sustain the output for long.

However, as I said, this all depends on your healing style and role, if you are focused on burst healing then yes, alacrity will be the better secondary stat. Otherwise you are better off with sustained healing via the crit/surge/power choice.

[Manachanter]

Carrying over from the Compendium thread regarding negative energy with higher alacrity).

I'm in work at the minute so can't really look into the spreadsheet much, I'll do that when I get home but the additional casts you gain from a higher alacrity will definitely cause you to spend more energy in the same amount of time and therefore reduce your energy pool and regen rate. So there will be a point where you need to force yourself to pause between casts to allow the regen rate to stabilize. At that point alacrity becomes meaningless and as you pointed out in the Compendium thread you only get 1 extra KI from that much alacrity over a 5min fight? That really isn't worth it. It's just a case of working out where the higher crit rating will allow DS to generate more energy in the extra casts.

[Azaranth]

(02-01-2012 06:13 AM)Manachanter Wrote:  I'm in work at the minute so can't really look into the spreadsheet much, I'll do that when I get home but the additional casts you gain from a higher alacrity will definitely cause you to spend more energy in the same amount of time and therefore reduce your energy pool and regen rate. So there will be a point where you need to force yourself to pause between casts to allow the regen rate to stabilize. At that point alacrity becomes meaningless and as you pointed out in the Compendium thread you only get 1 extra KI from that much alacrity over a 5min fight? That really isn't worth it. It's just a case of working out where the higher crit rating will allow DS to generate more energy in the extra casts.

All energy consumption calculations are adjusted for alacrity on the spreadsheets used to provide the data above.

Edit: That wasn't meant to sound dismissive. You're right that if the passive energy regeneration rate was adjusted by alacrity rating, it would be a different ballgame entirely. In fact it would probably push alacrity past all the other stats in desirability.

[Jagare]

I renamed the thread to "Alacrity - Little effect on sustained HPS" to remove some of the shock value and make my point a bit more focused. I am attempting to prove that as a raid healer where sustained HPS is key Alacrity is a less effective use of itemization points than Power/Surge/Crit. I am not attempting to say that it has no effect on HPS. As Azaranth has pointed it, alacrity certainly increases HPS - just not for long periods of time. Depending on the situation you may want to play that way. As a raid healer, I will be keeping the 4% alacrity talent and regearing to get myself at 40% crit while maximizing power/surge.

[Kaedis]

Quote:I renamed the thread to "Alacrity - Little effect on sustained HPS" to remove some of the shock value and make my point a bit more focused.

Thanks, was going to mention that...