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Is there an advantage to disabling auto-attack?
Denambren
Member UncommonPosts: 399
In a lot of the discussion that surrounds auto-attacks in GW2, a common suggestion made is to turn off the mappable auto-attack feature if someone doesn't like the system GW2 uses with its autoattacks.
My question is, is there any advantage to turning off autoattacks, or does that leave you at a FPS disadvantage right away? For all purposes in this thread, when I refer to "autoattacks" it will exclusively mean autoattacks with weapon skill #1, and not autoattack mapped to attacks with any cooldown.
As far as I can tell, having auto-attacks enabled drills out the most damage in the most efficient way, as autoattacks don't seem to interfere with your regular abililties because they don't follow a global cooldown on use. This suggests that you should never turn autoattacking off because it puts you at a DPS disadvantage. You can just cancel the weapon #1 autoattack at will with another abililty, or movement, or anything you want, and you appear to get the maximum output with autoattacks due to the lack of a global cooldown.
Can someone clarify if this is not the case, in their experience? Does having autoattack enabled for weapon skill #1 interfere with your use of other abilities or delay them in some way? As far as I can tell, autoattack should be always enabled so that the server can handle the brunt of your dps load. The speed at which weapon skill #1 recovers from a single use (for some classes) suggests you would need to be spamming the button every 0.5 seconds or so (estimate for some classes) if you tried to emulate the autoattack mapping with your finger presses, and that just doesn't seem practical to me.
If it's true that autoattacks enabled is a crucial way to maximize DPS, and we consider the cooldown timers on the other abilities, then would it be safe to say that the majority of your damage in GW2 is dealt by autoattacks? It appears to me as if this is the case from what I've seen, but I've only played the game for an hour so and so I have limited combat knowledge. I invite everyone with GW2 combat experience to offer their thoughts on the ideas of:
auto-attacks on weapon skill #1 = mandatory for maximum DPS
and
weapon skill #1 = primary source of all DPS
Comments
I think the opposite question is valid: Does auto attack really add something to the game?
frankly do I notice little difference between games that have it and doesn´t, I might aggro a bit fewer animals cause I target them wrongly without it but that is about it.
So why keep something that doesn´t really add anything to the game?
The game isn't about having the maximum DPS.
Having auto-attack on means there is a delay if you were to choose to use another skill 2-5 whatever while the auto-attack is still going, as the 2nd and often 3rd attack in a 3-attack "auto attack" combo for many classes have a cast time, for instance.
Also, the 3rd part of an attach chain will often also have some sort of buff or debuff associated with it.
It's all about timing and control vs. convenience.
There is a dev, who did a video for.... some gaming place maybe IGN? where he is playing a Mesmer and talking, and he says he doesn't use auto-attack at all because it gives him better control on when he uses his abilities and how.
Considering that is coming from a dev, one of the lead designers I think, I'd pay attention.
Convenience vs. control.
That's why you can put ANY attack on auto if you choose too, your self-heal, some kind of buff skill, etc.
Convenience vs. control.
For example, as a Guardian using a 1H Mace, you might want to turn off Auto attack on your 1 skill so that you can time when to use the 3rd attack in the attack chain because it does an AoE heal.
Or (also Guardian) using 2H mace you might want to turn off auto-attack on your 1 skill because the 3rd in the chain does a ground-effect AoE concecration that you might want to time/control better.
I really don't think so, because here's why. When I play any class, I like to use up my skills, and when they're on cooldown, rather than standing still and doing nothing, I'd rather be hitting them for some damage.
And some weapon/class combo has auto attacks that are really nice such as stacking bleed, decreasing movement speed, and stacking various other debuffs.
Auto attack is also nice because it can be used to select the next target without tab targetting it first. (There is a option to turn this on/off I believe)
"weapon skill #1 = primary source of all DPS" No this is not true. Just take a look at the second warrior greatsword skill called "hundred blades" It's short cooldown and massive damage means just normal auto attacks just can't out DPS this skill
well it's not mandatory for max dps as long as you manually use the skill as often as you can.
I actually change the auto attack skill constantly. If i'm lazily exploring I might put it on a speed buff or something so it fires off whenever the cooldown is up.
I hardly ever have it on skill 1, since it never has a cooldown. I can just keep pressing it myself using one of the side buttons on my mouse.
Changing the auto attack to a skill with a cooldown means it will always go off without you having to pay attention to when it is back up. As long as that skill isn't majorly situational, like a straight DPS skill, it's a massive help.
In any PvP I turn the auto attack off so I have full control. I don't want have to wait even as little as 0.5 seconds for the auto attack animation to finish before I can can fire off the skill I actually want to use. Some skills in slot 1 jump you about a lot as well, like the 1h sword for a ranger. I don't want that kind of erratic stuff going on, ever.
Don't you have to be in combat for auto attack skill to go off? So having a speed buff on auto attack won't really work unless you stop and go into combat everytime the cooldown is up?
Let me know how this works and I'll test it out in today's stress test.
Well I know I've always done it with the warhorn speed buff on a Ranger, it definately works out of combat. It works fine out of combat as long the skill is self cast and not something that needs a target. Not sure how ground target ones work out of combat though, if at all.
Nice, I've a ranger as well. Another question, if you set number 5 for warhorn for auto attack, and then switch to different weapon set, is it still number 5 for auto attack? or does it go back to number 1? What about if you unequip your warhorn and your primary weapon and put on something else?
It won't stay on slot 5, each of your 2 weapon sets can have a different one and it will change when you swap weapons.
I'm not sure if it saves the selection across all weapons though, as in if you equip a different one. Havn't paid attention to that.
This ^^
Convenience vs control simple as that
Block the trolls, don't answer them, so we can remove the garbage from these forums
Play for fun. Play to win. Play for perfection. Play with friends. Play in another world. Why do you play?
Some weapons, definatly not all, have that 3rd ability in their #1 skill slot - that alone could be reason to save it for a later time to attack with it.
Other times is against a mob/boss/player that can reflect projectiles or damage.
In combination with auto targeting it can get really annoying with ranged weapons, if you for example turn around with auto attack still on letting condition damage finish off a mob it might attack something else you didn't even select.
Often I also tend to repeatedly hit tab in combination with looking around using cam to check which mobs are all near, because the skill also fires off when you're out of range or obstructed by an object, this during BWE1 quite a few times lead to me still standing there spamming my skill after killing a champion / boss with no mob in range (or not in line of sight) ; which is almost embarrassing. I turned it off and will never turn back on again unless I have to take a leak during a bossfight or something like that.
Actually depending on the weapon and class, yes, yes there is.
Depending on wich step of the chain attack you are, you might want to save your 2nd or 3rd effect for a different enemy.
If you haven't figured this one out just yet by playing the game then you are in no position to make any absolute statements.
I'm tempted to say its never a good idea to use the auto-cast feature but perhaps its usefull for a skill that removes conditions or something to that effect.