Guild Wars 2

I guess I didn’t find it because most people already know…
What’s the definition of aftercast? Is it animation length only or a minute rate of fire change?

Aftercast is the period after the use of a skill where the player cannot take any action other than movement/dodging. This means you cannot initiate your next attack/skill until the aftercast delay runs its course. In reference to the Longbow, this was a big problem as it reduced the firing rate of its auto attack to well more than what the tool-tip stated, resulting in much lower dps than expected. This change has more or less fixed the issue to bring the Longbow back in line with its expected DPS.

Basically its animation length, but this DOES effect your rate of fire.

I said for months that the extremely sluggish rate of fire on Long Range Shot due to an overly long aftercast delay was the major problem with Longbows. I’m glad they finally fixed it along with some of the Staff ones, but I’m curious why they didn’t also fix it on the Warrior’s Dual Shot.

It also seems a little bit off for the Thief and Engi’s Pistol, both of which seem to have a slower rate of fire than they should for their damage specs. Whether they realize it or not, the aftercast on the #1 skill is/was the main reason all of these sets are complained about feeling weak so much in the forums.

With respect to the longbow specifically, I measured it before and after the 6/25 patch. The casting time is still 3/4 of a second, but the aftercast is now 1/4 of a second instead of 1/2, so the shot-to-shot time dropped by that same amount.

Pre-patch the longbow could fire 48 shots per minute, it can now fire 60 shots per minute. Because the arrows also now fly faster and hit more often, this should be at least a 25% increase in damage.