Casting

Introduction

The casting of a skill has multiple components: variable casting time, fixed casting time, cast animation, global cool time, and cooldown.
Each of them has their own method of reduction and/or bypass.

Variable Casting Time

Also known as variable cast time or VCT, this is one part of cast time which is the time you need to wait before your skill is cast.
There are two ways to reduce variable casting time:

1. Stat reduction: using the formula (DEX x 2) + INT which need to reach 530 for complete reduction of VCT
   
2. Gear reduction: some equipment/enchant have the description reduces variable casting time by xx% which will help reduce VCT
   

These reduction from equipment/enchant can stack and will completely remove VCT at 100%.

The two methods of VCT reduction stack with each other multiplicatively,
which means when both are at 50% (stat method at 265 points and gear method at 50%), then the total VCT reduction is 75%.

Fixed Casting Time

Also known as fixed cast time or FCT, this is the other part of the cast time.
There are two ways to reduce fixed casting time:

1. Flat reduction: some equipment/enchant have the description reduces fixed casting time by x seconds, which help reduce FCT by a flat amount.
   
2. Percentage reduction: some equipment/enchant have the description reduces the fixed casting time of skills by xx%., which help reduce FCT by a percentage.
   

These percentage reduction do not stack with each other and only the highest amount of reduction would take effect.

Example: an armor gives 20% FCT reduction and a headgear gives 50% FCT reduction, then you will only have 50% FCT reduction when both are equipped.

Flat reduction is applied first, then Percentage reduction.
Example: A skill has one second FCT, and you have 0.5 second FCT reduction and 50% FCT reduction, then the cast still has 0.25 second FCT.

Cast Animation

When a skill is cast, your character enter an animation, which can lock your character into that animation before you can move or cast another skill.
There are two types of animation, soft and hard.
Soft animation can be reduced by attack speed, and the max reduction can be achieved with the max attack speed, which is 193 aspd.
Hard animation can not be reduced through any stats or bonuses, but can be cut short by casting a different skill or moving. This mechanic is called animation canceling.

Global Cool Time

Also known as after cast delay or ACD, this delay prevents casting of all skills after a skill is cast.
Global Cool Time can be reduced through equipment/enchant that have the description reduces global cool time by xx%
Base on the skill's after cast delay, it requires different amount of global cool time percentage.
Formula: Final_Delay = Base_Skill_Delay * (1 − (Total_ACD_Reduction ÷ 100))

Base_Skill_Delay: After cast delay of the skill.

Total_ACD_Reduction: The total amount of global cool time you have with your equipment/enchant.

The goal is to get Final_Delay to 1/7 second or (0.14 second) because that's the maximum casts per second you can do with max attack speed.

Cooldown

Cooldown prevents a skill from being cast again for its duration.
Cooldown can only be reduced by specific equipment/enchant and its reduction is generally rarer to come across than other types of reduction.
These equipment/enchant would have the description reduces cooldown of x by y second.