Second Thoughts About Alacrity for Sith Inquisitor, Sorceror

Sadly, Star Wars, The Old Republic SWTOR PVP Armor gear progression is based on time and luck.  I think most of us would rather toss the luck element out the window.  It is simply not fair that some people will receive gear faster than others.  This holds especially true for Champion Armor and Battlemaster commendations.  At least Battlemaster bags give commendations as rewards which removes the possibility for duplicate pieces.

After staring at my gear in between warzone pops, I noticed most of my newly acquired Centurion and Champion PVP Force-Master armor contains Alacrity, which reduces the time needed to activate or channel abilities, so they can be executed more quickly.  At first, I thought a 10% reduction to cast times was an ideal stat to stack until further examination and consideration.

• Reduction to activation times from Alacrity come after any other ability that reduces activation times.  Let’s assume we are at a 10% reduction to activation times from Alacrity.  Now, take a look at Dark Infusion and Dark Mending.  2 Ranks of Dark Mending reduces activation time of Dark Infusion by 0.5 seconds.  I was curious to know whether the 10% came off the original 3 second cast or the new cast time of 2.5 seconds from Dark Mending.  According to my tests, the 10% reduction came after Dark Mending’s 2.5 second cast time resulting in a 2.25 second cast opposed to the 2.2 second castime I was hoping for.  The difference was just 0.05 seconds, which was really negligible, but could be higher with more Alacrity.
• The main reason Alacrity does absolutely nothing for me is the fact that almost all of my spells are instant or proc’d to become instant.  I see no reason or advantage to having any Alacrity for my particular build, 23 Lightning / 18 Madness.  Other builds may reap the benefits from Alacrity, but one should carefully examine their spell rotation and calculate just how much they really would benefit.

I have been pulling out the enhancements out of certain Champion Force-Master Armor, and replacing them with  Advanced Battle Enhancement 22.  I am aiming for higher critical chance and surge.

• Champion Force-Master’s Boots
• Champion Force-Master’s Lower Robe
• Champion Force-Master’s Vestments
• Centurion Force-Master’s Gloves (still dont have Champion Force-Master’s Gloves)

Ideally, you would want to get duplicate pieces of Champion Force-Master’s Gloves or Champion Force-Master’s Headgear and use those enhancements to put in the above Champion pieces.  This is what I am doing this until I start receiving Battlemaster Armor.