Hope it isn't poor form to necro, but I think better than a new thread for very similar info.
Firstly - I did not find the behavior of both a "cast time" (execute) and a "cool down" clear at all until I started to really look hard at the game. I don't know a good way to present it to the user without cluttering things up, but I didn't even know this existed at first.
Secondly - even knowing it exists, I don't know how to determine how long each attack's cast time is. I think I might have found it by parsing out the xml files (for making mods), but there is both a number of frames, and a frame rate. Is it correct that time cast time is # frames / frame rate? (And why a few attacks [rapid shot] "repeat/loop" while others like whirlwind don't?)
Execute times do not benifit from CDR via speed, right? What about speed bonus from boosting? Any other factors in play?
I was trying to optimize my build and calc DPS values, in prep for some balance modding (archers are so good... till NG+, then they are poor. I wanted to lower that darn miss chance 10-20% but weaken archers globally.) But I ran smack dab into this big puzzle of how often attacks are actually happening - I'm hoping someone knows the ins and outs better and can clear up the correct way to sort this out.
(I know I'll need to check "attack dropping", especially for Slak, since at high speed almost all the time is in cast, not cool-down... but even using the simplified assumption that they always fire at cool-down end, I still can't sort out what's going on. Tricky to balance without the hard numbers.)
This is an example of what I was trying to use to determine cast times ( "| " is added after each < to make it show):
<| anim id="slash_up" framerate="16">
<| !--anticipation 1-->
<| frame value="55"/>
<| frame value="56"/>
<| frame value="56"/>
<| frame value="57"/>
<| !--phase 1-->
<| frame value="58"/>
<| frame value="59"/>
<| frame value="60"/>
<| /anim>
I interpret this to mean slash takes 7/16ths of a second - am I even close?