IAS and 1/2 sec attacks

Do IASs affect the activation time of 1/2 sec attacks? I've heard that they do but also read somewhere that 1/2 sec attacks work independently of an IAS.

Thanks

An IAS only increases the attack speed of your character, not your skill activation times.

I don't quite understand your second question, sorry.

Hope I helped.

Not quite correct.

Put a 33% IAS on your para, use mighty throw or unblockable throw, and you dont see the activation bar, as it activated faster.

Use Mighty throw without IAS, and there's the bar as usual.

I'm pretty sure IAS affects attack skills that have a special activation speed. I'm pretty sure a 3/4 sec activation attack is faster when used while under an IAS skill.

Skill activation time has nothing to do with the skill effect. Interrupt skills just mean that they will interrupt what the enemy is doing. Most interrupts will have an extra fast activation time because they need one in order to finish casting before the skill that you are trying to interrupt finishes casting.

It affects everything, you really just don't notice the difference.
Bear in mind though the delay after ranger interrupt skills.

Woah! Let me clear up some confusion. IAS is not an accurate name. IAS is not about the speed of the attack, it is about the time between attacks. So using a skill like Flurry reduces the time between sword swings, not the actual time it takes to swing the sword.

So with respect to a 1/2 second attack skill, this means the actual attack takes 1/2 second. This is particularly advantageous for slow weapons like hammers and scythes. Skills that have a designated attack speed, such as the example, will always overwrite the base attack speed of the weapon.

Yes, adding an IAS will benefit that build, but it is a separate thing we are talking about.

EDIT: Ignore the misinformation in this post

Nope, IAS skills really decrease the time of an attack animation, and since there is no delay between two attack animations it decreases the time between two attacks as well.
The saying "IAS skills shorten the interval between two attacks" is more a mnemonic how much benefit an IAS actually gives than a realistic description.

edit: And yes, all attack skills are affected by IAS skills or skills that reduce the attack speed, even ones with a "fixed" attack speed.

I beg to differ. But I'll go visit master of damage now.

EDIT: Mmmmk... Desert Rose is right, and I am wrong. IAS affect is applied AFTER the forced weapon speed of the skill is applied. I wasn't able to measure the effect on cooldown though.

IAS stands for Increased Attack Speed, but there are many different things in GW that are referred to as an IAS. Some IASs only affect the attack speed (e.g. Flurry), some also affect the skill activation time (e.g. Essence of Celerity). You'd really need to specify the particular IAS in question, to get the best answer.

IAS does in fact affect fixed-activation-time attack skills. It reduces the listed activation time by the IAS percentage. (Ex: A 1sec fixed-activation-time attack skill under 33% IAS will activate in .67sec.)

If anyone doubts this, go test with Renewing Smash. Score 4 hits during a 3sec KD and it should be pretty obvious to you that IAS is indeed reducing the activation time.

Note that some ranger attacks are funky. The displayed activation time is NOT the actual activation time. Rather the displayed value equals the activation time plus an aftercast. The aftercast does not seem to be reducible by IAS. As best I can tell, these attacks are 1/4sec activation + 1/2sec aftercast, but the measurements involved are so small it's hard to design an experiment that can confirm that with 100% certainty.