For what it's worth, one thing of note is that there seems to randomly be a much more significant delay/lull in ticks, which can lead to you suddenly finding yourself out of AP even if you've been trying to properly 'manage' it by stutterstepping to get the tick (this often seems to take at least one second anyway but that could just be lag due to distance for me).
I had windows on my BW earlier (and on my SW/RP trying to level) where I straight up would go within a regen tick for 3s-5s. Then it would start working 'normally'.
On the topic of BW, I have very frequently run out of AP, but just like with live, I would disengage if I didn't think I could kill a target before burning through the bar and regen enough to spike. Mind you, unlike live, I can't do timed burst w/ FB > BB > PS > Sear. But AP management was definitely a concern for BWs, and it also was for healers, too -- there's a reason Resto Burst and Wild Healing were staples on my AM.
Azarael wrote:Edit: I don't much like the idea that Grungni's Gift and Flash of Chaos are spammable, either. Without the live servers being up we have to rely on second hand sources, old articles, vague memories and common sense, and common sense tells me that 1) an Action Point system should mean something if it exists at all and 2) if Flash of Chaos and Grungni's Gift were meant to be spammable, they would not have an AP cost in the first place. I actually made reference to GG and FoC when discussing the AP issue - an AP system which restores AP immediately after you finish casting means that you REGAIN AP when casting both, and there's no way that was intended to be the case.
FoC/GG were definitely spammable. They dropped the cost to 15 AP and gave them a decent delve to encourage a more mobile playstyle for the RP/Zealot, who didn't have stuff like RB/WH to make stationary casting of big heals a thing. I mean I pretty much only played Zealot/AM/BG from the time that patch went live through to the end of the game.
They have an AP cost because you will eventually run out (because of the AP tick delay) and you can be trained/have AP cost added, and it wasn't a super viable practice for keeping someone up who was getting spammed unless you were built as a flash healer (e.g. it didn't work for most pug players who were all about AoE heal spam for big numbers), but if you were unmolested and had Resto and/or dropped the Master Rune/Ritual you were laughing.
Edit: Oh, and on the "omg out of AP healing" front, keep in mind the double-tick bug still seems to be a thing, so you can be far more frugal and efficient with heal use than spamming big heals, especially if you get a decent mix of healers in a WF and people play smart/conservative and use their detaunts/CC/guards/etc.
