How do action points work? What can I do to help my efficiency with gear? Find out!
Every player has a maximum Action Point pool of 250 points. You regain 25 action points every second you are not either casting or building an ability, and not in the Global Cooldown (GCD) after using an ability. The GCD is 1.5 seconds. This means that, if you use an ability that is instant-cast/use, you won’t begin the one-second period to regain 25 action points until 1.5 seconds after pressing the key (you’ll gain 25 points after 2.5 seconds total from pressing it). Likewise, if you activate an ability that takes two seconds to cast, your regeneration period will begin immediately once the cast is finished (first points after 3 seconds from pressing the key), as the GCD is done with by then while you were casting.
This means, in practical gameplay terms, that while Action Points regenerate quickly, you need to balance your bursts of abilities with your Action Point pool. You can opt to wait a second after an ability to get some extra AP back for instance, or even stop all-together for a few seconds to get a lot back, or you can keep firing off lots of abilities, at which point you’ll run out of AP and have to stop while you wait for some to rebuild (from 0 to 250 AP takes 10 seconds of not using any abilities, though you can start again at any point during that time).
Some equipment that is rarer will grant AP regeneration that works to add, typically 1-2 points each piece, every second to your normal regeneration. These are extremely powerful pieces of gear that are generally coveted as they enable you to have a much longer burst period and get back into the action when you’re out of AP much more quickly. As an example, if you had +13 in action point regeneration bonuses from equipment, you’d get back to full from nothing left in a little less than half the time it would normally take. The value of this is quite high!
From high Renown Ranks, you are automatically granted an additional 25 points to your pool (RR 65) and an additional 50 beyond that (RR 75). There are no other ways of adding to your pool.