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I've seen this mentioned more than once but I'm not exactly sure what it is or how it works. Can someone explain?

  • What is animation canceling?
  • Why animation cancel? What advantages does it give over not canceling?
  • Is it more applicable for certain classes or is it class agnostic?
  • How do you do it? How do you know if you're doing it properly?
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    Just a comment because I don't play B&S. What is: There are two reasons. First example: Reload in COD MW games, keep trying to sprint, boom you reloaded faster. Another example is Counter Strike 1.6 and Source. You can fast double-tap the recent weapon after an AWP/sniper shot. | Second example: You start to reload in Black Ops 3, but you hear someone, and reload takes too long. Swap weapons, and you are ready to fire in 1 seconds. || Why: See above. Sometimes it's possible to speed things up. Sometimes, second example, it's helpful. || For the rest, well, players will reply to that. – Shiki Dec 19 '15 at 22:14
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Many games use attack animations. Typically, animations must complete before the next action can be taken. Animation canceling is when an animation does not block the next action.

Generally, one cancels an animation after the ability has produced its effect in order to avoid waiting. Occasionally, one cancels an animation before the effect in order to do something else better with the time.

Examples:

  • In Bayonetta, it is possible to cancel any attack at any time into a dodge. This encourages a playstyle where all incoming attacks are avoided.
  • In Mass Effect 3, the Claymore is a one-shot shotgun that takes a long time to reload, but it is reloaded pretty early in the animation. The reload animation can't be canceled by shooting, but it can be canceled by ducking into cover or using a power. The advantage of canceling the animation is that the overall shooting rate is improved, which improves the damage per second.

In Blade And Soul, animation canceling allows faster attacks. This can lead directly to more damage, or generate resources faster which allows bigger attacks. These resources can also lead to better crowd control/stuns.

In this video, the kung-fu master (KFM) is canceling Straight Jab and Swift Strike into each other with the idea to generate crits and chi to allow the use of Cyclone kick.

At about 1:10, the non-canceling speed is shown. The rest of the time, canceling!

A bit of jargon: 2 and F are the abilities bound to those keys. R is the ability bound to the R key as well as the left mouse button. 2R2RF means to use those keys in sequence.

Most animation canceling is done with R - don't forget: same as left mouse button.

All classes can benefit from animation canceling.

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