User:StealthFire1/Animation Cancelling

Almost all actions within the game have an associated animation some duster at Bioware lovingly worked on. In this page, I will briefly explain what animation canceling is and it's pros and cons.

What 'animation' refers to
Animations are like mini-cutscenes the character acts out in order to carry out an action. Are you performing an attack with a sword? your character can be seen raising his sword-arm up a bit before bringing the sword down. Just killed an ogre with dual daggers? Your character might go all slow-mo and jump on the ogre, finishing with a dual-stab to the heart.

What is animation canceling?
It is not a new term in games, that's for sure. Most player action animations in this game have a foreswing and an afterswing :

Foreswing refers to the portion of the animation that comes before the effect. The raising of your weapon before bringing it down on your foes, raising your staff into the air to cast Winter's Grasp or some other spell, etc.

Most actions have at least a little bit of foreswing, but some actually have none at all, like disarming traps. You may notice that if you issue another order immediately after the character begins disarming a trap, the character stops the animation immediately, but the trap is disarmed. This is very useful in combat as the full disarm animation takes a long time.

Just like disarming traps, many actions in the game have an afterswing you can cancel to save time on an action

The Afterswing is just the opposite of that. It refers to the portion of the animation you don't want or need. The sooner you break out of an action after you are done with it, the better.

It should be noted however, that if you aren't careful with animation canceling, you will end up canceling the action before the effect takes place, wasting more time.

Furthermore, mana and stamina activation costs are paid for at the beginning of most animations, and canceling prematurely will not refund you stamina or mana. The cooldown will not be activated unless the effect takes place however.

Uncancelables
Some animations cannot be canceled once they've begun. Some examples are Cone of Cold/Fire/Lightning. The effect takes place about 1/3rd of the way, but you may not cancel the afterswing. Also finishing moves may not be canceled.