Why do we actually need to cast every spell to know if it’s on the GCD? Why isn’t it in the tooltip?
Is there an addon that can do this?
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Just use one of your abilities and watch the buttons. All the GCD-bound abilities will be disabled for a second and will recover at the same time. Any ability that’s not disabled immediately after using another one is not subject to the GCD.
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Literally what he’s asking if he can avoid doing.
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No… he asked for a way to not cast every ability. Just using one is sufficient.
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I just assume everything is on the GCD and spam everything 
What about for abilities that you can’t cast at the moment? Or abilities you don’t have?
Shouldn’t this crucial bit of information be in the tooltip?
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I think what’s she’s saying is that most classes should have a non-target-required ability that when cast, the players can see the “greyed out” spells on cooldown, signifying their GCD nature.
However, I can also see a simple “GCD” tag being added to the spell description as worthwhile, too.
For actual spells, it usually is. e.g.
In general, you can assume that interrupts and some movement abilities are off the GCD. Pretty much everything else is on.
Any ability that’s on the GCD will trigger the GCD for every other GCD-bound skill. So, as long as you can use one, it will put all the others on CD for that second.
Be easier to list what’s not on GCD, no point in listing what IS on GCD as that’s like 90% of your kit.
FF does it by name. Spells/Weapon Skills are GCD buttons, Abilities are oGCDs.
They also have special “does not share recast time with other weaponskills” buttons, but that’s besides the point.
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Right, but if you don’t have the spell (such as something given to you by a talent) you would still have to acquire it first and then test it.
Not true, I get surprised a lot with defensives. How was I supposed to know if my Rune Tap talent was off the GCD without first trying it out?
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WoWhead might be able to tell you if you wanted to go to the trouble of looking up every spell/skill/ability. I’m sure we could add that to the list of things that WoW should better clarify. There’s a million things on that list though. 
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I know I can always look it up, but I’m surprised there doesn’t appear to be a simple addon addressing this shortcoming.
I don’t see an addon that does that on CurseForge.
You’re right, defensive abilities are usually off the GCD as well. There’s also weird exceptions to all three of those rules.
Given that the vast majority of abilities are on the GCD now, I expect addon writers just didn’t think it was worth it. It would take more time to write the addon than to memorize them for their class.
FWIW, I don’t have many of them memorized. If I’m in a rush, I just hit the key and hope it’s off the GCD. If it’s something I’m likely to hit in a panic, it usually is off the GCD anyway.
Yeah, that’s a really good point on the opposite statement (what’s not on the GCD) .
It’s possible to make an addon to show the ogcd abilities with a glowing aura around the icon right? I think that’s how it should work anyway, to clearly illustrate that they are distinctly different than the other spells. So you don’t have to look closely at action bars to see which ones don’t have the GCD meter on their icons when GCD is active. It would shine bright green or yellow or whatever you choose. Sticking out like a sore thumb. Cause some interrupts are on GCD, it’s a little confusing when you have many alts.
Same reason we have no stat sheets ingame, and have no coefficients on spells. :\
Also same reason there are no addons to do this, so I guess blizzard has no idea how to implement it.
It would be easy to make an addon that does it. The simplest way would be to make a database of abilities that are off the GCD. Better way would be a way to detect abilities that are usable during the GCD and then flag them. Best way would be a combination of both.
I think a tooltip note would be better than a icon glow because spells could be linked in chat or even in other addons. This would allow you to see the GCD status of any ability, even if you don’t have it.
Seems like it would be a very popular addon and completely possible to do. Absolutely no clue as to why it hasn’t been done. Baffling 
Usually on the GCD.
If you don’t have them, why are you worried about them?
Wrong. My Rune Tap talent was off the GCD and I had no way of knowing that until I selected the talent.
- Because I can acquire them later.
- They provide information about another classes abilities that would be useful in PvP.
Then good news. Rune tap is baseline in shadowlands.
General rule though is if it’s an interrupt it won’t be on the GCD, all others should be considered on unless you know otherwise. Tbf though, I’ve never had an issue with this. If I want an ability/talent i take it whether it’s on the GCD or not.