Shackles vs. Alacrity Trinket for PvP

I see a lot of DH’s running the Alacrity Trinket instead of Shackles in PvP.

Shackles has main stat with the on-use pressure damage/healing reduction, and is awesome for securing kills.

Alacrity has an extra 100 haste but no main stat, and has a random chance to proc an extra giant boost of main stat for 20 seconds.

Is Alacrity just generally a better compliment to the DH playstyle of constant high pressure? Is it worth giving up the pressure from Shackles?

i use alacrity almost exclusively. People above 1.8 are too good at stopping shackles especially if it’s 2s so i would rather have the consistent damage rather than a 20% chance i can get off a full or even half male.

in 3s I run it more often bc you can create kill windows with male chains bc it’s hard to stop 3 in a row.

i prob run alacrity 80-90% of the time

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I’m noticing now that I’m playing at 1.8k in 3s its waaay harder to get a full one off lol. Will switch to Alacrity to see how it feels

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Shackles shines with classes that have dispel protection or a method of forcing dispel.

For instance, when a priest mindgames that can force a dispel. If you shackle right after, it’s guaranteed full unless they cc you.

Shackling is good as affliction lock too, for instance, if you full dot healer with UA then shackle. It forces them to choose between healing through shackle and dot dmg or dispelling and eating the UA damage (risky!). Either way can result in a kill.

DH has no way to force dispels or to protect the shackle well first. This, combined with other mechanics like demonic or fodder to the flame, make an extra main stat proc and extra haste a clear winner in my opinion.

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Great explanation!

The only reason I liked it was because it gave DH a sort of slow execute once the sustained damage whittled the enemy away, but I’m really like Alacrity now. Especially when I have a teammate who can finish the job for us.

I never used my shackle trinket since I got it. Are you able to channel the shackle while still using chaos strike/blade dance?

Nope, it’s a channeled ability that will break if you do anything else

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Thanks for letting me know! I would figure it’s a pretty big tradeoff of damage when we just pump.

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