So what is a Breakpoint? To put it as simply as I can, it's the amount of speed increase needed from items to actually make a difference in speed.

If you put on a 10% Faster Cast Rate ring, you aren't actually casting 10% faster. In fact, you MIGHT not be casting faster at all, for that matter. Every class has its own speed percentages where it increases at certain thresholds.

For instance, a few of the Paladins Breakpoint thresholds for Faster Cast Rate are 30%, 48%, and 75%. If your Paladin gets 45% total Faster Cast Rate from items, you really only have the extra cast speed of 30%, because you haven't broken the threshold of 48% yet.

It works this way with Faster Block Rate and Faster Hit Recovery as well, and although Increased Attack Speed does work this way, the process for it is MUCH more complex and you'll need an "IAS Calculator" for that.

A button has been provided at the top of this page to a thread with all of the tables for these thresholds.