Does alacrity affect GCD in swtor?
Does the alactrity or "activation speed" stat decrease GCD in swtor?
No, the global cool down is not effected, except in the case of cast-time abilities.
Source: http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-Alacrity-and-the-GCD
Yes. As of game update 2.0 Alacrity was improved. It now affects resource regeneration and the global cooldown.
Source: http://www.swtor.com/info/news/blog/20130417-0
And as of game update 3.0 alacrity also affects over-time effects and everything else. A character with 10% alacrity should be 10% faster in everything.