This one kind of got me, too. Why keep SC in cross role when they could just make our freaking raise not take forever? There is no reason for it to take that long.
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Dying has to have some downside, so I guess they decided making it take forever to raise + weakness was that answer.
That RDM raise is amazing, but I can't see it lasting in the game. They'll probably change it so their instants don't affect raise.
WHM also has Thin Air, which isn't MP regen, but is still zero cost and a very powerful tool.
Swiftcast has a lot more utility than just raise, at least in raiding. Being able to instant-cast medica or helios while running has long been a favored technique, as has the double-Holy/Gravity burst. SMN/SCH used to use it for Shadowflare as well, though... I guess not anymore.
As I told you, they are removing Cleansers and MP Regens from the core kits of the Healers, Lucid Dreaming is the Cross Role replacement for the MP Regens being ripped from the Healers with the exception of White Mage Assize and Aetherflow of SCH.
Addendum: What I mean by MP Regens being ripped away are the WHMs Shroud of Saints, Astrologians Luminiferous Aether, SCH didnt have a move like these but had Aetherflow and Energy Drain which are powerful MP regens on their own. Astrologian's Ewer card, while an MP Regen effect, I am not counting as it is a Randomly Drawn card that is part of the 6 Card system for ASTs
The problem with taking away Shroud of Saints from WHM and Luminiferous Aether from ASTs and throwing it into Cross Role as Lucid Dreaming is this needlessly took away a built in MP Regen from both classes, which didnt need to be done just to give SCH another MP regen when they already had 2 but if they needed another one, all they had to do was just add one to SCH as well.
As I'm fond of saying, Swiftcast is not for raise.
In raid progression I might reserve it at certain points to help recover if something goes wrong (assuming it's not one of those scenarios where any death guarantees failure).
In other content, if a party member dies...well, they can wait the extra few seconds for a hard-cast if I don't happen to have SC handy, or they can go bye-Felicia stage left and poof back. People die infrequently enough that it's not really an issue.