WHM Spellspeed! Any value?

I try to avoid spellspeed on my WHM like the plague. Don't like it one bit, because I don't see any value in it at all. The amount of spellspeed I have to stack just to get .1 second of my cast time feels... like a waste. Anyone able to rationally inform me as to why I'd want any spellspeed at all and how much to optimize my performance? Frankly I consider avoiding spell/skillspeed(MNK is the only one i consider skillspeed for) altogether, but since WHM is main spec I want to start there.

Btw... I couldn't find any posts strictly on this, maybe I didn't look hard enough.

I like spell speed and determination equally on my WHM. Fast, reliable heals all the way. Spell speed not being good is just a myth some lesser minds came up with long time ago.

Go play around on a lower level class or unequipped all your spell/skill speed the difference is noticeable even if its .1%. Not sure how to value that compared to other stats or what ever but I like it cause I can tell the difference. On whm and mnk its really noticeable.

Haha. Believe it or not I've already eliminated almost all spell speed from my gear. The only 2 pieces that have spell speed on me is my Thyrus +1 and Allagan healing bracelet. I know that spellspeed will give me faster Stoneskin, but why on earth would I desperately be needing to spam that spell. Holy? Sure I can get a spellspeed set strictly for spamming holy if I really want it that badly. What I want to know is how valuable this stat is for healing. Maybe for solo-healing Titan? you forget that spell speed only increase your skills by .01 seconds for most skills at a time. The amount you have to stack to make a considerable difference is more than I care for. I suppose this discussion would be rather moot. I felt it would end in only opinions and it'll probably remain that way.

SS just makes you run through your mana needlessly

Honestly speaking, I feel the reason "You need an absurd amount of SS to gain X amount of cast time reduction, so get DET better!" to be invalid.
Reason being, it also takes an absurd amount of DET to have a noticeable increase in healing power (7~8 DET = 1 mind IIRC)
So...why is only SS being discriminated for "requiring absurd amount" whereas DET gets a free pass? =\

SS is a good stat, but it is also situational

SS shines the most in movement intensive fights where fast heals are beneficial.

Personally I prefer it over Crit.

Det > SS > Crit

Unless stack SS can cut 0.5 second off my casting, I'll keep it at lowest priority.

Sps is pretty much the last thing I look for in gear stats. It's not that's it's bad, it's that all other stats when compared to it are just BETTER(so yea I guess it's bad :P). I also prefer crit as it effectively extends my mp; more healing less casting, more mp..profit. There are people that will swear up and down that it's a good stat though. To each their own.

Just go with whatever stat you function best with. All secondary stats are equally viable. Person X might utilize SS as well as person Y utilizes Det. In the end it all comes down to whichever stat suits your play style best.

here's why I prefer spell speed to determination. . the faster u pump out cure 1 for proc the better. high end whm gear like af 2 is well balanced.. takes to much determination to actually make a big impact so that skill is useless in comparison to faster cast times. they make divine seal for a reason.. and it works astronomically well in conjunction with higher spell speed.. in af 2 gear u should be healing over 1k pretty easily on cure 1.. with divine should be plenty of potency. . as far as maintaining mp with higher spell speed casting cure 1 over an over doesn't even move rhe mp bar very much.. its basically whatever u feel like doing friend.. with end game gear it doesn't really matter

Sometimes its not necessarily about how fast you can spam things over time, but rather how fast you can get off that one single important spell when you need it asap. Spell speed helps there.

On the other hand, determination is not as helpful as people think. It takes about 5 determination to equal 1 mind, which is approximately +1.5hp on a cure spell. Then you also have to sometimes deal with overheals which completely negate bigger cures.

I still maintain that it's a wash either way because each is so minor, so pick your preference. The number 1 thing is still getting your weapon damage and mind up first. Never pick a secondary stat over those.

with a 15% proc rate on freecure you don't really want to be spamming to fish for the proc. Just precast and interrupt. That alone negates any need for spellspeed for me anyways. Heal efficiently and when needed. It's not something I expect to have anymore just a pleasant surprise when it actually occurs.

I prefer spell because of one simple reason, I don't want my heal to be 0.1 second late and tank dies (it can happen a lot in coil).

Plus remember that stats can be altered (buffed/nerfed) just like classes can be. If Det and SS are truly THAT lacking, I can already grantee they will be enhanced in future updates. I enjoy being prepared.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nettle

Sometimes its not necessarily about how fast you can spam things over time, but rather how fast you can get off that one single important spell when you need it asap. Spell speed helps there.

---

To give an example to elaborate the above, imagine two situations:
1) Tank about to die, cast heal, slower by 0.1 seconds, tank dies, if only I have faster casting speed!!
2) Tank have 1k hp, you cast heal, you manage to heal the tank for 1300, but boss attacks for 2310, so tank still dies, if only I have slightly more healing power!!

In an ideal case, both the above situations should not happen, but if shit were to happen, my money's on situation 1 will occur ALOT more compared to situation 2.
Thus I'm betting on SS instead of DET :D

I don't like spell speed. I can cast myself out of MP fast enough as it is. I prefer to stack things that improve the quality of the heal, not the speed of it. If you watch the mobs, or know the fights you can usually time your casts soon enough to heal just after the tank is taking the hit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DreamWeaver

To give an example to elaborate the above, imagine two situations:
1) Tank about to die, cast heal, slower by 0.1 seconds, tank dies, if only I have faster casting speed!!
2) Tank have 1k hp, you cast heal, you manage to heal the tank for 1300, but boss attacks for 2310, so tank still dies, if only I have slightly more healing power!!

---

or situation 3 where you were already precasting so it doesn't matter. .1s spellspeed =/= already being halfway through a cast when the damage happends.

To Kahn,

I did say in a ideal situation (which in your case is situation 3), none of these would happen :P
I dunno about you, but I'm just a human, I aim to be in situation 3 as much as possible, but hey, mistakes happen :D

This is true

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DKage

Original Post.

---

When I top and/or go back and forth with mnks/drg (good mnks/drg who know what they're doing btw, though I wont be matching them anymore T_T) and they ask me why the hell my dps is so high you know what I say? B/c i'm a boss! lol no seriously it's b/c I have spell speed. I cast faster than normal. May not be a whole second but it's on a tier(the 460 tier) to get me at 2.38 instead of 2.5. 5.04% dmg increase right there. Constant. So I have my own version of Fist of Fire through Spell Speed. If a sch activates fey glow I shoot up to 2.25 GCD and 11% dmg inc. This is all on top of any buffs and procs(Divine Seal, Freecure, etc for you). It's significant. Just can't notice it as readily as the big number on the screen.

And don't misunderstand, I have very good Crit rate and Det as well(don't wanna hear some1 saying I dont know how to build a blm) :). If it makes that big of a diff for me, I would think it does something significant for you too as a caster(I know some1 read and was like "why is he talking about blm when this is whm thread?" lol). Esp if you have it and pop Presence of Mind in those "oh god the group/tank done effed up/bout to f up" moments( and yea PoM isnt really mandatory, but it helps occasionally) xD I have a whm too and I've healed just fine without even caring about spell speed(though I still end up with gobs of it). So im not saying that it must be your focus, just saying that there is definitely value to the stat.

To Kuroyasha,
1 thing I am curious is, is spell speed reduction indeed "tiered"?, just because the tool tip show us 2 decimal points only, does not mean that, in the actual game calculation, they really only use two decimal points.

To illustrate what I mean :
X amount of spell speed = 2.3276 GCD (tool tip shows 2.33)
X + Y amount of spell speed = 2.3256 GCD (tool tip shows 2.33)
X + 2Y amount of spell speed = 2.3236 GCD (tool tip shows 2.32)

So, if they take more than two decimal points in their calculation, we can see that each increment of SS helps ever so slightly, but the tooltip will still show the same value.
Only when we reach break points (aka tiers), the tooltip will update to the next lower value.

Wonder if there's anyway way to properly test out how the use these values =\

You get spell speed, det, and crit in such small amounts over all your gear that it really doesn't matter which one you go for, I'd say. Full L90 gear is something like +200 secondary stats, right? Assuming 1 of the "best" secondary stat, whichever that is, is worth 0.2 Mind, the difference between 200 of that "best" stat and something as useless as Parry is 40 mind. That's across an entire gearset, and none of our stats are actually worthless.

Get whatever you want; personally I'm going to start branching out to blm gear shortly despite not being full 90 because, eh, gear just isn't that great an upgrade in this game.

It boils down to preference, i prefer DET>crit>SS as the SS value is worthless on fights where you cant continual spam. Cure 1 crits are better than cure 2 normal casts. I think if you went full SS / full crit, the heals on paper are the same or 1hps different (looking into the subject). Don't be a sheep and do as you like! It boils down to more your skill as a healer.