Stat Priority as a WHM.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

snip

While I agree that spell speed is garbage, it's not entirely true that the piece without spell speed is BiS. It highly depends on what kind of stat is on it and the value of it. Interestingly enough, this happens to be the case with i130 gear, but previous patch (i110 gear) some piety pieces came in paired with spell speed. (High Allagan Circlet, Gloves and ring for example)

[Kirana]

Snip

That's why I said there may be exceptions. Thank you for clarifying though.

Breaking down what I said earlier:

If both pieces have spell speed and one has a lower amount, that means you are choosing between a high amount of det/crit/pie or a low amount of det/crit/pie. If the high amount is det, then the choice is obvious. If the high is crit and the low is pie, you should get the crit. If the low is det, then I would still go with crit here, but it's a bit of a wash. If the high is pie then you need to make a decision based on how much mana you think you need.

[Grotesque]

Left is going Full Det, Right is going Full Pie. Make your own conclusion, whether 88 points of Det outweight 113 points (around 900 MP) of Pie. Crit only differs by 31 points and SS by 56 which is both neglectable for WHM.

I'm going for pie, I gain more from being able to cast more spells without worrying about mp too much (affects dmg spells as well) than from slightly higher heals which are already very high.

The biggest impact is the choice of the trousers, which is either 34 det or 36 pie.

[IveraIvalice]

I will never put ss on my gear after I did tests before novus. I had a set of gear that had a good amount of spell speed on it, and when removing the set to be naked basically, it was about a 100 point difference in ss. With about a 100 points difference in spell speed, the speed it increased my cures was exactly .08
That is atrociously low for 100 points.
Btw incase you didn't know, the exact cast time can be checked by looking at the actions and traits menu and it does update with stats, that's how I knew it was exactly .08

Though ss does make a bigger difference to blms. I don't know why, maybe it's because it's offensive magic? But for healers spells and buffs it's garbage

[Vid]

This is my current BiS:

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/O58C

You'll notice that I did in fact choose every single piece of gear that adds Determination, but for the pieces that don't offer a determination choice, I chose the most amount of piety given between the two choices. I also added Mulled Tea HQ at the bottom only because I'm cheap, and don't feel that the determination food adds enough of a benefit for your heals to even bother making/buying.

Although keep in mind this takes into consideration my race of a Dunesfolk Lalafell, and I consider the Food Buff as well as the SCH Pie buff in a party when I choose my gear. Total this will give me roughly 5,000 mana total, with 324 determination. If I actually chose to use the Black Truffle Risotto HQ instead, this would boost my Det to 340, and reduce my mana below 5K. In my opinion, it's not worth it for a possible 6-8 increase of total healing on Cure 1.

Your mileage may vary depending on your preferences, this is just my own personal choice.

[Viviza]

Ask twenty white mages and you'll get twenty opinions.

"Piety is great because it gives me flexibility to cast more proactively"
"Piety is garbage because any good whm can manage their mp without it"
"Crit is great because it affects all my heals, and a timely crit can save both time and mp"
"Crit is garbage because it's unreliable and overheals wastefully"
"Det is great because it improves all my heals and dps"
"Det is garbage because the improvements are tiny per point"
"Speed is great because it improves PoM and allows me to react faster to unexpected situations"
"Speed is garbage because a decent whm can time their spells without it, and it doesn't help regen"

Personally I'm leaning more towards PIE/SS as time goes on. WHM are limited to one action at a time, and the feel of casts being "snappy" counts for a lot, along with some freedom to throw out some damage, rez, or overhealing without worrying about my mp.

[Grotesque]

Ask twenty white mages and you'll get twenty opinions.

Well people think they have a real manifold choice and discuss forever. However, it boils down to how much Pie you want to stack and put the rest into Det, taking whatever SS or Crit is given to you by your Pie/Det choice.

[Jim_Berry]

You need to see it in action to believe what I'm about to say. Just to put a little info out there first:

My WHM stats with current gear (without food, group buff, etc):
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/character/3089119/

Of the secondary stats, I love me some Determination followed by Spell Speed. I have been using Triple Cream Coffee lately, though.

I spam Divine Seal (go ahead and bash me) which allows me to only need to use Regen and Cure. In dungeons, it's easy; rarely need Cure II or higher. On Primals and Coil, though, I use Divine Seal situationally. PIETY hasn't been much concern for me. My MP usually get low if I need to spam Raise (Coil T5) or if someone killed me with ice (Shiva Ex). I love BRDs, but I had to learn MP management as I been in many groups where two BRDs competed on who ISN'T going to use Ballad lol...

I refuse to dps on my WHM, no matter how much uptime I have (this is probably why I keep lots of MP). I MAY do Swiftcast + Holy if tank has 4+ mobs and mobs are dying slow.

Back on topic, my preference is Determination > Spell Speed > Critical Hit Rate > Piety > Accuracy

I place Accuracy last because I'm using Regen and Cure 1 dominantly, and have NEVER seen them miss or heal lower than it's potency.

[Artiste]

Using a lvl 100 instead of ilvl 110, is a complete lose, you lose too much mind to make secondary stats worth-it, even if you like those secondary stats.
We can consider using ilvl 100 items when it's small things, like an accessory, or a belt, not a robe, never.

Most important as WHM first, whetever the secondary stats are : MIND

[Sebazy]

I spam Divine Seal (go ahead and bash me)

Actually I'm going to bash you because of...

I refuse to dps on my WHM.

Back on topic, my preference is Determination > Spell Speed > Critical Hit Rate > Piety > Accuracy

I place Accuracy last because I'm using Regen and Cure 1 dominantly, and have NEVER seen them miss or heal lower than it's potency.

Outside of the current coil, you can gear up pretty much however you want and be absolutely fine. It's not that your setup is the best, it's that it simply doesn't matter. Gear full parry if you really want, it'll be NP, you'll still be able to waltz through any 4 man + CT + previous coil as long as you are doing a reasonable job of playing your class.

But please, your 'No DPS ever' stance... Consider that rather than a pure healer, we are support, here to help the group in whatever way we can. DPS is an indisputable part of our toolkit and can help immensely at times.

Oh and also, accuracy has zero affect on heals whatsoever. It's only really relevant for certain safe DPS phases.