Attention AST: Lightspeed is one of your better spells, not a bad spell.

[Dayala]

oh hurray, we can use Stoneskin x 7 while running. *rolls eyes so hard they spin*

Waiting for the GCD to go away to insta cast 1 spell is bad design on an ability that could make or break astro. RDM Chainspell wasn't cast one insta spell, wait for cool down, cast another insta spell. It was cast non stop for 30 seconds or if mp was depleted, convert, keep insta casting.

Great for fates when the 25% reduction won't punish you in a large group, great for stoneskin when you need to speed run, great to get the dead up but I'd rather wait for the 1 min on swift cast to AoE heal or any type of emergency. 25% is a big hit when you can't afford it.

It'd be great if it increased potency of the spell in your stance and chainspelled correctly without having to wait for the normal GCD. Boost of cure potency in the heal stance, boost of shield duration in sch stance. We have nothing to boost us. Heck, SCH gets the fairy's healing boost spell AND get to sacrifice the fairy to boost potency.

We get uhhhh decreased DMG / HEALING potency while using it. Never mind the fact that AST has lower native cure potency which is noticeable (but we cast faster, so it makes up for it, right?)

AST has no CC besides gravity (that's imbedded in Stella) so it's not like we can save the pt by spamming gravity / stella on mobs with light speed. And 25% reduction on our AoE spell that gradually loses % of damage with added mobs is kinda slap in the face.

It's situational at best, the idea is there but the utility for AST to use it in their repertoire on a consistent basis isn't, especially in high level raid.

[Seryl199]

We don't necessarily know what high level raid content will entail with Alexander, perhaps having a healer with maximum mobility will be key to an encounter. Who's to say without having the raid to experience yet? That said, there are precious few situations I can think of where Lightspeed in 2.X raids would be viable. What does come to mind off the bat is the final phase of T5,when targeted by Twintania's Liquid Hell spam, still being able to heal while placing Liquid Hells along the outside of the map. All in all though, Lightspeed does admittedly feel lackluster in a great many situations.

[Risvertasashi]

oh hurray, we can use Stoneskin x 7 while running. *rolls eyes so hard they spin*

I take it you're not much of a raider then? There have been times in FCoB... hey even Titan EX back in the day... where I see a DPS eat something optional just before a raidwide hit, and I can't heal nor shield them because I also have to move.

SCH's lustrate shines there. And now, Lightspeed can help with those kind of things too.

That said, I won't argue it isn't situational. It is. Still, making several different spells instacasts is very powerful. Look at it less as a healing buff, and more as a mobility buff. It makes you the bard of healers.

Edit: You're still focusing overmuch on stoneskin and everything but the mobility.

Again, focus on the mobility. Once more, consider Bards. Bards have the big advantage of being able to move while DPS (but as a result, they're a bit behind the other DPS). WM, once fixed, will allow them to exchange that mobility for better damage.
Lightspeed is basically the opposite of WM. It makes you the bard of healers... you can run and gun(heal), but just like bards, at the cost of throughput. Don't use it as a SHTF buff. Do use it to keep up healing through high movement phases. Or shielding, where appropriate, but not focusing on that nor exclusively.

[Dayala]

I raid. I've completed T13 on sch. Doesn't change my stance on Light Speed. Casting Stone Skin while moving is situational, maybe prior echo T13 or even T9 before we started to overgear but it's all survivable if your sch isn't a waste of slot.

Lustrate doesn't have a GCD when you use it, you can spam all three shots quickly to bring them back. Light Speed doesn't remove the GCD between spell usage which is bad design and makes it useless in emergency.

It costs the same MP and we have to wait at a normal amount to use it. Lowered MP cost and Lowered GCD would benefit - removing the 25% decrease in heals / dmg would also make it more appealing than a multi-use stoneskin swiftcast. Even raising a raid, still gotta wait for that GCD on raise to use it again and by then the timer for LS will be done.

[Blaon]

Lustrate doesn't have a GCD when you use it, you can spam all three shots quickly to bring them back. Light Speed doesn't remove the GCD between spell usage which is bad design and makes it useless in emergency.

This, a thousand times. Lightspeed cannot be used to heal because of the GCD. To me, it looks simple, make it so Lightspeed removes GCD until it wears off, we can even keep the -25% potency because otherwise Presence of Mind would suck compared to it.

I find myself struggling during big pulls in lvl 60 dungeons. I keep healing and healing but tank is always low HP. Lightspeed cannot be used because we heal less, and the speed of our healing doesn't really change because of the GCD being kept. By the time the GCD is done, we could already be starting to cast a new heal without Lightspeed, without the -25% potency.

Edit: read big pulls as in "tank pulling the whole zone".

[Risvertasashi]

Edit: read big pulls as in "tank pulling the whole zone".

That right there is pretty much the problem, especially if we're not talking full i180 gear (and presumably the i190 gear to come). Even on SCH and WHM, although we do get some buffs (or mitigation for SCH) to help, these sorts of pulls can run us dangerously low on MP and we might only be keeping the tank up by a hair's breadth (not that they ever seem to notice).

Either way, AST is not a powerhouse healer any more than BRD is a powerhouse DPS. In both cases, the jobs give up some of that max potential for their mobility and buffs.

[SuzakuCMX]

I don't know about removing the GCD entirely because then you basically get 30 Lustrates in 15 seconds every 150 seconds via spamming Benefic II. Yeah you'll go out of MP but that's a ridiculous amount of healing; nothing short of a OHKO/Mana Out will be able to stop you from keeping the tank at full for the entire 15 seconds.

I'd change it to reducing the GCD by 50% in addition to the cast time buff + Potency hit. That way you can still use it while running, and while you don't get 15 seconds of spamming Benefic II, you do get to at least pump out more heals instead of it's current use of....basically just giving you 15s of Swiftcast-Stoneskin.

[Staris]

You can click it off after you finish running around you know....

Unless your bad I guess.

[Abigs]

does spear lower the GCD? maybe lightspeed needs to be comboed off with spear card?

[SuzakuCMX]

You can click it off after you finish running around you know....

Unless your bad I guess.

Yes but how much content is going to require that? It's not like WHM can deal with constantly having to move since they only have....Benediction and Tetragrammation? And BLM would be screwed to all hell. So it's not like you can properly balance a fight around constant movement with the classees like they are right now.