Black Mage

[Kabooa]

I think you can hit 2200 spellspeed without compromising your stats too hard now, which will go a fair way into a high sustained output in most scenarios.

[EllieShadeflare]

I think you can hit 2200 spellspeed without compromising your stats too hard now, which will go a fair way into a high sustained output in most scenarios.

From Ariyala, I think that if you overdo your Spell Speed gear and get literally everything with spell speed and make up for the lack of Direct Hit with Materia, you get like

2152 SpS, 1347 Direct Hit, 1350 Crit, and 1043 Determination.

Not sure how much this'd look for actual practice, but it's at least good for stability in rotation.

[Bernkastelx]

So we should be looking towards 2200 spell speed then focusing on other stats? Byakko's weapon gives spell speed which is nice. The belt and I think 3 accessories for the prototypes give spell speed the body is a bit questionable the crafted version gives spell speed so does the prototype AND the new totem body piece gives it. So just getting the totem body next week while getting the prototype legs for more spellspeed.

[Kabooa]

Spellspeed is variable and gets much better the more you get / can make use of it (Spellspeed does nothing in forced downtime scenarios for example, where an extra crit or DHit before it happens pulls ahead). 10% spellspeed is actually +11% dps (You get 11 spells in the time it takes 10), 25% spellspeed is +33% dps, 50% is +100%, etc, not factoring in Ice downtime of course. The extreme amounts however are currently unattainable, but it's nice to dream.

The general consensus now that DHit is a thing is "As much as what makes you comfortable."

[Altera]

I am sitting atm with 2158without food, and I have heard from other BLMs on my server to also try get DET on my gear.
And when I went from about 1600Crit, 1300DH and 800DET and changed it to a balanced 1250 CRIT/DH/DET, I am seeing bigger hits and hear that my DPS has become better.

I also do like that now if i have a Firestarter at the end of my MP, I can save the Firestarter and do my Foul/T3/B4 then Transpose and use F3
I do love being able to AM and BTL across the battlefield and preposition my Leylines to dodge aoes like on Byakko where we have to stack on him, split for the lane aoe and stack again

[Shiroe]

pre savage gear, we often have more SS..., but it drops later on with savage and upgraded gear...,

but if Ariyala BIS is about 2150 SS, that would be great!

[Remedi]

I think on reddit there was a configuration with 2.4k and able to reach 2518 but it lead to 1.3k and 750 dhit if I remember it well

[Shiroe]

pre 4.2 patch you could go over 2-2.1k, but it wasnt ideal, .could get foul build up issues.. .(ideal was around 1.85-2k)

but if 2.1-2.4 is possible in patch 4.2 and still valid for the roations (foul build up, mana ticks), it would be great!

SS can really make blm feel great again (and possibly give it the numbers it deserves ... , unless it means other classes gettig 2.5k crit and making our SS dps increase invalid again -.-'..)

but eitherway, over 2-2.1k already feels great from the fluidity feeling.., like this is how blm was always ment to feel like

but probably like in the past, should never let one stat drop too much, if you yry to push others (except maybe determination,... but crti and d-hit should probably stay in some kind of balance, like Altera and Remedi noted...; hope we can atain such a balance with high SS with savage / upgraded gear too)

[Bernkastelx]

Is crit better than direct hit on blm? Honestly could care less about savage till weekly restrictions are removed so I don't really focus on those.

[HaroldSaxon]

So we should be looking towards 2200 spell speed then focusing on other stats? Byakko's weapon gives spell speed which is nice. The belt and I think 3 accessories for the prototypes give spell speed the body is a bit questionable the crafted version gives spell speed so does the prototype AND the new totem body piece gives it. So just getting the totem body next week while getting the prototype legs for more spellspeed.

It depends on your preference. Right now we don't have a simulator to say for sure, and it also depends heavily on the fight (more breaks means spellspeed isn't as useful).

Laqi did some testing and he's found the following gearsets giving the highest damage:

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/14V9D and http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/14XPW

But again, you shouldn't worry about BiS when you are progressing. Take whatever pieces give you an ilevel gain and then worry about BiS when you have everything on farm.