Skill speed is quite valuable right now. on GNB you need a certain threshold to be able to fit 9 GCD's in to your NM window. a 20% damage buff skill getting 9 GCDs in during its duration instead of 8 is obivously going to outweight any ammount of crit or DH you might meld, especially if its burst strike (which it is, with low enough skill speed you cant generate the cartridge for the final burst strike during NM)
DRK also needs a certain ammount to fit 5 bloodspillers during Delerium.
It's also highly dependant on Ping - even if you had the theoretical minimum required skill speed for these use cases you ping might still make it screwy if its high enough. The ammount of sks required will vary from player to player slightly.


Quote Originally Posted by eagledorf View Post
On DRK, no amount of SkS will get you any benefit in terms of getting a skill under Delirium, you get 5 BS no matter your SkS (even at 0). On PLD, you could get Riot Blade under FoF at a certain level, but it's not really worth pursuing it because of how terrible SkS is on PLD elsewhere.

GNB, not entirely sure. It throws you off from No Mercy, but it might still be worth it with the increase in gauge.
What? No, really, what?
Go on DRK right now - take off ALL your gear other than your weapon, then try and hit 5 bloodspillers during delerium. It wont work. No really it wont, even with 1000+ or more skill speed just from a few of my pieces i can just barely get in 5 BS's and thats only if i play perfectly.
The only reason its even slightly possible without melding it right now is because a lot of our 450 stuff has skill speed on it. If that gear didnt have it on it, or if we didnt meld enough to match, then you could not fit 9 GCDs in during NM as GNB, or 5 BS as DRK during delerium. Once again it depends on a players ping, to some extent.