Quote Originally Posted by DRKoftheAzure View Post
Except you could already hit those 5 GCDs without any skill speed gains to begin with. and it's not that hard to pop Blood Weapon after you did "discount Inner Release spam"
Once again incorrect. The lowest possible SkS tier that it is possible to hit 5 GCDs under Blood Weapon is 2.43, and that is under the assumption that you have low ping and every single time you hit BW you weave it absolutely perfectly without the faintest hint of clipping the GCD. As this level of perfection is not possible, you would naturally want to go higher. The slowest that most people find they are able to hit 5 GCDs under Blood Weapon is 2.40 GCD, however, after my own testing in a tank DPS calculator, this comes out to a mere 10 DPS gain over 2.38 GCD with the slightly higher SkS (and thus more comfy & lenient BW timings). What this means is that the lowest GCD timer you should be aiming for at all is 2.40, however this also depends on fights as well. For instance, if you are running 2.40 and the boss does a mechanic during your opener which means you have to back away and miss a GCD under raid buffs, but you are able to hit that GCD under raid buffs before leaving the boss at 2.38 then you have an overall DPS gain by using 2.38 over 2.40 (this is a situation that occurs in Titania EX, for instance).

TL;DR SkS is good and your understandings of the job/stats are flawed.