Swiftcast

[Taika]

I use it mostly with Holys (in WP speedruns and Coil turn 4 for example) and Medica IIs (in all coil turns pretty much).

[dragonflyseksparade]

My most common uses for swiftcast:

1. Applying stoneskin while running from one trash pack to the next in coil or ak/wp
2. Battle rez
3. Medica II on ADS for missed silences after everyone gets hit by paralysis.
4. Medica II on garuda if one of the adds is pointed at the raid doing massive damage to all
5. Using it to instant my first Holy as I run in to holy spam for wp/ak/coil trash
6. Applying stoneskin to the tank during Titan if I'm needing to move
7. Trolling the tank by casting Medica II right as he's going in to pull a boss.

[Orophin]

I haven't done a lot of healing on my WHM but here's a few situations I've seen it useful for:

- Casting Stoneskin on a tank as he dashes off to the next set of mobs
- Casting Raise
- Casting a quick Medica II

[WindnC1oud]

Stoneskin, Medica I and II works really well for big AoE damages you know is going to happens soon like Garuda's reckoning.

[Zaft]

Swiftcast is extremely useful in Turn 5 for Fireballs. Fireball interrupts you if it hits you when casting, and you need to get a heal off pretty much immediately after it hits, so cycling Surecast and Swiftcast lets you do that.

[kayuwoody]

Ok pet peeve of mine here.
I find one of the most common mistakes healers do is trying to top up everyone, often at the expense of being on the GCD when the tank takes a huge spike.
When healing challenging content I use this as a personal rule: DPS can wait. If I have swiftcast ready then I'll heal DPS, because if the tank spikes I know I can cover it with a swiftcasted Cure II. It's situational of course, if I know there's no big spikes coming on a tank I'll happily heal the DPS meantime, but if there is any doubt, DPS can wait.

[dragonflyseksparade]

Ok pet peeve of mine here.
I find one of the most common mistakes healers do is trying to top up everyone, often at the expense of being on the GCD when the tank takes a huge spike.
When healing challenging content I use this as a personal rule: DPS can wait. If I have swiftcast ready then I'll heal DPS, because if the tank spikes I know I can cover it with a swiftcasted Cure II. It's situational of course, if I know there's no big spikes coming on a tank I'll happily heal the DPS meantime, but if there is any doubt, DPS can wait.

Swiftcast cure 2 gains you nothing unless your tank is at extremely low health - which he shouldn't be if you're doing your job correctly. Swiftcasting a cure 2 means you have to wait nearly 4.5 seconds for the next heal to hit the tank. Cure 2 is about the most useless thing you can waste swiftcast on... especially considering that we have benediction.

[FinagleABagel]

Res
Selene/Eos
Succor (only on TT vs. fireballs)
Stoneskin (only if you are a WHM, otherwise Adlo is more effective)

Basically, whenever you *really* need to shave off about 0.5s - 1s from a cast time. I suggest not swiftcasting an Adlo due to the massive shield delay. If you are that close, you are likely going to miss the shield benefit anyway.

[kayuwoody]

Swiftcast cure 2 gains you nothing unless your tank is at extremely low health - which he shouldn't be if you're doing your job correctly. Swiftcasting a cure 2 means you have to wait nearly 4.5 seconds for the next heal to hit the tank. Cure 2 is about the most useless thing you can waste swiftcast on... especially considering that we have benediction.

My entire point is I'm saying you should only heal DPS in 'iffy' situations when you know you can still safely cover the tank. Too many healers don't do this. There are times where Swiftcast + Medica II makes more sense to use. There are times it doesn't. Personally I know I have a swiftcast ready in case the excrement hits the ceiling mounted air propelling unit. Swiftcast+Cure II, followed by PoM + Cure II spam saves me from using benediction unless it's very large amounts of excrement.

[dragonflyseksparade]

My entire point is I'm saying you should only heal DPS in 'iffy' situations when you know you can still safely cover the tank. Too many healers don't do this. There are times where Swiftcast + Medica II makes more sense to use. There are times it doesn't. Personally I know I have a swiftcast ready in case the excrement hits the ceiling mounted air propelling unit. Swiftcast+Cure II, followed by PoM + Cure II spam saves me from using benediction unless it's very large amounts of excrement.

And my entire point is you're doing it wrong. Nobody is talking about using swiftcast on medica 2 to heal 1 or 2 dps. We're talking about raid-wide unavoidable aoe and using swiftcast on medica 2 so it only takes up 1 GCD.