BLM - Spell Speed Vs Crit Rate

[Jican]

But what I'm saying is, any speed benefit can be lost during your mana recovery phase until you get enough speed to shave 3+ seconds off your fire phase.

Ok, let's break this down taking out rng and using very basic numbers. Let's say you can cast 5 fire 1s after a fire 3 before you have to go into your umbral ice phase. Each fire 1 takes 4 seconds to cast with no extra spell speed. That's 20 seconds to cast your 5 fire 1's, again, taking out rng for firestarter. With spell speed, now each cast is 3 seconds to cast. Not a big difference you would think, but let's break that down as a whole. Your 5 fires now cost 15 seconds to get through. That's a complete tick and a half of your umbral ice phase. Now you're 1-2 spells faster than your non-spell speed blm buddy, per rotation.