Should Casters Prioritize Auto Attacks?

[Allyrion]

Are you clueless?



Ruin 2+AA: 104(!) dps (23~ ruin, 18~ AA)(instant)

You do realize how much damage this is right? That even with full cast casting your dots and shadow flare in there(no quickcast on any) that this would still give you 1080 damage over the course of just 1 minute. That is the equivalent of around 4-6 ruins or 10-15 seconds, and that is just if its only one person doing it. I don't know what you're thinking but most of the mini enrage timers are at least a min and there are tons of times where 1000 extra damage would have made or broke the fight.

Um, did you really just ignore that I was specifically talking about Black Mage or do you not know what BLM means (you know, the thing I was talking about in that quote)?
Maybe you skimmed my post and missed my opening lines

As a SMN it makes sense. They have good mobility and enough instant attacks to allow for more auto attacks.

A BLM should only do it if they're already in melee because of a fight mechanic. Any movement is a dps loss and you cannot control your procs unless you hold it which is even more of a dps loss.
BLM str is also very low. My SMN is slightly lesser gear has 179 strength compared to my BLM's 88.

Saying that it's fine for SMN is how I even started that post. And, you're arguing about how viable it is for a SMN for which I already agreed to?

I don't know what you're thinking but most of the mini enrage timers are at least a min.

Maybe a few more second to tread the post you're replying to and you'll see my thinking.
Then get back when you want to talk about blm mechanics.

[Sleigh]

I'm a full i90 with Allagan Scepter BLM. My AA does about 11 DPS if there are absolutely no interrupts, and much, much less if I'm actually casting spells - I peg it at slightly less than 1 out of 2 spells I get an AA off, including Swiftcast and Firestarter procs. Thus, about 5 DPS increased. Since Scathe is a hilariously bad DPS loss and has no place in the rotation outside of its utility for moving and instant damage, there's not much justification there.

It's hard to see the benefits of AAs for BLM in everyday use. Even one GCD lost due to movement you wouldn't have been forced to do negates anywhere from a bit more than a minute of AAs up to three minutes+ depending on if you hit a crit or not. A lot of enemies have tail swipes which would force a move, as well as the negative of sharing a spot with melee, which increases your chance of having an AoE target you compared to having free reign over the field to spread out. Not to mention, it would take a proc or two to get in range without losing GCD time.

However, it is good advice even for BLMs in certain times. It can certainly have its benefits if you care to move after a Firestarter and the enemy doesn't have anything to impact your rotation by staying behind. Turn 5 is a good example as mentioned; for phases 1 and 2, there's virtually no detriment to clicking Twintania while stacking in your groups. Likewise for the snakes, if you can move in for free. The AK boss, WP boss, Ifrit EM, and Titan EM have you stacking for large periods of time on their rears without any negatives, and clicking them for a roughly 5 DPS increase is quite worth the effort. On the other side of the fence, T1-4, and a large portion of bosses and trash have AoEs and cleaves and mechanics where going for that 5 DPS increase just will in all likelihood lose you a GCD and completely negate their benefits.

[Eohi]

Just a question on this if anyone can answer/try it out for me, what kind of damage is a casters AA? I mean its obviously physical but is it neutral or is it blunt and can be affected by monks buff/debuff?