What does Spell Speed do for a Summoner?

[Strawberrycocoa]

My understanding from my FC mates is that DoTs tick at a flat unalterable rate based off a server clock, meaning Spell Speed has no effect on how many ticks your spells get for their duration. I have also noticed that spell speed appears to have no effect whatsoever on the recast times of Aetherflow and it's active abilities. So the only spell getting any benefit from spell speed that I can tell is Ruin spam.

Am I missing something?

[Sleigh]

Technically it benefits all your spells, not just Ruin, but you would be correct in that it doesn't affect DoTs once they're placed. Simply put it's a very terrible stat for SMN compared to DET and CHR, and you should itemize accordingly.

[Nathan061111]

Your FC is correct, it will only affect spells with a cast time, eg ruin, fire cure etc. and not instant cast spells like bio, aero and scathe. It also won't affect DoTs.

[Muzy]

Your FC is correct, it will only affect spells with a cast time, eg ruin, fire cure etc. and not instant cast spells like bio, aero and scathe. It also won't affect DoTs.

It doesn't affect the animation speed or anything, but it does affect the GCD, so by extent it does affect the instant cast spells, just not nearly to the extent it does those with a cast time.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

Summoner DPS is all about maintaining the highest possible output and never letting anything run out. This means keeping your 3 main DoTs applied Shadowflare up, and spaming ruin.

Essentially time you have to spend reapplying DoTs and shadowflare is time that you're not using ruin. So spellspeed is helpful in that it lets you get your DoTs back up quicker, so that you can go back to spamming ruin. Spellspeed will also increase your ruin output which will increase your DPS even further.

Also if I'm not mistaken, spellspeed increases garuda's regular attack speed as well.