How are you handling your Novus upgrade?

[Estellios]

I did 34 SS, 24 Det, and the rest in Piety on my Thyrus.

Regarding spell speed I at least definitely notice how my character handles when I either go to lower level stuff or when Spiritbonding stuff that drops my SS. I guess the best thing I can compare it to is driving someone else's car... it may be a small difference on paper but it is something you definitely notice after spending a good amount of time with it. It's nice when you get a big upgrade to it and all of a sudden in some fights you are moving out of AOEs and completing casts that you weren't before.

My stat spread was for a couple reasons... obviously the lower cost since I was originally planning to go with T4 SS and Det until i had any failure chance at all but spiritbonding for 2 weeks only gave me one of each. I also wanted the weapon to be decently balanced since the Novus allows you a bit more Secondary stats than a comparable iLevel item and I think that runoff into a 3rd stat is useful as it is easier to build around it to make up for stat deficiencies in available gear in the future. I did want to keep the SS high too as I want to maintain my SS around my current values as I have gotten used to and like how my casting times feel.

I think the argument some people sometimes bring up about not needing piety or spell speed because you should know what's coming up or everything is in a pattern or whatever is irrelevant as you want to improve your gear to take on challenges that you haven't perfected and are still giving you trouble. Both stats give you some more leeway in different ways when still going after a first win and once you perfect a fight your secondary stats generally don't matter in the slightest.