Stat Priority as a WHM.

[Sebazy]

You got me. Last night, I was asked to Holy spam the adds in Shiva Ex because we failed twice due to low dps. Surprisingly, I made a difference.

WHM DPS is pretty decent when we aren't hamstrung by accuracy, good stuff though, it always pays to keep an open mind about options in a group =)

[Yonko]

I will never put ss on my gear after I did tests before novus. I had a set of gear that had a good amount of spell speed on it, and when removing the set to be naked basically, it was about a 100 point difference in ss. With about a 100 points difference in spell speed, the speed it increased my cures was exactly .08
That is atrociously low for 100 points.
Btw incase you didn't know, the exact cast time can be checked by looking at the actions and traits menu and it does update with stats, that's how I knew it was exactly .08

Though ss does make a bigger difference to blms. I don't know why, maybe it's because it's offensive magic? But for healers spells and buffs it's garbage

Its better for BLMs because they never run out of MP. So being able to cast spells .08 faster will let them get out an extra spell that much quicker.

The actual increase in speed could be different just like the increase from piety is different for each class.

[Yonko]

Becoz it's the only class that doesn't have the secondary effect of the spell-speed : Mana problems (or TP for physical classes with skill speed)
But still, I like my build Max Piety + as much spell-speed as possible on my WHM.

End-game fights in this game are like this usually : You heave almost nothing to heal for some times, and then, burst of dmg for 10-15sec, then relativly calm again for 30-50sec, and that's usually where the wipes are, more spell-speed you have, easyer those burst of dmg will be, and slighty more determinations, or crit rate, wont help me in those cases.

The other problem, was also asking for ballad (witch reduce the dmg of the bard, that's not a good thing), if I can do without, even if ppl take avoidable dmg, or if I raise, this is a good thing, and that's why I play full Piety.

If you want SS for a burst of 10-15 seconds use PoM will increase your SS more than any gear can.

[Sapphic]

Higher your mana the more you regen per tick. So Pie is always usefull. Skillspeed is debateable, but as Gear stat budget increases and each piece of gear gives more and more, then Skillspeed may become even more useful. At the moment numbers are still pretty low giving, overall low benefits.

I wouldnt be surprised if stat "weights" shift as numbers get higher. Especially crit hit rate.

[bloodSp3c]

Accuracy>all.

I'm not joking, either. If I could trade the amount of secondaries needed to accuracy cap in coil I'd do it in a heartbeat. I can keep up a tank with 150 less hp on a cure 2, but missing DoTs makes me so angry I could kill a man. Except I can't. Because I keep MISSING HIM.

accuracy can go to hell! lol

I would trade all my accuracy for equal shares in pie/det/crit and a bit of ss

[firstsin]

Though crit sounds nice I know how much I need to heal and when. So it is usually a waste.

SS is becoming useful as it not only makes spells faster but also reduces GCD. In my case if i was able to get SS without sacrificing Piety and Det such that Stoneskin was a 2.5s or less I'd be delighted.

PoM though is a great skill I feel it cooldown is too long and I only ever use it when I need to do a lot of buffs in a short space of time.
eg: prey in t10 during adds or Stoneskin then entire party in t11 before nerve gas.

[Laesha]

Despite the overwhelming support for det, i find myself preferring pie+ss.

While it is true that huge stacks of ss only really become noticeable on spells with longer cast times, i find myself in situations where i'm using those spells often. Final coil in particular, where i'm being expected to do extensive solo-healing so our sch can dps, I've found that reduced medica/medica II cast time invaluable. (i'm looking at you T11 add phase) That fraction of a second can definitely make the difference when i'm being targeted with three laser cannons, or i have to interrupt a cast to get out of a gravity puddle. Also solo healing definitely has me casting enough during certain points in each fight that i notice the benefit, and i almost never need a ballad.

Honestly tho, just having a healthy mix of all of them is fine. If you want to min/max or find it enjoyable, that's great, but 20-30 extra points on a cure isn't going to save anyone (i say 20-30 because you're bound to have some det anyway) All this isn't to mention how absurdly expensive det materia is when discussing novus builds or crafted accessories. Can i make the gil to buy it? Sure. Do i have the time to SB it myself? Probably. But that opportunity cost is just way too high, at least for me.

TL;DR - You're going to be able to heal all content just fine with the mixture of secondaries that comes from any given gear set of max ilv.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

There are so many contradictions in Laesha's post...

While it is true that huge stacks of ss only really become noticeable on spells with longer cast times, i find myself in situations where i'm using those spells often. Final coil in particular, where i'm being expected to do extensive solo-healing so our sch can dps

A full SS build against a Piety/det build has 100 spell speed difference at most. That's... 0,08-0,09s difference at most. It takes somewhere between 19 and 21 spells to get that 1 casting bonus out of it with said difference. It's not as significant as implied. Not game making or breaking, the very least. If you're building a piety/SS build that does not primarily focus on spell speed, the difference is even less.

I've found that reduced medica/medica II cast time invaluable. (i'm looking at you T11 add phase)

It's a Medica II every 30s and a Medica every 30s with 15 seconds between each. Unless your tanks are eating every auto-cannon or you're casting raise all the time, I don't see how having spell speed helps contribute here as there is no need to heal constantly, even when solo healing.

That fraction of a second can definitely make the difference when i'm being targeted with three laser cannons, or i have to interrupt a cast to get out of a gravity puddle.

Why would anyone be low enough prior to auto-cannons going out and die from an auto-attack if you have to cancel your cast?

Also solo healing definitely has me casting enough during certain points in each fight that i notice the benefit, and i almost never need a ballad.

Spell speed does not benefit you at all concerning MP conservation. If anything, it helps you burn MP more. I mentioned that it takes 19-21 casts to get that 1 cast bonus in, that also means you're spending 1 cast extra on healing which may or may not be overhealing. If not making use of that extra cast bonus you're just idling for that one cast worth in time. Where's the benefit from that?

Honestly tho, just having a healthy mix of all of them is fine. If you want to min/max or find it enjoyable, that's great, but 20-30 extra points on a cure isn't going to save anyone (i say 20-30 because you're bound to have some det anyway)

On the contrary, you could say that 20-30 extra healing could save someone from whatever next hit comes in. But you can't squeeze in another spell within a 2-spell timeframe no matter how much spell speed you stack.

I posted this in another topic, so I'll just leave a part of it here:

Spell speed
This is simply garbage and here's a list why:
1) When pre-casting, having spell speed won't matter. Whether you pre-cast with 2,00 casting time or 1,80 casting time, it doesn't matter. It's called pre-casting for a reason.
2) Even when you're late with pre-casting, a 0,02 to 0,05s casting time won't make a difference. For whoever wants to prove it's uses by giving examples: It simply means you failed in the first place and having a bit of spell speed just happened to patch up for your mistake in a really, really rare occasion.
3) It takes somewhere between 20 and 22 spells before you benefit from a single spell worth of time. A white mage rarely chains that many spells in succession or is rarely needed.
4) It contributes nothing concerning MP spend vs HPS (hp recovery per second) requirement. Each encounter has a certain amount of HPS. Let's say you cast 100 cures in one encounter to meet the requirement and having spell speed allows you to cast 110 cures for the same encounter. This means 10 cures worth of pure overheal or 10 cures worth of idle time.
5) Idle time was mentioned in 4), any form of idle time destroys the whole purpose to have spell speed in the first place.
6) White Mages will always have some idle time here and there. It's to either conserve MP, simply because there's nothing to heal at that moment or it's a phase transition where nothing can be done.
7) Unlike determination and crit, it contributes nothing on a single healing spell. Although crit may or may not be complete overheal. Spike hits - or more commonly known as tank killers - are very frequent in endgame content. Odds are that crit contributes more than spell speed.

[Laesha]

Yeah, sufficient to say, I couldn't disagree more with Lyrica ^_^

especially the idea that 20-30 extra hp on a cure would save anyone. lol. Not a chance.

secondaries matter <-> that much for healing. That's just how the game is designed. I know theory crafters want it to be more complex. It just isn't.

[Jeckyl_Tesla]

Well, here's a question guys.

For example. Is it worth ever going for the High Allagan gear, over the augmented Ironworks gear for the secondary stats?

Like, main culprit, Ironworks Belt VS High Allagan Belt. Piety + Crit VS Piety + Det.

Main thing I do, is never go for crit. I hate the mechanic on it and it provides little to nothing to a WHM at all. Apart from RNG.

Yet, is the MND lost from goign for the high allagan belt that big of a loss?