Viability of a Spell Speed WHM set up?

[Skeith-Adeline]

White Mage is my secondary class, but I am NOT going to be playing it in Final Coil (BLM).

Thinking about doing either a Piety/Spell Speed or Spell Speed/Determination build just for funs.

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/PLA5

[Estellios]

WHM secondary stats are literally personal preference.

[Donjo]

WHM secondary stats are literally personal preference.

Exactly. Secondaries on a healer are literally meaningless. I'm sure you've heard before that skill trumps gear, and this is most evident on a healer. You could have zero of every Secondary and do just fine at everything. You wanna Spell Speed? Go for it!

[KikoriL]

Exactly. Secondaries on a healer are literally meaningless.

Except, y'know, having enough Piety to comfortably heal for many minutes of constant fighting, or a Scholar's unchallenged need for Crit rate...

[Donjo]

Except, y'know, having enough Piety to comfortably heal for many minutes of constant fighting, or a Scholar's unchallenged need for Crit rate...

Piety's not a Secondary. I would argue that it is a full on Primary Stat. I didn't factor it into that statement.

When I said "meaningless", I meant this for the reason I stated in a further sentence: if you had zero of every secondary, content wouldn't be any more difficult. Healers have such high potency skills that main stats alone get their heals well above what they need to be. The only thing Secondaries can be observed to do on a healer is help to save someone from death with pure, dumb luck. Any skilled healer stops needing them very quickly.

Spell Speed: You might save someone with a split second heal, but it's rare. It's more effective to pre-cast anyway.
Crit: You might save someone with a clutch critical, but it's rare. You should fight battles assuming that you will never crit in the first place because it's bad to rely on RNG. Thus, most crits end up being overheals anyway.
Det: You might save someone because that Cure healed for 50 more than usual, but it's rare.

All of these situations should be avoided entirely in the first place.

Now, Piety. I consider a stat to be "Primary" if it is evident that not having enough of it will cause you to be physically unable to complete content. Thus, I consider the following stats to be Primary, in whatever capacity the various jobs use them: Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Intelligence, Mind, Piety, and Accuracy.

[KikoriL]

Piety's not a Secondary. I would argue that it is a full on Primary Stat. I didn't factor it into that statement.

Until they add Piety to every single piece of casting gear in the game (of level to have it) and consequently remove it as an option in relic customization, it's a secondary stat. Just an odd one that you can dump a free +30 into as you level up.

[Jim_Berry]

Except, y'know, having enough Piety to comfortably heal for many minutes of constant fighting, or a Scholar's unchallenged need for Crit rate...

When I was minimum iLv for Snowcloak when it first released, I spammed Divine Seal and Shroud. Kept me on my toes, but some people wouldn't know I was low iLv at the time until they examined me lol...

[Tranquil]

Secondaries on a healer are literally meaningless.

They are not.

I'm sure you've heard before that skill trumps gear, and this is most evident on a healer.

Now, this I do agree with.

OP, you could go for SPSP for fun but it's not a good stat. If you intend to chain cast DPS-spells, go ahead. However, for your healing game SPSP has very little effect as healing in this game is very timing-based with little to no chain casting necessary. When you are not chain casting, you are not really getting anything out of SPSP. That marginally faster Cure II won't be helpful because, y'know, you could have timed it perfectly anyway via precasting with some thought. :')

There're tons of SPSP-related topics on this forum and the efficacy or lack thereof has been exhausted in previous topics, whilst some still advocate SPSP.

TL;DR: WHM is your offspec, have fun with it and do as you please.

[FoxyAreku]

Exactly. Secondaries on a healer are literally meaningless.

Please don't ever play a scholar.

A scholar without crit is super meh.

[Donjo]

Oh, I kinda said in the OP that "NOT going to be playing it in Final Coil (BLM)." ^^;

My WHM is purely for Dungeons and Primals haha. I figured the Spell Speed would help me chain cast to keep the Tanks up during them e-peen pulls haha

Oh, it absolutely will. It'll also make Holy less of a hassle to cast, and everyone likes Holy!

Please don't ever play a scholar.

A scholar without crit is super meh.

Oh, I'm sorry. Scholar is the healer class I prefer.

You see, stacking Crit on a Scholar is like stacking Parry on a Tank. I speak here solely in reference to Adloquium. While a crit does make the Succor shield better, it's not likely to make any significant difference in anything. If an Adlo crits, you'll get a nice fuzzy feeling, just like if you clench everything and then Parry the tank buster.

However, it's RNG. No matter how much you stack that stat, it's still RNG. Remember o'l Murphy. You're gonna be throwing Adlo Crits left and right and everywhere... except when you actually need one. In that situation, Murphy will smile at you, wink, and then moon you. Immediately followed by the Tank dying.

Because it's impossible to guarantee that the next Adlo will crit, it's necessary to plan your next few moves as if it won't. You're free to change the plan if it does crit, but you're still going to succeed if it doesn't by planning around the worst case.

Now, a case can be made for the Scholar's other heals. Because their heals are, on average, less potent than a WHM, crits are relatively happy things in general for them. A Crit Physick is Cure II. A Crit Embrace gives you Spell Speed for a while, but not really enough to make a huge difference and it'll never come at a time when it would actually turn the tides. It all helps. Even still, RNG. It can't be relied upon.

Now, this doesn't change the fact that Crit is by and far the best stat for a Scholar to stack. It's just that crits will always be unreliable and sufficient skill and primary stats will eventually render it unnecessary. Just like with Det and SS, proper play circumvents any need for the stat at all. It's just a bonus. Even so, giant Adlo shields will never get old.