This thread is about how to make the most out of spear, and why it is useful.

[Lastelli]

My main is nin, and while it's really nice to get faster mudras and the possibility for it to sync with B4B/IR/TA CDs, the dps increase from it is peanuts. And even then most of the time it gets wasted if I have to wait on my rotation or mob phazes. I'd much rather have a 1 min arrow, since that means more attacks during TA, or Balance for the obvious reasons.

Indeed, this is the point that a lot of members of the "spear defence force" seem to forget. Using spear on certain dps jobs really messes up cd alignment. With my machinist, I want my 3rd wildfire/rapid fire to be lined up with my reload. With SMN contagion, tri disaster and aetherflow are conveniently aligned (60 seconds), same with other dps jobs.
So, how is spear useful? Probably with a little coordination you can use it on your tanks or co-healer to shorten their cd (no harm done there) or on yourself before LA/CO/synastry/lightspeed. All these skills with very long CD benefit greatly by using spear just before them.