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

[Mog77]

I would like this thread to be positive, as I don't have knowledge of all dps classes and how well it benefits each one, or tanks either really but this card has it's uses.

for starters, whenever you use it on yourself depending on if it's enhanced or not, it immediately starts work on your draw/spread CD, on top of being able to pop any cooldowns of your choice. i like that i can use it and get my next card faster.

[SuzakuCMX]

It doesn't work on Draw/Spread because the skill goes on cooldown before the buff applies since there is an animation. I JUST tested it.

[GideonHighmourn]

I love Spear because when I use it for Royal Road, it's almost like I never drew it; with the increase in uptime on Balance/Arrow/Bole, I can't see not using Spear as Royal Road fodder whenever possible. Spear is the best card to use for Extended Royal Road, and that's the best use for it that I've found for it so far.

I'm not saying that CD reduction is completely useless, but it's highly situational and the potential to extend another (more useful) card's duration is too good to pass up. As SuzakuCMZ pointed out, it doesn't effect the CD of Draw when used, and it also doesn't do you any good to start using CDs when they're not needed just because you have a shorter CD.

At most, I see it being most useful on NIN, SMN, and MCH possibly, but even then, I'd rather take the Extended Royal Road.

[Kietsu]

Ninja and Machinist are both guaranteed to get use out of any Spear you toss their way. Summoner's a good pick too, although the reduction isn't quite as noticeable as their off-GCDs already have short cooldowns. (If you can fit it in before their Aetherflow, though, it's amazing.) Tossing one at a tank before they pop mitigation for a tank buster can also be helpful. Usually, though, I'll either eat it for a shorter Luminiferous cooldown, or Royal Road it.

[Anova]

I either use Spear at the start of a fight or I burn it using Royal Road when drawn in combat.

Spear actually reduces a lot of cooldowns that get popped in the beginning of a fight, such as Dragoon's blood for blood and the Paladin cooldowns. This isn't immediately seen, but it adds a burst to damage. Dragoons, Ninjas, Bards, and Machinists gain the most benefit. Summoners are tough to handle unless you have them in voice chat and can communicate it.

[Ghishlain]

Ninja, Dragoon, and Machinist all have short oGCDs that can make use of Spear in the case you want to cast it on someone. All of them have 20-30s oGCD DPS abilities that can benefit from having a shortened cast and if you clip any other buffs in the process, all the better!

Also, I'll just re-quote what I posted in a different thread since the 3.07 changes hit the table:

I always enjoyed using Spear back pre-3.07 to give my DRGs, NINs, and MCNs a nice small buff to their DPS, or get me a bit more MP faster.

Now that Balance, Arrow and Bole are both 30s buffs I'd rather just RR Spear and take a shot at the following:

• 60s long Balance (effectively two Balances back to back)
• 60s long Arrow (effectively two Arrows back to back)
• 60s long Bole (indirectly reducing my MP consumption due to lesser healing requirement)
• 300 Potency Refresh via Extended Ewer (25% weaker than 400 potency Luminous Aether)
• 300 TP restored to a DPS (I believe Spire is 30 TP / tick)

As much as I love Spear, I don't think the effect Spear gives now compares to the massive list of buffs the above gives. Sadly, I'm pretty much going to regulate Spear to RR fodder outside of a few niche uses when the RNG just happens to land me with a Spear that I just didn't need at the time.

One minute DPS buffs / mitigation buffs are just too good to pass up now.

[RichardButte]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...53#post3275853

Suggested change for the Spear.

It's just too situational without the right class in your party and is almost guaranteed RR fodder, and nothing should be guaranteed RR fodder. There should always be a decision to be weighed.

Even WITH a NIN in the party, I'd probably rather extend it and give the tank 1 min of Bole or the same NIN 1 min of 10% more DPS outright...

[Eudyptes]

Even WITH a NIN in the party, I'd probably rather extend it and give the tank 1 min of Bole or the same NIN 1 min of 10% more DPS outright...

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.

[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.

[Ghishlain]

Since the topic of Ninja has been brought up, I did a very light theorycraft at Richard's behest to kinda see the differences between Spear vs. Balance in the current dynamic. This is what I came up with in that other thread with a few small edits for clarity:

Some food for thought since Richard brought it up and made me think about. Let's discuss Spear over the duration of one minute:

Ninja can Ninjutsu Raiton 3 times in a minute for a total of 1,080 Potency in that time frame.
Assuming you draw Spear twice in a row and do it just as their Ninjutsu goes on CD, they'll get Ninjutsu's going off every 16s seconds. Effectively they'll get four Ninjutsu's Raitons in 64s, giving them a 360 Potency Increase in that about one minute time frame.

Ninja's most damaging combo is their Aeolian Edge combo, which is a total potency of (150 + 200 + 320) = 670 Potency. Assuming no haste, no poisons, no slashing debuff, no buffs, absolutely nothing - Ninja can perform this 670 Potency combo every 7.5s for a total of 5,360 potency. Add 10% from double Balance (or Extended Balance) and you get an additional potency of 536 which is much better than what double Spear can give your Ninja DPS. This also doesn't include the fact that Raiton itself will be affected by Balance as well and you'll up with an additional 108 Potency over those 60s.

Just a bit more food for thought in terms of probability:

Drawing two Spears in a row is a 2.77% chance of occurring (Extended Spear is not the same as double Spear due to how the spacing of Ninjutsu - spear would wear off after the third Ninjutsu and push the 4th Ninjutsu to 68s)
Drawing two Balances in a row is a 2.77% chance of occurring. Drawing Spear and RRing it for Extend then drawing Balance is also 2.77% chance (you'll probably end up using Arrow unless TP is tight at the time) - this effectively makes drawing double Balance / Extended balance a 5.54% occurrence.

Neither of these probabilities take into account the usage of Shuffle.

It's a simple example, but I think it illustrates Spear's desirability compared to a straight DPS increases like Balance (and indirectly increase like Arrow).