Yes they are

The auto attack Land right at the end of your cast and is not sync or locked by any skill or animation
You can see a very little tiny number popping out saying you're auto attacking

As black mage it's not really relevant since they got the worse str (i do crit around 80 per staff stab on NiddEX)
As smn or healer... that could be
I know i dis use it on hummelfaust as AST that gave a little boost to grab more place in the ranking XD