Does Swift Cast work on any skills?

[Kaurie]

Garuda for trash, Ifrit for bosses?
Selene for everything unless you'd otherwise actually have to heal the tank?

Pretty sure Nightroad didn't literally mean mid-battle but while running from one pack to the next/from the last pack to the next boss and so on^^

Garuda is superior for bosses and for trash.

I tend to prefer Eos, as the added healing capabilities allows for me to DPS more, which makes a bigger difference than a 1.5% speed boost. However, Selene works for many. Whichever you choose, you're not going to swap mid battle. There is also no reason to swap between pulls. If you're swapping between pulls, you do not use swiftcast, you save that for Shadowflare.

[raela]

Whichever you choose, you're not going to swap mid battle.

For those moments when the tank spins the boss and cleaves your poor fairy into oblivion.

[Kaurie]

For those moments when the tank spins the boss and cleaves your poor fairy into oblivion.

Heh yea, resummoning your dead pet is an adequate use of swiftcast - summon, but I was specifically talking about switching pets :P

As a tank, I can tell you that Shadow flare's 5% slow debuff is completely worthless and has no effect on the amount of damage I take.

That is incorrect. You take precisely 5% less damage per second as the mobs are hitting you 5% slower.