Does Swift Cast work on any skills?

[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.