So RDM and SpellSpeed...

[Gruntler]

There is a lot of misinformation in this thread.

RDM having instant casts is NOT the reason we avoid spell speed. BLM has a ton of instant casts, and they love it! It has NOTHING to do with dualcast because those instant casts also have a lowered GCD as a result of spellspeed.

It also has nothing to do with movement because RDM is reliant on being able to move during dualcasts. Your fastcast has a cast time of 2.00 seconds without SpS. Subtract stutterstep time from this, and you have 0.5 seconds of slidecast from your big cast, 0.5 seconds of gcd delay till your slow cast, then 2.5 seconds of the slowcast's gcd rolling for a total of 3.5 seconds of movement. If you were to reduce your cooldown by, for example's sake, down to 2.00 gcd, then the cast of your fast spell would only be reduced down to 1.6 gcd. This would mean your slidecasting time would be 0.5 normal, +0.4 gcd, +2.0, for 2.9 slidecast time. You'd lose over half a second of movement every dual, which would significantly reduce your ability to move and cast and not resort to swift/reprise.

There's two major reasons why Spell speed is bad.

1) Fleche, Contre Sixte, Enchanted Riposte/Zwerchau/Redoublement, Enchanted Reprise, Engagement, Displacement, and Corps-a-corps are -completely- unaffected by spell speed. This is over a third of your damage output, so having a stat that does not help 1/3 of your damage is going to heavily devalue that stat.

2) While in a vacuum Spell Speed would affect mana gains (which would increase the amount above) every 110/120 seconds you're resetting the clock, which means that you'd need a TON of spell speed in order to slip an extra melee combo between your Manafications; because you can't, Manafication resets your clock and you'd start all over. This results in any gains from Spell Speed being undone every two minutes, or worse, forcing you to delay your manafication which will cause you to lose finishers rather than gain them.

If we didn't have manafication, Spell Speed would be a lot better, but because manafication undoes it, and a third of our damage doesn't care otherwise, Spell Speed is thus a less valued stat.

[Rongway]

RDM having instant casts is NOT the reason we avoid spell speed. BLM has a ton of instant casts, and they love it!

You're misinterpreting BLM. The reason BLM likes spell speed is that every single offensive action is on the GCD, instant or not. 30~35% of RDM damage is done either oGCD or via weaponskills. That is the difference; not that one has more "instant" casts than the other.

[Gruntler]

You're misinterpreting BLM. The reason BLM likes spell speed is that every single offensive action is on the GCD, instant or not. 30~35% of RDM damage is done either oGCD or via weaponskills. That is the difference; not that one has more "instant" casts than the other.

1) I was addressing the idea that instant casts reduce the value of spellspeed. BLM Instant cast a -lot- more than people think, and they love spell speed, as the only damage that isn't really affected by it is their Xenoglossy timer. That's not a misinterpretation; that's saying 'BLM has instas and also loves spell speed, so instas are not the reason one would not want spell speed.' Which is true.

2) I know that 30-35% of RDM is unaffected by skillspeed, you'll notice I mention that in the very post you quoted:

1) Fleche, Contre Sixte, Enchanted Riposte/Zwerchau/Redoublement, Enchanted Reprise, Engagement, Displacement, and Corps-a-corps are -completely- unaffected by spell speed. This is over a third of your damage output, so having a stat that does not help 1/3 of your damage is going to heavily devalue that stat.

1/3 being calculated by looking at my own parses and pulling out a calculator and coming to approximately 1/3. Close enough to make the point.