question about fast cast ability

[Jonnyram]

Re: question about fast cast ability

How much does AF2 body improve Fast Cast?
I should imagine the AF hat/AF2 body combination is pretty fearsome.

[kazuri]

Re: question about fast cast ability

I believe Duelist's Tabard's Fast Cast+ is the same as Warlock's Chapeau's bonus?
Read it somewhere, but then again I didn't see any proof for testing. . .
And considering it's pretty rate to get... meh,

[Jei]

Re: question about fast cast ability

But then I can't think of any good head attack gear :O using AF2 for body would mean you give up the narashima which has been really helpful to me imo.

[kazuri]

Re: question about fast cast ability

Dusk Mask, Optical Hat and Ogre Mask are pretty good-

I think I'd just switch to Duelist's Tabard-Warlock's Chapeau only when recasting spells then switch back to offensive gear.

[swingfly]

Re: question about fast cast ability

Like Kazuri says, switch in Hat (+ Body if you have it) for spells like Stoneskin, Refresh, Utsusemi and then back to Ogre Mask or Optical Hat/Emperor Hairpin (I really wish I had a Dusk Mask, the stats on it looks really good). Equip changes are killing me, these days I bring 45 pieces of gear just for farming

[amastacia]

Re: question about fast cast ability

Ya know, at first I was nuts for keepin the AF hat on for soloing, especially with NIN sub.

Now, I really don't bother. I take it for specific things, but I nearly always just leave my Optical Hat on.

RDMs don't have enough eva to blink tank perfectly on tougher mobs, so I don't worry about shadows falling. As long as I have a set ready to go to cover the recast on Stoneskin, I'm a happy camper.

I could only see the Fast Cast boosts as anything approaching necessary on VT or higher mobs that just crush Stoneskin too quickly.

As a note, you CANNOT macro in the AF1 hat mid-cast and get the benefit, at least on cast times. You *may* be able to get the recast reduction, but if you just do a normal

/equip Head "Warlock's Chapeau"
/nin "Utsusemi: Ichi/Ni" <me>

macro, it still takes until past 60% for the spell to trigger. This is especially noticeable on Utsusemi: Ichi due to the long cast time.

I found that either a /wait or a <st> macro to make sure the equip swap happened before the spellcast was detrimental and caused more problems than it solved, so I stopped doing them and just cast Utsusemi without Fast Cast gear.

For most mobs, spell Haste is more than enough to keep shadows up enough to negate 95% of damage between Utsusemi and Stoneskin. There may be some times that the extra Fast Cast is needed, but more often than not it's just a hassle to make sure it's working properly.