Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

[Icemage]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

cure speed isn't king. neither is regen; -especially- in alliance situations

all cure speed does is make sure your cure lands instead of some other healer's cure - you still collectively overcured.

I disagree. Typically you have 1 or 2 WHMs in a main tank party, and losing a tank because your cure was a split second too slow is far more devastating than losing a bit of MP from an overcure.

Besides, the faster I can get a tank healed, the less reason outside healers will have to interfere; only when I am critically low on MP will I note that outside cures would be a good idea, and that's only for as long a duration as it requires for me to get swapped out, logged out, and logged back in to recover.

If your alliance or group is overcuring heavily, then your collective healing skills suck and your trust levels are far too low. Good linkshells let people perform their jobs without interference unless asked for or it's obvious that the chips are down.

all regen does is auto-tick periodically until someone overcures anyway.

That's not true, either. Regen is an excellent tool for enmity management. You can't forgo Regens completely because they're low-enmity ways to buy your tanks some extra time while conserving your MP. Again, as above, if you've got a bunch of people curebombing from outside, that would negate the benefit, but good players don't generally have many issues with this.

(ok, seriously speaking) after barspell effect, which is the only CAT I merit you *should* have for endgame (and even then you could spec differently if enough whitemages in your hnm have it) either cure speed or regen is acceptable.

Barspell effect is great for endgame, but totally useless everywhere else. Not everyone wants or needs it, and other choices are equally valid (well, except Banish effect - that one just sucks).

(for the record, regen III full spec is 28hp/tick: which is a cure pot+20% cure III every 25 seconds)

That's mostly due to the base potency of Regen III and not so much to do with the AF2 briault and/or regen merits.

I like Regen potency well enough; I just don't think it's of much use at endgame considering the scale of damage that you're dealing with compared to the benefits of other abilities you can purchase.


Icemage

[Necropolis]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

I would have to argue on weather cure speed is king or not. It, in my opinion, is the single most important merit for HNM situations as well as useful in almost every other situation. Regen is nice for exp parties, and for farming for pop items and such, but I hardly find it useful at HNMs. In fact I find the long cast time a hinderance.

At faf the other day, I decided to throw regen on the main tank to help add a little buffer to his hp, he gets terrored as soon as I start casting, second pld get terrored, and first pld nearly dies before I can start casting a cure.

The only situations I could see someone getting over cured is where you have an inexperienced group of people. They don't know how to work together or use to each other's play styles or stratgy on a certain mob.

Bar spells are of course useful, and was the fully merited shortly after cast times. I could see the use of Regen potency if it came with a cast time reduction or was effected by cure clogs. but it isn't so therefore I won't merit it.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

Tier 7: Everyone else who doesn't get much of anything from Haste. This category catches SMN, WHM, BLM, RDM, RNG, COR, and non-pulling BRDs.

Quick nitpick. RNG gets nothing from Haste, the spell has no effect on Ranged attacks at all. However, at meritpo level, Joyeuse is the sword of choice for CORs and thier primary source of TP. Haste your COR if they are doing Joyeuse melee.

If they don't have one, don't bother, they're TPing with their gun if they don't have it and Haste won't lower job ability recast timers anyway, just spell recast.

Joyeuse melee about the only situation I'd reccomend Haste for a COR, perhaps lower on the list than other melees in PT, but always appreciated.

[Icemage]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

Quick nitpick. RNG gets nothing from Haste, the spell has no effect on Ranged attacks at all. However, at meritpo level, Joyeuse is the sword of choice for CORs and thier primary source of TP. Haste your COR if they are doing Joyeuse melee.

If they don't have one, don't bother, they're TPing with their gun if they don't have it and Haste won't lower job ability recast timers anyway, just spell recast.
Joyeuse melee about the only situation I'd reccomend Haste for a COR, perhaps lower on the list than other melees in PT, but always appreciated.

True. You can adjust people up or down one tier on my list based on special circumstances. For instance, Berserk-happy DDs using /WAR get downgraded 1 full tier because they have a tendency turn into MP sponges and disrupt enmity balance. In your example, a Joyeuse-wielding Corsair who likes to melee would upgrade to tier 6 (non-primary melee) because of their playstyle focus.

The rules aren't set in stone; what I set out was just a general overview to provide understanding of what works, and why.


Icemage

[Amele]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

I disagree.

/sigh. the whole point of those two statements was that shit is situational.

in a perfect world, yes, a linkshell would recognize which whitemages to put in what roles. and cure speed is better if you spend any significant time healing people outside your own party (where regen isn't applicable at all.) or use large numbers of curaga's (where regen is still applicable but speed is more critical due to the longer cast time.) conversely, if you're -never- responsible for people outside your own party, smart play would allow you to maximize regen better, especially if you have a tank that's got a decent amount of HP and isn't in danger of being randomly one-shot.

Barspell effect is great for endgame, but totally useless everywhere else. Not everyone wants or needs it, and other choices are equally valid (well, except Banish effect - that one just sucks).

did you even read the entire sentence? should have for endgame. although it's damn useful in low-man situations that aren't hnm that most level 75's will want to try (salvage, limbus) and in the endgame that anyone who bothers to merit for will play in anyway (dynamis). just because you don't have to worry about Jailer spam or wyrms doesn't mean the trait is suddenly junk, in fact, against some easier stuff it's better because you can force resist rates similar to a full-kit tank, while leaving the tank in 'normal' gear.

the fact of the matter is, no one levels whitemage just to merit on (that's rdm, brd, war, mnk, nin) and if you aren't going to use it in an hnm setting, then it doesn't matter which is better in what situations since you're obviously only using it for your own satisfaction and can merit banish potency if that's what you like.

That's mostly due to the base potency of Regen III and not so much to do with the AF2 briault and/or regen merits.

it's still a 40% boost to regen III.
it's a bloody 120% boost to regen I. seriously.

I like Regen potency well enough; I just don't think it's of much use at endgame considering the scale of damage that you're dealing with compared to the benefits of other abilities you can purchase.

seriously, if you're in a situation where you need the cure speed to keep up with damage (that is, spamming full time with full speed is just enough and spamming full time with just clogs isn't) then there is something wrong.

in either case, I have yet to see an hnmls that didn't want whitemages spec'd both ways, so the call between the two is close enough that it comes down to personal preference and playstyle over which is 'better'. (similar to U/U vs. S/F)



for the record, I'm spec'd barspells and cure speed. Initially I was spec'd regen and curespeed - I rolled back the regen merits because there's enough other whitemages in my linkshell spec'd regen already that we could use the barspell+cure speed more.

[Irisjir Callard]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

I'm seeing a lot about hNM's and the different strategies required for them as for other endgame activities. Unfortunately, I don't have the rl play time to hNM camp, or I'd be putting research into the applications of a regen-specialized whm in the king nm scene.

Currently I've only really done dynamis (Can't find a good sky LS and don't want to anymore, too much BS over items of questionable worth) which puts a bit of a cramp on my research. I'd love to join a sky and hnm LS for research purposes just to hit the camps I can and not sweat the ones I can't, but as I said I've yet to find one with an acceptably low drama quotient.

[Hyrist]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

Speaking as the Boyfriend with the "Militant Rdm Perspective"

I've seen her pattern from 'over the shoulder' observations and I'm rather confident that her tactic would still hold sound in HNMs.

While I've heard the case for Cure-Speed, there's also the perspective that a consistent flow of HP into the player would also delay his death enough to make up for that negligible lack of "Cure Speed" Especially if there is more than one WHM for that specific group.

I'm honestly of the opinion that "Cure Speed" build WHM's are overplayed, but that is within the context that a Regen-Specialized Whm paired off with a Cure-Speed WHM would have better overall results than two or more of the same.

But I'm speaking out of my league.

I avoid WHM as much as my finance avoids RDM for many of the similar reasons, but tack on the factor that I despise main healing with a passion. (That said I still have it leveled to 37 now...)

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

Hmm. Would it matter how many WHM you have in alliance, if every one of them is slow to cure? Seems like the ideal setup would have one "Regen specialist" and one or more "Fast Cure specialist".

Then again, I've never seen endgame, nor measure cure speed. *shrug* Whatever...

[Necropolis]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

While I've heard the case for Cure-Speed, there's also the perspective that a consistent flow of HP into the player would also delay his death enough to make up for that negligible lack of "Cure Speed" Especially if there is more than one WHM for that specific group.

I'd hardley call 20% cast time reduction negligible. 20% is equivalent to all 3 rdm fast cast traits, hat, and AF2 body combined. Combine that with Cure Clogs and I'm casting cures 2/3rds the way through casting. Sub rdm and I'm at nearly 50% cast time reduciton.

it's still a 40% boost to regen III.
it's a bloody 120% boost to regen I. seriously.

Sure it's a nice little boost, but depending on play style is nearly useless in many scenarios. Espeicially if you have whms that are overcuring and keeping tanks at 100%. All those regen merits are going to waste.

And the savings in MP is not that great with Regen III. Regen III recovers about 400 hp for 66 mp. Cure IV will recover significantly more for 88mp, and will do it immediatly. The only advantage I see in regen in this case is enmity.

seriously, if you're in a situation where you need the cure speed to keep up with damage (that is, spamming full time with full speed is just enough and spamming full time with just clogs isn't) then there is something wrong.

Well that would depend heavily on play stlyles of your LS, or who you do events with. If you're partaking in the growing trend of melee zerging things like Vrtra or Bahamut V2, regen doesn't play a part in there anywhere. Mainly because the people "tanking" are the ones doing the most damage, which is usually a kraken/octave dark knight.

Now that doesn't apply to everyone, some still do these mobs in a more traditional way, but most HNMs, gods, or even some dynamis mobs hit tanks hard.

Many use pld/nin tanks for wyrms and other HNMs, but some still blood tank, so regen could have a use there in addition to cure cast times.

Gods are fairly short fights, and regen could help there, depending on party set up and if you have a back up tank or not, but even still, I'd rather know I can get a cure 5 for 800+ hp in a second as oppoed to recovered an extra 5hp/tick.

Dynamis, the tanks are usually curing themselves fairly ful that regen isn't do much. 100 fist NMs I'll usually throw a regen before engaging and a flash when they start 100 fist. Ice zone dynamis the quad-strike move usually hits our extremly well geared aegis pld for 250+. So I don't see regen being that helpful unless you're engaging one mobs every 30 seconds or so.

I do like regen for non-priority members that need cures and where I need to watch hate. Rdm's after convert, mnks that take a hit or two, things like that. Toss a regen, and if thier still in the yellow, they'll be a bit more cautious about pulling hate.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hmm. Would it matter how many WHM you have in alliance, if every one of them is slow to cure? Seems like the ideal setup would have one "Regen specialist" and one or more "Fast Cure specialist".

Then again, I've never seen endgame, nor measure cure speed. *shrug* Whatever...

It would depend on the stratgy that's being used, in my opinion. Personally if I'm going a full alliance event, I'd much rather only have 2 whms and the rest tanks/DDs/support. Sure you could have a 3rd or even 4th whm, but personally I'd think that would prolong the fight, while it would offer a larger degree of security.

In my experience, on things like kings or alliance fights in generaly, we use pld/nin tanks. To make up for the lack of voke, they become the main hearlers, and whm are there for "oh shi~" moments. Like when the pld gets terroized and such. And between refresh and ballad, MP rarly becomes and issue. I'm recovering 7 or 8 mp/sec, and the plds are getting 8 or 9. Throw in a devotion and we're fairly set, and don't have to worry about the waster mp by using cure over regen, or the occasional overcure.

[Amele]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

I'd hardley call 20% cast time reduction negligible. 20% is equivalent to all 3 rdm fast cast traits, hat, and AF2 body combined.

no. it's -half- as effective. (read the section on fast cast again; the percentages given in the wiki are the recast reductions, the cast reductions are double.

Combine that with Cure Clogs and I'm casting cures 2/3rds the way through casting. Sub rdm and I'm at nearly 50% cast time reduciton.

just so everyone knows what scale we're talking, the base cast time for cure III/IV/V is 2.5 seconds. recasts are 6/8/10. so we are talking shaving approximately 1 second off the cast and recast times. (with /rdm is closer to 1.2 and 2 seconds).

Sure it's a nice little boost, but depending on play style is nearly useless in many scenarios. Espeicially if you have whms that are overcuring and keeping tanks at 100%. All those regen merits are going to waste.

(emphasis mine).

in this situation cure speed is going to waste too, except for guaranteeing that it's the -other- healer who's overcuring and not you. and if they happen to be spec'd cure speed too (as you're suggesting all whitemages do) then they'll have an even harder time canceling a cure once they start it, since it reduces the interruption window.

And the savings in MP is not that great with Regen III. Regen III recovers about 400 hp for 66 mp. Cure IV will recover significantly more for 88mp, and will do it immediatly. The only advantage I see in regen in this case is enmity.

learn your numbers better or stop arguing based on numbers. - (for the record) regen III is the least efficient regen; Cure IV is the most efficient of the soft-capped cures. (cure V is potentially more efficient but is dependent on what stats you have.)

Regen III with no merits/gear: 20hp/tick for 20 ticks. (400HP), 6.06hp/mp
Regen III with briault: 23hp/tick for 20 ticks. (460HP), 6.96hp/mp
Regen III with briault+merits: 28hp/tick for 20 ticks. (560HP), 8.48hp/mp

(ignoring the softcap breaks, to reapply add your softcap to each of these, +1 at +20%, +2 at 50%) 380HP base here.
Cure IV with basic cure potency (light staff): 418 HP, 4.75 hp/mp
Cure IV with standard cure potency (+nobles): 456 HP, 5.18 hp/mp
Cure IV with superior cure potency (+latent/lightsday etc): 494 HP, 5.61 hp/mp
Cure IV with maximum* cure potency: 672 HP, 7.64 hp/mp

*maximum potency is: 10% staff, +12% aristo, +10% med ring, +15% healing feather, in temenos on lightsday with a korin obi: +30%; for a total of: 77%.

as demonstrated, the efficiency comparison isn't even close. (it's downright silly with regen I. a full spec regen I is 275hp for 15mp -> 18.3 hp/mp)

and as for significantly more? maybe versus proto-ultima. lol

Well that would depend heavily on play stlyles of your LS, or who you do events with. If you're partaking in the growing trend of melee zerging things like Vrtra or Bahamut V2, regen doesn't play a part in there anywhere. Mainly because the people "tanking" are the ones doing the most damage, which is usually a kraken/octave dark knight.

I disagree, Regen is a key part of this general strategy, you can't always get a cure in in time for the next swing round and regen will add a couple points of damage during souleater. it also gives additional ticks of hp that since you are zerging rarely do people get consistently overcured (there's too many targets). regen works as a convenient fire and forget for jobs that took some damage but aren't about to take more, especially if you're low on healing power.

Now that doesn't apply to everyone, some still do these mobs in a more traditional way, but most HNMs, gods, or even some dynamis mobs hit tanks hard.
Many use pld/nin tanks for wyrms and other HNMs, but some still blood tank, so regen could have a use there in addition to cure cast times.

pld/nin tanks benefit more from regen potency than cure speed because in general, you aren't curing them. most paladins will request regen though, since, surprise! they know it's there to fall back on if they get interrupted at a bad time. it's still healing them even when you're busy, when they're busy and every one else is silenced/stoned/terrored etc etc.

Gods are fairly short fights, and regen could help there, depending on party set up and if you have a back up tank or not, but even still, I'd rather know I can get a cure 5 for 800+ hp in a second as oppoed to recovered an extra 5hp/tick.

it's closer to 1.5 seconds of sheer cast time, and an additional some quantity of time (in the area of 1 second) for you to recognize you a) need a Cure V, b) issue the command via macro, and c) get the command ratified by the server. so ~2.5 seconds vs 3.5.

so you've got about a 1 second jump on your non-spec'd whitemage brethren, and if for some reason you're not using clogs (say for enmity) and they are (say because they tend to idle in en-2 cleric's while you're idling in noble's) then your cure speed gap is almost totally gone. and they cure for 800+hp too.

regen helps more in longer fights anyway, by keeping your enmity down. unless you're in a linkshell that enjoys sufficiently high attendance to rotate healers throughout the fight; in which case, endurance based merits are somewhat less useful (you'll still be able to stay in longer, since you have better mp efficiency and less enmity generation.)

Dynamis, the tanks are usually curing themselves fairly ful that regen isn't do much. 100 fist NMs I'll usually throw a regen before engaging and a flash when they start 100 fist. Ice zone dynamis the quad-strike move usually hits our extremly well geared aegis pld for 250+. So I don't see regen being that helpful unless you're engaging one mobs every 30 seconds or so.

aegis has little to do with quadrastrike, since it's physical. (sure sure, block rate.) it's not directly reducing the damage and aegis block rate is not 100%.

regen isn't for main tanks in dynamis anyway - it's for supporting the rest of the people in aoe-range.

It would depend on the stratgy that's being used, in my opinion. Personally if I'm going a full alliance event, I'd much rather only have 2 whms and the rest tanks/DDs/support. Sure you could have a 3rd or even 4th whm, but personally I'd think that would prolong the fight, while it would offer a larger degree of security.

generally speaking, 2-3 whitemages depending on what's available and what we're fighting (ultima gets 3 for instance, jormungand gets 4, but two are usually in add party, etc.) most kings are 2, etc.

in the case of adding an additional whitemage, it only prolongs the fight if you can make a 'flawless' kill with fewer, as soon as people start dying, the fight slows down past the point where having one fewer DD and no deaths would've been faster.

In my experience, on things like kings or alliance fights in generaly, we use pld/nin tanks. To make up for the lack of voke, they become the main hearlers, and whm are there for "oh shi~" moments. Like when the pld gets terroized and such. And between refresh and ballad, MP rarly becomes and issue. I'm recovering 7 or 8 mp/sec, and the plds are getting 8 or 9. Throw in a devotion and we're fairly set, and don't have to worry about the waster mp by using cure over regen, or the occasional overcure.

not needing to worry about wasting mp is an ideal situation (and I realize it does happen reasonably often.) but in this situation, with whitemage as a support healer, I'd argue that regen is more useful, because that role is not being subsumed by another player.

the simple fact of the matter is: there's more than one way to viably merit an endgame whitemage (there's at least two, and most people would agree there's three) and trying to claim that one spec is better than another in every situation is shortsighted at best.

[Kirsteena]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

At which point I would make sure you have a balanced spread within your ls - no point everyone going for regen and ignoring the benefits of Cure Cast time...

[Amele]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

At which point I would make sure you have a balanced spread within your ls - no point everyone going for regen and ignoring the benefits of Cure Cast time...

oh definitely. same with barspells (although if you were to pick one of the three for -every- whitemage to have, it'd be this one).

I changed my spec to improve balance in my linkshell after all. (cure/regen to cure/barspell) since we had lots of regen and not much barspell. if we'd had lots of cure, I'd have rolled back the cure speed instead of regen.

[Irisjir Callard]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

~~General snip because I don't know how to do spoiler bars off the top of my head~~

It was posts and breakdowns like these that originally convinced me that regen in general was the way to go.

However, I think something might be off in your math on regen potency, or for some reason I have another factor influencing my regen, because by your math I should have 24/tick and I currently have 25/tick (I was playing around with the three tiers last night in dynamis). Small offset, I know, but it's the small details that drive my method.





The other thing about cure cast time that I'm highly skeptical of is cure cast time =/= haste. As I understand it, cure cast time lowers the EFFECT POINT of the spell, but does not speed up the casting SPEED at all. Ergo, even though you already spent the MP and handed out the HP, you're still casting the same bloody spell and can't move on to other tasks.

GRANTED, I have had a number of situations where I've had someone die mid-cure and I've said to myself "Man cure speed would have saved that life." On the same key, I've seen my Regen do some pretty fabulous things too. I've seen it do more to help a PLD's mp than refresh would. I've seen it save lives while I was digging for an echo drop. For all that matter, I've seen a regen I previously casted, then overlay with a cure that pulled hate and got me killed keep my party alive while I was facedown in the mud.

But being tied up with spells that take the same amount of casting time no matter what, even if the spell's already taken effect, doesn't seem like a terribly sound strategy to me. Regens are longer-casting spells than cures in general, so I'm used to budgeting cast time in addition to MP. I would find cure speed to be a much more viable meriting strategy if it didn't mean I still spent the same time casting a spell as before the merits.



Another thing I was wondering about. How come there aren't global haste merits in with the enimity and critical hit rate? I wouldn't mind seeing movement speed merits as well. Both of those would be better for some jobs than others, but they seem like obvious options that SE skipped over for some reason.

[Amele]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

It was posts and breakdowns like these that originally convinced me that regen in general was the way to go.
However, I think something might be off in your math on regen potency, or for some reason I have another factor influencing my regen, because by your math I should have 24/tick and I currently have 25/tick (I was playing around with the three tiers last night in dynamis). Small offset, I know, but it's the small details that drive my method.

well, regen merits are +1 per, and the body is +1/+2/+3 (by tier). with bases of: 5, 12, and 20. if you had (as you say) 24/tick, and were observing 25. I'd ask who you hit with regen: several jobs have gear that gives an auto-regen trait, besides the usual whm-subjob 'culprit' lol.

The other thing about cure cast time that I'm highly skeptical of is cure cast time =/= haste. As I understand it, cure cast time lowers the EFFECT POINT of the spell, but does not speed up the casting SPEED at all. Ergo, even though you already spent the MP and handed out the HP, you're still casting the same bloody spell and can't move on to other tasks.

I would find cure speed to be a much more viable meriting strategy if it didn't mean I still spent the same time casting a spell as before the merits.

nothing actually speeds up the bar, but you can start moving as soon as the spell triggers, recast timers start at this point too. I'm not sure if auto-attack delay starts again, it's tough to make a rigorous test of this. the primary advantage to cure speed is that it triggers sooner, so you have a smaller window for being interrupted and a smaller delay between when you start casting and your target gets the hp.

Haste in particular, only affects recast, it has no effect on casting time at all.

Another thing I was wondering about. How come there aren't global haste merits in with the enimity and critical hit rate? I wouldn't mind seeing movement speed merits as well. Both of those would be better for some jobs than others, but they seem like obvious options that SE skipped over for some reason.

global haste isn't there because of how broken haste is in terms of damage increase (there's a reason that players sacrifice all kinds of stats to get to 22-25% haste on melee jobs)

global movement speed isn't there because it would make certain strategies even more viable, and would devalue several major pieces of gear (gaiters, w.legs, striders, etc.)

this isn't to say that SE won't add these at some time in the future, but both stats are very very powerful (more so than the other general stats) and are available only in limited and mostly stacking restricted forms.

[Irisjir Callard]

Re: Been awhile since the WHM's had a discussion

well, regen merits are +1 per, and the body is +1/+2/+3 (by tier). with bases of: 5, 12, and 20. if you had (as you say) 24/tick, and were observing 25. I'd ask who you hit with regen: several jobs have gear that gives an auto-regen trait, besides the usual whm-subjob 'culprit' lol.

All /nin or /drg and I don't THINK there was any kind of regen gear. The one I was noticing in particular was a mnk, but don't ask me what he was wearing...but I love mnks for regen measurements because they have such huge HP bars, that they can be missing a large # of HP without missing a large % and triggering other whm's to cure them.

nothing actually speeds up the bar, but you can start moving as soon as the spell triggers, recast timers start at this point too. I'm not sure if auto-attack delay starts again, it's tough to make a rigorous test of this. the primary advantage to cure speed is that it triggers sooner, so you have a smaller window for being interrupted and a smaller delay between when you start casting and your target gets the hp.

Moving? What do I need to move for? Do I gotta run to the side so the mob doesn't hit me?
Recast? I don't cast the same thing twice in a row, that's an even worse waste of time while I stand around and wait for the spell to come up again. The REASON we have tiers of spell is so we don't have to cast the same one over and over.
Attack? I'm attacking? OK so maybe while I'm soloing this might be a factor, but this has been a pt-oriented discussion so far.

I can see the benefit of reducing interrupt rates, at the same time, with a low enimity regen build, interrupt rates become negligible anyway...which is one MORE reason I prefer regen tactics to cure tactics.

No, my point is, the way I do things, I have a 'stack' of spells that I hand out in swift order of priority, without pausing for breath between one and the next. Time between the 'effect point' and when I can start casting another spell is negligible.

But by contrast, if I was cure-speed merited, I would be standing around AFTER the effect point waiting for the cast bar to reach 100% before I could start casting another spell.

Wasted time, imho. I'd rather be moving on to the next in my priority list.