I see the skills available For my SO soon to be SE (level 34 currently)
I see the Light armor mastery has casting speed bonus on the skill upgrade but robe does not
robe has it at lower levels for 1 or 2 skills then it doesn't say that it increases casting speed after that but for light armor mastery from 25-35 it says that it increases casting speed
my question is .. if i use light armor will my casting speed be faster then using a robe?
also have to take into consideration that some robes with a full set mind you give casting speed bonus (if you have the cash for it all)
Go Robe and keep your SP.
I did 1--> 48 in light armor and it s just not worth it after 52 since you won't be able to solo much even with BOP or duals.
The starting skill of mage speed in robes is higher then the casting bonus of LA mastery. What that mastery really means is that it gives you a casting speed bonus over being naked or in heavy. If you get all your skills of LA, and all robe, then test casting with LA vs robes (w/o a casting speed bonus set) you'll see that you still cast faster with robes. I tried the LA route on my SE for awhile, I even had a karmian and a theca set on me. I eventually stopped using the theca since it really didn't do me any good. The pdef boost was so small it didn't do much to prolong life in bad situations. Also the smaller overall mp pool didn't help with large parties nor did the slower casting when trying to heal.
As a former SE I would suggest sticking with robes and try to get robes that help to increase both max mp and cast speed. For c-grade I'd go with divine, b-grade BW, and a-grade go with tallum.
I outfitted my prophet with bw light armor and TSU*SLS, and the casting speed is only slightly slower then with Majestic robes and SoV w/accumen. (it takes 3 minutes to fully buff a party of 5 rather then 2). Yes, I have less total MP, but I still have enough for a party of 5, and I can contribute to party damage with this set up and still have full MP for next buff cycle. With lvl 10 Hotsprings buffs, I can fully buff a party of 7. It all depends on your roll as an SE. If you are primary healer, then you will want the robes for more MP and faster regen. If you are just VR, Emp buffer, and occassional purify, and like to contribute to party damage, where you might take an AOE hit, then go with a light armor set that has a casting speed and MP bonus.
Keep in mind you'll also want your mana, which isn't available with very many light armors past lvl 40.
Although I think there is a certain point at which someone gets enough light armor masteries that their casting speed exceeds the casting speed of wearing robes. After all, the first time someone invests in Light Armor (which all healers should, even if they never wear light armor, just in case they get stuck with it at one point), their casting speed bonus with light becomes much faster than without, because it is the first mastery (although that doesn't mean that it becomes faster than robes, it just means the first mastery will make sure the casting speed when wearing light isn't horribly slow). Then the rest of the light armor masteries only increase the casting speed bonus gradually.
Although by the time that happens, mana will be more important anyway.
Although I think there is a certain point at which someone gets enough light armor masteries that their casting speed exceeds the casting speed of wearing robes.
Only light armor mastery lvl adds to cast speed/regeneration. Later lvls only add to pdef.
I outfitted my prophet with bw light armor and TSU*SLS, and the casting speed is only slightly slower then with Majestic robes and SoV w/accumen. (it takes 3 minutes to fully buff a party of 5 rather then 2). Yes, I have less total MP, but I still have enough for a party of 5, and I can contribute to party damage with this set up and still have full MP for next buff cycle. With lvl 10 Hotsprings buffs, I can fully buff a party of 7. It all depends on your roll as an SE. If you are primary healer, then you will want the robes for more MP and faster regen. If you are just VR, Emp buffer, and occassional purify, and like to contribute to party damage, where you might take an AOE hit, then go with a light armor set that has a casting speed and MP bonus.
BW Light set is unique - it adds 15% to your casting speed as set bonus.
There is no similar set for other grades.
When light Armor really shines for a healer is the olympiad,
honestly from 35-60 save your SP for your other skills. by the time your 60+ your'll be pvping and died enough times that that loss of XP will make up for the gain in SP.
As it's been said, your passives is what really makes your class. it's what makes each class stand out. all casters get cast speed bonuses, the first one is at lvl 6, that one gives you a bonus in doubleing cast speed while in robes.
So to compensate for the loss one would get in LA they made it so it gives cast speed bonus (they should of gave a passive). But mejestic is the best set for healer cause it gives +8% mp regen. tillum is best set for buffers.(bufff slaves)
In the light armor v robe armor I discovered something at higher levels (68+)..
I had a bw light set & a majestic robe set. The bw light set had more pdef, of course.
In the majestic robe set I had more overall mp, and faster casting speed. In the blue wolf light I had more pdef.
The majestic set was able to keep me going & in mp FAR longer than the blue wolf. The casting speed helped to heal myself much faster & get back to whacking.
Blue wolf, while it increased pdef, did so minimally enough that I still needed a multitude of heals.. And would thus run out of mana much faster.
(This, by the way, was duoing with a prophet in the Blazing Swamp area.. Prophet in BW robes w/ sls*sls +4, myself with raid*nightmare +4)
Although I think there is a certain point at which someone gets enough light armor masteries that their casting speed exceeds the casting speed of wearing robes. After all, the first time someone invests in Light Armor (which all healers should, even if they never wear light armor, just in case they get stuck with it at one point), their casting speed bonus with light becomes much faster than without, because it is the first mastery (although that doesn't mean that it becomes faster than robes, it just means the first mastery will make sure the casting speed when wearing light isn't horribly slow). Then the rest of the light armor masteries only increase the casting speed bonus gradually.
Nope they do not. Only the first LA skill level increases casting speed (over being naked). Later levels do NOT increase casting speed further. LA casting speed always will be slower than robe casting speed.
And I have to agree with the other posters above: the pdef increase LA gives you is not really worth it. LA works well for daggers and archers because they have higher DEX and get evasion passive skills. SE do not get those, so they only get the slightly higher pdef (100 points or whatever it is). That will not reduce damage by much, and you will have FAR less mp in LA than in robes (we are talking about >1000mp difference here for BW or majestic robes, and even more when you use a conversion weapon which gives a 60% bonus to the total mp).
If you cannot afford A grade, get the BW robe set. It is nearly as good as majestic robes and will serve you well even until lvl 75 and beyond.