Haste and You... A guide to the misinformed.

[Frost]

I am posting this in hopes that it reaches the minds of those forum posters that don't see the value in haste...

How players typically precieve haste is that it increases your speed; and while that is technically correct, it's more accurately described as reducing your delay between actions.

Why is this worth mentioning?

Because conceptually people tend to see: 25% haste as a 25% increase in damage.
That is incorrect!

Haste:

At 0% haste you attack at your normal rate.
At 50% haste you attack with half of your delay removed. Another way of saying that is that you can do 2 actions in the same time, or more easily understood, you are attacking twice as fast.

At 50% haste I.E. a 50% reduction in the time between actions, you are NOT doing 50% more damage, you are in fact doing 100% more damage.

Take the following scenario into consideration:

You possess a Sword that has a 240 Delay. That means, according to the way the game currently works, (that every 60 delay = 1 second) said Sword will complete an attack round once every four seconds.

If you were to introduce 50% haste onto that character, the delay of the Sword would be reduced by 50%, down to 120 delay, meaning that in the same time as before (four seconds) you now attack two times.

That is all redundant I know, but some people need different angle to grasp concepts, and I apologize if this comes off as demeaning.

Here's a chart for quick reference:
(Please note "Haste" is a general term that I'm using to describe general "Delay Reduction" throughout the post)

Table 1:

Haste - Increase in Attack Rounds
00%   - 00.00%
05%   - 05.26%
10%   - 11.11% (Marches: Advancing: ~9%, Victory: ~12.5%, with a +2 Instrument) 
15%   - 17.65% (Haste Spell)
20%   - 25.00% (2x Marches ~21.5%)
25%   - 33.33% (Cap on Gear or Ability Haste)
30%   - 42.86%
35%   - 53.85%
40%   - 66.67% 
45%   - 81.82% (Roughly the cap on Haste given by Magic/Songs ~43.75%)
50%   - 100.0% (Maximum recast reduction)
55%   - 122.2%
60%   - 150.0% 
65%   - 185.7%
70%   - 233.3%
75%   - 300.0%
80%   - 400.0% (Maximum weapon delay reduction in FFXI)

To put all that in perspective, observe the following:

PlayerX is deciding between 5 attack and 1 haste, his current attack is 400, and his Haste is currently at 21%.

The addition to his attack would be 1.25% Which would look to PlayerX as a good idea being that 1.25% > 1% right? Wrong...

Going from 21% haste to 22% haste is the following:

21% haste is a 26.58% increase in attack rounds. 
22% haste is a 28.21% increase in attack rounds.
 - Or to put it simply a 1.29% increase in attack rounds.

But again, this is also comparing Apple to Oranges. 1.29% more hits is not the same thing as 1.25% more attack. It's more TP, faster Weaponskills, etc etc... But that is another discussion altogether.

Take the above situation now and assume PlayerX has haste cast on him.

Now we're looking at 36% haste upgrading to 37% haste:

36% haste is a 56.25% increase in attack rounds. 
37% haste is a 58.73% increase in attack rounds. 
 - Or to put it simply a 1.59% increase in attack rounds.

As you can see, as the Haste value increases, as does the value of each haste.

Table 2:

Haste   Hits           Δ    
00%   - 100.0    - 0.00%  
05%   - 105.3    - 5.26%
10%   - 111.1    - 5.56%   
15%   - 117.7    - 5.59%   
20%   - 125.0    - 6.25%   
25%   - 133.3    - 6.66%   
30%   - 142.9    - 7.14%   
35%   - 153.9    - 7.69%   
40%   - 166.7    - 8.33%  
45%   - 181.8    - 9.09%   
50%   - 200.0    - 10.0%   
55%   - 222.2    - 11.1%   
60%   - 250.0    - 12.5%   
65%   - 285.7    - 14.3%   
70%   - 333.3    - 16.7%   
75%   - 400.0    - 20.0%   
80%   - 500.0    - 25.0%

The perfect example being the difference between 75% and 80% delay reduction, the jump in damage between those two points is a massive 25% increase.

In perspective that 5% haste is like adding a whole party member, because the overall damage increase from 75% to 80% haste is adding another 100% of the base value.

Please take note however that other stats are extremely important too, and Haste just might make you "miss faster"...


Q: Wait... What about Double attack? Is it better than Haste???

A: No.

Table 3:
Number of attack rounds added (Per 100 rounds):

%       DA     Haste 
00%  -   0  -  0
05%  -   5  -  5
10%  -  10  -  11
15%  -  15  -  18 
20%  -  20  -  25 
25%  -  25  -  33 
30%  -  30  -  43
35%  -  35  -  54
40%  -  40  -  67
45%  -  45  -  82 
50%  -  50  -  100
55%  -  55  -  122
60%  -  60  -  150
65%  -  65  -  186
70%  -  70  -  233
75%  -  75  -  300
80%  -  80  -  400

Luckily the cases where Haste and Double Attack are put in an "Either/Or" situation is exceptionally rare. But when the choice does come up, you can see in that table, haste is the obvious choice.


Q: Is 2x March better than March/Minuet?

A: Yes.

The addition of Advancing March to Victory March nets an increase of 23% more attacks.

If Haste Samba is being used:
The addition of Advancing March to Victory March nets an increase of 38% more attacks.

At this time, there is no amount of Attack that can be added via Minuet that can offset the increased output Advancing March provides under normal to optimal situations.



And Finally...
Here it all is in a nutshell, a table of various, typical haste amounts the average player would experience in the field, and the differences between them:

Table 4:
Number of attack rounds added (Per 100 rounds):

Haste - Attack Rounds - Modifiers:
25.0% - 033 ---------- Gear (Base)
40.0% - 067 ---------- Gear + Haste  
52.5% - 111 ---------- Gear + Haste + Victory March
55.0% - 122 ---------- Gear + Haste + Samba (Merited)
61.5% - 160 ---------- Gear + Haste + 2x Marches
67.5% - 208 ---------- Gear + Haste + Victory March + Samba
76.5% - 326 ---------- Gear + Haste + 2x Marches + Samba
80.0% - 400 ---------- Maximum weapon delay reduction in FFXI