Quote Originally Posted by whiskeybravo View Post
TP regenerates 60 per GCD
TP regenerates at the same server tick that DoTs tick on, which is every 3 seconds. As such, ignoring skill speed, a player regenerates 50 TP/GCD (60 * 2.5 / 3). As you get more skill speed, the less you get back. Since there are no combos that average out to less than 50 TP/GCD, you will always run out of TP eventually. The only reason that it's generally interpreted as an effectively unlimited resource is that we have a max of 1000, which means that, with an average consumption per GCD of 63.33 (PLD spamming RoH combo), it would take 70-71 uninterrupted GCDs until you were forced to lose a GCD thanks to resource limitations (950 / 13.33), which is nearly 3 minutes. Given that fights of any appreciable length often have enforced downtimes where you either cannot or should not be attacking, that gets extended almost indefinitely because you're regenerating all of your TP back on a regular basis.

The only time you'll ever run out of TP within a reasonably short time frame is when you're spamming the living hell out of AoEs, and, because TP regenerates comparatively slowly, doing so will prevent you from attacking for an appreciable period of time. As such, it's probably pretty safe to say that the mechanical "purpose" of TP is less to restrict ST performance, but, instead, to limit AoE performance.

If you're not having TP issues, then there is really nothing to complain about. If you are just curious why TP exists, you are thinking too hard about it, because it's pretty obvious why it exists. At the end of the day, it's not trying to be fancy, it's just a generic system for skill management that doesn't try to do too much, or make things too complicated. Could it be more interesting or more interactive to enhance the game? Sure, lots of things could be. They keep saying they are listening to customer's ideas, so have at it.
I can understand where the OP is coming from. TP is a simplistic resource that only ever crops up as a mechanic you have to consider in relatively rare circumstances. The main reason that it's in game is because we have a certain expectation of abilities consuming a resource and it doesn't make much sense for non-magical attacks to consume MP. Of course, the same could probably be said about MP since it's basically impossible for BLM or SMN to run out of their resource thanks to their fundamental design and the only time healers ever stand a chance of running out of MP is if they're spamming AoE heals and/or their big heals (which is almost never actually needed).

2 questions then arise: whether it should be removed and, if not, should it be made more complicated in order to justify itself? If it were removed, there would be no resource limitation at all, which basically means that everything would cost nothing and you'd be free to do whatever you want, which the devs probably don't want to happen. They probably want you to be able to go to town with AoEs but not indefinitely. As such, it probably shouldn't be removed. Since we've basically decided that it should remain, we have to determine whether it needs to be made more complicated and, if so, how so? Whether it should be complicated is something of a personal preference since the level of complexity a game requires/encourages is largely personal taste.

The developers ensured that ARR was very heavy on the movement/avoiding bad stuff on the ground aspect of the game, which lends it a level of complexity higher than most MMOs which don't use the same level of rapid repositioning/movement that ARR does (I say "rapid" because a lot of the effects don't give you much time to react and gtfo before they hit you for a crapton; even in WoW, the effects that are as common as those in ARR are much more heavily telegraphed). As such, ARR has afforded itself an increased level of complexity through enforced movement mechanics and increased attention demanded by the rapidity required by them (if you want to argue this, feel free, but I'll reference Titan HM, which is a stumbling block for a *lot* of people, even those with previous MMO experience, because it is one of the first truly punishing rapid movement/attention fights). The devs are probably happy with that level of complexity, which is why they left the resource management comparatively simple: players probably don't want to have to think about the how their resource paradigm when they're dodging cleaves and plumes.

Of course, if we decide that it *does* need more complexity, you have to wonder how exactly it could be accomplished. A simple solution would be to decrease maximum TP such that you actually run the risk of running out in realistic time frames. It would leave the basic model identical, but actually make the restrictions that it's supposed to exact more prevalent. A more involved solution would be to create separate resource paradigms for each job/class which basically means giving BRD, MNK, PLD, and DRG something like Wrath while increasing TP costs for all TP using classes enough that they're forced to use their secondary resource or risk running out of their primary resource too quickly.

Personally, I think it boiled down, largely, to the issue of required complexity and developmental necessity and expedience. It was faster, easier, and cheaper for the developers to leave the resource model functionally identical for all of the DoW classes and simply derive the needed complexity from moving and rotational/CD concerns. I'll agree that TP seems like a lackluster system given what it *could* have been implemented as, but I don't really see a problem with it because, while it's lackluster, it doesn't create any real gameplay issues.