Skill / Spell Speed Weight Balancing

[Shurrikhan]

Rather than making a new thread, I will simply be necro'ing this one.

Another option

Have skill/spell speed:
- Affect (pet/personal) Auto-Attacks.
- Affect pet GCD and cast speed.
- Affect TP tick frequency.
- Affect MP tick frequency during Shroud of Saints and under the effect of the Arcanist Spell Speed buff (from pet crit).

In this way, there is no point in the course of a long fight at which Skill Speed is entirely wasted except by the skill of the player. If one cannot achieve a certain dps-increasing plateau of ability rate, he can alternatively hold back and use abilities at their original GCD and benefit from increased TP regeneration speed. It is unlikely that one will go more than two minutes without being able to consume 400 TP before being able to access a new plateau; Invigorate should not therefor go to waste.

(As in the last version, DoTs remain unaffected thus avoiding the issue of, say, Chaos Thrust to eventually completing in two-thirds the time of Disembowel, or suffering lost mitigatory uptime on moves like Dragon Kick when they are shortened to match other offensive debuffs. Gameplay will be slightly affected, but that is all.)

Issue: Haste will remain inferior for AoEs and other high TP-cost abilities, as only the tick speed is increased, benefiting basically an average TP rate of expenditure or average-cost abilities. (The only thing that would prevent this is a direct TP scaling, wherein, for instance, a DRG at a 2.35 GCD would have a Doom Spike TP cost of 150.4, which would cause almost exactly equal dps over the same TP between a speed-based and det-based DRG spamming Doom Spike. My dislike of this may be partly aesthetic (where synced numbers would not follow the typical multiples-of-10 TP costs in place, and partly because I see haste as being best for a relatively straightforward range of activities (in this version).)

:: I realize the improvement of Spell Speed for WHMs is minimal, but they have at least thus far been the job more willing to take on Spell Speed. The SCH improvement will not heavily devalue crit, as its worth is first dependent on the uptime of a critical-based buff. May need tuning for SCH. I see it as being fine for SMN even if seemingly slightly OP; it is still no significant dps increase short of a long fight.

Sidenote: I would like to see Skill Speed, and potentially all other secondary stats to match it, buffed to the point where an i90 DRG could reach a(near-)optimal rotational adjustment if greatly geared into Skill Speed, or a Monk/Ninja at moderate Skill Speed gearing. It would be nice to finally see Determination rank at the same value per point as other secondaries as well, allowing for more ostensible comparison and removing the automatic preference towards Determination on relics (due to the same cost for an automatically higher value stat compared to crit and speed.)
-- It would also likely be beneficial for the secondary scaling/growth with ilvl to be tapered off some to achieve this (higher at low ilvls, less change). In short, I would like for gameplay-changing levels of secondary stats to be available with less than just a obsessive level of the stat on an i130 player.

First sidenote also holds. Combine Skill Speed into one "Speed" stat, and have Fey Light and Fey Glow alternatively affect caster and physical classes. If a hybrid comes out who actually uses the alternate side for more than just Flash... let them benefit from both. In the meantime, I look forward to the accelerated songs and PLD-Stoneskin.

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Edit:

Scratch all this (the above post and the one now hidden ^).

In the end, I've come to think that a simple Determination-like bonus to DoT and AA damage would probably be best. I simply would also like some manner of TP-scaling or TP refresh tick-scaling to be attached, and for Spell- and Skill-Speed to be consolidated in gear into one stat, and hope that the linear growth of the stat (which, as it concerns rates, will in fact give a slowly exponential effect, subpar at low numbers and superior at very high numbers) might be reconsidered.

If you need reasons, here are a few:
- The global DoT tick is something we can currently track, although I'd love to have a UI element for that in Heavensward, or an eventual add-on for it. Ticks running at different speeds, not so much.

- Different speed ticks, starting at different times, could literally mean near infinite Bloodletter, you could line up the ticks to never go off at the same time (6 DoTs meaning a chance every half-second even without any bonus SS), thereby never wasting a multiple DoT crit. I mean, I'd love it, but then I wouldn't--probably right about when the Bard's doing twice the Dragoon's SS target on the boss with BL while also multi-DoTing various adds.

- Barrage can always fit, albeit with little window, up to 3 AAs or 6 extra attacks, but cannot fit an extra set in even with a 2.80-AA bow with anything less than a 12% speed increase [2.23 GCD, or >~610 SS]. As such, SS otherwise could not benefit Barrage in almost every case at less than disgustingly high amounts.

- The main advantage of SS, rotationally, is improved buff (or non-DoT debuff, e.g. Dragon Kick/Dancing Edge) coverage, eventually allowing additional GCDs within their duration. At certain additional plateaus, new rotations become viable that often have to do with sacrificing one debuff's (again, non-DoT) constant uptime in favor of making that debuff cover a larger amount of potency (thereby "getting the most out of it"). (For example, you can now just barely fit 2 extra GCDs into your Dragon Kick/Dancing Edge, but, due to the nature of stances/combos, you must in this case either replace 2 GCDs early, or be 1 GCD late.) At this point, the advantage of SS is to reduce the window (and potential potency) in which one is un-buffed. If AA were to scale with SS, it would defeat the benefit of closing this window, whereas a Det-like bonus would not.

[To give a concrete example (sleighted for around 430-490 SS), with 5>t>4 seconds left on Dragon Kick and Twin Snakes at their respective stances, one could instead Bootshine and True Strike in order to gain (up to) 75 + 50 potency at the cost of 15 and 14 potency as Dragon Kick falls on the Couerl move and Twin Snakes on the Dragon Kick. This leaves a 1-GCD period in which one or the other buff is missing. It is possible, but avertable, for an AA to fall into this period. (It would technically even be a dps bonus to turn around and prevent the AA from going off if there is less than 9% remaining progress before reapplying either buff, but that would also be inhumanly coordinated...)

But, let's say you've only between 3 and 2 seconds left, just enough for 2 GCDs exactly. The natural choice then would be Boot-True-Demo, as you'd only lose 7 potency from no-DK on Demo, but you'd also lose an additional 15 on DK, 22 more than the previous 29 potency loss. You're still gaining 50, and up to 75 (subtract bonus by half your crit percentile), but losing at least 51 SS. This could be due to either using a non-stance ability, out-of-range movement, or low SS. And whether it was one of the other causes or SS is what affects the potential AA potency loss. You will be losing each buff for up to 1.9 GCDs (guaranteed 10 potency loss), and both for up to .9 GCDs (likely enough 20 potency loss). By SS shrinking the GCD, the chance of an AA falling into this zone decreases. However, if SS were to increase AA speed as well, there would be no bonus in this context. In this case, SS as it stands, except at extreme numbers (e.g. 1.65 GCD with a 3.3s-AA weapon), cannot prevent AA potency loss entirely, but it will shrink the chance of the double penalty or a second attack, keeping the total loss at around around 61 potency instead of 71-81 (keep in mind there is still a bonus of some 110 potency, or a net gain of 60-30). However, to take this further if AAs were to be affected by SS (i.e. in the same percentile as the GCD is affected), the further a weapon is above 2.15 in base AA speed, the more SS with each point would increase the chance that a weapon will double-hit within this gap, rather than closing said gap, running contrary to the original bonuses of SS.

*Of course, then there's the flip side. If SS acts like Det for AAs and only AAs, AA weight is increased. Each miss is a bigger loss. So I guess I've just run myself in a circle.

*To be clear, I don't feel strongly one way or the other about AA speed vs damage increase from SS. It just makes sense that both would be increased as 'periodic' effects. Aesthetically, at higher SS levels, AA speed increase may be more fitting instead. Just make those 'periodic' effects include Sword Oath too and we're balanced.
(In very certain conditions SS increasing AA frequency would do more for PLD Oath-dancing than SS increasing AA damage (they are dealing with a fixed, brief, nonrotational window of opportunity - the benefit of an extra attack within that window could be worth more than additional damage to each attack, as each AA will hit for 25% naturally and about 75% more through the Oath potency, compared to Shield Oath). However, as it is near impossible to control how long into Sword Oath the first AA will appear, and this will certainly make more difference in a brief Oath-swap than anything short of extreme SS, its benefit would be finicky at best, while a Det-like bonus would be useful in every context, albeit to varying degree (as the value of attack power is always dependent on frequency...).

**I do however think TP scaling of some sort is necessary. The stat would otherwise have to be overpowered in a TP-flooded setting to make up for how poorly it would perform by comparison in a TP-restricted setting. My (mostly aesthetic) preference is increased frequency of TP ticks, rather than each ability's cost being reduced to some prime number (DK now cost 53.9 TP!) with a decimal and seeing my TP bar at some 533 TP when I'm readying to Invigorate (the .438 portion hidden). This would however favor classes with lower average TP costs compared to their rate of attack. (Bard, especially, might slightly feel the backlash in this, especially whenever Straighter Shot somehow starts to proc endlessly. However, I don't think it would be significant enough for them to forego the stat more than they would otherwise, or see their class as being singled out by any significant difference is SS-weight. It will, at least no longer be a dead stat. It will remain rotationally useless beyond more easily fitting 3 DoTs (think single-target) into the same 20s buff, or an extra Heavy Shot or two per minute, but at least it will affect DoT damage, which is a significant enough portion of total especially at lowish Crit (few BL procs) and in multi-target situations. Tldr: as a Bard, I'd still prefer to have faintly less benefit from a formerly dead stat than see my Wide Volley cost 103.6 TP) In short: As much as your speed for expending TP (per average rotation) is increased, your speed for getting it back is increased.

***By "reconsidered" I mean that I hope it will eventually be made linear in effect, rather than in growth (which on a derivative stat becomes exponential). In other words, it would have to taper off, each point affecting the same percentage of the then-remaining GCD. Or at least average the two growth arcs. Something to give it a bit more low-end value, and less extreme high-end. I realize this pans out rather differently between its plateaued effects to rotation and its smooth effects on periodic damage, but consider: if SS's DoT effects followed the same progression of the GCD, at 400 SS (~2.44 GCD) DoTs would be doing 2.5% more damage. 450 -> 4.6%. 500 -> 6.8%. 550 -> 9.2%. 600 -> 11.6%. 650 -> 14.1%. 700 -> 16.8. 750 -> 20%... The steps here, from 450 to 750, would be 2.2, 2.4, 2.4, 2.5, 2.7, 3.2... (Disclaimer: rounded to 1 decimal when writing these down; progression may not look as smooth as it ought.) Over 300 SS, the increase in value per point of SS has already increased by ~45% (or, percentage effect per point at 750 (409 added) is 16% greater that of at 450 (109 added)).

****Why consolidate the two stats into one? Same as always. An entirely 'Skill'-based class (no puns, please), gets 100% effect out of its gearing. An entirely 'Spell' based class gets 100% effect out of its gearing. But hybrids like PLD or Bard are not affected across their entire arsenal by whatever skill side they gear. This is both QoL, and balance.