Easy way to fix spell & skill speed before Heavensward!

[Wilbow]

So most people know what the biggest issue is here with both of the secondary stats -- MP/TP regen is (mostly) fixed at level 50, and pumping out more skills means that those resources are drained faster and a Bard has to give up damage to replenish them (if one is even there and if it is not a raid DPS loss to do so).

So why not have spell speed compensate for its own weakness? Now, you may be telling me that this is Piety's domain, but I'm not talking about raising MP or the MP gained per tick. Instead...

Spell and skill speed should increase the rate at which MP and TP ticks occur as if they were a 3.00s spell.

This fits in perfectly with the theme of the stat (that is, increasing the rate at which your character performs various actions), and it also means that increasing skill/spell speed keeps your rate of TP/MP decline roughly the same instead of causing it to skyrocket.

Additionally, since the formulae and the base coding is already in the game's engine, this should be a simple (and thus quick) fix for the stat, one that could optimistically be added in 2.5 or 2.51. Please be clear that it's not intended to solve all of the problems with the stat; of course, I'm specifically referring to its lack of interaction with DoTs and HoTs, which could also have a band-aid fix by making spell speed act like a lower scaling determination for DoTs (wouldn't that make that spell speed buff for SMN more interesting?).

Essentially, we add more gear options for practically every melee and help to solve SMNs mana issues by USING the stat they're stuck with this tier (even if it is a small improvement).

[Grey_Cain]

There's no problem with doubling up on Piety's effect; DET already does the same as STR, INT, and MND, just to a lesser degree. Adding a TP regen boost to Skillspeed and an MP regen boost to Spellspeed are perfectly fine and would work much better (read: easier to calculate and implement) than trying to separate TP/MP regen tics from system tics. Regardless, I'm a PIE fiend with my WHM, so I'm already biased toward anything that increases my MP regen rates.

[Viridiana]

You'd need about 126 speed from gear just to get an extra tick per minute. This wouldn't help SMN much at all, as an extra pittance of MP every minute would be underwhelming. Meanwhile, NIN and MNK would last much, much longer. MNK and NIN would basically have an extra Invigorate every two minutes (assuming Huton/Greased Lightning count). BLM might also wind up spending slightly less time in Umbral. Healers would also have a field day with it. Basically the group least benefited by it is probably SMN. >_>

[Wilbow]

You'd need about 126 speed from gear just to get an extra tick per minute. This wouldn't help SMN much at all, as an extra pittance of MP every minute would be underwhelming. Meanwhile, NIN and MNK would last much, much longer. MNK and NIN would basically have an extra Invigorate every two minutes (assuming Huton/Greased Lightning count). BLM might also wind up spending slightly less time in Umbral. Healers would also have a field day with it. Basically the group least benefited by it is probably SMN. >_>

I would assume that Huton and Greased Lightning would NOT proc the extra regen, obviously. Of course, it would all depend on how SE coded them, which we have no idea about. And while it is true that in terms of raw TP restored would be considerable, it should also be noted that this same amount of TP that would be extra amount consumed as a result of going skill speed as opposed to crit or det.

And the fix isn't so much intended as a cure-all for SMNs, merely a bone to throw their way. The actual intention of this fix is to make spell and skill speed not a dead stat to anybody not BLM or WHM (and the latter is hotly contested). If you wanted to fix the SMN mana problem, you'd do:

A) Make enhanced pet actions give you back 2% of your mana back each time your pet DAMAGES an enemy. SCH cannot summon a pet that can take advantage of this trait, and it makes the SMN reliant on keeping his pet ON the target for sustain and damage, which is, you know, the POINT of a summoner. The amount of mana you get back should be enough to make SMN last indefinately, allowing it to compete with BLM.
B) Give a large amount of PIE on the SMN crystal or add some sort of INT to PIE ratio for the job.
C) Some other simple idea that doesn't touch SCH in that massive thread that has beat this topic to death (and rightfully so).

Although, since you brought it up, let me do some math. SMN has ~3000 MP at level 50, which essentially makes that extra tick per minute restore like 60 MP. Assuming that the base rate of net MP consumption during a standard rotation (w.o Ruin II) is 867 MP per Minute or 28% of total MP per minute spent, this extra MP from 126 spell speed would basically increase their time to OOM from ~3.5 minutes to ~3.75 minutes when going full tilt. You are right in that it's not much of a difference at all, but it is still something. I should make the point that the extra 15 seconds would be approximately what SMNs lose by using spell speed gear (although the main reason why they hate the stat is due to DoTs not scaling with it, of course) -- which, I guess, makes the 2.4 gear simply a grain of salt in a gaping wound.

The funny thing is that small differences in MP and TP regen often make substantial differences in time to OOM, especially when the net rate of consumption is small. Ask any healer that loses a bit of PIE when changing gear or any NIN after patch 2.4 -- the % change is quite small, but players will often notice a difference. I'm actually been meaning to do a more in-depth proof of this in the healing forums.

EDIT: Made an error in math before. Corrected.

[Viridiana]

I would assume that Huton and Greased Lightning would NOT proc the extra regen, obviously.

Although, since you brought it up, let me do some math. SMN has ~3000 MP at level 50, which essentially makes that extra tick per minute restore like 188 MP.

If you're going to let something like the SMN pet proc give boosted regen rates, Huton and GL would have to, as they give every other benefit of SS and then some. Also, MP ticks are 2%; 2% of 3k is 60. 60 extra MP every minute.

[Wilbow]

If you're going to let something like the SMN pet proc give boosted regen rates, Huton and GL would have to, as they give every other benefit of SS and then some. Also, MP ticks are 2%; 2% of 3k is 60. 60 extra MP every minute.

My apologies. I accidentally used the out-of-combat ratio and not the in-combat one.

You are correct in the claim that this change will be mostly a QoL improvement for melee and, to a lesser extent, healers. This is because both TP regen and consumption on a %max/GCD basis are so much larger than for MP -- and it's also why spell speed sees at least SOME use (or, if you are a BLM, you call out its name accidentally in bed), while skill speed is the bane of all that is good in the universe. SMNs problems run too deep for SpS to fix them all.

[Saccharin]

It's not easy because it changes how everything interacts with each another so classes would have to be rebalanced to compensate.

[Fated]

It's not easy because it changes how everything interacts with each another so classes would have to be rebalanced to compensate.

^ This. Almost everything posted on the forums with an "easy fix label" is never easy.

[Altanas]

I agree with the OP. To be a desirable stat, Speed would need to effect both:

1. DOT/HOT proc rates
2. How quick TP/MP ticks occur

As a healer my preferred style is to HOT at a fast proc rate. It works perfectly in other MMOs (SWTOR) that I rarely need to go to my curebomb heal.

[Viridiana]

I agree with the OP. To be a desirable stat, Speed would need to effect both:

1. DOT/HOT proc rates
2. How quick TP/MP ticks occur

As a healer my preferred style is to HOT at a fast proc rate. It works perfectly in other MMOs (SWTOR) that I rarely need to go to my curebomb heal.

And SMN would burn out of MP even faster. The extra 60 MP every minute would be entirely subsumed by having to cast dots more often. Even if you applied the same effect to Aetherflow, it wouldn't be enough to keep up with the expenditure, I don't think.