Back to the Basics

Sixteen TP "Rampage" using my STR set.

Is your BST dishing out weak melee hits? Are you looking to improve your melee damage as much as I am? Do you understand the game mechanics surrounding TP, accuracy, and/or WS damage? Look no further if not! For today, I will be summarizing what I have learned (read: stolen) from FFXIclopedia and someone else's LiveJournal.

Now ideally, I like to carry two melee sets: one for TP gain and the other to WS with. For TP purposes, one unit of Haste is considered greater than one unit of anything else.

My TP gear priority looks something like:

Haste > Dual Wield > Accuracy > Double Attack*/Store TP/Attack/DEX > STR

*Temperance Axe and Brutal Earring only.


Now you might be wondering how Haste works and how much faster you are attacking with Haste than without.

The simple answer, for BST/NINs, is that Haste reduces your shadow recast timers and the overall delay of your Axe swings. As for how much of a delay reduction you will receive, the reduction is dependent on the amount of Haste you possess. Ideally, you will not notice a difference until you have around 10% Haste, and below 20%, a one percent increase in Haste is approximately a one percent increase in attack speed.

The mathematical relationship is:

Your new attack speed = (Your old delay) / (Your new delay relative to old delay) * Your old attack speed

Note that this equation is a ratio between your old and new delay, multiplied by your old attack speed. The result is your new attack speed relative to your old one. If we set your old delay to be 1 or 100%, your new delay becomes 100% minus the amount of Haste you possess. This gives you:

Your new attack speed = 100 % / [ 100 - Total Haste ] % * Your old attack speed

Ex. 1) Khaki has 19% Haste using his TP set (true story). How much faster is he attacking relative to having zero Haste?

Khaki's new attack speed = 100 / [100-19] * Khaki's old attack speed
Khaki's new attack speed = 100 / 81 * Khaki's old attack speed
Khaki's new attack speed = 1.23 * Khaki's old attack speed


Ex. 2) The old Haste cap used to be around 93% and was accessible only to Rune Chopper DRKs. If Khaki had not slacked off and created a Rune Chopper build at the time, how much faster would his DRK, using said build, be attacking relative to having zero Haste?

Khaki's new attack speed = 100 / [100-93] * Khaki's old attack speed
Khaki's new attack speed = 100 / 7 * Khaki's old attack speed
Khaki's new attack speed = 14.3 * Khaki's old attack speed


So Haste improves my TP gain, but what about my WS damage? 
For this guide, I will assume that "Rampage" is the WS of choice. Most BSTs know that STR is a modifier for "Rampage," but there are other facts that one should know about multi-hit WSs. They are:

1. There is a cap on both your minimum and maximum accuracy rate. The highest accuracy rate you can have is around 95%, and the lowest accuracy rate you can possess is around 20%. 
2. If you sub NIN, a multi-hit WS gains one additional hit from your offhand weapon. This means a /NIN "Rampage" involves five hits from your main weapon and one hit from your offhand weapon. 
3. Only the first hit from your main and offhand weapon can "Double/Triple Attack." Both traits cannot kick in simultaneously for the same hit.
4. There is a limit of eight hits per physical WS regardless of what WS you are using. As such, one can score at most one "Triple Attack" per "Rampage."
5. Effects such as "Occasionally attacks twice" or "Occasionally attacks x to y times" cannot activate during WSs.

Now for the most important part. Fact one tells us that we only have a 95% chance, at best, to land each of our Axe swings during a WS. The probability of "x" swings landing simultaneously is the product of each individual swing landing. To help illustrate the probability (or chance) that you will land all your hits during a WS, I have come up with an a simple example below:









Ex. 3) Let us say you have six boxes (lettered A through F), each with ten different colored balls inside. The number of green balls inside each box is listed below the corresponding letter. What is the probability of drawing a green ball from each of the boxes above?

You have a 4/10 chance to draw a green ball from Box A, a 3/10 chance to draw a green ball from Box B, and etc. We need the product of the individual box probabilities for our answer, but first, I will convert the fractions into decimal form for convenience.

Chance of drawing all green balls = (0.4)(0.3)(0.2)(0.1)(0.5)(0.4)
Chance of drawing all green balls = 0.00048
Chance of drawing all green balls = 0.048%









Ex. 4) Let us say Khaki's mystery boxes now contain four green balls each. What is the chance of drawing a green ball from each of the boxes now?

Each box now has the same probability to draw a green ball from, so this makes your calculations really easy.

Chance of drawing all green balls = (0.4)(0.4)(0.4)(0.4)(0.4)(0.4)
Chance of drawing all green balls = 0.004096
Chance of drawing all green balls = 0.4096%

In fact, you might have noticed a shortcut because the answer is (0.4)^6. The exponential function f(x) = a*b^x (where a = 1) can be used to simplify calculations like the one above, where the probability of each event occurring is the same. The exponential function then simplifies to:









Hopefully, the examples above made you realize that calculating the odds of landing a full-hit "Rampage" is done in a similar manner. Having 95% accuracy for a six-hit WS is the same as having 95 green balls in each of the six boxes above.

Ex. 5) What is Khaki's probability of landing a six-hit "Rampage" on BST/NIN?

Chance of landing all 6 hits = (0.95)(0.95)(0.95)(0.95)(0.95)(0.95)
Chance of landing all 6 hits = (0.95)^6
Chance of landing all 6 hits = 73.5%

In fact, the exponential function can used to model any Weapon Skill. Just plug in your accuracy as a decimal for 'b' (perhaps from a parser) and the number of hits as 'x,' and see how well you will doing on average.


Ex. 6) Let us say Khaki had an 80% accuracy rate in the example above. What is his new probability?

Chance of landing all 6 hits = (0.80)(0.80)(0.80)(0.80)(0.80)(0.80)
Chance of landing all 6 hits = (0.80)^6
Chance of landing all 6 hits = 26.2% 

Yes, that is right. By losing 15% accuracy, I would see a 6-hit "Rampage" almost one quarter of the time. This is why one should cap accuracy on a multi-hit WS before anything else. Now, some players say a missed hit is worse than pumping a lot of STR into your remaining hits. To test this theory, I switched to the accuracy set below (contrast this picture with the very first):















On average, I was pumping out more consistent "Rampages," but my new maximums were a bit lower.















Although Campaign mobs fluctuate in strength, my WSs were never lower than 500 damage except for the time that I missed four hits. 















Sixteen TP "Rampage" using my accuracy set.

So unless I have capped accuracy on my foe, my "Rampage" gear priority is:

Accuracy > DEX > STR/Attack/Store TP/Double Attack

Additional Notes:
a) There are several rules for determining TP gain, but the basics are as follows (taken straight from FFXIclopedia):

Delay	Tactical Points
0 - 180	5.0 + [(Delay - 180) * 1.5 / 180 ]
180 - 450	5.0 + [(Delay - 180) * 6.5 / 270 ]
450 - 480	11.5 + [(Delay - 450) * 1.5 / 30 ]
480 - 530	13.0 + [(Delay - 480) * 1.5 / 50 ]
530 - 999	14.5 + [(Delay - 530) * 3.5 / 470 ]

For Dual-Wielders:

• Only your first main hand and offhand hit are determined using the chart above.
• Any other hits add 1.0 TP if they connect.
• Only "Dual Wield" affects TP gained per hit; Haste does not. 

Ex. 7) Khaki's Maneater and Temperance Axe both have a delay of 276. If Khaki has "Dual Wield II" (-15% combined delay), a Suppanomimi (-5% combined delay), and 17% gear Haste, how much TP will a six-hit "Rampage" return if all hits connect?

• Recall that Haste does not affect TP gain.

First, we need to find the combined delay of both Axes:
My combined Axe delay = 276 + 276
My combined Axe delay = 552

Next, we apply the scaling factor from "Dual Wield" to the overall delay: 
My new combined Axe delay = 552 * (100 - 20) / 100
My new combined Axe delay = 552 * 0.8
My new combined Axe delay = 441.6

Divide by two to get the average Axe delay:
My average Axe delay = 441.6 / 2
My average Axe delay = 220.8 (round this down because SE likes rounding)
My average Axe delay = 220

Plug your average Axe delay into the chart above: 
TP for first main/offhand hit = 5 + [(220 - 180) * 6.5/270]
TP for first main/offhand hit = 5 + [40 * 6.5 / 270]
TP for first main/offhand hit = 5 + 0.96
TP for first main/offhand hit = 5.96 (this is rounded down to one decimal place)
TP for first main/offhand hit = 5.9

Therefore:
Total TP = 1st main hand hit + 1st offhand hit + other four hits
Total TP = 5.9 + 5.9 + 4.0
Total TP = 15.8

b) "Dual Wield" lowers the amount of TP one gains per swing. Some players try to counter this effect by adding "Store TP" gear, which increases the amount of TP they would gain. The "Store TP" trait increases TP gained as follows:

• New TP Gain =  Base TP * [1 + (Store TP # /100)]

Ex. 8) If Khaki wore a Rajas Ring (Store TP +5) and a Brutal Earring (Store TP +1) in the example above, how much TP would a six-hit "Rampage" return if all hits connected?

New TP Gain = Base TP * [1 + (Store TP # /100)]
New TP Gain = 5.9 * [1 + (6/100)]
New TP Gain = 5.9 * [1 + 0.06]
New TP Gain = 5.9 * 1.06
New TP Gain = 6.254 (rounded down to one decimal place)
New TP Gain = 6.2

Therefore:
Total TP = 1st main hand hit + 1st offhand hit + other four hits
Total TP = 6.2 + 6.2 + 4.0
Total TP = 16.4