(To Administrators, it is slightly mathy, but it's very simple math. If the posts get too mathy, you can send this to the Mathy Redux)
There was a discussion at one point about the usefulness of the Moonshade Earring in various conditions. Based on my forum searching, there was a general consensus that the best ones were Refresh and TP+25. Although there is much data that supports this, I wanted revive this topic based on my interpretation of the meaning of Regain-- in terms of Store TP. I will make all my analysis based on an Amano SAM (5 hit build under hasted + hasso conditions) and I hope to demonstrate that a Regain Earring for a 5 hit build is equivalent to Store TP +6 in high reliability. I felt that this type of analysis was necessitated because numerous jobs have Store TP values and actively obtain x-hit builds. I'm hoping that this discussion will allow people to play around with gear to obtain said x-hit build while gaining more statistics in another slot. There is a conclusion at the bottom for people who do not want to read the entire post.
Readme before posting: There are so many job and combinations and I realize that the advantages for +25TP for Empyrean WS and regain +1 is extremely large.
This is not a post about which one is better.
Generally, I am here to provide a simplified solution to represent what Regain +1 actually means-- in order for people to apply it to their Store TP calculations when they try to make an x-hit build.
My goal is to represent this idea and to provide evidence--- ultimately as a tool for people to use when considering Regain as an earring of choice. I'm sorry I had to move this thread from FFXIAH, but I felt as this forum had more number cruncher to confirm my findings. So here I will continue:
The reason why the Regain earring is usually annulled as reliable TP is because:
(Taint on FFXIAH)
"An item that sometimes you get one tic of regain and sometimes you'll get 4 is near impossible to effectively build an xhit around."
This is almost true. However, there has to be an "average" amount of ticks that your WS will be ready for a WS. A tick in the game is 3seconds/tick. How long does it take for a situation where SAM only has a RDM as a support to achieve enough TP to WS? How much Store TP is 1 tick regain approximately related to in such a set?
With haste in gear(maxed), hasso, and the spell Haste, the total delay of Amano is 220 which converts to roughly 3.6 seconds per rally. Without any double attacks or zanshin procs you should reach 100 TP in 18 seconds.
This converts to 6 ticks of regain per WS, what does that convert over in terms of Store TP?
The assumption is that in a 5 hit build, 1 Store TP = ~.1 TP. This is just for the ease of calculation and it certainly not linear but it's close enough for comparisons. Adding 1 Store TP in a 5 hit build will equate to .5 TP over 100% TP gain. With this assumption set, we can finally make some direct comparisons.
The comparisions we'll make is in terms of seconds/double attack rallies and store TP.
18 seconds = 5 Ticks Regain = +10 Store TP (No Double Attack)
14.6 seconds = 4 Ticks Regain = +8 Store TP (1 Double Attack)
10.98 seconds = 3 Ticks Regain = +6 Store TP (2 Double Attack)
7.32 seconds = 2 Ticks Regain = +4 Store TP (3 Double Attack)
To compare them, is to simply be comfortable about the statistics of how common it is to at least double attack once, twice, or three times to reach 100%. Ultimately, this will be based on a percentage that you are comfortable with losing.
Personally, I would trust the regain to give me "at least":
10.98 seconds = 3 Ticks Regain = +6 Store TP
accounting for 2 Double attacks that may randomly occur on my trip to 100% TP. This allows you to replace +6 Store TP somewhere else in your set and still manage to obtain said 5 hit build.
The faster you attack, the more negligible the earring will actually perform. Thus, in extremely high haste situations (Buffed Zerg), you can only trust this earring to give you 1-2 ticks which is only equated to 2-4 Store TP but it STILL gives you options to replace some gear elsewhere and still achieve your x-build.
Accounting for all the other variables (Which I would need assistance and checks with other mathy people on this forum)
Double Attack:
What is the chance that you get at least 1 double attack in 4 hits assuming 20% double attack? It is 40% (x=1-.8^4). What is the chance that you somehow get two double attacks in 4 hits? 16%. What is the chance you get three double attacks in 4 hits? 6.4%! If you assume that the earring is only Store TP +6, you are accounting for 93.6% of all your rallies! But this doesn't just stop here! If you include all of the variables below, you actually increase the rate to ABOVE 95%!
Not only that, the extra 1 TP you get from DAing a WS is usually unaccounted for which will also decrease the significance of the 1 lost tick of double attacking 3 times.
Zanhasso:
Same statement above with Double attack except you have to realize that DA and Zanhasso will overwrite each other if one happens to occur at the same event, thus reducing the rate slightly. I also don't know whether Zanhasso takes presedence over DA or not. All I know is that is even if you considered it synergistically with DA, is that the combined rate will be still be ~<10% and can be further be reduced by DA during a WS, or Save TP (as I will show).
Save TP:
No one gears a TP set for Save TP. In fact, if you consider save TP into the equation, you in turn eliminate the remaining few % remaining from a 3x Double attack/Zanhasso combination. (If you were only accounting for 90% of attack rallies and you have 20% Save TP, that 4% drops to 8% occurring rate). You can squeeze another 20% from DA.
Meditate:
The fact is that amano users will not have 20% TP during WS sets-- seals the deal for this one. You can think of this as the additional 4 hits "make up" for the ~3 TP that you have lost on your WS. Therefore, meditate will not affect anything that you didn't have before.
The 5% chance that you somehow need to make an extra hit to WS over 100 WS will equate to 5 hits equating to 1 WS. In turn, a simple addition of 1 Double Attack in any other gear slot will instantly make up for the loss in damage and more. If it was a situation of uncapped haste, this value is even larger.
Conclusion: Regain Moonshade earring under a 5 hit build under hasted/hasso conditions is roughly equivalent to a ~95% reliable Store TP+6 earring. If there are gear substitutions that give you even +1 Double attack or more due to the freeing of a Store TP slot elsewhere, gear advantages can be made despite the 5% unreliability of this earring.