Taming nerf fix and new focus drain problem

The difference is, pets were the only tree that provide a significant, persistent boost in combat potential, without a tradeoff before this patch.
And before the patch, the difference was so much that it was required beacuse no other skill subset provided the same return on investment, simply because it took no skills.

now, post-patch, they're trying to find a balance for that tradeoff, that is significant enough that they're still a bonus, but not one -everyone- is required to take to stay competetive. One that is situational enough that some people will want it, and some people won't want it.

That's the difference between a must-have skill, and a skill that adds power.

The adjustments were made to try to fix that, and make it to where it wasn't a "no-brainer" decisions to take a pet, which before the patch it was.
Personally i think the focus drain is about tolerable, but i will admit i seem to be one of the only players in the game not dying from lack of focus when i fight, given the forum posts. I only need about ~100 focus to effectively fight with my mage build, but i also have lots setup to regenerate that focus as i use it, and the loss in dps is about balanced with the pet's increased potential.

Or to put it another way: At current focus drain levels, i could have the pet out, or put the pet up, and still be about the same effectiveness in combat. Which is a good starting point for balance in my opinion, speaking as both a tamer, and as one who fights without a pet sometimes. Is it perfect? Hell no, but i like it a lot more than the old system.

I have a few friends who have turned themselves into pet using characters, and they're doing ok. Sure they have to tech for it, and get focus equipment to balance it out, but that's no different than an archer getting archer equip, or a warrior getting warrior equip. Now pet users aim for pet equip. But they're seeing enough worthwhile returns that they can play with their high end pets, if they aim for it, and not be completely shut out, nor completely so overpowered that everyone feels they -have- to play with pets even if they don't want to.

Also, for what it's worth, it's currently being shown that focus drain is affected by level difference between you and your pet. So as you get stronger, the stronger pets take less focus from you, all other skills being equal. I think part of the focus complaints is a lot of people are trying to use pets way beyond where their character is both in skills and in level, and not realizing that by minimaxing they have to minimax their equipment too.

 

thank you for the reply, the reason again is "everyone could use it without investment"
thats right of course, but people STILL think the tree is too strong?
realy? When you can afford to actually work on taming(through other trees), you are looking at a 400 to 500 point investment to make it even live longer then 1 or 2 hits, with no dps increase (due to slow movespeed and very low damage)
with 80 to 90% focus reduction.
And a mainskill, that has 15 minute cooldown (not too hard to get it down to 6 minutes - but 6 minutes for the MAIN skill to level up the tree.)

im aware that the devs are working hard on the balancing - and that it takes time - this is simply about understanding what the non-tamers think and why.
May be you could write a short summary about your skills and rotation for people that have trouble?
Im playing archery, and im left with around 100 focus too (but definitly more effective without a pet sadly. And the leftover focus is going down the more my skill up my summoning.)

I didnt notice the focus cost decreasing so far, but im watching it and noting it down.

 

Nope.
Taming 90, Concentration 75, Combat Training 75, Summoning 75, I'm AL 60 with 393 focus. My pet is AL 29. It consumes 160 focus from my pool.
The pet is half my level, and consumes 41% of my pool. Higher level pets are so bad I can barely cast at all.

R33 Build 476.

 

Yes, those are the one's that already made it into the game.

 

You're arguing two different points.
All I said was, that as you level up (adeventurer level increases) the pet focus cost decreases, which it measurably does. I didn't say it was a lot, and i didn't say it was the only factor. But I have seen two people, with identical stats, have an over 50 focus difference in pet drain, purely because of their AL difference.
your 160 focus vs someone's 210 is a pretty big difference.

Again, I'm not saying pets are perfectly balanced. But I am saying a lot of people are trying to use equipment they aren't tech'ed for. If you want a pet and high focus pools, you are going to want to invest in some focus equipment. Considering I've seen equipment builds for archers that give an extra 20-25% focus when you add up the flat focus and % gains, without sacrificing much in the way of armor or dps power, I'm willing to say the tradeoff for the extra combat power the pet gives is fairly fun.

How much focus equip do you have on to counter-act that 160 focus drain? I bet not much.

They -cannot- balance skills to low tier gear, or it imbalances at high level gear.
Now could they reduce the focus drain of low level pets to make it more in line with the gear at that level? sure.
But most people are pulling out numbers of relatively high pets (patriarchs, obsidians).

 

I basically agree with what Umuri said.

Also, I don't think taming is overpowered. I do think it needs more work (buffs), but I think the focus cost needs to remain significant. There has to be a trade-off in your own personal damage output for having a persistent pet out that is supposed to replace the loss in personal damage output and also provides utility (spider's web for example). Currently their damage output does not make up for the loss in personal ability. Which is why I said they could use a damage buff. I also think the concentration skill could use some work as it sounds as though it's not making enough of a difference compared to how fast the focus cost increases as you level the skills within the taming tree.

Before there were any trade-offs to taming, I was an Air Mage with a 50% chance to stun for 4.5 seconds on an attack that had 122 max damage (non-critical) when stacked 4 times plus a Ferocious Wolf Spider that would web enemies and put out fast attacks with 60 damage crits. That was definitely a problem.... I was easily clearing 5 skull areas when I was at a level that I shouldn't even be in 5 skull areas. I think I had about 250 health when I started 5 skulls.

 

I want to be able to play as a mage/tamer. Right now I can't because my pet TAKES TOO MUCH DAMNED FOCUS. Can you please fix the focus? I am not complaining about changes made to taming, I am complaining though, about FOCUS and those of us who want to be mage/tamers are SCREWED. Thank you.

 

Taming as it was it is not about playing it is about afk XP pool boost.

 

Are you running a full set of Epic Fustian Cloth armor since you're a mage? It adds something like +40.9% focus. That would make a rather large difference if you aren't wearing that set.

You can also get +Focus on your gear with enchantments if you haven't done that as well.

 

Also, as others have mentioned, what pet are you trying to summon/use?

 

I've been using a large red spider. I can only imagine when I summon a bigger pet.

 

And what's your AL? I'm currently AL 57, and an Obsidian Wolf costs me 250 ish (not in game, so can't give exact numbers). Decided I wasn't going to worry about it until I was higher AL.

 

AL 48, also obsidian wolf
Summoning 57, Combat Training 73, FocusDrain: -0.1355749 (stopped leveling that, due to the low gain is around 60, and 20 more would be 17% or so)

Focus drain: 277
it only changed when the pet got stronger
taking notes since summoning 50 / combat training 63 / AL 44

 

Well, I was able to mitigate some of the loss with full carapacian cloth armor.

 

Not saying it doesnt need some tweaking, but if you were to kit yourself out in the right gear you could add a load more to your focus pool, and up your concentration and any int / focus giving skills or stats. Be worth experimenting with cus even
if its tweaked and better theres still gonna be a focus drain and having the gear and skills in a better place is only going to help. Also maybe try a less focus orientated playstyle ie archer and use powered up attacks and just use your focus for heals.

I dont think you can call 2 years either, only been just over 1 month since persistence and many things are gonna change back and forth majorly till release and no doubt long after like any mmo, at least soon we should be getting multiple characters so we can change to another playstyle more easily and each char can be more specialised for its role.

 

Ah the 2 years was refering to my car ref, not the game. I never use powered up shots. Dont need them with the deck system and auto shot. I am geared. Also the focus drian has been partly fixed by them. I do not feel its enough.
As for more points in concentration, this should not be needed. Why ?. Well I am now happly playing and archer with the water tree. I have a Water elemental pet and a ice elemental pet that only take 33 of my focus. Plus I gained all the other nice skills from that tree for a lot less XP than I had to put into taming just to be able to tame a pet. I now feel stronger than I ever did. The water elemental heals me. So much so I can handle 4 to 5 skeliton archers or mages at a time in a 5 skull area. Taming got such a havey nerf it has left it in my opinon, not worth the large amount of XP to make it useful any more. Also the cost of the matts needed on top of the large amount of xp needed. Yes thing will move back an forth. I just hope they do not fall into the trap of oh this class is strong so lets nerf. Then a different class becomes the strong one and they nerf that. It ends up becoming this endless loop of nerfing. Just like in WOW where it is now knowen by the players as ""which class is the flavor of the month". Anyway I am just sharing my feelings on the subject. Make of them as you will