Is focus regen fixed in 551?

You are correct when you say that for a while focus wasn't depleting enough. At the time I said to myself "oh, now is the time to go adventuring before they fix it".

But the nerf they introduced goes too far. You can say "it is as intended", but that doesn't make it good or right or immune to change if the broad player base rejects it.

I eat food, and my regen in combat and out of combat is still bad. In a 4 skull zone I've been eating the most expensive food I can make (or afford to buy). Stuff like spider soup or bear steak and potatoes, Darkstarr oysters or duck recipes, etc. I can't gather the components for Obsidian or boss mob (e.g. dragon) food and I can't afford to buy it.

I can still survive in a 4 skull-zone with the focus nerf, but I have so much downtime (standing around waiting for regen), that it is no fun any more. And no fun means no play. Luckily, I have other hobbies to keep me busy.

 

Its unplayably awful at the moment.
If I wanted to stand around and wait for two minutes, I'd go smelt some ore.
Seriously this game has enough of that.

 

Exactly @GreyFog, In R38 they changed it so you never ran out of Focus. I doubt anyone could argue that was a good thing, although I guess there would be some. Now, as you stated the Regen Rate even with Food is far too low for those who fight on a continuous basis for any length of time with MOB's that truly provide a challenge. At present I call it the Fight 1 Minute, Rest 1 Minute Focus Rate. That truly is boring. especially for those of us who only play 2 - 3 hours per day. Play 2 hours, Fight Monsters 1 Hour, Wait for Mana Regen 1 Hour. Adds up when you convert it to hours doesn't it?

 

Thank you at @Sara Dreygon for the information on your skills. A lot of players would not do so, I applaud your courage and honesty. Congratulations on getting to that level in the game. You have an envious position.

I can see that with your build it I would have very little problem in mana usage or in maintain my mana. Sadly however I am not at that level and as such I cannot. Even the new potions, most of which seem to require ingredients that are resources only available off the Daemon, Phoenix or Dragon. I would have no chance of doing any of these Solo or with one Healer although I look forward to being able to do some day. . I would there for have to buy those potions that to me based on the difficulty in getting the recipes let alone the ingredients means they will more than likely sell for a pretty penny, at least for awhile. Playing 2 - 3 hours ad at does not make one a millionaire in this game that is for sure.

Call it broken or call it just needing balance, makes little difference. If Players find the game boring they are not going to stick around. If they do not stick around and talk about the game to other potential players in a negative way then others do not come to. That means fewer and fewer people to support the present Developers, Artists and Administrators. Which means some Developers, Artists and Administrators are let go. Which means fewer things get done. Which means more people get bored and leave. And then the cycle starts all over again. And while those who are left point fingers at each other, say how it was this or that, that killed the game, truth is the game consists of players of all levels and of all interests. The moment you start giving preferential treatment or ignoring any play style is the beginning of the end.

 

The question you are really asking is are they going to go back to letting me just "cruise" thru tier 5 areas like a hot knife thru butter?

Hope not, it is to sad that they have started with the game in such an "easy" state that players felt that it was how it should be.

The game has reached End state for over 80% of the player base.

And there are some players who achieved "end Game" in about 2 weeks.

all I can say to Port is ITYS.

Game should have started harder and more controlled as it is easier to add to then take away.

Now all you have it content that is either to hard ("I cannot just kill DR in 10 minutes") or two easy ("I can solo a CP thru Tier 5")

You created it, the only real fix is to go with clean slate but, that is also a no go LOL.

 

*puts on tinfoil hat*

this was on porpoise. the "mistaken" value on skill gain % of pool was to speed the process of leveling a portion of the player base so they could test end game skill progressing and balancing with a wider range of play style than they were able to with the limited amount of players in the pre r32 releases.

meow that they have gotten a glimpse of what endgame builds look like by a wider range of the player base they can get down to the nitty gritty of balancing things out with data they would have never had if not for the fast progression rate that the previous "easy" mode allowed.

and just like when a child teethes there will be whining screeching and general surliness but it too shall pass and new shines will come and there will be many oohs and ahs

 

Rather than nerfing players, they should have buffed mob hit points to make battles last longer and increase the danger/risk of picking up adds, as well as encourage group play for survivability because aoe battles would now last longer before mobs start dying which means you received more sustained dps against you for longer. This would also bring balance to chillblains by making groups needed more. It wouldn't have nerfed anyone, broken any builds, and would have brought the balance that was needed. To say that the change is fine when so many peoples builds are now broken just because your build isn't is a very narcissistic comment when the feedback is obviously overwhelming.

So instead what has happened is many builds are broken (maybe not yours but many ARE), tanking is broken (at least real tanking is - heavy armor/1-hand/shield), outrage is everywhere, frustrations are high, and everyone at Port is mysteriously silent.

Theres still several important balancing factors that should be addressed first.

Like threat generation of tanks.

Like NPC archers hitting so hard, and possibly player archers also especially considering their speed of attack to begin with and also archers so often ignoring armor and defensive calculations. Idk about you but I've actually seen what happens when a 180lb warbow shoots a heavy arrow that could be more accurately described as a small missle directly at a quality plate cuirass at close range.... The arrow absolutely shattered and nothing more than a minor scuff was left to show for it. As a tank there are 2 main things that 'should' frighten me, and that's getting hit hard with a big bludgeon weapon and magic. But that's not the case, it's archery and magic... you know every ranged target in the game.... which for some jacked up reason is most of them.

Even for those who are finding ways to cope the feedback is still overwhelming the same, fun factor is substantially diminished, not because it's harder, but because people feel crippled. This is why nerfing players is almost always a bad move, and instead adding various buffs in other areas of the game to achieve balance is almost always better. Nobody is mad that it's harder, they're mad that it feels like someone cut off one of their arms and told them to just deal with it.

 

This, this is by far one of the smartest posts i have seen on this forum the past 6 month or so...

 

Oh, I think there's a really big difference. Sometimes combat mechanics are actually broken, so when people call things broken that really aren't, it's just not accurate and causes unnecessary confusion.

 

I don't know if focus is "broken" or if its just been "over-nerfed."
Sure, there are some very specific builds who aren't as affected, but most of those that I have seen are very high lvl players who have the high base stats and high focus pool that you simply don't drain it dry every fight.
If aetheric feedback was working and actually giving you the +20 regen, it would be fine. Currently it appears to be doing absolutely nothing. The addition of that spell is the only thing that made things remotely playable for me after the last focus nerf when food was introduced.

If the food in-combat regen was the same as the out of combat bonuses, that would probably also compensate.

At the moment, we've been nerfed down to 1 focus per second regen, again, and its just not sustainable.

 

I agree, I was just trying to make the point that whether some people think it is broken or some think it is out of balance, the net effect on the game can be the same in driving players away because it is outright boring. The real problem exists if the Developers do not think there is a problem in which case we are all screwed.

 

Seems the Cats Grace rings effects carry over into the forum

 

Copy and pasted from other thread --

As an archer, im actually not having a focuse issue aslong as im running 2h-4h food. Pretty sure the numbers are fine for my build, which should be close to a standard ranged build.
(Rapid / Aimed shot being my
main source of dmg )

But i know that numerous people in my guild are basically unable to grind. Especially anyone trying to do a pure mage, or a specialized mage type.

I understand the need to make food viable, and i actually support that idea. But i think new mages might be having a ROUGH time , at least some of the ones i play with are for sure, especially in just basic grinding. ( further a long mages in guild are also having rough time. Its not so much a difficulty change, but a decrease of pace, increase of downtime, and essentially boredom. )
------
Solutions?
Maybe incorporate a focuse regen skill under light armor maybe? Or something armor specific?
Maybe branch away looking at fizzle rates, and consider regen being looked at ? Dunno maybe add a balance between deciding over more protection, and slower regwn, or less protection, quicker regen .. aswell aa fizzle rates.. ?

 

one would be to add combat focus regen to 2 handed staff.

 

Aestheric feedback is working out of combat perfectly fine for me. I can still use earth magic pure mage build and destroy 25-30+ mobs, then go out of combat for 10 secs or so and have plenty of focus to continue. Over and over.

I've put a ton of time specializing in certain skills to make this game easier for me to enjoy what I want to do. You can choose to adapt or you can sit around and complain. Took me like 10 minutes to figure out how to make my build work with these changes.

No its not perfect, and prob needs some adjustments especially at lower levels with certain skill trees. But focus regen is not "broken". And there's no way any of you will ever convince me of that!

 

I think the idea that focus regen abilities should be added to just staffs and/or light armor is to forget that plate armor wearing, big weapon wielding players use focus also, and typically have a smaller pool of focus to work with than other classes. Remember focus isn't mana, it's a universal resource used by all classes and for everything. While those aren't bad ideas, heavy armor, bows, and other weapons shouldn't be ignored. I think it wouldn't be awful though to tie focus regen benfits into the different combat stances, weapons, or armor types based on conditional criteria being met similar to aetheric feedback. Berserker stance could = critical hits refund x amount of focus, or defense stance could = block/parry refund x amount of focus, things like that. So actually using a shield in defensive stance gives a bigger bonus because of the extra chance to refund focus when blocking. It also makes berserker stance much more of what it's seemingly intended to be which is a furious onslaught of damage, and the more crits they get, the more their bloodlust fuels them to keep going for longer (in the form of extra focus to use). I think all stances should have some sort of condition that refunds x amount of focus. This encourages the use of a stances dedicated to your specialty in a lot of cases and use of other stances or stance dancing much more situational based on unique needs of certain fights. So using defense stance in light armor and with a staff is still useful, but you sacrifice a lot of focus regen you might would get from another stance that is more focused towards your specialty, of course you could use a shield and wand combo, in which case it would make sense then.

These are just examples of random ideas I've had on how they can balance different classes and encourage specialized play in parties and also address focus regen concerns so that each playstyle has it's own unique way of regaining focus. Sure everyone can be anything, but when it comes to groups of players, an organized handful of specialized builds will almost always have the advantage.

 

I think you should be able to put Aetheric Feedback on your non-combat hotbar.

 

Has there been an official answer on this? Is this where it is intended and staying or do the devs understand it is a problem, now?

My biggest issue as a mage, once my focus is gone, everything is gone. A fighter can still hang in there regen enough for a heal and keep clicking away. It may take longer but he can still fight and win. With a mage that doesn't work... I am not charging for my wand attack or auto atttacking with my staff, I am running to get into pecs mode so I can be effective again. So if their intent is to keep focus were it is and have people stack all glyphs to 4/5 before use so the focus cost is way down, then they need to give the mages an auto dmg like everyone else. Was interesting when Wands and staves shot a fireball a while back when in auto attack. Put that back I so I can still do dmg and heal when my focus is depleted.

But honestly even if they do that, stack, stack, stack, stack, shoot is just not as fun as click click click click click and things going boom

 

Chris replied in the other thread said he is still trying builds but it felt mostly correct to him.

While i agree with other guy, melee and ranged builds still have their main attacks. Mages do not. I rarely see a fighter axtually run out of focuse in a normal fight, only in prolonged. And then they can play conservatively.
Mages are out once focuse is out, which is why i dont see a reason for focuse regen additions targeted too anything except light armor build.
*shrug*

 

This is the answer from the other thread, so it's being looked at.