R51 Focus

I'm not a huge fan of the new focus cost changes this release. I never have been a fan of carrying a multitude of potions with me for PvE and now that is exactly what I am going to have to do if I fight anything fun. I run out of focus before Torq Drawl is at half health now. This is with using the Honor blessing, dragon stew and bear surprise. I know there are other options, like the lute of inspiration and aetheric feedback that can be used, but I never needed either for what I fought in the past (I'm not one of those solo'ing the clockwork dragon). These changes are a big boo for me Chris. Mastery should make using all the skills in the tree easier and more effective.

 

When I encountered this problem, my solution was simple:

• Drink potions either when only absolutely necessary, or to keep the focus up to max. (This depended on how many potions I had on me)
• Stack spells/skills. Huge focus saver.
• Also I really just needed to eat some food to keep my health and focus up while fighting.
• Lastly, I increased my general maximum focus pool. I had mine pretty low in the 400's. Bringing that up helps tremendously and the good thing is you shouldn't ever have to do it again because it's one of those skills that helps no matter what your play style is.

I think it's also possible that I haven't contributed at all because I am unaware of the focus changes in R51. Sorry if I wasted your time.

 

How did you bring your focus pool up? What skills, skill levels, and what is your focus pool at now? I always had a low focus pool and am trying to learn how to increase.

I got my focus pool increased a bit with putting 80 points in train intelligence and 80 points in the “focus skill” above train intelligence.

 

I was somewhere in the 400's with my skill Heightened Awareness at 40 something. I brought Heightened awareness to 72, and my Train Intelligence is at 78. I only have 54 intelligence when I click c to look at my character stats, and with my Adventuring Level at 84, I have 546 max focus. Also the gloves I'm wearing give me 5.3 focus. My ring gives me 13.7 focus

Most of my stats are pretty low IMO, but my advice for bringing up max focus would consist of leveling your Adventuring level, leveling Heightened Awareness and Train Intelligence. Also, your armor can be made to give you extra focus but I don't know enough about crafting to recommend that or to not recommend that.

@faceman I think it might also help you to raise the passive skill inner calm so that you don't spend as much focus when casting.

 

Armor and weapons that are made with constantan metal, regular cloth, fustian cloth, carapacian cloth and crimson pine can increase focus.

http://sotacraft.com/

 

Adding to this as I use most of these tricks, I slightly altered my play style as well relying a bit more on defensive skills (Glancing Blow, Shield of Ice and Douse, when appropriate). So in the last patch, I was able to effectively use all offensive skills. In this patch, using all offensive skills (particularly the AoE abilities) empties my focus. Adding these defensive skills adds allows me to use more charged/auto attacks while conservatively using offensive skills. This takes about 5-10 more seconds to kill mob(s) but allows me to keep on the move constantly. In Crag Foothills, I only had down time when I adjusted my deck.