Spell Foci level cap increase for next expansion

[Tirian Trueblade]

[Hulkling]

[Tirian Trueblade]

[Dwanor]

Good points to make on the SOE boards though.

[Wyvernwill]

I'm a minority in my views on focuses and spells in general.

My spellset, for example, almost never includes the newest group heal. One key component is generally because even with the newer raids, it's not necessary. This doesn't hold true with something like Last Rites or Burial Rites though... the reason is due to Burial Rites having a way better recourse effect.

The caster vs melee argument is (and always has been) fundamentally flawed though. Casters claim that "melee focii" do not degrade as they level. The catch... is that neither do caster focii. Caster Focii only degrade when you use higher level spells than the focus is meant for. A level 70 caster focus works exactly the same on a level 70 spell regardless of the caster's level (be it 70, 90 or 200.)

The side tangent to the caster vs melee focus is this... Melee don't get better group gear than current mid-tier raid gear at any point by any stretch of the imagination. Show me one group geared piece of equipment that a melee would not still replace in anguish at the first chance they got. Praetorian Gear is close, but Anguish gear is still superior in mod2s and effects. This is a massive contrast to casters, who seem to place their only focus on spell focii. If they stepped back a level caps set of spells and used the raid focii from anguish/DoD with the level 70 spells, in a lot of cases, that set up proves to be far more potent than group focii and current spells.

Tanks get the absolute worst of the three groups. A praetorian geared tank with some of the best TBS / AG/FC Grouped drops will be able to hold his own in anguish, but will find it considerably harder to do so in Demi without the mod2s. In most cases, they are better off upgrading to Anguish loot for the AC + Mod2s as groupable gear generally lacks one or the other (most oftenly AC). The biggest problem... if you're tanks can't handle the beating... your guild doesn't advance. I don't care how great your strategies are... if your tanks die, your raid wipes.

TSS exploded the caster focii problem. Considering that casters were able to have every single spell from day 1 of TSS ready for when they leveled... Casters found themselves not even chasing the timesink of spells. Atleast with OoW, people had to chase spells and in some cases, had already picked up some of the focii along the way that was an upgrade. Now days, raiding guilds burn to max level first week or two of the new expansion and then start raiding. With the burn, casters started using their new spells right away and felt the effects at "full force". Take away the focii issue, and what exactly is there for a caster to worry about on raids or in groups for that matter? They don't get hit often, and even when well geared, it's usually lights out on challenging stuff... so Hp/AC isn't a big deal. With OoC, Mana Pools are less of a concern, although they help with duration on raids (exp group fights just don't last long enough).

While I know the devs are looking into solutions, casters won't be happy until Focus Effects never degrade. Wether it's 10% or 5%, or 2%... some casters are going to continually complain. It's just the way it goes, and to be honest, it's one of the reasons why I dispise the entire argument from casters in general.

[Jace]

Most likely its gonna be that all focuses stay the same except TSS raid ones which will be increased to level 77 (like how they did from 70 to 72 with DP/DK focuses).

[Unmei]

[knytul]

[Unmei]

Well, maybe they'll just use a bigger bandaid, but it sounds as if they're prepared to give some sort of ground on the issue.

[dindaur]

that'll be nice, there's spells i use or don't use because of tss focii at the moment, i never did make the decision to get that mana pres aug with the weak stats it had ( of course if you did want it the focii would be your draw )