Currently I don’t think its fair to have a focus system at all the way it is currently set up. I am writing this having played with 2 others who are all within 2 levels of me, and I decided to build focus. I wanted to be the castor on the back lines because we had a heavy hitting tank and bow ranged build. That being said. Initially I could cast a heavy spell like every 3-6 minutes. So I adjusted my gear to build up more focus so my pool would fill faster and I put points into my pool so I could bank them at the expense of well everything else. I currently sit at 650 and thats at about 5 large spell casts in a row. That being said it takes along time to replenish the pool after I have utilized the casts, even with gear moderately geared for it.Right now I get one hit by anything that looks at me funny, but I was still having fun because I could run in and cast a few then run out while my friends covered and then rinsed and repeated. That being said they were overall doing much more damage than me. Now to my point. We got to pestilence, and I was confused to find that instead of being able to use my build the way it was built to be utilized. I was being punished for playing. I was told I have to build a specific way if I wanted to play any farther. And that means I need to build without utilizing focus at all, making 2 weapon groups completly obsolete. I dont think that its the right direction to force people to play a specific way. I understand the pestilence is supposed to be hard, so why not make it hard, but up to chance at the same time. I wouldn’t be so mad about it if it was just like you flipped a card and “oh would you look at that it looks like this time the pestilence is making us lose all focus upon casting any spells” instead of “well looks like we arent supposed to be useing focus at all in a way that takes planning and time to allow us to glass cannon it” I think the game would be better if you didnt outright restrict play styles. I think the pestilence would be better if you had buffs and debuffs that are randomly chosen when the pestelence begins and that those would change per pestilence. I just figured out my build where I was doing comparable damage to my friends, but now its unusable. I would prefer to have the pestilence changed so I could still have fun with my build ( I think some variance in debuffs and buffs are good too maybe some pestilences my friends help carry me, and maybe some i help carry them) Just some sudgestions.
After reading this whole uninterrupted paragraph, I’m still not sure what exactly frustrates you.
Is it how harsh some of pestilence debuffs are towards focus-centric builds in current endgame?
Yeah theyre not useable in endgame. It would be like taking a tank and saying if you get hit once you die.
I have a 100% focus used on any spells casted. This debuff shows up for every pestilence making focus builds not useable at all. It takes 35 seconds per cast of a large spell. Which means by the time I can cast again my friends have killed everything with their respective builds. My build was doing similarly well before this debuff that only punished those who use focus
I think if the game had some support-focused spells, it would be less punishing for a caster when dealing with pestilence stuff.
Like, if I see a “lose all focus on cast”, I could switch to my second staff that has cheaper to cast support spells instead of trying to waste my whole focus pool every time I cast.
But right now the petilence malus does hit casters too hard, compared to any other specialisation.
Yeah so currently any spells, even cheap ones will use 100 percent of all banked focus. Not like your spell costs 125 so your losing 250. Currently its your spell costs 125, and your losing your entire bank. Mine is 650 so I lose 650 every cast.
If I cast a 10 cost spell I lose 650, if I cast a 100 cost I lose 650
Yeah, but you don’t have to save up the whole bank to blow it on a single cast. This “lose all focus on cast” debuff makes you spend your focus as you acquire it, not 5 casts in a row.
In case you didn’t know, you can semi-control the Pestilence/Plague debuff list.
Stock up on like stacks of 10-15 of a bunch of random materials. I usually carry stacks of stam/focus potions I wont use, or herbs I have massive amounts of, bones, etc.
When you add an item to the Burn/Contribution, it will show you what debuff it will add. Each type of item, including gear, and plagued materials, will have varying Plagued effects. Gear you picked up you don’t need also works. For the small materials, every 2 will add an affix. So the first one doesn’t affect it, it’s the second one.
So just add items, and when you get an plague effect that handicaps your build, remove the last item, and try another item/material type. Rinse/Repeat until you have a full list of effects that you can manage.
If you hit 10 effects before the bar is full, be sure to commit them first, then go back in and fill the bar with more items. This is to ensure that the new items added do not change the effect list.
This way you will never have to deal with the 100% focus loss etc as a mage, and can actually choose it if you’re more of a stamina setup and that one doesn’t hurt you much.
Avoid using bigger contribution items like Embers because it gives you a group of 3-4 affixes all at once. You can try, but more often than not they contain one I don’t want. Better to go for 10 controllable affixes that are manageable.
Yeah I misunderstood how pestilence works. I didnt realize burning different things did different stuff. Now that I do I feel like an idiot
