Let me get this straight.... the expansion has 5 aa's which are in effect 5 more levels of Mental Clarity, i.e. +5 more inherent mana regen.

Plus there are 5 more levels of what is in essence Expansive Mind, which adds +5 to how much worn items can raise your flowing thought.

So the old absolute cap was 23 = 15 base +3MC +5EM.

Now the new absolute cap, after purchasing these new aa's, is 33?

I just wanna be sure before I spend the aa points. Getting +10 FT for the expenditure of 40 aa's, of which some came back to me as refunds anyway seems.... <sob, sob> TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! :)

I could be wrong but I believe the new innate FT adds to your base and does not increase the cap.. What it does do for some folks is lessen the amount of FT gear they need to be maxed.

They way I read it we can only increase our FT cap by 5 this expansion, just like omens.

Sippin is right we get 5 more levels of mental clarity + 5 more levels of expansive mind so 10 more total.

Mental clarity, or innate mana regen, is outside of the gear FT cap.

FT cap goes up to 25 with all the AAs, and innate mana regen is upped by 8 with all the AAs now.

With the new out of combat regen, it is far less exciting than it would have been before though... far less. 100 mana a minute is basically nothing when you can regen 400+ a tick after sitting for 30 seconds out of combat.

I agree with Naldiian for the casual group, sit out a fight. Bang you go from LOM to FM.
Yet when playing in MPG trials or more exciting group tasks, Mana regen is a must.

So effectively yes, it will be FT33. Much like current Magelos show us with 23 mana regen.

FT really means 1/4 of what it used to. Sit for a total of 1 1/2 minutes and your FOM again. FT really only matters for very long encounters or long term fights. Even on very fast pulls you can get 8-10% of your mana back between mobs with the new regen. Though I love how we regen mana 1000000 quicker - it really took the fun out of having tons of FT.

Flowing Thought is still key. While downtime is significantly reduced, downtime is still downtime.

The person with 25 FT is going to need to sit out from combat less often than the person with 15 FT, adding their DPS/healing to the group more, and increasing the number of mobs killed over time. There's the real reason to not sacrifice your FT: keep it high to kill more mobs per hour.

FT is still quite worthwhile on raids, where many/most even trash mobs give you a 5 min resting timer.
Not to mention boss mobs where event can go for 20-30mins+

It's also useful on things like Anguish aug runs. Trash mobs there carry a 5 minute OOC timer and you can't use mounts.

Unless you have the ability to instantly regain 2000 mana every few minutes, FT is still very important.

Unless you have the ability to instantly regain 2000 mana every few minutes, FT is still very important.

And it only takes 1/3rd of a 12k Shaman's HP bar to do so!

And it only takes 1/3rd of a 12k Shaman's HP bar to do so!

And then they heal themsleves.

And it only takes 1/3rd of a 12k Shaman's HP bar to do so!

Wow, thank you for your greatness for reminding me shaman can also do that. I was actually thinking about this. (http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=10797&source=Live)

Wow, thank you for your greatness for reminding me shaman can also do that. I was actually thinking about this. (http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=10797&source=Live)

I love how you continously ignore various aspects of activated mana regen.

Yes, wizards get Harvest, want to actually go through Lucy section by section?

They can use the spell once every 6 minutes. That's once every 60 ticks, which when broken down is 81.25 mana / tick - except they get it all at once (accounting for the 12 second run time on top of the 6 minute recycle.).

During the run time they are rooted in place and if they are hit with anything which would break invis - it fails completely. So mob melee, aes, spells etc all ruin the chance the wizard has to gain mana.

The point you seem to miss on a continous basis is these abilities grant mana, but they are hardly free.

Not only do I think the odds of a activated mana regen ability are non-existant, but ours would be restricted by reuse times and conditions just like every other class.

-Fenier

Hate to bump an old thread but I want to be sure I am following the heart of this correctly.

The old 15MR gear cap I am remembering can only be overridden by buying increases through AA, so until I have a lot more AA to spend the old 15 MR I had is still what I should go with more or less?

It seems MR gear is a lot easier to come by now, and I just counted 18MR with my current gear. But longer term, I should have a 25 figure in mind as an ideal but it won't help me until I have 20 - 40AA to spend? 10 levels of the cap increase at a cost of 2aa or 3aa per? Specific details don't matter on the cost of the abilities to increase cap but I want to prioritize a bit. MR seems like a low priority compared to other AA, and I expect the bigger bump is from leveling over both...yes?

The gear based FT Cap is 15, until you buy the FT gear AA's. You get 5 each max from Expansive Mind (5) and Labyrinth Mind (5).

This maxes out the FT Cap at 25.

Mental Clarity (3) and Mental Serenity (5) ... once you buy them you have +8 mana regen, permanent Clarity so to speak. Take them into account when you are figuring out your overall FT, but not your cap.

Off the top of my head, Mental Clarity is a 2/4/6 AA cost and Mental Serenity, Expansive Mind and Labyrinth Mind are 5 AA's per level. So it takes 87 AA's to max your Flowing Thought, providing you have +25 Mana Regen on your gear.

I have no idea where you are starting from, but I'd suggest getting Mental Clarity and Serenity (since they work even when you are naked) and then leveling up.

God, that is a ton of aa. I only have about 140 now...getting another 87 (well a bit less I have the first two levels of mental clarity) sounds like too long a road to me.

If I level up and get better gear, I will increase my mana pool etc. I guess the only real question is whether it is appreciably easier to solo at 75 or 66. If good solo zones green out on me, and I can only pickup group, then presumably a long AA grind will take longer to do if I wait, and leveling will be easier with more AA.

I will mull this over some more I guess. Not sure how long I will end up playing. Since my last bout of EQ no MMOG has kept me more than 5 months or so. I think not being guilded/not raiding is the cause, but I don't see that changing in EQ. Kinda want to know I max level again in case I retire again sooner rather than later. But I will think more.

Thanks for input.

Get to 75. That's #1 priority IMO. Yeah, some people say it's easier to earn AAs at lower levels but I don't buy it. Everything is so much easier at 75. Get a yellow into 75 and then you can switch over to AAXP.

Get into some decent pharming groups and the AA's will pile on fast. Maxing out FT isn't as important as it used to be, due to the recent improvements to out of combat regen. In fact, if you XP in a zone that permits mounts, it's even less important.

I box several toons and I found that maxing out FT for my bots came almost as a matter of course just pharming groupable gear and generating aa's from the camp xp.

Time cures all!

Hi Oldoak - best piece of advice I can give on MR is not to spend aa on it until you find yourself going oom in battle :)

The out-of-combat regen system has changed things immensely, and FT is only really useful in raids (where long OOC-timers cause you to be unable to "powermed", and long fights may turn on you regenning a few extra heals' worth of mana).

If you're soloing, I'd think about survivability and dps aa as these are more likely to increase your efficiency and xp over time.