I have 2 questions. :confused: I've heard conflicting opinions about each, and I'm asking here to settle debates since some of you wise druids no doubt know for sure. Thanks in advance for the help.

1 Do the stats for am item such as ghostrider's bridle count if equipped in ammo slot as opposed to range slot? Do the stats only take effect if the item is clicked and the steed is in play or are the item's stats a worn effect?

2 Do focus effects from pre-75 zones like DeathKnell lose 10% of the original total per level or 10% straight up? For example, does an item with a 40% focus lose 10% each from 72 to 75 and become 10% for level 75 spells? Or does the focus effect lose just 10% of that 40% (4%) per level and become 28% for level 75 spells?


- Efrindoel :shuffle:

As far as I know items in ammo slot do not increase your stats but I'm not 100% sure about that. If item is in Range slot then you should get the stats regardless if item is clicked.

The FE would lose 10% of the 40% for each level it is above it's cap. So it it does 40% for spells up to level 72, it will be 36% for level 73 spells, 32% for level 74 spells and 28% for level 75 spells.

Yep, foci decay 10% of their original %age per level for each level above the cap that the spell is. The exceptions are the spell haste foci, which only decay at 5% per level.

In my opinion, there are only 5 spell upgrades from TSS that I think are affected in a significant way by foci (i.e. in a way that you're likely to give enough of a crap about to consider giving up hp/mana in order to maximize focus effects).

Level 72: Pure Life

Level 73: Swarm of Fireants

Level 74: Equinox Burn

Level 75: Rime Crystals and Adrenaline Surge

So let's consider healing foci upgrades from TSS for the highest level healing spell. Your demiplane focus would be 60% at level 72, scaled down to 42% at level 75. The following foci would be upgrades to what you previously had:

Pelzia's
Boon 45% - on 335 hp/mana gear
Bounty 50% - on 340 hp/mana gear
Favor 55% - on 360 hp/mana gear
Gift 60% - probably on 400 hp/mana gear
Replenishment 65% - on 450 hp/mana gear

So in this situation, the crappiest gear that upgrades demiplane foci is in each case roughly equivalent to demiplane level gear hp/mana wise. This means that for the most part, you won't have to make any sacrifices of hp/mana to achieve an increase in effectiveness. One notable exception is Pelzia's Bounty which can be obtained from a ring with only 285/250 hp/mana. Note that this is only if you have demiplane gear - if you're in deathknell gear, you'll probably be taking a small hit to get to the 45% and 50% foci but probably not much after that.

The real problem comes for those of us (including myself) who are living with Anguish and Dragon level foci, which only extend to level 70. These decay to roughly 23% and 25% at level 75, respectively. This means that any of the following would upgrade us:

Pelzia's
Aid 25% - on 205 hp/mana gear
Benefaction 30% - on 235 hp/mana gear
Benevolence 35% - on 265 hp/mana gear
Blessing 40% - probably on 300 hp/mana gear
Boon 45% - on 335 hp/mana gear
Bounty 50% - on 340 hp/mana gear
Favor 55% - on 360 hp/mana gear
Gift 60% - probably on 400 hp/mana gear
Replenishment 65% - on 450 hp/mana gear

So from Dragon foci (adjusted to 25%), you'd probably be giving up 90 hp/mana to get to 30%, 60 hp/mana to get to 35%, and 30 hp/mana to get to 40% - after that you probably break even or gain hp/mana. In some ways, however, this isn't really a dilemma. Adrenaline Surge is an entirely new spell line - you're going to use it no matter how foci affect it, because you don't get any other spell that matches its low cast time.

So another interesting thing to consider is how might the increase in spell power from OoW spells to TSS spells in the same spell line affect your consideration of whether to upgrade foci or not?

For example, compare Pure Life to Chlorobon from the perspective only of the amount healed: Rank 1 is 2.6% more effective than Chlorobon, Rank 2 is 6.2% more effective, and Rank 3 is 9.9% more effective.

One way to think of this then, is that starting from level 70 foci, switching from Chlorobon to Rank 1 of Pure Life would give you the same increase in raw amount healed that you would get by switching from a 50% focus to a 55.2% focus (since spell foci have a random effect that averages out to around half the listed % in the spell description). Since you'd lose 10% off your Dragon focus effectiveness going from level 70 to 72, the gain 5.2% gain in "focus equivalent" from switching to Rank 1 Pure Life isn't worth it unless you upgrade your foci first.

Effectively, you'd NEED a 5% upgrade in adjusted focus at level 72 over level 70 in order to make it ever worth casting Pure Life Rank 1, under any circumstance. Starting from an adjusted focus of 40%, you'd need to upgrade to at least Pelzia's Boon (45%). Even then due to spell haste degradation (see below) this would barely break even in terms of healing per second. You'd really need to get Pelzia's Bounty or better to see a clear benefit from the new spell.

If you have Rank 2 of Pure Life, you gain the equivalent of a 6.2% healing power increase over Chlorobon (equivalent to the increase from a 50% focus to a 62.4% focus) and you pretty neatly offset the 10% loss in Dragon focus power by using the higher level spell. On the surface, you even gain about 2.4%. However, I would argue that the simultaneous loss in beneficial spell haste (30% down to 27%) would offset the marginal benefit provided at Rank 2. In my case, with max AAs and 30% haste up to level 70, I can complete a cast/recastdelay cycle for Chlorobon in 4.7 seconds and for Pure Life in 4.8 seconds. That 0.1 second increase may not sound like much, but it effectively represents a 2.1% decrease in max healing per second. This makes it more or less a tossup between Chloro and Pure Life Rank 2, again unless you have a focus effect that extends above level 70 - Pelzia's Boon or better.

If you have Rank 3, you gain around 9.9% power (equivalent to the effect of a 19.7% greater focus) and you gain a ton by switching to the new spell, even without seeking better foci. Here it's a no-brainer - use Pure Life Rank 3 all the time, even without getting a new focus effect.

Thanks for the information Shurella and Seeker. I'm at the point where I'm trying to plan upgrades, and mainly deciding whether to go ahead and take gear from DeathKnell and Demi tier 2 or wait on focus upgrades from TSS, so this discussion helps.

- Efrindoel

You also need to take into account on the nukes that you are losing up to half (half at 75 spells) of your epic's potency...might also come into the equation on deciding which spell lineup to go with