This is primarly an older issue, but I was able to get some feedback on it this afternoon.

First, to those who wanted the focus effect on the Anguish BP to include newer heals - that isn't going to happen.

Second, to those who wanted the focus effect on the TSS / TBS BPs to be 25% mana pres to Pure Life Rank III - that isn't going to happen either.

The issue of Druids using Anguish BP while raiding Solteris, is considered a personal gear choice. They are OK with that. You have the option to take a hit to stats for increased healing effiency, or to get the better stats but spend more mana on your primary heal.

As for TSS and TBS BPs having the same focus effect - they are considered part of the same 'era' (the 71-75 range) and that is why they have the same focii. No, I don't personally agree that was a good choice, but this is how it was explained to me.

Sorry for the bad news, at least tho we got an answer.

-Fenier

/shrug, if it makes you feel any better there's at least one druid that doesn't care. I can't say I'd loot anything just for a focus that gives a variable 5% preservation over standard pres on one spell. It's the equivalent of getting one mana free cast for every 40 assuming you're spamming nothing but that heal.

If the focus effects from TBS are adjusted up a couple levels like the DP foci were after the release of TSS, there could be a differentiation between TSS and TBS. Not in beta so do not know if that was talked about or not.

I only care in the context of it highlights poor spell advancement. Omens era heal + omens BP should not have advantages over TSS era heal and TBS era BP.

The efficiency of our heals should increase such that the 5% focus difference from the anguish tunic becomes irrelevant.

spell: Damage or heal / mana = ratio

ancient glacier frost: 2042 / 405 = 5.04
rime crystals rk 2: 2459 / 470 = 5.23
hoar crystals rk 2: 3074 / 568 = 5.41

ancient chlorobon: 3094 / 723 = 4.28
pure life rk 2: 3287 / 768 = 4.28
puravida rk 2: 3779 / 868 = 4.35

The SoF spells are subject to change, can see them on lucy or kumbaja, but that's how we stand. Ice nukes are just easy to compare since it's the other omens ancient.

Why has the efficiency of our heals stagnated compared to everything else?

Tenielle, the reason it's so useful is that mana preservation effects are additive. That is, the mana savings are relative to the base mana cost, but the actual mana cost is significantly lower.

Spell Casting Mastery 3 = 10%
Specialize Alteration 280 = 14%
Guard of the Chlorobon = 1% to 25% (instead of 1% to 20%)
Total: 25% to 49% (instead of 25% to 44%)

So:
With Guard of the Chlorobon, mana cost is 369 to 543 (average: 456)
Without Guard of the Chlorobon, mana cost is 405 to 543 (average: 474)

For me it's actually the equivalent of one mana-free cast every 25 casts, or a 4% increase in my mana pool if I'm casting only Ancient Chlorobon (which, apart from debuffs, is frequently the case). In other words, for me to replace my Anguish tunic it would have to have over 1,000 mana (assuming no other significant benefits) to make up for the loss of Guard of the Chlorobon. And that's not taking into account mana regen on long fights, which a larger mana pool doesn't compensate for.

And the benefits of using a heal that doesn't ever fizzle.

Tenielle, the reason it's so useful is that mana preservation effects are additive. That is, the mana savings are relative to the base mana cost, but the actual mana cost is significantly lower.

Spell Casting Mastery 3 = 10%
Specialize Alteration 280 = 14%
Guard of the Chlorobon = 1% to 25% (instead of 1% to 20%)
Total: 25% to 49% (instead of 25% to 44%)

So:
With Guard of the Chlorobon, mana cost is 369 to 543 (average: 456)
Without Guard of the Chlorobon, mana cost is 405 to 543 (average: 474)

For me it's actually the equivalent of one mana-free cast every 25 casts, or a 4% increase in my mana pool if I'm casting only Ancient Chlorobon (which, apart from debuffs, is frequently the case). In other words, for me to replace my Anguish tunic it would have to have over 1,000 mana (assuming no other significant benefits) to make up for the loss of Guard of the Chlorobon. And that's not taking into account mana regen on long fights, which a larger mana pool doesn't compensate for.

You have over 25k mana?!

I'm not going to argue the point because you're right. I just think that the relevance is a little overplayed. Speaking for myself, I can honestly say I've never raided anything that required me to cast absolutely nothing but one heal, and the number of difficult raids that were difficult only due to their duration (and thus causing me to go OOM) are extremely limited (Sendaii and Draygun come to mind). Would I care more if I were a cleric? Assuming I was still playing if I'd rolled EQ's most boring class, quite possibly.

So the point I was making still stands. 1 out of 25 or 1 out of 40; I am not concerned with the focus persisting with newer heals.

I am curious though about the last sentence about mana regen effects being inconsequential on a larger mana pool. What did you mean (bearing in mind that the question is loaded)?

I have roughly 17k mana. When I said that I would need a tunic to have over 1000 mana, I didn't mean 1000 mana _more_ than my current (Anguish) tunic, but rather 700 mana more than my current tunic, for a total of 1000 mana.

You have a very good point about most encounters not lasting long enough for this to make a difference, though. The main encounter that comes to mind is Lethar's Final Stand, which--from a druid's perspective--is a healing endurance test; while our performance on this event has improved significantly, early on there were times when I'd burn through two full bars of mana due to a combination of (1) the cleric cheal chain breaking down, and (2) knights tanking since all our warriors were dead already. We did pull off a win at least once under these circumstances. However, Lethar is the exception, not the rule.

As for the mana regen comment, I was referring to the fact that the actual amount of mana available for use on an event is the initial mana pool PLUS whatever amount is regenerated over the course of the fight. That is something that my estimates did not take into account. So, even a 1000 mana tunic might not be sufficient to make up for the absence of Guard of the Chlorobon.

Oh, another thing I didn't take into account is Spirit of the White Wolf. For part of the fight, that's another 15% mana preservation, which further amplifies the difference between Guard of the Chlorobon and the usual 20% beneficial mana preservation.

Edit: One last thing--ding 2000th post! :)

I happen to be one of those that won't replace the Anguish BP unless there is a more efficient choice over Ancient Chlorobon + Guard of Chlorobon.

For you devs out there that have lost your heading; Everquest is a game about character progression. When you fail to provide character progression the game becomes pointless and boring.

Now do the math of the two previous paragraphs.