Focus and Caster Itemization

So you never use st dd, monster summon,mod rods, elemental barriage, etc?

You may not have been aware that the mage benefit from additional CSI was pretty minimal.
Sorry if I was giving you information you already knew.
 
It is all a numbers game it may be insignificant for each cast but if it amounts to 0.1s per spell and you normally cast 10-20 spells per boss fight you know gain 1-2s of casting or potentially 1 more spell cast, may not be that big of a deal but ever little bit helps. I know it is not super significant but then you could argue csi isn't tht big for any class.
 
- The 4.3 sword is garbage.
- Saitha's shoulders are pro.
- I'm happy with my "robe".
- Don't use "casters" when you mean "mage".
- Play with the hand you are dealt and stop whining about focuses. all of you.
 
For the benefit of those who do not get the point I am making here let me explain further.

For a wizard the faster he can cast the more damage he does.
Each 1% increase in casting speed translates directly into 1% extra damage.

This is also true for Mages up to about CSI 6.
90+% of mage casting damage is done by rotating his 2 rains Sun Storm and Storm of the Elements.
However once he reaches CSI 7 he runs into a brick wall.
The refresh times on those 2 spells no longer allow him to cast them faster with CSI 7 than it did with CSI 6.
It is no good trying to put another spell into the rotation - that just decreases the dps.

So yes a mage will benefit on the odd occasions he is doing other than raining, but the benefit is strictly limited.
 
Do you have logs to back up that claim? Are you talking raid or exp? In exp I rarely cast more than 1 round of rains. On raids I think the casting speed is important because at the higher end there is movement involved and sometimes you don't have all the time to stand there and just cast you have to move around and dodge things.
 
- The 4.3 sword is garbage.
- Saitha's shoulders are pro.
- I'm happy with my "robe".
- Don't use "casters" when you mean "mage".
- Play with the hand you are dealt and stop whining about focuses. all of you.

I agree with everything except don't use "Mage" when you mean "me/I/zorroth"
 
Being able to land a spell faster and move positions during global cool down without canceling is, also, a benefit of CSI.
 
Just some parses to weigh in on the relevance of Bridgers (Zoroth) oppinion when it comes to playing a mage. On all these Parses, Sintasia was about a tier ahead of Zoroth.

EDIT: In all these parses, all pets are combined with their master (swarmpets and mages best buddy), neither mage had a runic2 pet, both mages had runic1 pets, both mages had about the same relevant tomes done.

Movement involved:

Animation of Sil`rel`din on 23.01.2011 in 207sec

Sintasia + pets
--- DMG: 138765 (16,72%) @ 704 dps (670 sdps)
--- DMG to PC: 91793 @464dps
--- Special: X

Zoroth + pets
--- DMG: 63410 (7,64%) @ 324 dps (306 sdps)
--- DMG to PC: 60571 @309dps


No movement involved:

Guardian of Yclist on 23.01.2011 in 171sec


Sintasia + pets
--- DMG: 52262 (13,33%) @ 335 dps (306 sdps)
--- DMG to PC: 99814 @853dps

Zoroth + pets
--- DMG: 6620 (1,69%) @ 236 dps (39 sdps)
--- DMG to PC: 33140 @1578dps
--- Special: X

Ferdolen the Farhag Elder on 12.12.2010 in 217sec


Sintasia + pets
--- DMG: 108464 (18,48%) @ 502 dps (500 sdps)
--- DMG to PC: 18660 @602dps

Zoroth + pets
--- DMG: 74304 (12,66%) @ 361 dps (342 sdps)
--- DMG to PC: 19985 @294dps


Can not rain:

High Enchanter Yk`sil on 14.10.2010 in 195sec


Sintasia + pets
--- DMG: 111734 (14%) @ 635 dps (573 sdps)
--- DMG to PC: 6721 @6721dps

Zoroth + pets
--- DMG: 77675 (9,73%) @ 432 dps (398 sdps)
 
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In all fairness, he has gotten remarkably better in recent years, but at the time of those parses I think there was a button pushing issue.
 
The thing I like most about this thread is how on topic it is. No epeening or thinly veiled personal attacks.

Anyhow,

For instance, a Necromancer needs Affliction Enhancement, Damage Increment, Range Increment, Mana Conservation, Casting Speed Increment, Reagent Conservation, Companion Strength, Companion Health, Control Enhancement, Bane Enhancement, Magic Focus, Cold Focus, Fire Focus, Disease Focus, Poison Focus.

That is 15 different focus effects, that a necro really should have all the time (maybe not bane, but you get the idea), from 20 pieces of gear. I hear all the time from people about how they cant wear xyz new cool item, because they cant replace the focus effect they currently have in that slot.

I don't think everyone should be able to always wear all the new cool items. Having to strategically pick your gear and swap things around is part of the game, and probably a good thing.

This is pretty bogus. Kedrin's suggestion, in one of the half dozen other threads about more or less the same thing, of combining Companion Strength/Toughness into a single effect for pet classes is a really good idea. Helps with Itemization and stops punishing pet classes that are balanced around having a pet already.

Someone else suggested Poison/Disease focus be combined. That seems like a capital idea. I would go so far to as say Fire/Cold being combined also makes sense since it is all heat manipulation... but that might be overly literal thinking.
 
The thing I like most about this thread is how on topic it is. No epeening or thinly veiled personal attacks.

Anyhow,



This is pretty bogus. Kedrin's suggestion, in one of the half dozen other threads about more or less the same thing, of combining Companion Strength/Toughness into a single effect for pet classes is a really good idea. Helps with Itemization and stops punishing pet classes that are balanced around having a pet already.

Someone else suggested Poison/Disease focus be combined. That seems like a capital idea. I would go so far to as say Fire/Cold being combined also makes sense since it is all heat manipulation... but that might be overly literal thinking.

Pro idea!!
 
Also roll Reagent Con into Mana Con, make Duration Enhancement cooler somehow, and make the oddball focuses like Crude Earthern Runes and Experimental Runes do something that makes them useful beyond level 30 (but not necessarily straight up power increase shit)
 
Solo's idea for augs could drop a tier or 2 below the current tier in strength. I'm not sure on the tiers but say you were farming T10 and the normal gear dropping in T10 has focus 7, the augs that drop rarely could be focus 5 or 6 so they could be used to fill a missing spot but it wouldn't be optimal and you would want to replace it with an on tier focus as soon as you can but it lets you use more gear while you wait for that one drop or wait for you guild to be able to kill the boss you need loots from.

Also no focus is as bad as getting a singing mod for bards, there's one like every 5 tiers and you are useless without it.
 
+1 FT and +6AC are clearly better than 55hp and 65 mana.
And that is without considering the Pet Strength on it.

Is that clear enough?

Just FYI no amount of stacking AC is going to save an int caster from anything that hits remotely hard near your tier and for pet conversion purposes, 6AC is a whole 1.5AC to your pet who will never be a passable tank for anything near-tier raid related except maybe the Ancient Guardians in Spires. A pet can tank one of those with enough heals (my pet did this and I don't stack AC).

So since you are way over FT cap, the Saitha shoulders are clearly better. Especially considering the options you have available to you for companion strength because your guild regularly does content that drops the two rings that have strength 8 on them, and you now seem to actually have one of those items. You're right though that for DPS purposes, the cauldron shoulder beats everything currently available even if it's a hit point and mana downgrade.

I think your real complaint here is that "best in slot items exist" which is unavoidable when you compare the numbers on some items to numbers on other items and do some math on what that means for your character, but this doesn't have a whole lot to do with what the OP of this thread is about. Which is that getting focus effects for a lot of classes is ultra-shitty and that the availability of some focus effects is near non-existent.

Good thread friends. GOod thread.
 
Just FYI no amount of stacking AC is going to save an int caster from anything that hits remotely hard near your tier and for pet conversion purposes, 6AC is a whole 1.5AC to your pet who will never be a passable tank for anything near-tier raid related except maybe the Ancient Guardians in Spires. A pet can tank one of those with enough heals (my pet did this and I don't stack AC).

So since you are way over FT cap, the Saitha shoulders are clearly better. Especially considering the options you have available to you for companion strength because your guild regularly does content that drops the two rings that have strength 8 on them, and you now seem to actually have one of those items. You're right though that for DPS purposes, the cauldron shoulder beats everything currently available even if it's a hit point and mana downgrade.

I think your real complaint here is that "best in slot items exist" which is unavoidable when you compare the numbers on some items to numbers on other items and do some math on what that means for your character, but this doesn't have a whole lot to do with what the OP of this thread is about. Which is that getting focus effects for a lot of classes is ultra-shitty and that the availability of some focus effects is near non-existent.

Good thread friends. GOod thread.


Couldn't have said it better myself!
Zapple for president!
 
I do think the cauldron of dawn shoulders are kind of a problem. I am not sure why they have channeling instead of the saitha shoulders
 
Channeling is a little too powerful point per point is really the main problem.
 
yeah I definitely agree with that. not sure if it's possible to make it more like the "ratings" thing they did in wow. ie. 1 channeling could be .1% crit. not sure if the cap is hard locked at +25 though.
 
yeah I definitely agree with that. not sure if it's possible to make it more like the "ratings" thing they did in wow. ie. 1 channeling could be .1% crit. not sure if the cap is hard locked at +25 though.

I'm rather sure they made it 1 for 1 because of rounding problems.
 
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