Caster and Priest Focus Effects on TDS Tier 1 Armor

The maximum level for focus effects for TDS tier 1 armor is 103 (not 105).

In previous level increase expansions (HOT, VoA, RoF) the tier 1 armor focus effects
went to the maximum level increase for that expansion.

What is the reasoning behind this change ? Or is this a bug ?

Is this reduction in focus effects intended by the developers ?

hmm, no idea whats happening ,

the top tier raid items of CoTF were supposed to have the focus boosted to 103
the TDS raid items were supposed to be all tier 2, they had said that all tier 1 stuff was scrapped.

Normal CoF Raid Tier 2 did get boosted to 103.

To the OP: This is intended from what the item Dev told me when I asked. The OP is talking about group gear (not raid gear Iniari).

Big issue though is this isn't said on the gear from Tier 1 when you get it. So someone makes it unknowing it wont' follow past history.

For the group TDS gear, this time the Dev broke it up so tier 1 goes to 103 while the max tier goes to 105.

Note, I disagree with this for a few reasons, one big one that they brought back the container cost of 15k to combine your armor in and the extra costs to upgrade if you don't go tier by tier.

This setup takes us back to HoT. The solution here if you only want one gear set to get this expansion is unfortunately is get to the higher tier (where the gear is 105) and then pay a large cost to buy the alternate item off the vendor to use in place of the prior tier's gear.

So there are options overall on gear:

• Cultural (do it once and forget about it)
• Gear Tier by Tier (cheapest, but longest route) - only cost is aug swapping and initial purchase of the container
• Jump to a later Tier (most expensive but quickest if you get flagged fast) - cost is initial purchase of the container and each item slot has the 'alternate' replacement tier slot cost.

It must not have been stated enough times by the players yet that focus decay is not fun so Chandrok decided to slap some decay onto the first tier gear. They don't play this game. They don't know and don't care how frustrating focus decay is.

So now they're taking their completely absurd notion that people won't upgrade their gear if focus effects didn't decay to the next level by decaying it within the same expansion it was released. Simply astoundingly.

so are T1 melee focuses also degrading at 103?
Why only casters?

all of you miss why they're doing this. The gear that goes to 103 is all non prestige. They want people paying and this is another way to get them to its pathetic and extremely horrible design.

Because casters don't lose DPS by leveling, melee would if their focus decayed

Could a developer please respond to this post to confirm if the 103 level cap for focus effects for TDS
tier 1 group armor is intended. And if so, why is this a departure from previous expansions ?

I spoke to Chandrok about this (as posted above) and he said yes it was intended for the first tier to be 103 capped.

I'd like to point out since Crystilla mentioned needing the extra money piece if you don't have this armor to make the higher tier armor-that's not entirely accurate. This t1 armor is separate from the armor combines in higher teirs. You can just combine tier 2 armor on it's own without needing a substitute piece for tier 1.

Heh.... the devs really did sit down and say how many ways can we piss off the player base. At this point I find it hard to believe they just didn't think it through. With all the issues that are pissing off players in this expansion its hard to believe that the devs weren't intending to piss everyone off.

Have the devs all been promised a payout package when EQ sunsets and they just want to get it sooner? This has been the dumbest expansion in all my years of Everquest. The devs have a playerbase that has been playing the game for years. Its obvious what we all want from the game and yet they decide to crap on us with this expansion.

I like to think of myself as a rational, even tempered person but I cant see the sense of all these changes.

Its good to vent. I really hope they come out soon with a LOT of backtracking and fix things.

First, Castaway gear is an alternative to Manifested Ether, that's all. It's level 100 gear, it has level 100 focuses.

Second, there's nothing wrong with TT/Katta armor being 103 softcapped (focus decay is a very soft cap, btw. y'all need to chill. 10% of the focus slips away by 105, that's it.). Those zones are super easy, and progressing to tier 2 is totally doable with 103s. I did tier2 as soon as I flagged for it, 101 group gear tank, shm solo healing, killing [half of the] named (AEing ones are easy, single-target-nukers basically undoable since they one-shot the dps mercs).

Wanting more power is a thing, I get it. Calling developers malicious to not be giving out excess power just makes one sound silly.

Actually the devs are taking way power we previously had. And when you add up all the various things done this expansion you really have to wonder where the devs minds were. This is just ONE of many reasons people are ticked off.

you had full power focuses for level 104+ spells previously?

In the group game yes.

lol, no you didn't. that was a rhetorical question

That makes no sense.
Casters inherently lose power leveling because their focuses do decay (baring people in top raid gear).

So there is a situation here where casters lose power by leveling and must get new gear to replace their focuses. Melee do not lose power by leveling (in fact they gain it by skill and level increases) using the same gear as before.

Focus Decay does nothing to Casters previous level spells / spells they already own, only to their new spells. They don't lose DPS by leveling.

No real reason for it to not be 105 capped. Really strange decision.