Bring back Focus Items

Thousands of years ago, Mangler server came out, and in the FAQ, it had the following clause:

Mangler was unique in that spell foci were not present until Luclin, reducing the desirability of certain camps and items. As a "harder" server, it was seen as a gimmick for that server in particular.

...But then it kept being added to newer servers, without indicating it would be included in the server FAQs. The Aradune/Rizlona page, and the Yelinak page makes no mention of focus effects either.

We've had 3 years of servers with focus effects not included in early game, and it has, in my opinion, made itemization less interesting for it. Revert the focus item restrictions for the next TLP servers.

Focus effects were removed because they were out of era, not because they wanted to make the server harder.

Mangler was first introduced as the hardcore server and Selo was meant to be the casual server. Mangler originally featured very slow exp rates, harsh death penalties and no focus effects until Luclin, all which were meant to make it more difficult and punishing. Due to all of the backlash from everyone, the xp rate and death penalty was changed, but the change to focus effects remained in.

It was nice not seeing bot mages in Runnyeye farming 24/7.

20 slot xtar, aggro meters, click from bag, melee innate damage aa all out of era as well.

Something being out of era is no longer a valid argument to exclude it.

Focus effects are not out-of-era in Classic. There are plenty of low-level items which were meant to have a focus of some kind or other. Taking them out of the game pre-Luclin was a Prathun "we have to balance against inflation" thing, and he's no longer here. My vote is, and has always been, to put them back in.

Yeah, I didn't even realize they had added that until I started playing on Mischief/Thornblade. Was quite disappointed when I realized we wouldn't get them until Luclin.

Focus effects weren't added to the game until Luclin, so yes they are out of era but so is a lot of stuff in the game, they should be put back in.

This is not something I'm super fired up about, but it seems like an easy switch to flip that would make the early game itemization slightly more interesting and grinding a little bit less tedious. It seems like a win-win to me.

What a terrible response.

There's tons of stuff on TLPs that are out of era.

1. Agent of Change
2. Mitigation of the Might
3. Call of the Zero
4. Extended Target window
5. Agro meters
6. Many Alchemy potions
7. 40-slot 100% weight reduction bags
8. Out of combat regen
9. Death persistent buff for lev, eb, sow that you can just buy from the shop
10. Experience potions
11. Heroic stats
12. Banestrike
13. Innate Prowess AAs

I'm sure people can think of many more things on TLPs that are out of era. Being "out of era" is not the reason why something is removed from TLPs.

Yes

I've been asking this since Agnarr. I loved Focus effects. No idea why they'd take that away.

We had focus effects right away on Phinigel and it made gearing my necro more interesting than just gunning for hitpoints and mana.

No.

Power creep needs to be dealt with, and this is just one small part of that puzzle.

Power creep is mostly on the melee side, with casters being the poor choice for raids and grinding. Sure pets are pretty OP, but afaik the pet focus items are still in whereas the spell focus items are not currently.

Also, motm more than does enough to slow down raid encounters. These pre-luclin encounters are not hard whatsoever, just too slow.

Focus effects are in Classic - Haste and Pet Focus

But that's also a flawed argument because not all out-of-era things are created equal. Xtar, aggro meters, and click from bag are fairly minor "power" increases - largely QoL stuff. Innate damage AA, I would agree, would be similarly all power-related.

That being said, as others have mentioned, there's a real power-creep issue in TLP servers today. Obviously much of that is tied to live servers, but where DPG can slow that creep down, I agree they should.

Xtar is insanely powerful, being able to monitor all your tanks health, manage dots and mezes on 20+ mobs or 5+ tanks. This is more powerful then you are making it out to be.

Enable focus to make druids viable healers in classic (for this reason alone)

I think there's more than enough out-of-era mechanics on TLPs as it is. Focus effects don't really improve gameplay in any meaningful way, it's just a straight buff to the numbers on spells. Is it more enjoyable to play the game because you have a +15% flat bonus to the damage/healing of your spells? Meh. Meanwhile, it makes the game even easier than it already is on TLPs. It's effectively the same as just straight-up nerfing all mobs. Most classes only care about a few different focus effects, and most of them are frankly trivial to acquire from gear that you can just pick up with ease during leveling or very affordable in EC. Does this really improve the entertainment value of Everquest or the gear progression of casters? I don't see it.

I'm in the camp that would prefer things to be as close to classic as possible, but I acknowledge that it's not a realistic expectation. However, there are out-of-era mechanics that make the game easier and contribute to my enjoyment of the game. Stun augs in weapons means warrior isn't a dysfunctional class in the beginning. Clarity potions make it more bearable to run a group without an enchanter. Extended target presents a frankly objectively better way to play the game than tab-cycling through targets.

Things like these add more to my enjoyment of the game than they take away by making the Everquest experience easier. The #1 defining characteristic and source of popularity of this game is the challenge and the satisfaction of overcoming its difficulties. But focus effects don't make the game more fun to play, whereas they do make it easier, and that's a net negative in my book. I'm at peace with the features that make it easier and more appealing to play. Focus effects do the former but not the latter.

At the end of the day, focus effects were not there until Luclin. TLPs aim - to an extent, at least - to replicate the experience of playing Everquest throughout the early expansions. While I realize there's a hundred things already in the game that go against that ideal, I don't think adding even more of it is a good thing, especially when it has no practical impact on how the game is actually played but merely makes characters numerically stronger so that the challenges of the game are reduced.