Bring back Focus Items

Also, on a pull, you know instantly when things have gone poorly and you created a train.

I know this isn't the entire point of your post, but this is completely untrue. Warriors are incredibly dysfunctional even with stun augs, they feel incredibly broken to play early on in a TLP. It's basically impossible to tank as a warrior unless you're pulling. Both sit aggro and puller aggro are way too strong, and taunt is basically broken in both its failure rate and the fact that with aggro percentage thresholds for mob behavior you don't actually start taking hits even if you do successfully land a taunt. Stun augs don't even really help with how low your dex is early on in the game, you don't proc often enough for it to really matter that you have them equipped.

That's just not true. Warriors are quite serviceable on TLPs because of stun augs and the Provoke line of disciplines, which is available even in classic. I mained a warrior on the latest TLP and it was pretty much fine as long as people didn't literally start slowing/nuking before the mob had even arrived. I boxed a shaman and could typically begin casting slow as soon as my warrior had swung twice. Proc rates are not affected by dex nearly as much as you seem to think, and regardless of what your dex is, stun augs in weapons add considerably to the consistency of warrior threat. They make it so much more likely that you get a proc sometime in the first ten seconds of the fight, and that's typically enough to hold aggro off of anything short of a wizard literally chain-casting his biggest nuke. Stun augs single-handedly make the warrior class worth playing in early Everquest.

That's an out-of-era feature worth having on TLPs, in my book. By comparison, focus effects don't really change anything about the dynamics of what works and what doesn't, or elevate any classes into the realm of "worth playing." They just make it slightly easier to grind down mobs, without adding anything to the actual Everquest experience. Spells have already undergone huge buffs that, in some cases, literally more than double the raw power of casters. Focus items just aren't really necessary until the point in the Everquest timeline where the content itself and the game's itemization makes it the main element of caster gear progression. Pre-Luclin, it doesn't really do that.

In Classic/Kunark/Velious, focus effects are scattered randomly onto completely silly items that are almost all tradeable drops from mid-tier dungeon nameds, not something that takes an effort to obtain. It was very clearly an afterthought when they first did it, just to throw a bone to leveling players, and not some element of meaningful progression like it is in Luclin and onwards.

uh wut? literally every damage spell is more powerful than it used to be, power creep is definitely not just a melee problem lol

Yes please!

It was never asked for. It was supposed to be Mangler only. They broke it and never reverted it. Xtar and Bandolier are OOera too but they are QOL just like focus effects. This was not removed for any reason other then they probably don't know how to turn them back on.

Casters are basically trash that are constantly OOM until Luclin and beyond. Give them foci back.

Focus effects are fun way to itemize BUT classic is already very easy without them.

Casters in classic would feel better if they could actually dmg plane of sky raid mobs. That is my only issue. I believe its a level spread issue? Some of the targets are just to high for spells to stick. Its been awhile as ive skipped posky for a few TLPs now, outside of returning in kunark for epics

The main problem with focus effects honestly is the fact that mage armies farm them for , well, you know.

If they started a server luclin or after like a majority of the non-RMT playerbase wants, this wouldnt' be an issue.