Pet Focus on Seals

[boph]

Pet Focus's on seals are not on the live servers as stated by Ngreth in the following thread:

http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=23880

"(the Items guy made me remove the pet focus one, because we are not allowed too have focus for SK's, Druids, and shaman... and We were conversely not willing to make it class restricted)"

However, there are items that drop on live servers now that are ALL\ALL and have a pet focus on them.

Take for Example:
Drentik the Mad in Valdeholm drops Dentrik's Dementia
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=52692

I have personally seen this item drop several times, and continue to see it drop.

So either the Pet Focus **** no longer works at SOE, so no one said "No Pet Focus For You!". Or it just slipped by. Whatever the case, this argument is invalid and something needs to be done.

Could we either get pet focus's on seals, or make this item (and all others that may exist with a pet focus) BST\MAG\NEC only?

[Anterouk]

Think they have coded it that the pet focus items dont effect shaman/SK/Druid pets, dont make sense why not.

[KyrosKrane]

A large chunk of the problem is that people don't always understand how pet focuses work. They're under the impression that a pet focus says, "Summon this pet with +x% to all stats" or something like that, and they wonder why that can't work on shaman, druid, SK, or other pets.

The reason is that pet focuses just don't work that way. Each pet focus causes the pet summoning spells to summon an entirely new and different pet. Each of these pets has to have its stats hand-adjusted, tested, and tuned. It's not a simple, formulaic upgrade; it's a slow, tedious, and meticulous process that takes a HUGE amount of developer time.

In the past, this was handled by the simplest method possible: only pet-reliant classes (mages, necros, and beastlords) got access to pet focuses. As a result, only the pets for those three classes had to be created and tuned. This was the philosophy in effect at the time Last Bloods were first introduced. At some point after that, there was a slight change in the philosophy. The focuses would continue to work for just those three classes, but the focus could be placed on gear usable by other classes.

In other words, if a shaman or druid equips a pet focus item and summons their pet, they will get the exact same pet with the exact same stats as the one they'd get without the focus item. The focus does absolutely nothing for a shaman or druid.

Given this functionality, it would seem to make sense that the pet focuses on last bloods, etc. could be released. The problem, as noted above, is one of player perception. Players think that just because they got the focus, their pet automatically increases in power. This is not true for all classes; in fact, just like in the past, it is only true for mages, necros, and beastlords.

[Twistagain]

Seeing as how I'll likely never see any of these seals (family guild here...), I may be asking a stupid question.

But, why can't these items be restricted to primary pet classes, then?

[Gorse]

Then you are granting access to a specific item and blocking other classes and in doing so, the balance for the seals is removed.

Then, on top of the other classes complaining about the favorable treatment, you then open up an arguement by those pet classes to argue they should be the recipients of the seals, so they can make the augments, thus making even more conflict.

It is much easier to leave it out until the coding can be properly corrected so the augment works as intended.



Gorse

[Twistagain]

Then you are granting access to a specific item and blocking other classes and in doing so, the balance for the seals is removed.

Then, on top of the other classes complaining about the favorable treatment, you then open up an arguement by those pet classes to argue they should be the recipients of the seals, so they can make the augments, thus making even more conflict.

It is much easier to leave it out until the coding can be properly corrected so the augment works as intended.



Gorse

But, if I read the above posts correctly, the aug WOULD be working as intended (due to recent changes), but the non-primary pet classes would think it was working for them and would be upset to find out that it wasn't.

[KyrosKrane]

But, if I read the above posts correctly, the aug WOULD be working as intended (due to recent changes), but the non-primary pet classes would think it was working for them and would be upset to find out that it wasn't.

And that's exactly the problem. Anyone except a necro, mage, or beastlord would effectively have a Last Blood (or other type 12) without a focus.

[Aldier]

This is similar though to a class that does not get the parry or block skills making an augment with those effects and having it give them no benefit.

I know a lot of warriors/knights want the block effect and have to explain to them that it is the skill "block" not "shield block" and they would get no benefit from the effect.

[Eanelder]

This is similar though to a class that does not get the parry or block skills making an augment with those effects and having it give them no benefit.

Very good point.

If a Shaman / SK / Enc is foolish enough to make a pet foucs Last Blood that they wont be able to use, then that is no different then me, as a mage, creating a Cold Nuke Focus last blood.

[Twistagain]

And that's exactly the problem. Anyone except a necro, mage, or beastlord would effectively have a Last Blood (or other type 12) without a focus.

Aye...sorry, I wasn't arguing that point. I was just replying to Gorse that the code exists. It's the perception (and problems that would result FROM the perception) that is the problem.

[KyrosKrane]

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I was agreeing with you.

[Roanne]

Except to casual players with just an intuitive knowledge of how foci aught to work, there is no reason nor warning to believe a pet focus wouldn't benefit him or her if he or she can summon a pet. This is completely different than equipping a focus to improve a spell damage type you cannot cast or for a skill you don't get.

The people who go the extra step of reading forums and researching compiled databases get an insight into the deeper mechanics of these systems and see why an effect works or doesn't, but the majority of players don't do this and get their information hearsay.

[Eanelder]

Except to casual players with just an intuitive knowledge of how foci aught to work, there is no reason nor warning to believe a pet focus wouldn't benefit him or her if he or she can summon a pet. This is completely different than equipping a focus to improve a spell damage type you cannot cast or for a skill you don't get.

I have to disagree with you. Having only played a caster exclusively for the last few years I had no idea that parry or block wouldnt work for me, and like suggested above some melee might not realize that block wont work for them. As a mage , I DO get a ice nuke in the form of a summoned item, how am I to "intuitively" know that a last blood cold focus wont work on it?

The onus is always on the user to know what hes doing when making a combine. For whatever reason, the "item guy" seems to be singling out the pet foucs. (which is pretty crappy for Mages and Bsts out there)

[Ngreth Thergn]

I got a definitive answer on these.

No matter what was done in the past.

They do NOT want either Pet Focus nor Haste on Visible slot pieces. The basics of it is they want you to have to keep getting particular items and upgrading those particular items, they do not want you to just be able to toss it in a visible piece and never have to upgrade the "item" again (or just move the augment to another piece of comparatively easy to get stuff)

I also got official approval to put a chromatic focus in. this new focus will NTO be in for the next patch. Our guess is sometimes in January. Additionally this will not fully backfill. It will only appear on items where Chromatic spells really started appearing from TSS on. So only on the Serpent, Sunshard and Faycite seals.

[boph]

While its not the response I was hoping for, it does answer my question. As always thanks for your time Ngreth.