Welcome back, brave misadventurers, to the home of Gazerman, local hero and legend. In this installment, Gazerman will meet his greatest adversary yet: an update without him.
We have a special treat for you today from our artists, but first we would like to introduce you to our Focus items.
Focus items are off-hand only implements intended for the sorcerers at heart. Through them, you will channel forbidden powers capable of tearing apart the toughest foe. Unlike shields though, they provide no defenses.
Focus items come in two styles, the tomes for a more refined spellcaster and the savage implements of forbidden arts. Both types of Focus items provide a set amount of cooldown reduction, but where they differ is in their base energy regeneration. Whereas tomes provide flat bonuses, savage Foci give a percent bonus. Which one benefits you more will depend entirely on you gear preferences. One thing is certain though: the most powerful spellcasters will want a combination of Weapon and Focus for the largest bonuses to their preferred damage types.
Below are some examples of these Foci equipped:
And let us not forget the special treat. By popular demand, we have prepared wallpaper versions of some of our recent promotional materials. You can grab them here.
That is all for me for today! Check back in two weeks for another update (04/29/13)!
These look great! I’m definitely looking forward to trying these out, since I’m such a bibliophile, lol.
Although, the third guy looks like he just got back from a trip to the library.
I like the look of the wallpapers, too. Are we gonna get one of the newly unveiled female character, later?
From what Zantai said, the tomes have flat bonuses, but the savage foci have percentage based bonuses. Speaking of, is that 2nd foci a voodoo doll of some sort?
Wow the art in this game is fantastic! Another awesome update Zantai! This will quench my thirst for Grim Dawn news for another two weeks. Keep up the awesome work!
I also want to say good job with the foci. I think it will make for interesting itemization which is great!
But to comment on Caudheur’s post, I like two handed weapons for casters and melee because they usually feel more powerful even though they are usually slower.
This leads me to a question for crate, I know that two handed weapons were one of the stretch goals that was reached on the kickstarter, so are there going to be two handed weapons designed for both melee and caster types?
If a tome gives a flat 20 regeneration / second and a foci gives 20% and I have 100 mana/energy then it will be the same.
However if I choose to gain more energy via stats/items that will make the foci better, but with those choices of gaining more max energy/mana that will mean their will be other stats/item affixes that can’t be taken.
So it depends on what you want really and how you spend your stats or which items you choose.
Anyways I think this is an interesting concept and will allow for more diversity and customization with builds.
Edit: Numbers aren’t known so we can’t really tell about balance right now. I would think tomes would have a higher number while foci have a lower % number because it will scale more.
A flat bonus will be better in the early levels or if your regeneration rate is so low, that you would not benefit much from a percent bonus. High level tomes might also come with a massive flat bonus.
I am also sure tomes and foci can have affixes, so that you eventually get the other bonus type, too.
Oh okay so tomes are for a bigger mana pool and foci’s are for more regen? Well that makes sense! I wonder if how big of a difference it’ll make in this game…
Tomes do not increase your energy pool, but your energy regeneration. An affix might give you additional energy, but a flat bonus to energy regeneration is their innate quality.
