So I’ve been leveling a Sorcerer the last 2 days, & I’ve got to say that the general experience involved with overall mana management has been a pretty bad one, & that experience is getting worse as I progress further with the character. Simply put, having “Focus” act as a build-enabling crutch for the Sorcerer class is fundamentally a bad idea for an ARPG, & here’s why:
It Entirely Interrupts The Flow of Combat
I specifically chose to use the phrase “fundamentally a bad idea”, because the flow of combat is one of the features that you absolutely cannot miss the mark on with Hack-n-Slash ARPGs. Games in this genre live & die by the flow of their combat. And to put it bluntly, having to stop what you’re doing every ~10 seconds in order to channel an ability for 1.5 - 2 seconds just to sustain mana needed to play your character feels like shit, & slapping some “Gain Haste After Channeling” option onto the skill isn’t going to change that. I get that the devs don’t want this game to have the pacing of Path of Exile, & that’s totally understandable, but “Focus” isn’t how you achieve that outcome for this class. This ability is nothing more than an annoying speedbump that disrupts one of the fundamental components of the game, & I think this approach should be reconsidered.
If you really don’t want to use focus to play Sorcerer, there are several ways around having to do so. What build are you playing? We could recommend a few ways other than the general “just get more mana regen on gear lol” to you.
I’m currently leveling an Elemental Nova/Lightning Blast Sorcerer, ofc w/ EN being my clear skill & LB being my single target.
According to TunkLab’s & LastEpochTool’s list of affixes, there appears to be no option for me to generically acquire any Mana Leech/Gain On Hit/Gain On Kill through item affixes, nor does there appear to be anything like that in the Mage passive trees. The only effective method for gaining mana that I’ve found is by way of stopping what I’m doing to channel Focus, or stopping what I’m doing to attack w/ Mana Strike - both of these options being a bit absurd for a spellcaster build to do in order to sustain mana needed to play the build.
Only other option that I can see is unironically “just get more mana regen on gear lol” in order to be less reliant on this class’s annoying mana management tools, but while still ultimately needing them. But hey, I am more than open to suggestions if I’m just completely missing something here.
Depending on your EN and LB specs, as well as your total mana pool and damage, you may not need mana regen other than in boss fights, or after you push higher corruption.
I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t played an EN build yet, and therefore don’t know of a good way to recover mana whilst using that skill, but LB gives lots of damage without having to spec into Chain Lightning. You can get similar single target just by using Shattershock and Closed Circuit, allowing less mana consumption for the skill as well (this assumes you likely have chill on hit or some other way to chill).
If this is not how you currently use LB, this will allow you to regen mana and also somewhat clear while using LB, giving less downtime for damage without having to use Focus or Mana Strike. Those along with ensuring you’ve spec’d into Brainstorm and Spell Slinger in the Sorcerer tree should go a long way, especially when paired with Sapphire rings.
First of all, thanks for the replies. I do appreciate them.
My primary issue as of now is with Elemental Nova as a clear skill, & not with Lightning Blast. I can lay my finger on the Lightning Blast button for quite some time before mana becomes an issue, & because of that I actually don’t mind channeling Focus during a boss fight due to that ~1 - 2 seconds of channel time giving me access to ~20+ seconds of uninterrupted LB spam time.
But Elemental Nova is a totally different story, not only due to it’s mana cost & lack of options to recover that mana, but also due to the nature in which it’s used as a clear skill. I’m using Elemental Nova in a setting which involves me trying to race from point A to point B (start/end of a Monolith, or any generic campaign area), & having to stop what I’m doing in order to channel an ability purely to recover mana before continuing on is highly disruptive to the general flow of that process of me racing from point A to point B; hence why it feels like shit to use. Factor in that I’m currently having to stop & channel Focus quite literally every 7 - 10 seconds while progressing from point A to point B and then you’ve got a mana management issue so bad that it’s, in my opinion, a fundamental flaw that has no place in a modern ARPG.
With all that said, I’m going to see the build through & hope for the best.
I’m somewhat investing into mana already in order to access damage scaling from idols, so here’s to hoping that by the time I get to “endgame” some investments in mana regen & -mana costs on top of that will alleviate my issue. But if I’m being honest, I’m skeptical that it will. It seems to me that the devs have designed this class with Focus in mind, & I just can’t help but see that as a bad idea for a modern ARPG.
An easy fix to most mana issues with EN is to use wands with -3 mana cost implicit. Setting up the idols to have 300+ mana pool and get lightning aegis procs. That gives back mana upon kill.
If you are using flame ward, spec down into the warmth node and get 100% mana regen there from your base values. By using some more advanced crafting you should get EN down to 9 mana cost.
As another option instead of focus and you are using a crystal sword, you can mana strike (lightning) on wounded or mobs that are close to you.
I’m running Elemental Nova with Luminaire and Arcane Projection, and Arcane Ascendance with Tranquility, Acuity and Mana Surge. AA’s cooldown management takes some getting used to (recommend some CDR) but I rarely have mana issues while clearing. Focus is good for bossing and error recovery but there are other ways to sustain clear.
When you use Lightning Blast for single target you go through Chain Lightning to get to Convergence which will do ~4 times the damage to a single target compared to not having it. If you’re not taking Convergence then Lightning Blast isn’t a single target skill.
If you’re using a melee weapon then you won’t be doing much spell damage as you’d need either a staff or wand/catalyst.
Edit: You can spec Disintegrate to generate 20 mana/sec when hitting mobs which might be ok for clear, and taking the Twinbeam node doubles that.
As already stated by others, there are some things to tweak your mana sustain in general without using focus, that might help you.
For Lightning builds theres also Culvinars Claim, that has a lot of mana regen, although it will convert your mana to ward when you reach max mana, what sometimes leads to having more mana issues than before.
But regarding focus I’m a bit devided. I felt that the current implementation is ok with the mana burst.
But I also feel that it’s not the best feeling having to stop doing what you do to channel for mana reg.
A suggestion I made a while ago was to implement a branch that makes it an instant cast and provides mana reg as a temporary buff. There could be some mechanics to balance this like
Being silenced for the duration
chancel the buff as soon as you use a skill
reduce the mana reg in comparison to the channelled version
Or make it a movement skill so you can channel while moving around.
Just the ability to be able to move and not stand around helplessly would make a great difference.
I have a level 85 Sorcerer in my time playing and really disliked managing mana in general, ended up playing non spenders and do in general on all classes
For Focus I had an idea of either reworking or adding a substantially different way to use it. The idea would be to turn it into an autocast ‘toggle’ the reason its autocast is to not interrupt casting. When Focus is activated you deal no damage but every cast costs no mana but also refunds the mana cost on hit of that spell, the idea would be you are spamming a spell and see you are running out of mana, toggle on focus hit the mob a couple of times to regain mana, toggle off focus to begin dealing damage again - could be nodes on the skill giving 50% more mana back on hit etc
This also wouldnt be for everyone so the normal way of Focus would have to remain, also could be abused depending on the engine
It could make an interesting node, certainly. Though it would need a global 100% less (the opposite of a more modifier, like Multishot has on the Giant Slayer node) damage modifier to prevent dealing damage with other skills or proccing ailments while you gain the mana on hit effect.
The OP did not provide any real build information so I went with some of the basic fixes. Mana strike can be surprisingly powerful when having elemental damage prefixes stacked on. Its a good option for those little mobs that maybe have 1k hp and it can take those out instead of having to EN and waste casts on them.
Now if you are talking the chillbear variant of this build… I would agree that the crystal sword would not work well.
Playing a pure caster w/ Elemental Nova for general clearing & Lightning Blast single target.
I want to remain a pure caster so Mana Strike isn’t an option for me. I’m currently lvl 68, & some investments into flat mana + mana regen have made it so I rely on Focus a lot less, but not to the point of me being able to drop Focus from the build…& I’m honestly not a fan at all of being forced to rely on this clunky skill.
As I stated previously, I’m strongly convinced of the idea that Focus is designed w/ an approach to mana management that simply does not fit well within modern ARPGs. Being able to build your character in a manner which manages it’s mana passively (leech, gain on hit/kill, etc…) is, in my opinion, simply the proper/superior approach to games in this genre.
Maybe you could review some of chillbear and FoE’s build guides. They have a lot of tips on the micromanagement side of EN and LB. I dropped focus altogether and went for idol fixes as you mentioned earlier. I run about 33 mana regen, found a T7 mana regen amulet that saves a lot of strain on the build.
Mana is a tool to balance the use of different skills which are expensive. Without mana you would just cast the most expensive/best ones. They would probably have to give the skills a cooldown.
To solve mana problems you have either to invest into mana regeneration or find other ways to reliable get it back (personally I think that the game currently lacks some more options).
Looking at it in this way I think Focus is a nice tool for people who want to use big mana spells without going all in in regeneration. You can still do it but you have to stand in place sometimes to regenerate your mana.
There’s nothing wrong with your statement. All the tips provided are helpful.
The OP complaint was that Focus feels bad as a mana generator because of its channelling mechanic. And no tip here changed that. Theres no way to build the skill to make it feel nice. There are ways to get rid of Focus. But if this is the best way to play a Sorcerer, what is this skill all about?
So I’m not agreeing with the sentiment “deal with the clunkyness or drop it”. I’d wish for an overhaul that makes this skill an equal option for mana regen that feels nice and doesn’t interrupt the flow of combat.
Yeah., I agree it is bad. But I just see it as a “fall-back” solution. Will always try to skip it. You can also use some triggered skill as your 5th specialisation which does not have to be on your skillbar and then place an unskilled Focus there for worst-case scenarios.
Also I think there is a Focus Retaliation build which uses Focus to deal damage.
I suspect the OP is playing the Nova Boy build (credit to FoE) or a variant thereof. I am also lv100 playing that build.
Channeling EN in that build does massive damage to packs of mobs, it also provides health leech and many other benefits. The one drawback to that is that it drains the mana fairly quickly, so focus is the penalty you suffer for all that damage and screen cleansing.
In arena, for instance, you do have to teleport away at times to recharge your mana with focus. However, the alternative would be that you could say leech mana as well as health and simply stand there channelling EN until everything was dead. Whilst this might be satisfying to some, this is very much “Easy Mode” gaming. If you could do that, then what would be the point in playing such a powerful build?
To the OP, I would suggest tweaking the build slightly. For instance, I took the mirror clones in my teleport. Now, in arena say, when I need to TP away to focus my mana, I leave behind 3 decoys, which gives me just enough time if I move away from them to Focus up my mana to start killing again. This is acceptable to me as it still makes playing contain some risk of death. “Immortal mana” with this build would simply make the game boring and remove 99% of the challenge.
