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Focus Items work on spells to enhance them in some way, everything from decreasing the mana cost to improving the effectiveness of spells.
Focus Items work come in two varieties: General focus lines (Spell Haste, Improved Damage, etc), and by special enhanced lines (Zephyr of Brell, Haste of Solusek, etc).
Generally, the general focus lines are level limited. Level I (Spell Haste I, Improved Damage I, etc) are limited to spells below level 20. Level II (Improved Healing II, Extended Range II, etc) are limited to below level 44. Level III (Summoning Efficiency III, Mana Preservation III) are limited to below level 60. Level IV (Burning Affliction IV, Reagent Conservation IV, etc) are limited to below level 65.
Special enhanced lines tend to not be as limited as general focuses; rather they tend to work on all spells up to level 65. Special enhanced lines also tend to be better than the general focuses. For example, the focus Anger of Solusek is 25% improved damage, while Improved Damage IV is only 20% improved damage.
Usually, when the focus takes hold, you will get a message (such as "Your Naki's Spiked Ring begins to glow."). Depending on the focus, they will glow at the beginning of the cast, or at the end of the cast.
If you use a spell that is above the maximum level of the focus, generally a roll-off will occur on the focus. This roll-off is dependent on the exact focus item. Generally it is 10% per level. For example, using a Mana Preservation III effect (10% mana preservation up to level 60) on a level 61 spell will only reduce mana cost up to 9%, a level 62 spell by 8%, all the way up to a level 70 spell where the focus effect will reach 0%, and become worthless to equip.
Spell Haste works to decrease the cast time on spells linearly from their base value. Multiple worn spell haste does not stack; the highest value wins out. Spell Haste from spells stack with worn spell haste
Spell Haste has a limit of 50%, meaning that no spell can ever be cast doube its base time.
For example, suppose a Magician wants to cast the spell Call of the Hero. The cast time is 12 seconds. With a Spell Haste IV item (15% spell haste), the new cast time is 10.2 seconds.
Spell Haste comes in many forms: normal Spell Haste, Summoning Haste, Haste of Mithaniel, Haste of Solusek, etc. It's important to know which one does which.
Most spell haste effects have a limit of a 3 second minimum cast time to be effective.
Improved Damage and Burning Affliction are very similar in nature.
Improved Damage works to improve the damage of the spell when it lands on the target by a random amount, anywhere from 1% to the maximum value of the focus above the base. It does not effect critical damage, only the base damage.
Suppose a magician is wearing an Improved Damage IV focus item, and a critical blast is performed on Firebolt of Tallon. The base of the spell is 2000 damage. In this instance the Improved Damage IV focus does its full effect for 20% extra damage, and will add 400 damage to the spell. The critical blast will add double damage to the 2000 damage base. The final damage done is 2000 + 2000 + 400 = 4400 damage, a full 120% more damage than the base.
Burning Affliction works virtually the same, except it improves the damage on each tick by a random amount, anywhere from 1% to the maximum value of the focus.
Improved Healing works virtually the same as Improved Damage, except it effects healing spells.
For example, Planar Renewal has a base heal of 1200 HP. With Improved Healing IV, it's possible for Planar Renewal to heal as high as 1440 HP.
Mana Preservation decreases the mana cost by a random amount, up to the maximum value. It stacks linearly with Specialization and Spell Casting Mastery.
Suppose a Magician who specialized Evocation and has Spell Casting Mastery 3 casts Firebolt of Tallon. The base mana cost is 500. Thru Specialize and SCM the mana cost is decreased by 105. Mana Preservation IV would decrease this cost further by 1 to 10%, or 5 to 50 mana. Thus with Mana Preserve IV the maximum mana that could be saved in this instance is 50 mana, for a cost of only 350 mana to the spell.
Reagent Conservation provides a random chance not to consume a reagent. It does not eliminate the need to carry reagents, however.
Extended Enhancement increases the duration of beneficial spells by a fixed amount. Although Magicians don't receive it, Extended Enhancement stacks linearly with Spell Casting Reinforcement.
For example, suppose a Cleric casts the spell Virtue, which has a 2 hour 30 minute duration. With Spell Casting Reinforcement Mastery its duration would be increased by 50%, or an additional hour and 15 minutes. With Extended Enhancement IV it would be further increased by 15%, or 22 minutes 30 seconds. Total extension is 1 hour 37 minutes 30 seconds, for a new total time of 4 hours 7 minutes 30 seconds.
Extended Range allows spells to hit targets that are a farther distance than the base range of the spell.
However, this focus is slightly limited. When the spell is cast, it checks the range of the target. If the target is outside the normal cast range, it checks the focus for extended range to the target. If the target is within the extended range, the focus takes hold.
If the target is in normal cast range but NOT extended range, this focus does not take hold. Also, if the target moves out of normal cast range during the cast (even if its into extended range) this focus does not take hold. The target must be in extended range at the time of cast for this focus to work
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