New Arcanist ability: Arcane Focus Creation

[Rias]

NEWS HEADLINE: Library of Qamar restores functionality of Arcane Etcher, trains Arcanists in its use

Many will recall the days of Arcanists utilizing arcane focus objects such as staffs or wands to allow more convenient usage of arcane channels in years past. Unfortunately, a series of incidents some years ago resulted in the disruption of both the production of these focus objects as well as, for a time, the ability to wield the arcane channels at all. Since then the stock of such focus objects has run dry and Arcanists have lately been forced to rely on hand-drawn occult diagrams for the simple act of opening a channel, which even with the usage of extra convenience glyphs has still been quite cumbersome to the point that arcane channelers have become a rarity in recent times.

The Scholars Guild of the Library of Qamar is thus very excited to announce that they have at last managed to restore the device known as the Arcane Etcher which was used to produce the glyphstones that were utilized in those old wands and staffs. While the Library has opted not to resume the resource-intensive process of producing and stocking such items as an organization, they are offering training to experienced Arcanists on how to utilize the Arcane Etcher for themselves. Interested individuals are cautioned to not spend too much time around the Arcane Etcher without taking frequent breaks, as the cavern housing the Etcher is awash in powerful arcane flows that are known to be very taxing on the mind, as is the process of using the Etcher.

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Arcanists now have access to the Arcane Focus Creation ability! Further information can be found by checking out the wiki article or typing HELP ARCANE FOCUS CREATION in-game. This is essentially a way for Arcanists to create their own focus items called glyphstones so they can use channeling abilities (such as Fortourgy) on-demand without a diagram at all. Just type FORTOURGY, for instance, and as long as you have a fortourgy glyphstone on-hand and knowledge of the `taqet` glyph, you'll start channeling fortourgy. The focuses (foci?) will take a little durability damage upon each use, and will also eventually stop working after a period of time to prevent hoard-and-forget tactics.

While it has a somewhat high skill requirement to create these (400 Arcana as of this posting, may be adjusted), the good news is they can be shared. So an experienced Arcanist could make some glyphstones for an Arcanist who has just gotten started (and knows the associated channeling glyph), and that lower-skilled Arcanist can utilize those gifted glyphstones just fine.

Bonus: Gems now have an actual purpose. The translucent ones, anyway. Sorry, opaque gems.

Another Bonus: It was fun to tie in and give an explanation of CLOK's old zapping wands and staffs, and reference the event that disrupted their channeling several years back as a reason on-demand channeling has been so rare recently in COGG times.

[Navi]

Is the lore behind why that disruption happened still accurate to the old world, or were there any edits?

[Teri]

I was curious if there is any intent (if not implemented?) for more expensive or finer quality gems to have a longer time as a focus object and usage. Seeing as some translucent gems sell for 200 and some like sapphires are almost 5,000 riln, and some exquisite ones are upwards of 10,000. It would also be nice for market gems to be sorted in translucent and opaque for time saving ordering on market searches.

[Navi]

Yeah, those are great ideas. I'd love to see certain gems have affinities for specific channeling. Like a fire ruby actually improve your channeling for pyromancy. I'm not sure how they would go about doing this since all they do is open the channel. Maybe a buff that stays with the character for a short while after using the gem to channel?
Benefits could include less energy drain when channeling, more raw cast damage, or an additional opened channel when those are available.

[nobody]

I tinkered with this a tiny bit when it was first released but mostly haven't been very active on my Arcanist. Then I had to clean out my bank vault, and suddenly I had a good supply of gems to poke at, so I finally have done some proper testing and have developed opinions.

First, the lore bits and visuals (if they can be called that in a text medium) are a delight. Second, I have to admit I was prepared to not like this for a few reasons, and after actually trying it out more I find that I really like it. Quite a lot. So much so that I wish it could do even more (like make a focus that allows casting distyr without a circle), but I'm not sure if that would be sound lore-wise or mechanics-wise.

And last, despite my love for the foci, there are some aspects that I'd change up given the chance (mostly nice-to-have, not need-to-have).
- Opening a channel via a glyph circle costs between 50 riln and 5 riln per opening of the channel (with 6 riln being a typical cost at high skill and 40 riln being more common with less skill), while opening a channel with a glyphstone can cost as little as 1 riln per opening or well over 100 riln per channel opening, and at the high end it becomes much harder to recoup the cost of opening a channel (especially if wearing armor that limits how long the channel will remain open). I'd love to see the glyphstones' durability be tied to type and quality of gem (essentially market value) to level out those costs more. Then Arcanists would have a reason to use the higher cost gems (my testing is admittedly limited, but I haven't found any reason to use the higher cost gems).
- I haven't had much trouble with juggling glyphstones because I aliased my channel opening to immediately be followed by stowing my glyphstone, but I do worry a bit that they'll get stolen because they need to be in an open container to be of any use. And while glyphstones can be rather expensive it doesn't make sense to register them because glyphstones are inherently temporary (and that would really raise the cost per channel open quite a bit), so I'd definitely be a fan of being able to attach them to rings and necklaces and the like as has been suggested by others. Maybe the library could even sell fancy jewelry like the "permanent" ESP artifacts where one could swap in a new glyphstone when the old one is dead.
- If it were possible to use a glyphstone to cast a glyph effect like distyr, that would expand the market for glyphstones from inexperienced Arcanists who cannot make their own to anyone who knows a glyph and wants to have more ready access to it, and that would be a nice unique income source for arcanists.