Focus 1.0



Focus refers to special abilities unlocked after The Second Dream quest, revolving around unlocking a Tenno's true powers guided by the principles of the Five Great Tenno Schools.

Focus Ability
At the end of The Second Dream quest, players are asked to choose one of the five schools as their primary Focus, which will grant them a Focus Ability, a power which can be used regardless of which Warframe the player equips. The type of Focus Ability is dependent on the school chosen, with each ability granting different effects. When the Focus Ability is activated, a spiritual projection of the Tenno Operator will appear behind the Warframe, and player control shifts to said projection, which will begin using its chosen power in the direction of aim. In this so-called Transcendent State, the player can move the projection as well as aim its attack, and both the projection and the Warframe are invulnerable to attack. This state lasts for a short duration dependent on upgrade level or if the player manually deactivates it, and while activating a Focus Ability consumes no Energy, the ability requires a minimum cooldown time of 180 seconds before it can be used.

The default keybinding to use Focus ability is or. This can be changed under "Power E" in Key Bindings. Once a Focus is unlocked, a circular gauge will appear in the lower right corner of the player UI to the right of the Warframe's Energy gauge, which is used to display the Focus ability's cooldown state - the gauge will fill with blue energy until it's full, at which point it will gain a circular glow denoting that the ability is ready to use.

Tenno Schools
The Tenno Schools are disciplines that represent a particular way of thought in regards to the Tenno's personality and fighting styles, with each school focusing on a different discipline, manifesting as a difference in the type of powers granted by their signature Focus Abilities.

Focus is classified into the five Tenno "Schools":, , , , and. Each school has a skill tree that branches out from the primary signature ability with upgrade nodes called Ways, which  grants additional utility to the ​signature ability. Once unlocked, a Way has to be activated by clicking on its icon which will change its icon color from black to red, with a red line leading back to the preceding active Way in the tree to signify that it is on. With the exception of Mastery-type Ways that decrease cooldown, each active Way will add 45 seconds to the cooldown on the signature ability, regardless of whichever rank it is. Players can choose to deactivate a Way to reduce the signature ability's cooldown time. Ways also require that the preceding requisite Way in the skill tree is active in order to be activated: if the preceding Way is turned off, the Way node it is connected to will also be deactivated.

Certain Ways provide Passive upgrades, which confer bonuses that last for the duration of a mission, applying to either the Warframe or the weapons they carry. These passive Ways do not activate until the signature Focus ability has been used at least once during the mission.

Individual Ways also contain their own ranks which can be upgraded by spending Focus points to enhance that particular Way's attributes. Unlike unlocking a Way which requires a lump sum of Focus points to be spent, ranking up a Way is performed by gradually allocating points into it by holding down the Focus button beside the Way's icon until the required amount of Focus is reached. Allocation of Focus points can be stopped at any time or until the currently available amount of Focus points for that school is depleted, and once allocated can be confirmed to lock the points into that Way, or cancelled to return the allocated points to the School's available Focus points for spending elsewhere. Focus points allocated in such a manner cannot be reimbursed once allocated and confirmed into a Way. The amount of Focus points required to rank up a Way increases with each rank purchased. Ranking up a Way will not increase the cooldown penalty for activating it.

Each school starts with a Way capacity or Pool of five slots. Initially the signature skill takes up a single Way, leaving four more spaces open. Adding other active Ways or ranking up a Way will take one Pool slot each, with each additional rank increasing its Pool cost by one. Players can spend Focus to increase the school's pool capacity, increasing the number of Ways that can be activated by one per purchase. While players can unlock any number of Ways in a school's skill tree, if they have an insufficient Pool capacity they will only be able to activate or rank up a limited number of Ways. The amount of Focus required to increase Way capacity becomes increasingly more expensive the more capacity is added.

Focus points are school-specific, where points earned from one school can only be used in that school, ex. earned points can only be used to unlock Ways in the  school. Other schools asides from the originally chosen school can be unlocked, but require spending that specific school's Focus points to do so, thus players must first gather Focus points using the Lens of that specific school.

While a player has only one School at the beginning, they can use Focus Lenses from other Schools to earn the corresponding Focus points required to unlock other Schools. Once a player has unlocked other Schools, they can choose to select a School as their Primary, which will switch out the current school's Focus ability for the chosen school's ability for use during missions. Only one School can be active at any time.

Focus Abilities and Upgrades
Madurai = "They followed the path of Engage The Enemy. Their swift, uncompromising onslaught, holding nothing back and recklessly attacking their foes, could vanquish an opponent before he had the chance to steel himself. Speed and savagery characterized this school."



This skill tree focuses on straight damage.

"They trained to Counter the Enemy, and move with an opponent's attacks in order to nullify them. They maintained constant awareness in order to defend against all aggression."
 * -|Vazarin =



This skill tree focuses on heals, revives and shields.

"This discipline focused on Knowing the Enemy, and the tacticians of Naramon believed that to truly understand a foe would confer the greatest advantage upon a warrior."
 * -|Naramon =



This skill tree focuses on crowd control, Finishers, and critical damage.

"They pushed themselves to Outlast the Enemy, to withstand all aggression without retreat. They believed that if the enemy could not match their endurance, then a battle could be won without having even commenced."
 * -|Unairu =



This skill tree focuses on petrifying enemies either through its basic ability, Basilisk Flare, or through melee attacks, increasing the player's own and their allies' armor, and reducing enemies' armor through melee attacks.

"They believed the clearest path to victory was to Dominate the Enemy. They sought to choke an opponent of all resources; that sheer strength could erase any resistance."
 * -|Zenurik =



This skill tree focuses on crowd control, energy restoration and general utility.

Tips

 * If activating Focus purely to activate its passive abilities and without enemies nearby, manually deactivating the ability will allow players to return to normal state immediately to prevent having to play out the rest of the attack's duration. However, this does not reduce the cooldown towards the next use: the charge will reset to 0 regardless of whether the ability is ended early or not.
 * As activating a Way increases the cooldown time of Focus abilities, it is recommended that no more than 3-4 Ways be activated at a time to keep cooldown to a respectable level. It is thus prudent to choose which Ways to activate that suit the mission beforehand.

Trivia

 * The Focus system has been in development for a very long period, and was initially slated for release in Update 14. The developers admitted that Augmented Mods and Arcane Enhancements initially started out as components of the Focus system before being split from it entirely.
 * The five schools of Focus are based off the five elements of Wu Xing found in Book of Documents（尚书) and is widely used in ancient Chinese philosophical traditions. It resembles the five elements of godai, which lacks Naramon (the tree), as seen on the backgrounds of each school's skill tree page. The Five Elements are Fire, Earth, Water, Wood, and Metal.
 * The Naramon School represents Wood 木. In Wu Xing this is associated with the eyes, growth, flourish, and reaching outward.
 * The Madurai School represents Fire 火. In Wu Xing this is associated with the heart, force, passion, and raw power.
 * The Unairu School represents Earth 土. In Wu Xing this is associated with the flesh, stability, durability, and bearing.
 * The Zenurik School represents Metal 金. Also interpretable as mineral or crystal, this is associated in Wu Xing with the lung, concentrating, reserving, and abundance.
 * The Vazarin School represents Water 水. In Wu Xing this is associated with the bone, flexiblility, supporting, adaptability, and sympathy.
 * While the replies that the player chooses during the Operator's conversation with the Lotus has no gameplay effect, the choice of replies are used to reorder the choices of Tenno Schools. Once the selection screen appears, with the school most suited to the Operator appearing on the left, and choice to the right being the least suited. Example: choosing the conversation options relating to knowledge will put Naramon to the leftmost side as the most desirable choice. Players are still free to choose the Focus they wish to start with however.

Bugs

 * Joining a high-latency game has a tendency to cause the selected Focus ability to fully charge instantaneously and removes the cooldown completely.

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