The new Telelocator Focus has almost completely replaced the Lazy Deserter

[Mr.Oshiro]

In this update, you can use Polished Orb Fragments to teleport to any Telelocator Focus, and the fragments on the Telelocator Focus will not be consumed. This almost completely replaces the Lazy Deserter, as even the advantage of easier Desert Stone acquisition is gone, not to mention that the Telelocator Focus can be used at any time after installing the fragments, while the Lazy Deserter still cannot be used solo. I know that Fragments can only be obtained after the lunar rift, but I think the LD is not an early-game item either, so there is no reason for it to be completely replaced. There needs to be some balance between them.

Additionally, the LD utilized the Moon Eye, which I believe is actually a type of lunar magic. Compared to using the Shadow Magic Telelocator Focus, perhaps combining the new item with it would be a better choice?

[Maxil20]

9 minutes ago, Mr.Oshiro said:

This almost completely replaces the Lazy Deserter, as even the advantage of easier Desert Stone acquisition is gone, not to mention that the Telelocator Focus can be used at any time after installing the fragments, while the Lazy Deserter still cannot be used solo.

The Lazy deserter is accessible in the first summer, which is a far cry from the new fragments being almost at the end of progression. Sure, they aren't "early" game, but for 99.9% of players these places in progression will not overlap with each other for several ingame years.

In addition, the lazy deserter is much easier to build and reliably use once you do have access to the antlion, as you can practically build as many as you want via converting eggs to desert stones and having a way to produce orange gems, which pile up pretty quickly in most worlds. I don't see how the easier access to desert stones is also outclassed, as you lose the refined orb when doing choice warps and players who are running endgame builds are going to very likely have several of these focuses for their teleport networks.

I really don't think this is a major balance issue. The only time this gets outclassed is if you have an ultra endgame world, which most players will never reach or much less play to the point their focus networks outclass deserter ones.

[Pruinae]

Either you make a telelocator network just as you would do a Winona tp network and spend telelocator staff uses (and sanity), or you spend the orbs over time. Even then, Lazy Deserter is still useful as a "supplement" since you don't spend anything to teleport from one to another.

You get like 12 orbs per golem kills, do we know how to reset the golems? Pretty sure it is from Fuelweaver kills, right? So it is 12 tps every 20 days after you are done setting up the network, unless you do an equidistant tp network (The equidistant one still won't work in the caves, so there is also that). The devs did say that the loot will be changed, so we don't really know how amassing it will work.

Regarding the theming, I do agree it is weird to socket the orbs on the focus (that is made using nightmare fuel...) or using the purple gem staff to teleport to the orb-fueled focus.

Edited 9 hours ago by Pruinae

[YouKnowWho142]

Im still gonna use the lazy deserter plenty. Any character with a teleport is able to really quickly, easily, and efficiently teleport a whole group of people with them, and you accumulate plenty of desert stones.

I also don’t play super sweaty beating cc before the first summer every year, especially with friends, so there is plenty of time where the lazy deserter is useful before unlocking it and even after you unlock the new teleport there is plenty of reason to keep using the lazy deserter.

Also, if you’re playing with others, would you rather use 1 fragment and several deserted stones or several fragments? They work together very well too

Edited 9 hours ago by YouKnowWho142

[Well-met]

no issue here

[WendyHater9000]

No no no, it’s not only behind lunar rift, but also lock behind 3 lunar bosses which is much late game than you thought.

Also according to your logic, star caller and scale furnace completely replaced fire pit too. Do they need to get changed?

[Jakepeng99]

5 hours ago, Mr.Oshiro said:

In this update, you can use Polished Orb Fragments to teleport to any Telelocator Focus, and the fragments on the Telelocator Focus will not be consumed. This almost completely replaces the Lazy Deserter, as even the advantage of easier Desert Stone acquisition is gone, not to mention that the Telelocator Focus can be used at any time after installing the fragments, while the Lazy Deserter still cannot be used solo. I know that Fragments can only be obtained after the lunar rift, but I think the LD is not an early-game item either, so there is no reason for it to be completely replaced. There needs to be some balance between them.

Additionally, the LD utilized the Moon Eye, which I believe is actually a type of lunar magic. Compared to using the Shadow Magic Telelocator Focus, perhaps combining the new item with it would be a better choice?

I don’t know how expensive the upkeep of fragments is, but I don’t think you know that it uses an orb thingy when used. It has a cost whereas lazy deserter has none.

Reality is people would use both in tandom. One person uses the focus, then they teleport everyone else for free using the deserter.