I entered soa instance today and after about 30 seconds my buffs started to run out so i rebuffed myself. Soa is ment to last 30 minutes and my buffs (as an iss) are also ment to last 30 minutes. So theoretically they should have lasted the rest of the instance.
But when i got to 1:42 remaining my buffs started their minute countdown, and so would have run out with 42 seconds to go.
So either my buffs only last 29 minutes and not 30 or soa is actually 31 minutes long and not 30.
I entered soa instance today and after about 30 seconds my buffs started to run out so i rebuffed myself. Soa is ment to last 30 minutes and my buffs (as an iss) are also ment to last 30 minutes. So theoretically they should have lasted the rest of the instance.
But when i got to 1:42 remaining my buffs started their minute countdown, and so would have run out with 42 seconds to go.
So either my buffs only last 29 minutes and not 30 or soa is actually 31 minutes long and not 30.
Anyone else noticed this?
I've noticed this as well as pretty much anyone who has done nursery a handful of times. The counter lasts roughly 1-2:30 longer than buffs do.
On my Iss I've even buffed after the timer had started and my buffs were wearing out with roughly 2 mins left on the clock.
I've never noticed the Regenerative Energy giving me more time in teh instance. All it seems to do it give you a chance to get up to 80 (IIRC) extra items to turn in at the end.
I've done it hundreds of times. Sometimes I caught lots of bonus energies, sometimes I ignored them. All I can tell is the timer seems to work ok for the first 15-20 minutes, then you somehow get 1-2 extra minutes, so the instance actually lasts ~32 minutes in average, for whatever reason.
It doesn't give more time. It gives extra items. What you thought was "extra time" was just the time frame limiting your run to the npc.
If you don't believe me, check the guide (using your own link) :p
Regulary it appears that you get the Energy Regeneration skill. When you get the skill you have a certain amount of time left to return to the NPC Tie quick and he will exchange your Regeneration Skill for more Points.
You will get randomly either a level one, two or level three skill.
level 1: 40 points => 25s time to return to Tie
level 2: 60 points => 20s time to return to Tie
level 3: 80 points => 15s time to return to Tie
As I said, I used to do it 6-8 times a day and I remember very well how it worked. Sometimes I caught bonus energies several times per minute, dozens of times in total. Should it really give extra seconds then on some occasions the Nursery would take 40-50 minutes to complete (with all the "bonus seconds" I was supposedly getting). However, it was always around 31-32 minutes, with no evident correlation with any factor.
Yes, the regeneration energy stuff definitely does NOT give extra time, it's just extra quest items if you turn them in to the NPC while the buff is still on you. It does not influence the timer at all. But the instance always lasts around 31-32 minutes, that's true, even though the timer SEEMS to indicate 30 minutes overall. But sometimes the timer seems to "jump" (e.g. once I noticed it jumping from 0:55 to 1:00 again), so maybe there is some glitch server-side.
I have actually put a stop watch down sevaral times because of this and while the buff timers are always correct the instance timer is randomly off by as much as 5 minutes!
The first 10 minutes are almost always perfectly correct, the 2nd 10 minutes are mostly prolonged by 1.5 minutes and the last 10 mins by another 2-3 minutes.
I have not found anything gameplay wise that I can link that too...
The quest timer lasts about 31m 20~30s, despite stating 30:00 at the offset (this is timing with a stopwatch, because the discrepancy bugged me enough to investigate).
Lately, I've been popping a 30m vitality potion as soon as I talk to the NPC and start the timer, and it always runs out 80 - 90s before the quest does. In reality, this issue is a good one because it allows you an extra minute to XP, but buffs-wise, it's annoying (it's fine if you are a buffer, maybe).