Thing is, there are few other ways to do it.
If it doesn't lose focus, any forms on the same page(find player/guild, chat box) will not work properly with WASD keys.

hmm that makes sense. 

i don't really know much about all this programming stuff, but would there be a way to have focus enabled until you click into the chat box to talk, and then it 'loses focus' so that you can type in there?

There might be another way. I'll look into it.

15 mins is a little too long for noob spawns.

They should respawn every 5 mins. It'll be easier to implement the world attack system.

No, 15 minutes is fine.

They are still visible to other players.
Let me explain...

Every normal NPC has bioenergy. Every winning attack knocks 1 from it's total. Once it gets to 0, the NPC dies globally, respawning at some point later.

But, while the bioenergy is okay, attacking an NPC only removes it from your list. Other players can still attack it.
Therefore, as long as there are plenty of npcs on the map, it is okay.

As long as there are plenty of monsters on the map, sure.

But now there arn't enough for a 15 minute respawn time.