Just turned 51, need advice

[banewolf7]

So, I just turned 51 and I need a little help with AA's. I hear a lot of discussion about ppl saying certain AA's are pointless, and whatnot, I was hoping for a little advice on which ones I should focus on. I'm not at the point where I'm doing any raiding yet, although I would like to. I mostly duo with my pally friend, and solo. Groups can be hard to find and unreliable and I find I XP better solo.

More importantly right now than which AA's to get is should I start working on them now. I've been told to wait until lvl 60 or so. I've heard that by waiting til 60, you can get your 51 and up AA's much faster. Is this advisable and if so, how long should I wait to start working on it.

Also, I'm an Iksar and already have an exp penalty, but I've read that Iksars don't get any penalty for AAXP. I also have been working on Leadership XP so my lvling has been fairly slow the last few lvls. It has only sped up when I started lvling in HHK.

Any help would be great, I'm sure there's nothing worse then finally getting a few AA points and putting em into something crappy because of ignorance!

[NecroScumBag]

Well, I've heard the same thing u have. Well I have done some reading and research. This is what I have can up for my 51 Iksar as well. At 51 I am working to get Inprove Regen thos 3 extra health per tick will drop health lost with lich to almost Zero. Then I am holding off to 55, Then buying Omen wars expansion and getting my 9th spell slot. From there I will be probly holding off to 60 then FARM AA. However This is a topic I seen coming up alot more. Please Correct me if I am wrong.

[Felicite]

In my opinion, you are a spell caster.. your primary strength is spells. As such you should stay at 0% AAXP until you reach the highest level you can get spells for. AA gets easier and easier to get quickly as you level up. What takes a week at 60, takes a night at 65.

I was stubborn and did 6 General at 51, 12 Class at 55 and 24 Achetype requirements at 61 (at least I went for PoP pet) for the l33t titles. I cringe when I consider how long those 42 AA took me compared with how quickly I could get them with the *spells* I have at 65.

Solo centric AA choices:

First: Run 3/Regen 3 (or Run 3/Innate Metabo 3.. I would actually do this now, I hate remembering to buy food).

Then: Spell Casting Mastery 3

Then then: if I had to do it all over again.. I would do:

Critical Affliction 3 (DoTs are your primary weapon.. especially solo.. this is bread and butter)
Wake the Dead 1 (it's fun.. you should get some fun things for your effort)

Then.. this is where people will yell at me.. I would do pet things:

Pet Discipline 1 (ok.. maybe you don't "need" this.. but this is likely my most used AA)
Feigned Minion 3 (I use this *way* more than I thought.. made my 10 hot keys)
Suspended Minion 2 (with pets that survive invis I use this much less.. but you still need to suspend the buffed and equiped pet when you make a little one to pet pull with)

I would also consider:

Call to Corpse 1 (you know you will be asked to summon people.. this is *free* .. no mana, no coffin)

Of course then you have:

Swift Journey 2 (50% run speed.. almost SoW potion fast.. all the time)
Combat Agility 3 and Lightning Reflexes 5 (well.. not getting hit as much is good.. when you wear a robe)
Spell Casting Fury 3 and Fury of Magic 3 (Nook and lifetap crits)
Natural Durability 3 (bragging rights in EQRankings)

But.. I am young yet.

[Zandramadass]

The questions you must ask yourself are: 1. Am I a powergamer looking to get into PoTime/Anguish zones as fast as possible or do you have a more relaxed game style. 2. Do you solo or group more often.

If your a power gamer and/or grouper you will want to get up to 62 give or take before you pause for any aa other than maybe run3. At that lvl you will have some very powerfull spells and be able to kite in Tier 2 PoP zones with minor/no difficulty and that can be 5+ AA a day depending on time you spend online. Also most spells will be fairly easy to get up to there.

62+ spells are a little more rare and as a caster having lvl 65 but only your 62 or lower spells will make little to no difference in your power so is a good time to pause to collect both your spells and few aa's.

If your a soloer and/or more relaxed gamer you may want to get a few aa's at lower lvls. One little secret most people who are of the opinion lvls > aa's dont mention is that the higher in lvl you are the more scarce solo'ing camps become that are within the 4 lvl range of you where the exp/aa just flies at. So if you like solo'ing and getting 5% per kill you should do so at lower lvls. Hell before I dinged 56 I had 28aa. Yes it took me awhile to get them all but I had a large selections of zones to solo in most of which were camps with great loot that made me alot of money. Would I do it again? Probably but who knows. At 65 I tend to burn myself out on certain camps fairly quick and fewer spots to choose from but at the same time I was once able to get 10aa's in one days time. I do know that having those aa's I got at lower lvls helped me lvl faster at the time so it was worth it.

Yes, I can verify the AA exp does not suffer the exp penalty that the iksar/trolls exp bar does. Heh if you get frustrated due to slow moving exp which I know you will it can be nice change to just go AA for a little while to see some movement.

As for recommended AA purchasing order list i've found the guide here on site quite helpfull. First 3 run/regen/spell casting mastery3 for sure...then after that your playstyle should influence your choices (cant go wrong with defensive skills tho).

Good hunting!

[Jawsh]

Well what I did that worked out pretty good for me in the long run was, I didnt "earn" a single AA until 65. I say "earn" because from around 55-65 I would solo for normal XP, while looking for open raids on the open raid channels on my server. Just from doing open raids and getting all the free AA's from those, I "earned" my first title just from raids. I also got flags for all the zones that you see in my Magelo, just from open raids. Its a pretty good idea because I would just normal XP the whole time and as soon as I saw a raid was forming for something I needed, I could just stop and go on the raid. Now at 65 Ive been AAing in Vexd and it was reallly worth the wait. Getting an AA every 40-50 minutes going at your own pace and being able to afk and what not whenever you want is pretty nice. So basically I would just say to hold off on the AAing untill 65ish and just try and get a few flags and the freebie AA's untill then.

[flishtaco]

I bit the bullet early and got run/regen 3 right away but in hindsight I would say get to 61 or so afore you do this, AA are that much easier to get then and the 6 AA slowdown in my exp at 51 really hurt my enjoyment of the class.

[Aryse Andenter]

Most people stop to get run3/regen3 right away since they find that these AAs help them level up faster, however after that it makes most sense to wait on AAs until later when they are easier to get. Run 3 makes a night and day difference in your ability to play a necro well and xp effectively, and I don't think you should wait on that one.

[flishtaco]

Aye, I play on FV and should prolly mention that the first thing I did was save every meager cent I could get a hold of to get Jboots and I got em for like 5k in the bazaar by about 36 so at 51 run 3 didnt do as much for me as it might have otherwise.

[Uptite]

Just a note for solo/casuals.

I waited for lvl 65 to start with aa's. However, I am mostly a soloing/duoing casual player and I totally agree with Zandra - the number of places I can comfortably exp for aa's is limited now at level 65. I wish I've started earlier - and had more choices where to go.

So far, I did run3/reg3/scm3 and the extra spell slot. Mnemonic Retention I think it's called.

1 aa takes me usually 2 hours, with run to get virtue/sd in PoK. Some people claim it takes them 1 hour; I wish I knew the right places :)

[Plavonica]

i got run3/regen3 at lvl 51 then waited till 65 to get more aa's. it was long to get em at 51 but well worth it. when i get aa's at 65 it usually takes me 45min-1hour with my usual duoing partner. it takes about 2-2.5 hours solo. not bad at all.

[shenk]

Originally posted by iceblossom@Jan 2 2005, 11:34 AM
1 aa takes me usually 2 hours, with run to get virtue/sd in PoK. Some people claim it takes them 1 hour; I wish I knew the right places :)
Although I dont play a necro, I do play a druid. And I can get about 1 AA per 2 hours in Vxed. i would imagine a necro could easily out do 1 aa per 2 hrs based on the fact their DoTs are stronger and their mana regen faster.

It takes me about 80m to take down a mob, then go read a book for 15 mins and then come back and kill again. I've talked to necros who can take out 6-7 mobs before neededing to med.

Another advantage (along w/ probably 100 more) is that most necros specialize in Conjuration so will get more bang for their buck out of their dots. I specialized in Alteration as at end game I am a priest class and groups want me for heals.

[Plavonica]

Originally posted by shenk@Jan 2 2005, 04:59 PM
I've talked to necros who can take out 6-7 mobs before neededing to med.

Another advantage (along w/ probably 100 more) is that most necros specialize in Conjuration so will get more bang for their buck out of their dots.
i dunno about most necros, but at the rate i usually kill at i dont really need to med so much as i just take a break every hour or so to "med" aka: get another beer :)
ive specialized in alteration for my dots, conjuration is more for pet summoning and a necro wont summon a pet all that often.

[Tryal Anderror]

Every necro i know also does Alteration, Conjuration does some of the stronger dots, but Alteration overall is a much stronger choice.

I also tend to agree that you get atleast Run3, and then just level up instead.
The new spells and stuff you'll get at different levels far outweigh any of the AA benefits.

[Jawsh]

I dont understand how it can take you 2 hours to get an AA at 65. Go to Vxed, mobs are 9-12% AA xp per kill, at under 3 minutes a kite, thats roughly 30-45 minutes per AA, sometimes more sometimes less. http://necro.eqclasses.com/viewtopic.php?t=3683 That guide makes it as simple as it can get, I think its best AA xp your gunna get before EP also, and for how easy it gets once your used to it, its amazing.

[flishtaco]

Only thing I would say to Vxed guide is dont run the risk of dying on FD pulls it dont happen much but it can happen just use the nearby zone to split, dot one and run to zone come back, and dotted one will be split off waitin for you.

I think though if you can get Jboots do and put off the run 3 investment til you big enough for PoN or PoS exp there flys. Most of your huntin if your optimizin your experiecne as a necro will be outdoors anyways.

[banewolf7]

Thnx for advice everyone! I already have JBoots so I'm going to wait on Run3. I might put like 10% towards AAXP and work on my Regen3. As a primary solo/duoer, I feel that the regen3 would help me a lot, and already planned on getting that fairly early. I don't know if I'll wait til 60 or more to start heavily working on them. Some say 60, others say 65, I might take the middle choice of 62 or near there. Either way, I'll slowly work on a few points at a time for Regen3 and play it by ear. If I decide I need AA's right away, I'll make the switch.

Here's a new way to phrase my post "What AA's should I NOT invest in?" I would hate to waste my hard earned points and find out that it doesn't help any.

[flishtaco]

Great advice here =)

http://www.necrotalk.com/index.php?showtopic=1677

[Zandramadass]

62 is a decent lvl to stop at for aa'ing as well since you will gain access to zones such as HoH, BoT, exc and almost every mob in Tier 2 PoP zones will still be within 4 lvls of you so exp and aa will just fly for you. Vxed is locked until 60 too so you will gain access to it as well and that is great place too tho not sure if you would want to solo there until you ding 65 for pet/BoT spells.

Aye that link to thread is great list and works for most situations. run/regen3 then SCM should be first buys and after that it just depends on the role you see yourself playing. If your a raider the crit nuking line is good idea as your dot's usually wont run full duration and are fairly big agro. If solo'er critical affliction is very very helpfull but if not high enough in lvl to get it spending few aa in the defensive avoidance line isnt a bad idea hell even ND would be good as hp is always nice to have. Ohh and nearly forgot Pet Disc aka pet hold is one of the most under rated out there it is cheap and you will kick yourself later if you dont get that pretty early.

What not to get...pure stat aa's are pointless unless your gear is kinda weak. The archtype aa that lowers agro from spells is also pretty worthless as it only works on the original cast of a spell so does nothing for each successive tick of your dots.

Another interesting AA is your crit healing aa's. I say interesting cause not only is it good for crit heals on pet but your lifetaps as well. Plus if you have the nuke crit and healing crit skills you stand the chance of doing up to 4x the normal dmg of your lifetap if both skill checks hit. Both of those aa's maxed it is not uncommon to see 4k lifetaps pre OOW and i've heard of 6k post lvl 65 with the new spell and aa's.

Good hunting.

[Felicite]

You have to go to 61.. get your PoP pet. Once you are 61, you can make great agruments for 62, 63 and 64. Even 65 if you have access to Glyphed Rune Words. Then on to Omens land. But.. I would say 64, unless you can get 65 spells, for a casual person (like me).

62: BoT, HoH access (maybe Rune of Death unless you have clicky pants)
63: Best PoP Spell Level! Death's Silence, Embracing Darkness, Force Shield, PoP Rogue Pet (and Horror if you have the AP). OMFG how could you stop at 62? *winks*
64: Seduction of Saryrn .. this is life changing.. really.

Then of course someone is going to say you could push to 68 with fairly easy to get Omens spells. Not sure if you want to do without SCM and a few other AAs under your belt.

[Zee]

i would stop at 51 and get yer 6 aa's in general. or at least run3

if you want to get a bunch of aa's before maxing out lvls IMO 60 - 62. At 61 i was getting 7% aaxp in HoH basement. It was really nice so i stood 61 for a while and grinded some aa's. at 65 i cant get as good xp there. yeah i drop them faster but there is only so many spawns to kill before waiting on repops, and all of them i was clearing at 61 anyway. Plus this gave me a chance to find any 61 - 64 spells i might not have had. sometimes you get lucky with ethreal and spectral drops there.

yeah i can bang out aa's faster in fire now at 65. but good luck finding the courtyard or the tables open if you even have access.

i guess it all depends if your in a rush to lvl or not. if not just follow your mood . its not a writen rule you have to be 65/70 before doing some good aaing. as far as what to get, you find alot of info on that in other posts.