New Necro

[Mastica]

Alright, so I've seen a million and one guides, and so on and so forth, but I haven't seen a good place to start. I'm a 55 necro (dinged last night w00t) and this is ABSOLUTELY my first toon. So yea, I'm still pretty much a newb. I just got my HS key and my Seb key, but that's as far as I've gotten... Now, that said, should I go and start farmin AA's ? or should I wait a few more levels and hit 'em hard when I get 60+ as I've heard so many people tell me ?

IF you think I should start farmin AA's now, where would be the best place to do it, and should I solo or group ?

[Nirruden]

Now, that said, should I go and start farmin AA's ?

No. Levels > AA in almost all conceivable ways and cases. Compare getting "Run 1" or "Regen 3" with dinging 65 and scribing CoB and BoT. No comparison.

If you're dead set on getting some AA abilities, like I was, then I recommend Run 3 and Regen 3 from the first tier, but keep in mind that earning an AA point is like dinging 51 all over again, and you won't be getting new and more powerful spells for dinging AA. Besides, the better AAs aren't even available before 60.

[Zandramadass]

Lvls > AA's if you have access to your spells for the next lvl. Other than that it is entirely up to your playstyle and desire to reach upper end game play.

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 to me personally.

As for your recommended AA path I would certainally go Run3, Regen3, SCM3 to start with. After that it will entirely depend on your playstyle but the recommended AA path that is stickied is has pretty good info.

Good hunting.

[Nirruden]

Lvls > AA's if you have access to your spells for the next lvl.

Since necromancers can solo the lower tier planes, not having one's spells for 61-64 is not as crippling as it sounds. I admit that I didn't always think so, and that finding my 55-60 spells was interesting in some cases. However, once you have FPoK, VM, Pyrocruor, Splurt, etc. then you can start into the planes, and then just switch AA on or off as needed to keep your spell progression in line with your level/AA progression.

(I did say almost, though, right?)

Zandramadass is correct: If you don't have the spells, it's not much good to have the level. But get the level, then switch to AA and go find the spells or farm to buy them. That way, you can scribe them as soon as you get them. Don't grind all the way to 65 and then go "welp, time to start hunting for my 59 pet spell". (Man, and I thought that would've been obvious.)

[Jebasiz]

I think that 61/62 would be a good level to stop at for abit of aa. Legacy of Zek is so far and away the best farming pet that's easily attainable it's not even funny. It's like 100pp in the bazaar on most servers, and lets you kill so much more content so much faster it's sick. Get that and Saryrn's Kiss, and start AA'ing until you can get seduction of saryrn..then get level 64, work on BoT and CoB and then get 65. After that I'd recommend going straight to 70, since you'll probably have to group most of your runes, unless your a plat farming machine, and it's easier to get groups at 70 then 66-69.

[Veratu]

Zandra,

First thing I'd recommend is that before switching to AA xp make sure you have a nice buffer for your level! ;) I always like to have atleast 20% myself before I switch, and when I go for an aa I don't mess around I go 100% and get the ones I want quickly. The exception being when I get a character up over 65 I tend to go 90%aa and 10% regular xp, but that's just my own preference for keeping the xp bar moving to the right, no matter how slowly, while I've been getting aa's.

In my experience, most folks asking about when to aa are concerned with the quickest road to becoming a powerhouse. As stated by the previous posts this is most efficiently accomplished by leveling. I however, never saw the point in leveling a caster if you don't have your spells for the upcomming level, or atleast the more important spells that the new level has to offer.

I am a big proponent for getting run3 and regen3 asap as they made game play a bit easier and allowed for a slightly larger margin of error while I was trying to learn some of the nuancess of playing the class post 50 like soloing summoning mobs etc.

There is no wrong choice here,but In addition to what has already been said I would also consider at what rate any of the people I tend to group with are leveling at. If you stop to aa and they decide to grind up to 65 and above, you may find yourself left out of groups and zones were level restrictions apply.

Best of luck with your decision! :)

Veratu