How I will spend my next 44 aa

[Warspite]

Okay... I wrote previously of my first 106aa purchased. I finished them just in time to coincide with my ascension to 68th level. You can read the previous thread HERE (http://www.necrotalk.com/index.php?showtopic=4270).

In this thread, I will throw out my plans for my next 44 aa that I plan to get before I make 69th level. That will give me a grand total of 150aa.

There are two issues that this group of purchases will address:

#1: Survivability
#2: Utility
#3: Vanity (I want to get enough Class AA to get a new set of Titles)

Combat Agility, 1-3 (12aa total)
I had seriously thought about doing this before doing Natural Durability, and I am still not sure that I did the right thing. An extra 200hp or so is probably less effective than completely dodging a few 1000 dmg attacks now and then. But, as of this writing, I already have the first 2 ranks finished. I am wondering what the more experienced necros think about this issue.

Combat Stability, 1-3 (12aa total)
This sort of follows the argument above. Is it worth while to spend points at this time in my necros life on mitigation of damage. I am considering, that as a package with the other skills, this will add up, even though taken alone it would seem insubstantial.

Mend Companion (5aa)
Helps keep my pet alive and goes toward fleshing out vanity aa

Lifeburn (9aa)
Felicite started to use it recently, and we have some ideas when this might come in handy as a tactic.

Dead Mesmerization (3aa)
Filler, I may never use it. THough I would love to hear from necros who have found a regular use for this skill.

Flesh to Bone (3aa)
Pure utility. Never have to hunt baby skellies again.

[Rijak]

from a purely defensive pov i'd do combat agility then lightining reflexes (15aa) before combat stability (maybe even save CS 'till after levelling again)... it's the miss a 1k hit or reduce a 1k hit for a relatively small amount thing

i haven't done much in the way of parsing (and don't even have CS), but have noticed a difference in surviving after getting CA3, and even more so after LR5

[Dembonez]

I would agree and recommend you don't bother with Stability yet. Get all the avoidance done, defensive wise first. It's only 3 more AA to get to LR5 then CS3. IMO that's much better "bang for your buck".

[Xelgadis]

Dead Mesmerization... That'll be amongst the last of the AAs I buy, along with Fearstorm and innate stats.

<DIGRESS>
I remember, back before the cleric 1.5 fight in WL got heavily nerfed in difficulty, Jugata was joking with me about that being the first time he'd ever made a hotkey for Dead Mesmerization (he was max AA before OoW, only reason he had the ability). This comes from a time when my guild was looking at possible options for dealing with the adds (as there were like 2x-3x as many back then as there are now), such as Dead Mesmerization or Turn Undead (neither worked, of course).
</DIGRESS>

To be honest, you'd probably get more milage out of buying something like Call to Corpse (and we all know how useful that AA is these days) than from buying Dead Mesmerization.

As far as defensives; to pretty much echo what's been stated above, you'd get far more "survivability-milage" out of finishing Lightning Reflexes first than you would from buying Combat Stability beforehand. Ultimately, you'll want both obviously, but for now avoiding some attacks will serve you more rather than mitigating some of the damage.

[Felicite]

So you wanna spend 15 more in Class.. I have two proposals:

9 Lifeburn
6 Call to Corpse

You know how often you summon.. but the first one each hour will be free!

Or, spend 17 and get:

9 Lifeburn
5 Mend Companion
3 Flesh to Bone

To be useful, you will want Hastened Mending 3 (2/2/2) and at least Replenish Companion 2 (3/6/9 - heals 3000, 5000 and 7000).. but Mend Companion is a requirement for all of this. Flesh to Bone you will use more than Call to Corpse.. barely.

[Zandramadass]

I would also have to argue against mitigation. It is a nice skill to have but the description is misleading. One example... when playing my Bst the PoV golems can hit up to mid 500 range but w/o mitigation it will be streaky or all over the place. With maxed mitigation up to 65 the avg amount of dmg went to the 112-145 range for the most part. He would still get hit for the occasional shot of mid 500's but not nearly as often as before. Another thing to consider is it has been mentioned on other boards that in order to gain the full effect of the mitigation line you have to be at the AC softcap. That doesnt mean you couldnt max the mitigation line and it wouldnt help but it wont work as well as it was intended until you reach that cap is all. (The bst used in the previous example is past the soft cap with dex/agi both 280+ so the numbers would likely vary unfavorably for you even if did have mitigation line maxed) The mitigation line is a good one to have and your certainally closing in on a good time to do it but there are others which are likely more important.

I would also have to agree with Felicite in regards to the hasten mending. If your getting mend companion you may as well get this as it is fairly cheap and drops the recharge time down to 9-12min I forget which.

For Vanity if you wanna have fun i'd also look into WTD/SoD. SoD isnt as good as it used to be but still an ok boost in dps every half hour or so. WTD is the same and has actually allowed me to solo stuff that I normally couldnt have done plus the upgraded AoD is even nicer and should be available to you soon if not now.

150-200 might want to consider working on the SCF line as well since a successful check on that and your ToL line is what will allow you to quadruple the base heal of your DD lifetaps.

[zuzum]

What is the soft ac cap for silk casters?

[Zeller TP]

Originally posted by zuzum@Jul 18 2005, 03:51 PM
What is the soft ac cap for silk casters?
On a related note, what's an AC soft cap? I've heard this term thrown around, especially in the context of the famous nerf that they hit monks with. But I've never understood it. I suppose it is something I would know if I played a melee class.

[aeriform]

Caster AC cap may as well be zero.

AC soft cap is basicly the point at which you get less mitigation per AC gained. This "should" be lower for caster than warriors, but I've never seen anyone try to parse it and it may as well be zero. Since AC is painful for necro's to obtain, I wouldn't worry about it at all as it will only really come after much high end raiding.

[Mallakith]

tbh i find flesh to bone useful... its 3 aa's u want a class title and it saves farming bone chips.

Im not saying its anything world changing but for me i love the fact i can go to shadowhaven buy a stack of meat for 2 gold and turn it into pets... I used to turn quite a profit selling the bones in bazaar too.

All of our AA's have a purpose.. figuring on getting fearstorm as im being asked to a lot of MPG trials and it sounds like it might have its uses there... I may (and probably am) wrong.

As for survivability lightning reflexes > combat stability. You also might want to look at persistant casting sometime channeling them fd's/lifetaps is always a winner for me

edit: whoops

[Sathras]

Originally posted by "Mallakith"
As for survivability lightning reflexes > combat agility... I take it you mean combat stability? Otherwise its a given as CA is a prerequisite for LR. ;)

[Mallakith]

DOH it was early thats my excuse an im sticking with it ;)

[Zandramadass]

I am afraid I dont know the AC soft cap for casters. Leather classes is 1200ac and plate 2000ish last I knew but has been awhile.

AC softcaps can be raised thru the use of a shield in your offhand.

The softcap is just a point that once you hit it you dont see the increase in AC you normally would. For example at lower lvls I would equip the yellow fang earring which is 30ac on my bst and gain 47-57ac (i believe agi/dex had something to do with the bonus)... I have replaced that earring now but if I were to put it back on now that i'm past the softcap I would gain 15-20ac (rough guess).

[Warspite]

Thank you all for the excellent discussion. Your points all made very good sense. That being the case, what follows is my new plan to 156aa (Starting from current 106):

Combat Agility 1-3
Lightning Reflexes 1-5
Mend Companion
Life Burn
Flesh to Bone
Call to Corpse

After that, we'll see where it all goes...