AA Info

[Aildrik]

Ok, I'm not a newb at all. I stopped playing EQ about a half a year ago, and I had a level 56 Rogue...... he was fun and all, but then i couldn't play EQ anymore because of comp problems, and i didn't do my chores to earn the money to pay for it. So i'm comming back to EQ by next weekend, and i want to know about this AA thing, I was too lazy to do it with my rogue but i want to know about it now, because i have no clue what it is, how to get AA points, and what it does.

[Ebonstar]

At lvl 51+ you can choose to put some of your xp into Alternate Advancement (AA) instead of normal levelling. There is a slider bar where you can allocate anywhere from 0% (nothing going into AA, all in levelling) to 100% (all AA, no levelling) or anywhere in between in 10% increments.

You have 2 xp bars, one is exactly the same as before which shows how close to the next character level you are. The second shows how close to the next AA level you are.

Each AA level is a point you can spend on abilities that allow you to do different things. Examples are : run faster, use less food, hold your breath longer, do (more) criticals, tank better, heal better, and other more spectacular things too.

Some are general and available to everybody, some are restricted to the type of class you are (melee, priest, caster) and some are class-specific. Some have level requirements and others have none and some require other AA abilities. Most have multiple levels of increasing effect that you can buy.

The bottom line is that AA does 2 things : it gives you somewhere to go when you've maxed out your level (either 60 or 65 depending on which expansions you have) and it gives you a way to customise your character so that not all chars are the same.

All in all, AAs are pretty cool IMHO.

That give you a basic understanding ?

[Aildrik]

Yes, thank you very much :)

[Jebasiz]

I just ding my 30th saved AA tonight, and much to my surprise you can't gain any exp in the 30th(IE you can't be 1% from number 31). I thought it was rather lame. I Guess it's time to spend some, my AA on magelo is pretty close to current, if anyone has any suggestions(not Dire charm) I'd like to hear them. I was just gonna dump one at a time in 2nd tier resist aa's.

Jeb

[Schaeffer]

Call to corpse couldn't hurt, Manaless and reagent;ess corpse summon is always good for when your "buddy" accidentally falls in the Hole and you gotta go get him...

[Goshozal Sans Merci]

Don't forget GoD is 2/10/04 also.

[Vaelhan]

I'd invest in Mend companion and hastened mending, both good spells and on occasion can save both you and your pets arse, might also put up another lvl in wake the dead. tier 2 resists are also good choice as always :D



Vaelhan Hemafier - Tunare

[Jebasiz]

Mend companion is kinda replaced with touch of death(IMO)...guess I'll stick with tier 2 resists.

Jeb

[Trizel]

Pet discipline is GREAT. Allows you smart control over your pet.

Wake the dead is fun :rolleyes:

innate IVU is like CoS ...but for undead ;) Theft of life allows you to crit on lifetaps AND on Touch of death (2K heal instead of 1k)

[Jebasiz]

I have wtd, pet disc etc...I got mend companion today, it's a piece of shit (.

Jeb

[Doomfir]

I find WTD is only marginal. You could wake a heavy hitter mob and all of a sudden he becomes some lame mob. It should have been that he is JUST like he was when he was alive. I mean after all he is only alive again for a very limited period of time starting at 1 minute.

[Trizel]

Yes Doomfir, I see WtD more in the fun department rather than a must to have AA... I got it cause I wanted to use it on my GuildLeader :lol:

[Xavier]

Actually WTD has a more usefull purpose in life besides fun. Primarily, WTD will summon the nearest corpse to you and bring them to life (in summon I mean the closest to you, not actually bring the corpse for those that dont know, but most of us do) but in turn also uses thier abilities. I.E you summon a wizards corpse, it will not only melee but it will cast that player/mobs abilities. A high end raiding guild that I was with used to buff up completely minus the sk's. Then the sk's would duel rogues and get killed. Rezzed immediatly and loot corpse but one item. They would then consent the assigned necro to them for thier corpse allowing the necro to place it under them. I.E closest corpse to them.
Now we all know it uses thier abilities but not thier discs. So an sk's harmtouch at lvl 65 without thier disc is 1-2.5k. I have never seen it lower than 2k even on heavier pop mobs but I have heard it. All and all. Since it was a large guild. 10 sk's and 10 necros, WTD on 10 sk corpses. That will harmtouch upon entry. Well say for the sake of arguement 2k a piece. Thats 20k in the first 10-30 seconds via necro's alone. Then you add your dots, your pet, and the rest of the raid. Easily can top 70-100k in 1 min. Mobs like saryn went down like $2 hookers.
Spell casting fury allows you to have crits to your damage spells and lifetaps at higher lvls. But this AA has a more benificial effect when it comes to raids or the need for high dps. It will almost certainly do enough damage to either save your party or destroy a raid mob easily. And that is it effects Lifeburn. This is a 250 per tick dot while at the same time healing you for 250. Spell casting fury stacks with this so you have between 250-1k per tick give or take its crits. Why? Because not only is it a leech but it is considered a DD via listed by sony. Thats right they screwed up and allowed or Lifeburns initial damage to be counted like a lifetap from higher lvls. Therefore it will crit as DD damage. It will however only heal you the 250 per tick. And does as much damage as the amount of hp's you have at time of cast. So its best to cast early.
Pet discipline is vital if you wish to use a pet and you are in a constant raiding guild. It gives you the /pet hold ability. This is vital simply because it will prevent you from being the person who wipes or screws the raid due to mob AE. If an AE goes off without this aa the pet charges. Possibly screwing the tank agro gain or simply causing you to be dead early due to damage agro. Your pet can and most likely will outdamage a warrior.
Mend companion comes in handy. Comes back to the raid issue. Most clerics and spot healers dont consider your pet worth a damn. Therefore they are not going to heal it. Its pretty obvious where this comes in. Helps keep pet in for a while longer. Allowing you to be what we are during raids which is mass dps. Despite what people think about us being mana batteries. Prove them wrong. Pet adds dps, manaless heal. If you do have to play manapump you keep a part of your dps in. While continueing to feed the clerics.
Spell casting subtlety. Lowers the amount of agro you recieve from dots. No brainer. Dont die because of the damage you are putting out during a tank switch or if the tank dies and you happen to have a secondary melee tank I.E sk's, palys and the like.
Theft of life allows you to have an exceptional healing effect on life taps and leeches. Unfortunantly this does not stack with lifeburn. But it comes in handy. What necro doesnt like to be healed for 2k+ lol.
Suspend minion allows you to store one pet. Another handy tool considering you can use WTD and it will suspend that pet. Which allows you to save our beloved sk WTD's discussed from earlier to be allowed to use at the end to drop a mob. Or to throw a new pet out on the fly keeping your dps up and saving your butt in cases of bad pulls and ect and loose your pet on soloing. Send first pet in allowing you to snare the add and throw a new pet out after you can agro.
Mental clarity and the likes are well more mana faster. Along with lich lines this makes us mana whores and adds to the casting abilites during raids and groups.
Innante stamina and durability. More hp's. We all need them.
In order I would take them:

Theft of life
Lifeburn
Spell casting fury
WTD
Pet discipline
Planar Power
Mental clarity and the likes
Natural Durability and the likes
Spell casting subtlety
Suspend minion

As for the resists. They are nice but not at the top of my list. When you raid as much as my guild does. Resist gear is easier to come by than you think. And once in elementals the resists wont matter because everything that drops has insane resists. And even with AA youll have a hard pressed time to get them over 300. Since most elemental mobs have resist checks of over 300. This is just my opinions. Be free to try your own combo. Since after all we eventually will get them all.

[glandeen]

well WTD and call to corpse aare good idead but id also look at the next level of suspend minion.. this way you canb suspend a beffed ready to go pet.. just a thought. I have had it happen in AC where we zoned in pulled buffed and suspended pets.. invised up and headed down only to run into a see invis mob.. it was nice to have a buffed fido and battle spells ready to go... just my two CP though

[Doomfir]

Well, I have a slightly different order and I also think DC is allot more than a toy for soloing Necros. I happen to use it more than all the rest I have gotten so far except SCF.

I do agree about waking caster mobs. You can wake some that will buff you or heal you, and others that nuke or dot the opponent, but when talking anything other than that (melee) they out and out suck and only last from a minute to slightly over a minute. Lame. With a DC pet in every zone we could do way over the same dmg being done with that WTD pet.

[Trizel]

Dire Charm is nice, but is it really that handy, when you know that you can't use it on mobs level 46+ ? (if I remember correctly)

[Xavier]

This is true. But WTD is really intended for extra DPS. Thats why it has a 9 minute timer. Do your DC pet and wtd on a corpse near you to add extra damage. Damage is damage even if its not great

[Nigyl]

Dire Charm is nice, but is it really that handy, when you know that you can't use it on mobs level 46+ ?

Except those level 46 mobs typically have more hit points, better damage mitigation and hit harder than Necro pets... the big downside is that you can't FD without breaking charm.

[Doomfir]

Please refer to some of the other posts on dire charm for more info, but essentially DC pet is 2x the hitpoints and 2x+ the dmg as our level 61+ warrior pets. I use it all the time and find that there are undead DC pets in many zones you can use if you just look and ask where they are. The choice it yours.