level or aa?

[Issachar]

level 70 necro here. i am debating finishing my leveling or if i should stay current level and max my Crit affliction. i saw many people say that doing your crit affliction maxed, death peace, mnemonic retention and such first as you level. right now i have dp and mr done and am at CA4. do you suggest going on to the dod crit aas and then when i hit 71 do the TSS crit aa's? or should i get 75 and finish aa's afterwards. i think it was something like 57 aa's left to get max CA.

i have been kiting beetles in atiki for exp which isnt bad. its like 3 lesson aa at level 70 with the aa's and gear i have currently.

[sbenchia]

I would recommend leaving attiki immediately and starting TBS faction by doing instances when available, and grinding out the snakes in katta at all other times. Get your crits as they become available, then return to leveling.

[winchester20]

At level 70 I was banging away on the 69.1. Those drachs would drop without me having to refresh a single DoT. You could prolly swing the snakes in Katta, but it'll most likely wipe out your mana on each one. Guess you could try them out and see which one yields the best results for you. Yeah, the Katta faction is nice, but those solo missions take forever and a day to get to ally faction on. No matter which you decide to do though, get those must-have AAs. Espcially DoT crits. Always get all the DoT crits you can as you level up. They make all the difference in the world for our DPS.

Oh, and while you were in Atiiki, did you get your Efreeti Death mask? Can't recommend that face piece enough.

[Issachar]

nah haven't gotten the efreeti death visage yet. havent tried killing the efreetis there but i could do it if i wanted probably. either by trying to solo them or box a monk and kill them. ill pouund out those last aa's it sounds. ill check out that 69.1 also. seems like ive seen alot about it in other posts

[uggok]

I am in a similar situation at 70 at CA4 (and SCM, hold, DP, 9th slot). I was going to grind more AA, but after reading the "69.1 Exp question" thread further down this page I had second thoughts and am leaning toward levelling. In that thread, Viko says that killing 200 spiders got him 26 aa at lvl 70 and 24 aa at 74. I bet the difference in kill speed between a 74 and a 70 is enough to make up that difference. This seems to go against the idea that yellows are worth a ton more xp than dark blues are.

Plus, for me, it's a lot easier to get the 71+ spells than it is to get the DODH mission spells. And I want to be sure to be 75 when the expansion comes next month.

I'm also not sold on starting Katta faction because who knows how useful the gear will be in the new expansion. If the new tier of tradeskill gear (or if whatever new gear system they have) is comparable or better, I will have been better off having skipped the oruxing for maxing xp.

That's just my POV. I'm a recent PoP-era returnee, so don't rely on my opinion for anything. Also, everyone's circumstances are different.

[sbenchia]

you might not want the gear, but you will want the spells.

Whether you do it now, or later... you will need the faction if you want to maximize.

Might as well kill multiple birds.

[winchester20]

I can understand what you're sayin there, Uggok, but think about it like this. The Praetorian armor will only be one expansion old after the release of SoF. Anguish gear is still considered pretty damn nice (at least amongst me and my guild), and it's quite a few expansions removed. Also as sbenchia points out, you'll want those spells. You also can get great xp doing those missions. It's kind of a win-win situation there. If nothing else, the gear will tide you over quite well until you get those upgrades from the new expansion.

[midnoctus]

level 70 necro here. i am debating finishing my leveling or if i should stay current level and max my Crit affliction. i saw many people say that doing your crit affliction maxed, death peace, mnemonic retention and such first as you level. right now i have dp and mr done and am at CA4. do you suggest going on to the dod crit aas and then when i hit 71 do the TSS crit aa's? or should i get 75 and finish aa's afterwards. i think it was something like 57 aa's left to get max CA.

i have been kiting beetles in atiki for exp which isnt bad. its like 3 lesson aa at level 70 with the aa's and gear i have currently.

There are alot of factors to consider. The main is where is YOUR game? By that I mean are you a casual, regular, or a Hardcore Junkie like some of us. Untill about lvl 67 I was PoV, then TSS, & XP flew. All also depends on your playing skill as well. @ 70 hit leopards in Icefall; or Spiders when you are able. At 75 Spiders are still yellow & give 17% AA per kill. Regular XP is 1% + per. W/out run 5 & SoE they're fast & will eat ya up. Insane XP! Fast lvls.You NEED AA feign & Crits Asap. You will want Pretorian gear & spells unless you raid then you will need lvl 75 & 200 AA's (on average) to APP; but still need Ally faction to buy "gear & spells"@ 73 I started snakes; & the fastest solo missions our friend,"Fate of the combine" easy Solo for any decent nec. You must however have 3 in group to get mission. For solo; a couple notes: Bind @ top of pyramid in Katta. Buy or make an Assload of EE's unless you have a pocket cleric. Some Necs can Kite in a phone booth I cannot; The easiest method I've found is root-rot. Use lvl 63 Greater Imobilize. It only has a 1 min duration. but a Fast cast time. 2nd cast in SNARE! the rest is your preference. Blue Lords are your preference. Red Sorcerers & Enthrallers cast & dispell & are aggravating. HAIL the sphinx behind you @ Zone in 1st. All Mobs in Fate missions can be rooted where they stand. You need 4 Genies 1 Blue Scarab 4 photo blobs & Named! 30-45 mins after you get it figured out.
I have a wizzie friend & we knocked 'em out in 25 & had to wait (30 min lockout) as far as faction? I made this for my old guild.

TBS FACTION

30 pts per Group mission
Group missions earn you 30 faction pts per mission. Solo missions earn you 10 faction. This is a faction chart, it may be off by 50 faction points as ive seen slightly differnt charts but its more or less correct (I've seen the -750 and 750 listed as -800 and 800 in other versions of the chart).

Generic Faction Levels
-2000 to -751 ...scowls at you, ready to attack
-750 to -501 ...glares at you threateningly
-500 to -101 ...glowers at you dubiously
-100 to -1 ...looks your way apprehensively
0 to 99 ...regards you indifferently
100 to 499 ...judges you amiably (400)
500 to 749 ...kindly considers you (250)
750 to 1099 ...looks upon you warmly (350)
1100 to ~2000 ...Ally faction

Each of the solo missions we are doing are earning 10 faction pts per mission. Unfortunately they nerfed the easiest mission so you can only do it 1 time. Many of the solo missions are not soloable if you can't kite.

SO........If you are:

apprehensive - 100 to indifferent
indifferent - 100 to amiable
amiable - 400 to kindly
kindly - 200 to warmly
warmly - 400 to ally

So you need about 4x the faction to pass through amiable as you did for apprehensive or indifferent. I know.....it's ALOT of Tasks & missions! BUT; It IS what it IS!
ALSO...You MUST Earn Orux for the Kickin' Gear. But w/out Faction, Merchants will NOT even offer Items~! The better your Faction,the more variety of Gear the vendors will offer. You can find a complete list of Gear & faction needed At :
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/ Remember....Solo herb snakes give 10 faction pts. All missions give 30pts. Orum varies. The zones I would reccomend are Icefall spiders & Direwind GY (spiders give best XP) but they BOTH drop RKII spells. You'll figure it out...(or change your surname to Diesalot) Lol (bought EE's by the 100's) Happy hunting!

[Astroshak]

All Katta solo tasks give 10 faction. That is the equivalent of 20 Orux.

Sorry, but for group missions, the faction reward is not a set 30 points - it does vary with the Orux reward. You get half the Orux, rounded down, as faction. A 25 Orux mission only gives 12 faction points - 12.5 rounded down.

My necro is an alt, that I've been a little busy lately to play (factioning for TSS raids, because the guild is planning on starting those just as soon as we're in Deathknell, eats up the time). Your faction point chart isn't incorrect, but if you want to see your faction measures with something you can actually see, looking at EARNED Orux is the way to go. Sorry, Orux handed to you by someone else, or bought in the bazaar, does not count, though as I stated above, solo tasks give you the equivalent of 20 orux so must also be counted up.

You may recognize this chart, too, I grabbed it off of Sony's message boards, someone else generated it, with one error as far as I can tell. this is the correct one :
Orux Earned <====> Faction
0-199 --> Apprehensive
200-399 --> Indifferent
400-1199 --> Amiable
1200-1699 --> Kindly
1700-2399 --> Warmly
2400+ --> Ally

As an example, if you've earned 467 Orux, spent 350 of it on the 71 and 72 spells (leaving you with 117 Orux on you), and you've also done 14 solo tasks : 14 * 20 = 280. 280 + 467 = 747. You should be Amiable, for a few more missions and such.

The Orux amounts are as exact as I know to make them (the error in the chart I've seen from someone else was in the Amiable/Kindly border) but due to the odd faction point rounding you may ned to exceed the totals on the left. If you do nothing but 25 Orux missions, you'll be at 2500 Orux when you hit Ally, for a maximum rounding error of 100 Orux.

[Khyandys]

Faction hit for group missions = 1/2 orux awarded rounded down, it's not a static 30. 1200 faction points required to get from the starting point to ally.

[Vivamort]

Some Necs can Kite in a phone booth

HAHA, love that!

[encephalitis]

All Katta solo tasks give 10 faction. That is the equivalent of 20 Orux.

Sorry, but for group missions, the faction reward is not a set 30 points - it does vary with the Orux reward. You get half the Orux, rounded down, as faction. A 25 Orux mission only gives 12 faction points - 12.5 rounded down.

My necro is an alt, that I've been a little busy lately to play (factioning for TSS raids, because the guild is planning on starting those just as soon as we're in Deathknell, eats up the time). Your faction point chart isn't incorrect, but if you want to see your faction measures with something you can actually see, looking at EARNED Orux is the way to go. Sorry, Orux handed to you by someone else, or bought in the bazaar, does not count, though as I stated above, solo tasks give you the equivalent of 20 orux so must also be counted up.

You may recognize this chart, too, I grabbed it off of Sony's message boards, someone else generated it, with one error as far as I can tell. this is the correct one :
Orux Earned <====> Faction
0-199 --> Apprehensive
200-399 --> Indifferent
400-1199 --> Amiable
1200-1699 --> Kindly
1700-2399 --> Warmly
2400+ --> Ally

As an example, if you've earned 467 Orux, spent 350 of it on the 71 and 72 spells (leaving you with 117 Orux on you), and you've also done 14 solo tasks : 14 * 20 = 280. 280 + 467 = 747. You should be Amiable, for a few more missions and such.

The Orux amounts are as exact as I know to make them (the error in the chart I've seen from someone else was in the Amiable/Kindly border) but due to the odd faction point rounding you may ned to exceed the totals on the left. If you do nothing but 25 Orux missions, you'll be at 2500 Orux when you hit Ally, for a maximum rounding error of 100 Orux.

This is a good description of Fate of the Combines.

To add to it, always remember that if you get in a bad way while learning this one, if you can make it to the top of the instance again, you can easily just stand on the pad and it TPs you out of instance to the top of the pyramid outside in Atiiki.

This mission is good for necros solo because you can easily (takes time though) collect Platinum Efreeti Armor, which is used for the quest in Atiiki for the Efreeti Death Visage mask (damned nice questable mask) which also has a sub-quest for our lvl 75 pet Zombie illusion clicky.

There are no spontaneous bug traps in the instanced version of this pyramid, FYI, and all mobs are rootable, snareable, and do not summon. Also the creatures in the same room as the named do not assist him. You will have to fight the named 4 times, reducing his HP 20% each time, until he's at 20% health, at which time the sphinx spawns again and gives you your reward.

[Lylith]

There are some AAs you should stop and get along the way. I stopped and got GoM and GoRM on some very good advise. I was never max level before, including Jan 2000 to 2003 on fennin and then when I came back in 2005 to BB. I just hit level 75 in July and I have quiet a few more AAs now than I ever expected. Plus, metally, it was a kick having a max character. But, mind you I was level 66/67 FOREVER!

Once you have the very basic AAs ( around 200ish), IMO, there's no reason to not level. I get AAs at 75 now much faster then when I was 70/71. I have much better spells to use too.

Unless you have specific friends you don't want to out level, I say do it as soon as you can. When SoF releases, you'll be 71/72 and max will be 80 then. /shrug it just depends on what you want to do. I see some old guildies out and about, they are the same level they were 6 months ago. Enjoy the journey there along the way, just use a good road map, lol.

[spoonr79]

Personally, I have raced toons to max level. I always hated that there was so much of the game that I never got to experience because I raced by it until it was trivial & not worth doing. With my necro, my goal is to enjoy the journey. If I eventually get to level 75 (or 80 whatever), then fine. He is a solo grinder, so it's not like I need to hurry up & level so I can group with my friends or guildies. Currently I'm level 55 with 31 AAs, and I'm enjoying myself a lot. I think I might go ahead & ding 56 to get the monk pet and a couple of good spells, but really ATM I'm satisfied grinding a few AAs. Besides, it's not like you win EQ when you ding 75. I bet I'm having just as much fun in PoN as someone at level 75 in DW.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to each individual and what they want out of the game.

[winchester20]

Some Necs can Kite in a phone booth

Damn, that is so good it's almost biblical

[Mordethe]

LOL ..permission to use that as my sig.

[Fencek]

I am in a similar situation at 70 at CA4 (and SCM, hold, DP, 9th slot). I was going to grind more AA, but after reading the "69.1 Exp question" thread further down this page I had second thoughts and am leaning toward levelling. In that thread, Viko says that killing 200 spiders got him 26 aa at lvl 70 and 24 aa at 74. I bet the difference in kill speed between a 74 and a 70 is enough to make up that difference. This seems to go against the idea that yellows are worth a ton more xp than dark blues are.

Plus, for me, it's a lot easier to get the 71+ spells than it is to get the DODH mission spells. And I want to be sure to be 75 when the expansion comes next month.

I'm also not sold on starting Katta faction because who knows how useful the gear will be in the new expansion. If the new tier of tradeskill gear (or if whatever new gear system they have) is comparable or better, I will have been better off having skipped the oruxing for maxing xp.

That's just my POV. I'm a recent PoP-era returnee, so don't rely on my opinion for anything. Also, everyone's circumstances are different.

Keep in mind that gear has to be in the mix between level 70 and 74. There are much better spells at level 74 (or 75), but you also need the mana to do it with the speed you are talking about.

My opinion is level up first then crank out the AA's. AA's will just fly by once you find a couple good spots.

[Reyla]

Levels first, AAs last.

Better spells and better gear especially now that req/rec gear is the norm. As others have said, I get AAs faster and more efficiently at 75 then I did at 70.

It just makes sense to me since our levels are our main form of advancement and AAs are alternate advancement.

[Shifty]

I would reccomend going to the greenhouse in Katta, bind yourseld in the ruined building next to the kiting "landing strip" and start killing. I have been steady killing here from 68 to 70 and have gotten about 70 aa's all within about 8 days of playing. (nights only) This has been a combo of soloing occasionally, but mostly adding people as they pop in and ask to join the fun.

Solo xp on the snakes is 20%aa per kill. With CA maxed I can kill 3 back to back before ooc medding.

Group xp goes down to 5%aa per kill, but...it is mostly wizzy's, druids and mages that come here now, so we can clear the greenhouse in about 10 min.
This is insane aaxp. I get usually 8 to 12 aa per day all from when I get in from work, till I am tired. (about 4 hours)

I wait to add my LoD aa until we have a fast group going (never takes long)
and then I hit the reg xp to level.

Maxing your faction is pretty quick as well if you stick to it.

[Astroshak]

In general, levels are more important than AA's. There are a few specific AA's that are worth stopping the levelling to get, however. Any Innate Runspeed AA, Mnemonic Retention, and any type of Innate Invis top my list of "must haves".

[Lylith]

imo- you really need about 200/250 AAs min. to be effective at level 75. If you are dying alot, there's a problem. If you cannot handle an add, same thing. 1 kill of a yellow mob solo (spider, mammy, whatever) takes 1/3 to 1/2 my mana pool.

I currently wear mostly DON merchant armor. I was lazy and still didn't hit TBS this weekend... been meaning to try my hand at it for months! I'm off half of next week, so maybe then. But, I've always been really behind in the expansion since I came back in 2005.

[encephalitis]

AA's make leveling smoother/easier, and in my opinion, more fun. I would pause at 65 to knock out some of the biggies, then again at 70, then again at 74/75. In fact, that's what I did/am doing.

The point of this game is to have fun, and I honestly believe that a great deal of the "fun" part of the game came in with aa's. Just made things more interesting and added a few more variables.

[Issachar]

k so ill give an update on my character now after awhile. 250+ aa's right now. crit aa's are maxed for level. i am 72 now and have been doing faction quests at greenhouse as well. my play time is normally .5-1 hour a night. sometimes i get alittle more time sometimes never. just how RL works i guess.
i am 4 armor piece away from atiiki mask, tarlang kill away from 1.5. if i finish 1.5 thats another 5 aa's which ill spend on blood tithe 2 when i hit 73 and then keep leveling

[winchester20]

Sounds like you're kickin butt and takin names, Issa. Keep up the good work.