AA

[fenixst]

what is this?

[Snowdonia]

An incorrect acronym for this game. It's suppose to be AP (Achievement Points). AA (Alternate Advancement) is what a lot of EQ vets use because they can't get use to calling something that is roughly the same anything different. This in turn spreads to the rest of the populace. Now, what APs are, are points you earn after level 10 from completing level 10+ quests, collections, named mob kills, etc (Achievement XP (AXP) has its own XP bar and can be seen by right clicking your XP bar and selecting it from the drop down list). IN order to earn APs though, you must have obtained the Kingdom of Sky expansion or possibly the Echoes of Faydwer expansion or both. APs earned can be put into abilities in your Class (from KOS expansion) and Subclass (from EoF expansion) trees. The abilities from the KoS, Class tree further define your characters adventuring with bonuses, new attacks, buffs, and the like. The EoF, Subclass tree tweaks your existing abilities. Class = general area of expertise IE Rogue, Predator, Fighter, Brawler, etc Subclass = specific area of expertise IE Swashbuckler, Ranger, Guardian, Bruiser, etc HTH

[Ebjelen]

<p>Press the "L" key to bring up the achievement window.</p><p>On the class window you can put 50 points into lines starting under the five attributes. Some people max out whole lines, some max out the attributes.</p><p>On the sub-class tab you can buff up existing abilites and spells for your "class". This is another misnomer from the early days. The original chain is archetype -> class -> subclass. Archetype is healer, scout, mage, or fighter. Then there were 3 classes under each archetype, for example mages could become sorcerers, enchanters or summoners. Then, continuing the example, the subclasses of sorcerer were wizard and warlock.</p><p>These AAs have become cruicial to game play. Learn the ones for you (sub)class. </p><p>The best way is to go to the class board for your class and look for suggestions on how people of that class have spent their AA points.</p>

[LadyAnnaAnna]

To make a small correction to the poster above, AP have not become critical to gameplay, at least not at high-end raiding.  They do, however, make your character a bit unique in his abilities than anyone else's and they can provide a siginificant boost.  Just try to choose ones that fit your play style. That's what I do.

[Finora]

<p>Yeah, I can't think of any of the abilities in the mystic or shaman lines that would be 'critical' for my game play. Some are useful, some are even down right fun (I SO love double attacking and crit hitting and getting attack speed boost) but honestly, if I didn't have them I would still be able to do the core shaman thing (healing) just fine.</p><p>Same for all of my alts. </p><p>Not saying achievements are worthless, they definately do add more to your gameplay, but they certainly aren't critical to playing the game like alternate advancement was in EQ1. I mean really, if a ranger in eq1 didn't have archery mastery and endless quiver etc etc they got tossed to the side of the road. I doubt anyone in EQ2 would even bothering to ask if ranger x had the crit hit sword line or archery or intel lines. </p>

[Melchiah]

There are certain ones that are nearly required, like the Hate line for Shadowknights, since it fills in the gaps with agro they need so bad.