Incredibly confused about AA. Having trouble following others posts.

[SiCkKboY]

<p>Hi all,</p><p>After a long long absents from EQ2 I have returned only to find out about this new thing called AA. I'm trying hard to understand how it works and how to best use it to my advantage, so I recently I have been reading some of your guys posts to see if I can get some light on the subject. But I'm more confused then ever. All I read are slang terms hat mean nothing to me such as dogdog or puppy. No idea what these mean.</p><p>Basically if some one can point me to a good post or site that explains AA and how they work using layman's terms that would be great. For al you experts how did you learn to use AA effectively. I have started a lvl 11 Deflier and would like to start planning on what paths I should take in AA advancement. My style of play is mostly solo but love to group which are mostly PUG's.</p><p>Cheers</p>

[Fuury]

<p>I was in the same boat as you when I returned a couple of weeks ago.   I'm just starting to level a defiler so I can't go into specifics about the lines but I will try to give some insite on the AA terminology.</p><p>If you see someone post "AGI 4-4-8" they are saying going down the Agility line, putting 4 points into the 1st tier, 4 into the 2nd tier, 8 in the 3rd etc etc.  Also for your base class skills there is a starter Ability you have to take before you go down any line.  You need to put one point in that skill and it is always assumed that you take that skill (no choice).</p><p> Each line has an end ability and sometimes you will see people mention the line that way.  If you go to your AA screen you can see all the abilities.  They are broken up into a base class and specific class, ie Shaman and Defiler.</p><p>Sometimes people mention a line by a certain ability within it.  I thought I was going crazy when I was trying to find the "Buckler" line for my Guardian(forum posts where always mentioning this line), then after looking at the ability description I saw a skill "Buckler" which was under the Stamina line.  So when people mention the dogdog or puppy line for the Defiler look for your pet abilities.  (I believe its under Strength)</p><p> Hope this helps</p>

[Estean1]

<p>Dogdog is a wet paper bag unless you Str him out on final ability!  Defilers Jesters cap line has many useful speed enhancements!  Speed cure isn't very useful and increased hp when you are knocked out doesn't work because Mit and avoidance aren't in effect!!  Soul Ward rocks but be careful and Everyone needs mana right?   Go Cannabalize!   </p><p>Hope this helps!!!</p>

[Excalibre33]

<p>In case you haven't found it... press "l" to open the AA window. Then you'll see two tabs... Shaman Tree and Defiler Tree. When folks refer to a stat line like STR, AGI, STA, WIS, INT they are talking about the tiered lines on the Shaman tab. Each tier requires a certain amount of points placed in the link before you can move to the next link. When they talk about spell lines that you recognize, they are generally talking about stuff on the Defiler tab as it trees out and generally improves you existing defiler spell lines but the trees actually do have fairly intuitive names like Protection, Decaying, Potency, Cursing. If you max out a "tree" you can put a point in the uniquely uber AA. Best advice I can give is just open the window and read the descriptions... You'll see something like "Rank 0/5" in the description. Each rank will increase the effect and in the case of 0/5 you can put up to 5 points in the AA.</p><p>(great resources for you to look at)</p><p><a href="http://www.eq2ref.com/aa/index.php?class=Shaman" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.eq2ref.com/aa/index.php?class=Shaman</a></p><p><a href="http://www.eq2ref.com/aa/index.php?class=Defiler" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.eq2ref.com/aa/index.php?class=Defiler</a></p><p>You gain points like levels and get AA xp in place of Combat xp if you "Disable Combat Experience". Discoveries, Quests, Collections and Named Mobs all give you a nice little AA xp bump without Disabling Combat XP. Older high level characters have a big challenge in gathering AA as they've discovered, quested, collected and killed tons already and need to make everything green by mentoring to get AA xp for it. AA comes a bit easier for new toons but doesn't start until level 10.</p><p>Dog/Dogdog/Puppy/etc... all refer to the "Spirit Companion" that is at the top of the Shaman tab. You have to use one point on this to open up the Shaman trees and the STR tree requires you to keep the dog up to get max benifit from the STR line of AAs.</p>

[Zooce]

<p>Note that you need to own the KoS and EoF expansions so be able to see all the AA trees (i.e. the windows pop up when you press L).</p>

[Ragnaroeker]

[Removed for Content].  Oh my stars, I have been playing my defiler since January of 2005 and raid 5 nights a week, and I am the healer class lead for my guild and I still have smoke coming out of my ears from the AA lines.  I am so AA challenged I should be on Achievement Disability,  and when it comes to reading the descripition of an ability and then tracking its application in an actual encounter, I have come to the conclusion that I am without a doubt SOE illiterate.From a research standpoint, the more I read the more confused I would get.  There are many different playstyles and many different group/raid setups all lending to toons having different opinions about which way is the best way.  Yes, there are some basic principles, but with each update and with new items and tinkering, etc. being introduced into the game these basic principles are becoming more and more non basic.  From an application standpoint, I actually respec about twice a week according to our raid zone schedule, as some abilities are better in some zones than others.   This is over the top and definitely a personal choice.  Our guild has gone thru some adversities, so I am just trying to do everything I can to provide what is needed at the time.  Also, being the class lead for healers, I needed to find away around my SOE disabilities. For myself, trying the abilities out first hand with my guild is benefitting me 10 fold. There may actually be hope for me yet.   The posters here all gave you some great info. I just wanted to let you know that there are some of us here that live in Norrath and still find confusion in just about everything SONY does.  Have fun learning what works the best for you and go with it.  Chances are it will change many times.