Once again, an AA question

[krowbis]

So I've started a mystic.  Level 11 with 3 AA currently.  I've read a  lot of posts about Mystic AA set ups and know where I'm going to head.  I'm just not sure where the best place to start is.  I'm going to go Melee to help with soloing.  I find that the hours I play on work days (Monday-Friday) make it hard for me to find groups so I solo a lot on those days.  I don't stop combat XP so I normally only have 15-20 AA's by level 20.  I want to know what you Mystics think is the best path to start on for upping my DPS for soloing in my 20's.Should I grab the CA's on the Mystic tree first or start by putting my first points in the Shaman tree?  When i started my Inq a lot of people were saying you should grab the Melee CA's tell you had 21 points to go all the way down the battle priest side, but I found with my Inq it helped a lot just to throw in my first 12 point's in to CA's for when I have to solo.Thanks!

[rumblepants]

Yes, I would recommend CAs first. In all probably 10 points to get all of them (though not necessarily maxed). This will give you 3 single target + 1 AE + 1 proc to your melee prowess. Then work your way down AGI. From there its really up to you. I did that then maxed all of my CAs with the exception of Ursine Strike then went down STR after.

[EDofEDs]

CAs first for sure till you get app3 of each atleast.I spent the first 15 in the combat tree then moved back to the agi line for the crits, then back to the mystic tree for the rest of the combat stuff.I plan on spending the rest of the mystic points on the buff line then heading back to the shammy lines for double attack after that.

[thedu]

Yup go with CA's first.  The only problem with the CA's is their short range. You have to be up in their face to get these off.Turn combat xp off and siphon all the xp you can into AP's.  You can still level via quests but any all xp siphon to AP's until you feel satisified with what you have.

[Prrasha]

<cite>thedump wrote:</cite><blockquote>Yup go with CA's first.  The only problem with the CA's is their short range. You have to be up in their face to get these off.</blockquote>That's not really a problem for the OP, only for raiding mystics trying to stay out of ginormous AEs.For a grouping mystic, AEs aren't a big issue.  Get up there with the tank and pound away on the mobs.  The shorter "casting" times on the CAs versus the spells swamps out the 1.3 seconds it'll take you to position yourself for melee; speed of CAs is worth more than range of spells to a grouping mystic.For a soloing mystic, you've got no way to keep the mobs away from you anyway (no stuns, no root except a melee-range AA attack) so pull with a debuff and go to town.  Non-interruptibility of CAs is worth a lot more than the range of spell s to a soloing mystic.

[luder118]

taking the CA's is deffently gona improve your dps and solo ability the fastest, but one thing to keep in mind is that your meele skills will determine weather or not the CAs will land.  with this in mind i would recomend that you spend all your AAs into that tree untill you have 21 in order to take weapon mastery (boosts you meele skills and give % chance to parry) so that all your CAs will land evey time you use them.  i had a problem that mine wouldnt hit (even though you will have the recast happen) untill i had the final WM buff.  hope that helps a little =)

[EDofEDs]

<cite>thedump wrote:</cite><blockquote>Turn combat xp off and siphon all the xp you can into AP's.  You can still level via quests but any all xp siphon to AP's until you feel satisified with what you have.</blockquote>I dont think just turning off combat XP means all XP goes to your AA XP.  If they changed it, they did that this morning and i missed it.  Otherwise the XP ratio is insane and i never noticed it, like  10000:1  Adventure:AA.

[thedu]

<cite>EDofEDs wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>thedump wrote:</cite><blockquote>Turn combat xp off and siphon all the xp you can into AP's.  You can still level via quests but any all xp siphon to AP's until you feel satisified with what you have.</blockquote>I dont think just turning off combat XP means all XP goes to your AA XP.  If they changed it, they did that this morning and i missed it.  Otherwise the XP ratio is insane and i never noticed it, like  10000:1  Adventure:AA.</blockquote>As far as I know that what's it's supposed to do; and that's what I have read that others have done.  I haven't actually played another character in a while so if they changed it that you can't do that as well anymore then it would definitely change my opinion somewhat.

[EDofEDs]

I know that post lvl 70 all XP in converted to AA XP.  But as far as pre 70, i didn't think so.The reason most people turn off the combat XP is so they can do as many quests as possible without them turning grey, thus getting AA XP off of as many quests as you can.  This really works quite well as I have done it with 2 alts to the 30s or so.  Both of them had a plethora of AAs compared to ones that I left adventure XP on with.  But both of them also had about 5x the number of completed quests (because the other alts deleted thier quests when they greyed out).I can't imagine its a straight XP>AAXP convertion though as you would have PvP servers with lvl 20 guys with 100AAs.  All you would have to do is find a good grinding spot and just hammer down mobs 1 after another or go on instance runs over and over with set groups.  That would make them god-like at lower levels.  The most I have ever been able to get by lvl 20 was 31AAs, and I had a TON of collections i had saved from my main and handed down.  I also ran all over the world for exploration AAs.I'll test is later though just to be sure.

[Ordate]

<p>As I am leveling 2 toons without combat xp turned on... I can tell you that if straight combat xp gets converted to aa xp then it is at such an absurdley low amount it isn't even funny.  One of these toons Im doing market free... aka to complete the orc L&L I sat there and killed green con orcs till my brains fell out or was that what I needed to collect?  No matter...   The point is the only time my aaxp bar really moves is when I do quests, get explore xp, etc.</p><p>As for getting the most aa by level 20... Don't forget to kill yourself often <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[rumblepants]

There isn't a straight XP to Achievement XP conversion pre 70. When you disable combat XP you are literally just doing that. This doesn't get you achievement XP faster. It's still the same pace. However you won't level as fast (form killing many a mob) and so you can do more quests per your level range.

[CimTaurus]

<p>Turning off combat experience is a waste in my opinion.</p><p>At level 65 I have never turned off exp and I have 75 AA's.  If you want to get AA for a grey quest just mentor before you turn it in.</p><p>What you will find is that over time your AA's just seems to catch up to the guy who turned combat exp off.  There isnt anything <i>wrong</i> with turning it off, but it isnt going ot give you a huge advantage.  You will still get exp from the quests you are doing, and therefore still be leveling up as you get AA exp for the quests. </p><p>I have a fury friend who likes to turn off combat exp for a while and work up AA exp.  He is level 62 where I am 65.  He has 82 AA where I have 75.  For me, the spells I got between 62 and 65 as well as the groups I can get into more than make up for the 7 extra AA's he has over me.  Not once, ever, has anyone ever said to me, boy your mystic sure sucks because you dont have enough AA's.  On the contrary, most groups ask me how I have my AA's set up because I am so versatile in a group.</p><p>Turn off Combat Exp if you want to, it certainly wont hurt you to do so, but if you are doing it thinking that more AA's will make your character a super toon, think again.</p>

[krowbis]

Working, drinking coffee, eating a bagel, and posting on the forum is apparently a bad combination for me.  Post on wrong thread.  Deleting now <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Karlen]

The key considerations for me were:- you don't hit with CAs nearly enough until you get Weapon Mastery at the end of the mystic combat AA line.  - until you have converted all of your spells to CAs, you will need to use a combination of spells and CAs --> this means that you need to keep your INT buffed up in order to do reasonable damage.  Once you have all of the CAs, you can lay off on buffing INT (still useful, but not critical) and focus on STR- getting the increased crit percentage from the AGI line is very helpful, even if you don't have enough points to get it to 100%. - you will want to get AGI to 100% melee crits and the full combat line eventually.  Once you are there, finish the AGI line.

[krowbis]

Well 47 now.  I went straight down the combat AA's first.  It made solo play much easier and by level 20 I had 21 points in it and had combat mastery.  I then went down the STA line? for heal crits..  I think it was stamina.  I'm sitting around 50 AA's now so I don't remember exactly what direction I took.  But i'm back up to a high enough level with this alt that I can group with guildys and there tends to be more pugs when need be so I solo rarely now and am less worried about DPS then I was when I soloed.  Of course DPS can always be handy but when you solo heal groups in tough places you tend to spend more time warding/debuffing then using combat AA's.  And does any Mystic use them when raiding?  I doubt it.I've been examining the Mystic tree cause my Shaman tree should be full or close enough in the near future.  Not sure where I'm going to spend the rest of my points in the Mystic tree.

[luder118]

for your question about mystics that raid, i raid alot with my mystic and still keep the CAs.  i have found that the other mystic choices (other than the augmenting line) are not that helpfull, and i can MT ward just fine.  the main reason i keep the CAs is cause sometimes i end up in the off tank grp and get board so i start kicking in some DPS for something to do (the solo ability also rocks).  as far as the shaman trees go i use the agi and wis lines, agi for meele/heal crits, and wis for the recast (also some other nice bonuses from that tree).  hope that help your direction (i hear alot of people like the sta line, for the cure casting speeds and pvp defence)