Returning Paladin, not sure how to 'fix' me

[Rik]

Been away a long time, and came back to my 45 level paladin, with a whopping 3 AA points.Fighting Greens is ok.  Fighting low greens heroics is impossible.  Fighting non heroics 43-45 is ok as well, but even 37 double down heroic groups send me running.  Sigh.So, that being said, is their anyway to pick up AA's?  This was my first EQ2 character, so he has 100's of completed quests, not real easy to mentor down and get them.  The only reason he has 3 or 4, is I peeked into KOS and The desert for a few explorations, and completed 2 other collections (iksar bones and Feeroot leaves).Is there just no way I can solo a low green heroic as a paladin?  Or do I need certain AA's to do it.Got depressed when I saw a 46 Brawler solo Fug....   (40 heroic)  I'd be dead in 50 seconds..Love the old guy, but bout ready to start from scratch.  Made a fae to play with my wife, and he has 20 AA's at level 20...much different!

[AikonHalcy]

<p>As far as solo'ing a green heroic, yeah, I'd say AA's would be helpful.  Are you also with good gear for your level?</p><p>I think the AA xp scale and normal Adventure xp scale are on two completely different scales.</p><p>So, I'm not quite sure on this since I haven't really tried it out myself.. but if you were to run some new solo quests (<a href="http://www.eq2i.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.eq2i.com</a> solo quests guides ftw) and maybe collect, or even purchase, some collections around or higher then your level, you should actually be able to get quite a few AA's.</p><p>That's my theory anyway.  I could be wrong though, but it'd be worth a shot as a last resort.</p>

[Boethius_Permafrost]

You can't possibly have done all the quests for your level and below.  Check out butcherblock and crushbone keep.  Re-visit everywhere you have been, and run around new zones to get a good chunk of discovery; re-visit lower level zones to get all the named there.  You do need to be good on equipment and achievements to solo heroics, but you should not need to solo heroics.  Kade makes a good point with the solo quests timeline.<span class="name">  </span>Also, check out some of the heritage quests for good items.  Fear not, the achievements will catch up, quickly, but if you start over from scratch, you'll lose all that xp.  On the other hand, you can pretend you're doing it for romantic reasons, and to spend time with her, yada yada.  The family that plays together stays together!

[Meirril]

<p>If there are any heritage quests you've missed out on, do them. Make sure you find someone to mentor to in the appropriate level range before you complete the quest so you get AA for it. The above advice on EoF is very good.</p><p>Also, your equipment is going to be more important than AA. At 46 getting a full set of Ebon armor would be horribly expensive. This is especially true now with the crafting epic taking 2 ebon clusters each. I'd suggest that you try to limp up to 52 and get a full set of cobalt armor. Cobalt will get you up to 62 where you can wear Xegonite armor. Xeg will probably be the last suit of player crafted armor you'll ever get. Don't neglect your jewelery. Jewelery metals are a little pricy, but definately worth the investment. Also make sure all of your spells are at least adept 1. Better quality spells go along way toward soloing heroics, but are very costly. It is generally a good idea to budget yourself until you reach the top tier, where you should have at least adept 3 spells for everything.</p><p>As for weapons, screaming mace is great for a tank. Yes, it has an agro decrease on the proc. That just off sets the bonuses you get from the proc. You'll tank fine with it, trust me. Also the bone bladed claymore is good at that level incase you don't want to use a shield. Once you hit 52 a cobalt weapon is a good alternative. In either case look into weapon adornments. You should be able to find inexpensive treasured quality adornments for weapons. This is free damage, use it. Other adornments will be expensive, but since transmuters grind up on these...they are cheap.</p><p>One last bit of advice, group! There arn't a whole lot of people that level up tanks anymore. It should be easy for you to find other people willing to group up. Even without a healer, a full group at your level can generally take on 1 or 2 heroic encounters at once with no losses.</p>

[Niou]

You don't need to give up really, I had the same problem kinda. Bought the expansion's late because I wasn't sure if I was going to play seriously again, let alone on a PvP server. I did however get re-hooked and found myself at level 35-40ish with 0 AA. The AA's come very quickly if your far below where you should be. I will say that after playing a few of the classes and watching others, AA seems to be a huge key for the Paladin Class. I found myself about 20 AA behind the average player when the AA slowed down. After some hard work and really going out of my way to find named and quests, (you can mentor down and kill named you had already killed with no AA reward to gain the AA exp), I am now 80 with 139 AA and just about to 140, while the 80's around me are at around 130-135. Moral of the story, you can catch up!Advise on good area's to raise your AA through quests:Lower Fay Quest lines.KoS quest lines (you can do those basket quests about 5 times each for an aa reward each time.)Barren Sky also has quite a few easy quests.Once you hit mid-high 60's, Loping plains and kunark quests will continue one after another.Going back for named kills.Heritage Quests.

[Rik]

Thanks.  For all the ideas.  Good to know it's not hopeless, will just keep plugging away.

[Jeger_Wulf]

Level via questing, buy collections where you can, get as much discovery exp as you can. You'll catch up eventually. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />