AA and Leveling tips needed? [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

View Full Version : AA and Leveling tips needed?

Thorindil

06-08-2009, 05:27 AM

Ok, so I recently upgraded from the trial- definately going to be staying for at least a few months.Anyway, my Pally is now level 21, with 27 AAs, and after grinding through a ton of quests with combat xp turned off, I am wondering, would I struggle with only 27 AAs if I decided to grind up to 30?So far, it has been extremely easy to solo, and I can easily fight green heroics and sometimes blue ^^^s, but would I get absolutely destroyed with 27AA at 30 or should I just go ahead and grind.Also, so far I have only been using Gorowyn quest armour as many peopled suggested I should go there as the gear their is apparently better than other quested gear, but I am now training tradeskill so I can make my own armour. I intend to have full level 20 handcrafted fairly soon.Also, my AA tree, I put 24 AAs in strength, as it looked appealing for soloing as well as grouping with the hate gain increase, with 4-6-6-6-2. What line should I go down now or was strength not the right choice?So, I guess my point is, would a 21 Pally in Handcrafted level 20 armour and the AA specs? (is that the right word?) mentioned above be able to solo grind to 30?Thanks in advance.Edit: I have also had app Is, but it has worked fine, but will I need to consider upgrading, and if so, what spells? I have 4p to blow, just from selling stuff I have found from those shiny question marks, but I don't want to waste it, especially if i will be grinding, as they will quickly become useless if i get new spells, so i'd rather avoid upgrading, unless it will drastically improve how well I fight mobs.

Kigneer

06-08-2009, 08:50 AM

At level 32 you will need mastercrafted gear, if you plan more than just breezing through the content (e.g., going after names; doing HQs; fighting in Nek/RoV/RE (especially Varsoon himself). Got away with trash gear and treasured, but when level 35 hit, that's when it started to get rough without more mitigation. Harvested for feysteel for over a week (then it was rare upon rare), and got enough for a complete set. Then it became bearable to take down mobs in RE, in a AoE wipe fashion (still love that zone for that reason!).When you hit level 50, turn off the XP for sure. Go mine for cobalt in the caves, plenty of crocs for drops and enough AA to keep you satisfied. By the time you got enough cobalt for your MC, you'd have 5+ AAs easily just on killing crocs.Get all your AAs as you can by fighting beasties like that, because after 100 AAs it may take 3 or more of them to move the bar 1%. Kill 2 birds with one stone, so when you're at level 80, you'll have at least 120 AAs.

Thorindil

06-08-2009, 08:57 AM

Thanks- I managed to get hold of enough rares for a set of 22MC which I'm pleased about, but I think I'll go with Handcrafted for everything else, so jewellery, a shield and a sword, maybe even a few treasured pieces which I've noticed can be picked up for about 1-3g each.

Kordran

06-08-2009, 01:23 PM

<cite>Kigneer wrote:</cite><blockquote>When you hit level 50, turn off the XP for sure. Go mine for cobalt in the caves, plenty of crocs for drops and enough AA to keep you satisfied. By the time you got enough cobalt for your MC, you'd have 5+ AAs easily just on killing crocs.Get all your AAs as you can by fighting beasties like that, because after 100 AAs it may take 3 or more of them to move the bar 1%. Kill 2 birds with one stone, so when you're at level 80, you'll have at least 120 AAs.</blockquote>Turning off combat XP does not convert XP to AA when you're below the level cap (and with the next update, turning off combat XP will also disable conversion even when you're at cap). The primary ways for him to get AA at 50 is disco, named and quests. Farming trash mobs won't get him anything.

Kigneer

06-08-2009, 08:32 PM

<cite>Kordran wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kigneer wrote:</cite><blockquote>When you hit level 50, turn off the XP for sure. Go mine for cobalt in the caves, plenty of crocs for drops and enough AA to keep you satisfied. By the time you got enough cobalt for your MC, you'd have 5+ AAs easily just on killing crocs.Get all your AAs as you can by fighting beasties like that, because after 100 AAs it may take 3 or more of them to move the bar 1%. Kill 2 birds with one stone, so when you're at level 80, you'll have at least 120 AAs.</blockquote>Turning off combat XP does not convert XP to AA when you're below the level cap (and with the next update, turning off combat XP will also disable conversion even when you're at cap). The primary ways for him to get AA at 50 is disco, named and quests. Farming trash mobs won't get him anything.</blockquote>Remember this now?...<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=40&topic_id=433402�">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...433402?</a>Wrote this on 10/24/2008... ^^ This is what upset me about this new XP: even if you turn off the combat XP you will STILL level.^^It means you'll lose out on some good gear (especially those of us who *were* level 50 before this change, and now forced 2+ levels higher). I turned off the XP so I can try to harvest some mastercrafted rares for T6, and came back online later after the update to see I'm almost at 51. Then hit a new discovery or whatever and got to level 52. Now all level 40 mobs and named are gray.Combat XP was turned off, Kordan, but still leveled with an AA ding. Update later allowed disabling more than combat XP, just before TSO was released. But I did in fact get AAs from killing those crocs, by the boat full.

Kordran

06-09-2009, 06:49 PM

<cite>Kigneer wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kordran wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kigneer wrote:</cite><blockquote>When you hit level 50, turn off the XP for sure. Go mine for cobalt in the caves, plenty of crocs for drops and enough AA to keep you satisfied. By the time you got enough cobalt for your MC, you'd have 5+ AAs easily just on killing crocs.Get all your AAs as you can by fighting beasties like that, because after 100 AAs it may take 3 or more of them to move the bar 1%. Kill 2 birds with one stone, so when you're at level 80, you'll have at least 120 AAs.</blockquote>Turning off combat XP does not convert XP to AA when you're below the level cap (and with the next update, turning off combat XP will also disable conversion even when you're at cap). The primary ways for him to get AA at 50 is disco, named and quests. Farming trash mobs won't get him anything.</blockquote>Remember this now?...<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=40&topic_id=433402�">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...433402?</a>Wrote this on 10/24/2008... ^^ This is what upset me about this new XP: even if you turn off the combat XP you will STILL level.^^It means you'll lose out on some good gear (especially those of us who *were* level 50 before this change, and now forced 2+ levels higher). I turned off the XP so I can try to harvest some mastercrafted rares for T6, and came back online later after the update to see I'm almost at 51. Then hit a new discovery or whatever and got to level 52. Now all level 40 mobs and named are gray.Combat XP was turned off, Kordan, but still leveled with an AA ding. Update later allowed disabling more than combat XP, just before TSO was released. But I did in fact get AAs from killing those crocs, by the boat full.</blockquote>You didn't level and get AA from killing trash crocs. You got it from running around the caves (and whatever other parts of Sinking Sands) and dinging from the new locations, because disabling combat XP didn't prevent you from getting other forms of experience. Also, around the time that you're talking about is when they adjusted the leveling curve which meant that it actually dinged people after the update, regardless if they were locked or not.Lock your combat XP, go kill a single trash croc and you'll not get the smallest bit of AA from that kill; you'll get no message that some of your experience has been converted to achievement experience. All that you'll see is the message saying that you've chosen to disable combat experience.I will say this again: if you're under the level cap, farming trash mobs will get you absolutely nothing in terms of AA, locked or not. The XP to AXP conversion only happens when you're at level cap.

Kigneer

06-11-2009, 08:13 AM

<cite>Kordran wrote:</cite><blockquote>You didn't level and get AA from killing trash crocs. You got it from running around the caves (and whatever other parts of Sinking Sands) and dinging from the new locations, because disabling combat XP didn't prevent you from getting other forms of experience.</blockquote>No, Kordan I was already in the caves for days mining every crook and cranny where the nodes would pop. Must've killed a thousand of those crocs wholesale at that.

Meirril

06-11-2009, 08:58 AM

For the OP: Unless you want to slow down and smell the roses (i.e. fully experience low level content) NEVER turn off your combat xp. While AA xp allows you to buy plenty of nice abilities, levels are more powerful. Sure, if you had a lot of AA for your level you'd have an easier time of it but you can always work on AA when your at cap and all your xp gets converted to AA.As for gear, Mastercrafted makes leveling easier all the way around. And that's it, its easier. You don't need it. I'd recommend finding a healer to group with. Even if your gear is only handcrafted quality with any healing class the two of you will have an easy time. Better yet, get 4-6 people and actually go to town in a dungeon for fun or just blow through quests really really fast. That's a great way to get AA because quests are the major method of getting AA and you split the combat xp 6 ways it means your getting more AA per level by doing quests in a group.Once you get into the 60s start worrying about gear. Fortunately about that time the price of hard metals starts to drop due to the glut of metal vs loam. What really starts to hurt is upgrading your spells. Once you hit 70 make sure every spell you upgrade is an adept 3 or better. Scrimp, save do what you have to but earn the plat for the spells.BTW: great way to make coin is to broker all of the status items, water, bones and fertalizer you find. People pay good cash for all of those as well as adept 1 spells. You can also sell 20-60 MC armor for good profit. Once you get some cash flow going just buy rares, sell MC and repeat. Make sure you study the market before you commit to making the armor.Kigneer: There is a BUG in the game right now that makes your combat xp convert to AA while your combat experience is locked just as if you were at the level cap. That bug is being fixed with LU52. While it would work for the OP for another week or so it isn't suppose to and after the next LU it won't work. (probably)

Kigneer

06-11-2009, 09:29 AM

<cite>Meirril wrote:</cite><blockquote>Kigneer: There is a BUG in the game right now that makes your combat xp convert to AA while your combat experience is locked just as if you were at the level cap. That bug is being fixed with LU52. While it would work for the OP for another week or so it isn't suppose to and after the next LU it won't work. (probably)</blockquote>By your suggestions above, a week is plenty! lolPersonally, though, AAs really do count more as they make the fighter more powerful at their level, making it easier to kill at level content. Combine it with MC+, adorns and Adept IIIs, the fighter is just awesone (my little level 18 Pally alt that's a dungeon farmer can solo Blackburrow including names, for example). Showing up as a "paper tiger" on a tough dungeon crawl doesn't help the Pally, let alone the group when they can't hold the mob/boss. Had 129 AAs when I dinged 80, which was enough to not only finish the Crusader tree, almost finish the Paladin tree, and even have some for the TSO lines.Furthermore, if you're running with mains/alts who are raiders you can/will be asked how many AAs you have. Not enough, it can mean no slot for you.