AA question, don't kill me - regarding order of selecting them

[mkor]

<p>I just rolled a paladin last night, and despite what people say about them, I like it and I'm sticking to him as my fighter to play when I can't find any work for my main (already have a swash).</p><p>...anyways, I'm going to be soloing or duoing mainly.  I'm just wondering which order I should do my AAs.  Now, rushing to 448 in int looks pretty appealing (the guy I duo with on my swash is an SK and that's what he did) but I'd like some feedback and what to do beyond that or if I should start in the paladin line.  Basically, I don't know much about paladins.</p><p>Also, with this new AA slider, I was thinking putting it at like 50% permanently while leveling up would be a good idea, anyone else have any experience using it at low levels?  Or should I keep it at 0% and quest as normal?</p>

[VALKOR]

<p>I've had my paladin since day one which actually means I'm not sure I can offer solid advice in this case.  In general, the Block line on your Paladin tree (far right) is crucial to tanking.  While Divine Aura is the weakest block in the game due to the health limit and the short duration, it is still useful in emergency situations and you'll want the health (and melee crit) for tanking found on that line anyway.  STR is great for the CA/Spell reduction so I'd go down that line as well (plus it has DA).</p><p>Once you can get on to the TSO tree, you want the figher damage mitigation, paladin block, and of course your Clarion Cry endline.  Since it is only two points, might as well grab Stonewall when you have the points to spare.</p><p>Otherwise, there are a lot of good posts out there about what to have once you have full AA but for group tanking, I'd focus on the above.</p><p>And yes, the spell crit is good to have and you should eventually get it but frankly I would take the DA and melee crit first as they are taking you down lines you'll eventually want to go down anyways to be a solid tank.</p>

[betatester7]

<p>remember check this post too for AA's info TSO</p><p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=436686" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=436686</a></p>

[h0sti1e17]

<p>This is the same question I have had.  Unlike some games you are not limited in the order you can put your points in.  I got my first AA and of course put it in Concenter, but after that which line should I go down?  Or even where to put points (Crusader; Paladin; Shadows)  I am thinking STA, then go from there.</p>

[Kigneer]

<p><cite>mkor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>...anyways, I'm going to be soloing or duoing mainly.  I'm just wondering which order I should do my AAs.  Now, rushing to 448 in int looks pretty appealing (the guy I duo with on my swash is an SK and that's what he did) but I'd like some feedback and what to do beyond that or if I should start in the paladin line.  Basically, I don't know much about paladins.</p></blockquote><p>If soloing you need to balance dps with defense. Which means you will rarely go offensive because your mit won't be high enough to survive the offensive stance (lower level it will be red or at best white colored. Green you won't see until the 60s with legendary or above gear).</p><p>If you're duoing with a high dps class, go meat tank mode (+parry and +defense jewellry and Wraths+Shield block AA lines). He's in chain and doesn't have the mit, nor any way to heal himself short of pots. You'll shield him while he burns down the mob/named.</p><p>INT is nice, but that's a primary stat for SKs,<span style="color: #ff9900;"> <strong>WIS is the primary stat for Paladins</strong> </span>(as with Priests).</p><p>Good ratio to seek is 4-4-8 in STR/STA/INT until you hit level 70 and have all 70AAs available. A Pally needs all stats, why you'll have to balance them as evenly as possible (and don't forget WIS, get jewellry/adorns to bring that stat up, especially after level 62 -- STR+WIS = higher power pool. No power = dead Pally). </p>

[Boli32]

<p><cite>Kigneer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>mkor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>...anyways, I'm going to be soloing or duoing mainly.  I'm just wondering which order I should do my AAs.  Now, rushing to 448 in int looks pretty appealing (the guy I duo with on my swash is an SK and that's what he did) but I'd like some feedback and what to do beyond that or if I should start in the paladin line.  Basically, I don't know much about paladins.</p></blockquote><p>If soloing you need to balance dps with defense. Which means you will rarely go offensive because your mit won't be high enough to survive the offensive stance (lower level it will be red or at best white colored. Green you won't see until the 60s with legendary or above gear).</p><p>If you're duoing with a high dps class, go meat tank mode (+parry and +defense jewellry and Wraths+Shield block AA lines). He's in chain and doesn't have the mit, nor any way to heal himself short of pots. You'll shield him while he burns down the mob/named.</p><p>INT is nice, but that's a primary stat for SKs,<span style="color: #ff9900;"> <strong>WIS is the primary stat for Paladins</strong> </span>(as with Priests).</p><p>Good ratio to seek is 4-4-8 in STR/STA/INT until you hit level 70 and have all 70AAs available. A Pally needs all stats, why you'll have to balance them as evenly as possible (and don't forget WIS, get jewellry/adorns to bring that stat up, especially after level 62 -- STR+WIS = higher power pool. No power = dead Pally). </p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff9900;"><strong>WIS is the primary stat for Paladins?!?!?!??!?!</strong></span></p><p>Waaaah.... tbh you're not even worth the effort of correcting anymore.</p>

[Maamadex]

<p>Yeah Boli, Wis is where its at didn't you know?</p>

[Kigneer]

<p><cite>Boli32 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff9900;"><strong>WIS is the primary stat for Paladins?!?!?!??!?!</strong></span></p><p>Waaaah.... tbh you're not even worth the effort of correcting anymore.</p></blockquote><p>Reroll Boli, you're playing the wrong class. Paladins are healing tanks, and like all healers, WIS is a primary stat.</p><p>If you want to dps, roll a SK or something else, as you're not playing your class to the fullest.</p><p><em>EDIT: Ah, no wonder why Boli has a fit with WIS his is only 313. Had to be a reason for the bellyaching.</em></p>

[Jaale]

While I admire your tenacity Kigneer, I have to say that Wis is not a primary Stat, it's a secondary stat, if you put points into WIS then you will only get half the power that you'll get if you put points into STR. We are tanks that can heal, correct, however we are Tanks first. The WIS doesn't boost your resists enough to make the points worthwhile, nor does it boost your power enough to make it worth the gains that you would get over putting your points into another tree. While you may hold to your beliefs that does not make them correct.

[Maamadex]

<p><cite>Kigneer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><em>EDIT: Ah, no wonder why Boli has a fit with WIS his is only 313. Had to be a reason for the bellyaching.</em></p></blockquote><p>Yeah Boli must have Wis Envy. Although he may be "bellyaching" because what you said was absolutely ridiculous. You must be the uberest paladin on Norrath Kigneer, all of us who raid and played the game for years are just messing around with crazy things like Str and Sta as primary stats. Str is our primary power stat, and wis is "secondary". And don't go down the wis gives resists road. Secondary stat = if its on a item nice but its not the end of the world if its not. Sta is a primary stat. Wis just plain ain't. It is true we use all the stats pretty much, only lackluster one is agility really, as it does so very little.</p><p>Since you are fond of spelling things out occasionally, a paladin is a f-i-g-h-t-e-r. Not a p-r-i-e-s-t. At best you could say we can be 1/4 healer 3/4 fighter at times. This isn't that blizzard game, where paladins run around healing raids and such.</p>

[Verlaine]

<p>Can anyone give some tips for pre lvl 70 AA setups, since we are limited to only 50 AA points per type.  Everywhere I look I cannot find any.  I am currently 4-4-8 down the str, sta, int trees under Crusader.  What is the best AA setup for the Paladin tree?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>

[TerrorFirmer]

<p><cite>Krelis@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Can anyone give some tips for pre lvl 70 AA setups, since we are limited to only 50 AA points per type.  Everywhere I look I cannot find any.  I am currently 4-4-8 down the str, sta, int trees under Crusader.  What is the best AA setup for the Paladin tree?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p></blockquote><p>For the paladin tree, pre level 70, I would definitely take wraths down to smite evil first.  Possibly then work on hero down to block mastery, afterward, or support down to cure spells (probably block mastery, though).  For leveling, though, nothing beats wraths pound per pound in AAs as it increases your dps and you can't go wrong by simply beefing up all wraths and respec later on.</p><p>As for your crusader line, I would take points out of stamina and make sure that you have the strength endline ability ASAP as it will also greatly increase your dps.  The more dps you have ->faster things die ->less chance you have to get hit -> less downtime -> more experience per hour you can grind.  The strength endline more than makes up for the loss of the melee crit from taking the points out of stamina, at least for the time being.</p>

[TerrorFirmer]

<p><cite>Kigneer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Boli32 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff9900;"><strong>WIS is the primary stat for Paladins?!?!?!??!?!</strong></span></p><p>Waaaah.... tbh you're not even worth the effort of correcting anymore.</p></blockquote><p>Reroll Boli, you're playing the wrong class. Paladins are healing tanks, and like all healers, WIS is a primary stat.</p><p>If you want to dps, roll a SK or something else, as you're not playing your class to the fullest.</p><p><em>EDIT: Ah, no wonder why Boli has a fit with WIS his is only 313. Had to be a reason for the bellyaching.</em></p></blockquote><p>His wis is only 313 because he raids.  My wisdom sucks on my character, too, yet somehow I get by (it is even worse than Boli's!).  Wisdom is not needed for a main tank in a raid, stamina/str/int are.  One keeps you alive, the other two increase your damage with your combat abilities/spells for more hate gain.  If you are capped on +melee damage and spell damage mod (which is easy for the majority of our abilities) the proc from the mythical will do nothing for you... and procs aren't reliable enough to dictate base stats anyway.  Sure, we heal, but since we heal +heal crit is far more important than wis if you want to go that direction (and you can, I did it for a while when I simply tanked instances and it worked great).  Hell, even +heal value is better than wis (I adorned my gloves with that!).</p><p>Oh, and if WIS is such an integral part of a paladin, why is there such a lack of it on T4 pieces?  The devs must be crazy :p</p>

[TerrorFirmer]

<p><cite>VALKOR wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I've had my paladin since day one which actually means I'm not sure I can offer solid advice in this case.  In general, the Block line on your Paladin tree (far right) is crucial to tanking.  While Divine Aura is the weakest block in the game due to the health limit and the short duration, it is still useful in emergency situations and you'll want the health (and melee crit) for tanking found on that line anyway.  STR is great for the CA/Spell reduction so I'd go down that line as well (plus it has DA).</p><p>Once you can get on to the TSO tree, you want the figher damage mitigation, paladin block, and of course your Clarion Cry endline.  Since it is only two points, might as well grab Stonewall when you have the points to spare.</p><p>Otherwise, there are a lot of good posts out there about what to have once you have full AA but for group tanking, I'd focus on the above.</p><p>And yes, the spell crit is good to have and you should eventually get it but frankly I would take the DA and melee crit first as they are taking you down lines you'll eventually want to go down anyways to be a solid tank.</p></blockquote><p>This would all be fair if he said he wanted to tank in a group setting.  He said he wanted to solo, or maybe duo.  Clarion is awful, I think you mean faithful cry.  Clarion atm does not create enough hate to be worth it, although I have it so whenever I use power cleave it casts clarion right after just for the extra hate. </p><p>Soloing I would say ignore divine aura, as it's biggest benefit is being able to rez a healer in your group to prevent a wipe.  If you are just soloing, divine aura won't keep you alive THAT much longer.  Strength end line is your friend, spell crit is your friend.  The gains in spell crit are far higher than the gains in double attack, but you will max out double attack getting to the strength end line anyway.  Make sure you only put the bare minimum into the stat increasing AAs to unlock the next ability.  BTW, I would take the +68 spell crit or whatever it is over the 22% melee crit anyday.  Strength and int first, you won't regret it.</p><p>For soloing I would ignore stonewall.  Solo mobs aren't going to hit you hard enough so that the one block is worthwhile.  Put points into your heals for self preservation or dps abilities, those two points will be better spent there.  Stonewall is situationally useful in a raid setting, which is not what you said you wanted to do.</p>

[Meirril]

<p><cite>TerrorFirmer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>VALKOR wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I've had my paladin since day one which actually means I'm not sure I can offer solid advice in this case.  In general, the Block line on your Paladin tree (far right) is crucial to tanking.  While Divine Aura is the weakest block in the game due to the health limit and the short duration, it is still useful in emergency situations and you'll want the health (and melee crit) for tanking found on that line anyway.  STR is great for the CA/Spell reduction so I'd go down that line as well (plus it has DA).</p><p>Once you can get on to the TSO tree, you want the figher damage mitigation, paladin block, and of course your Clarion Cry endline.  Since it is only two points, might as well grab Stonewall when you have the points to spare.</p><p>Otherwise, there are a lot of good posts out there about what to have once you have full AA but for group tanking, I'd focus on the above.</p><p>And yes, the spell crit is good to have and you should eventually get it but frankly I would take the DA and melee crit first as they are taking you down lines you'll eventually want to go down anyways to be a solid tank.</p></blockquote><p>This would all be fair if he said he wanted to tank in a group setting.  He said he wanted to solo, or maybe duo.  Clarion is awful, I think you mean faithful cry.  Clarion atm does not create enough hate to be worth it, although I have it so whenever I use power cleave it casts clarion right after just for the extra hate. </p><p>Soloing I would say ignore divine aura, as it's biggest benefit is being able to rez a healer in your group to prevent a wipe.  If you are just soloing, divine aura won't keep you alive THAT much longer.  Strength end line is your friend, spell crit is your friend.  The gains in spell crit are far higher than the gains in double attack, but you will max out double attack getting to the strength end line anyway.  Make sure you only put the bare minimum into the stat increasing AAs to unlock the next ability.  BTW, I would take the +68 spell crit or whatever it is over the 22% melee crit anyday.  Strength and int first, you won't regret it.</p><p>For soloing I would ignore stonewall.  Solo mobs aren't going to hit you hard enough so that the one block is worthwhile.  Put points into your heals for self preservation or dps abilities, those two points will be better spent there.  Stonewall is situationally useful in a raid setting, which is not what you said you wanted to do.</p></blockquote><p>I'm going to firmly disagree and say divine aura is useful while soloing. Its all about knowing when to use DA. In any situation where you have multiple mobs on you using DA early will cut down the amount of damage your taking significantly. Lets just say you want to pull an encounter with 3 mobs in it. A single arrow up, and 2 arrow down buddies for example. Lets just pretend that they actually hit hard. Even if you can't burn them down before the 10 seconds are up, they will most likely have used their biggest abilities and be waiting for their refresh timers before the DA runs out. If you can burn one down before DA wears off its even better. You've reduced your incomming damage by 20-30% for the rest of the fight if it was one of the arrow downs, and even more if its the arrow up.</p><p>DA really shines when your going to go nuts and use your AoEs to kill off an entire room of easy solo mobs. Ward yourself, run in a circle and hit DA as you stop. If you've properly judged your AoE's effectiveness you've killed some of the mobs before DA wears off and you've saved yourself a ton of damage. Every second before the first mobs start dropping is crucial in that kind of situation and DA works wonders.</p><p>Of course if you can do this your just showboating, but its fun.</p><p>As for how to spend your AA, point for point the crusader line is probably the best line we have. Shadows comes a close second but it requires that you spend a certain amount of points before you can get anything good. I believe your better off concentrating on Crusader, then Paladin tree so you don't waste 10 points on the bottom shadows tree abilites without being able to take full advantage of the higher up abilites before you hit level 70. Once your 70, spend them in the Shadows tree before the paladin tree just because the paladin abilities point for point are weaker.</p><p>My suggestion would be stamina first. The melee crit probably helps you the most, and DA is a good ability. Also having an extra AoE helps. After that its up to you, but I'd pick Strength. The end line ability is really nice, though the melee attack abilities from the Agility tree are fantastic too. While spell and heal crit from int may look good, we don't have that many spells or heals. We're mostly combat art based. Yes, our few spells can get some good numbers with crits, but overall we're better off boosting melee abilties.</p><p>Once your capped at 50 points in crusader line (pre-70), I'd suggest wraths in the paladin tree first to get Smite Evil. A really heavy hitting AoE that costs no power. What's not to like? Then either the support line for cure, or hero line for the shield bonus. I'd recommend cure over shield if your mostly soloing. If you have a priest around to cure most of the time, go shield.</p><p>by the time your spending points on the shadow line you should have a good idea what your doing.</p>

[TerrorFirmer]

<p>You may firmly disagree, but a situationally useful ability like divine aura is nowhere near as beneficial as the strength end line.  The reuse means you can cast your more powerful abilities more often, the spell cast means you can chain more in the same amount of time, and the recovery means less wasted time in between CAs/spells.  Melee crit at such a small amount as the maxed stamina line provides (I think 22%) isn't quite as good as the 68% spell crit from the int line  You also get some double attack from the strength line which will help your auto attack damage to some degree early on.  I guess it could be argued, but I generally would prefer the high spell crit (critting about 2 out of 3 spells) rather than critting less than 1 out of 4 melee attacks.  Sure, paladins deal a lot of damage with auto attack, but the way I leveled up was with strength and int first, then stamina.  Especially when you go down the wraths line, a smite evil crit is a good way to make a group of weak enemies cry.</p><p>For shadows, I wouldn't worry too much about that until you are level 80, but you may get your first few points in while you level.  At first I took +2.5% health and +2.5% power, but I swapped the power over to the deity pet improvement (which is very minor, yes, but so is the small amount of power you get... pick your poison, lol).  After that, put 5 into battle hardening, your swing attack, and sneering assault (maybe, maybe not).  Rescue reuse is good if you are planning on grouping a lot, but you said solo and duo, in which case it would do nothing for you (you could amends the other player).  Take knight's stance, phalanx, and the proc damage increase along with aura of the crusader.  Last line take faithful cry, power cleave, regenerating ward, knight's counter... put your remaining points into whatever dps or heal ability you think you will use most.  Since you aren't planning on grouping much, or raiding, any of the abilities for improved aggro management are nearly useless... so improving them is a colossal waste of time until you change your playstyle.  For groups/raids, they are life savers.  Holy ground -- rescue -- sneering assault, etc.</p>