AA Question

[Zarajani]

<p>Hi. I'm yet another old player who recently returned to the game and I have a question about this whole AA system. I'm noticing (especially since it's double xp this weekend) that a lot of people that aren't max adventure level are going all out and getting as many AA levels/points as they can. My question is: is this an extremely important thing to do? Or since my main character is only level 43 should I keep focusing on adventure levels and then worry about my AA stuff later?</p><p>Any insight anyone can provide is extremely appreciated, thanks! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Sennyu]

you are asking probably the most controversial question in EQ2, Personally my opinion is level slow and get AA early on, however many say to level fast then get AA. It is really all up to you in the end though but keep in mind that you wont be very powerful in a group regardless of class untill you have level 90 with 300 AA or close to it. bit its up to you whether you get that AA early on or later

[Blakness]

<p>My first character to level 90 I did mostly all adventure experience and little AA.  At 90 I'm only around 178 AA's, which is frustruating.  With my alt now I'm trying to keep 3 AA's per adventure level so I'll be at 270 AA's when I get to 90. </p>

[Arielle Nightshade]

<p>I usually level fast then get AA's at leisure, but I'm a dopamine rush addict that likes leveling.  It just depends on what you want to do when you hit 90.  Do you want to be immediately able to group and raid? If so, you want to keep them pretty much level with each other.   Simple math says 3AA's per level is the way to go (300/90).  It's an easy way to keep track.  If you are about to level and don't have 4 for that level, just lock till you do.   At the very end game if you have about 270 AA's you'll be able to make a decent showing while you are gearing up and getting the rest of them if you just can't resist leveling.</p><p>I recently started playing a level 60 character that has been on the shelf since DoF went live.  I logged in the character, got a guild invite and went venturing out into the world.  I dinged 3 AA's and  my guild chat just burst into laughter.  "You'd be better off if you wipe that toon and reroll".   I did, and they were absolutely right.  That character is now 60 with 200 AAs - much better.   Leveling is a lot faster than it used to be back in 'the day', but you will be at a disadvantage if you actually want to play with other people if you don't keep current.</p><p>Edit cause I did my 'simple math' wrong lol!!!</p>

[Zarajani]

<p>Thank you so much for the tips guys! I guess I'll just lock my adventure level for now and get a bunch of AA levels since it shoulden't be too hard where I'm at, hopefully I won't get laughed at too much hehe.<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Sennyu]

personally I wouldnt let myself get to caught up with a formula however of that 3aa per level or whatever. IMO if your looking to level slow and get your AA early find spots with plenty of quests that your having fun with. I know for me there are some level ranges I just cant stand so I refuse to level slow through them but there are some level ranges that I love and have stupid amounts of content(level 80 for instance). Just do whatever you find is fun.

[Tigress]

<p>either way works.  i did it the long way... AAs while i leveled.  guildmate did it the quick way.  he had only 100 AAs when he dinged 90.  less than a month later, he has max AAs.  its how YOU want to do it that matters.  want to feel powerful while you solo?  then get your AAs by moving slider to at least 50/50.  want to get to 90 ASAP?  then keep your slider at 0 or 25 & get your AAs at 90.</p>

[Eugam]

<p><cite>Zarajani@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Hi. I'm yet another old player who recently returned to the game and I have a question about this whole AA system. I'm noticing (especially since it's double xp this weekend) that a lot of people that aren't max adventure level are going all out and getting as many AA levels/points as they can. My question is: is this an extremely important thing to do? Or since my main character is only level 43 should I keep focusing on adventure levels and then worry about my AA stuff later?</p><p>Any insight anyone can provide is extremely appreciated, thanks! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Both ways work.</p><p>However, personally i d rush to 70 and get the solo armor from KoS and then rush to 80. Then i d do the daily token quest in lavastorm for 5 weeks. It takes like 10 minutes a day. Afterwards i d selfmentor down and do all content, including heroic content, from 20 to as-far-as-you-class-can. With a static duo its even better. Once you got the 34ish tokens for a tier 1 shadow armor you ll be in very good shape to enjoy the solo and heroic content and gain AA. With this armor you can go back to "normal" gameplay for months.</p>

[Robaki]

<p>The revamped gear is good enough that you can stop almost whenever early on and grind if you want.</p><p>However it seems that you are stuck at 100aa's spent till level 50, at which point you can spend 160aa's.  So unless I'm missing something incredibly important I don't see a point in grinding out 200aa+ before you are even able to spend them.</p><p>But I just came back this weekend so I'd defer to the veteran players, but this is just how things look on my end and personally I think trying to grind out 300aa's at level 10 would drive me insane, or cause me to quit again.</p>

[Terabethia]

<p><cite>Sennyu wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>you are asking probably the most controversial question in EQ2</blockquote><p>This. </p><p>It's like asking if coke is better than pepsi, if ford is better than chevy, if pizza hut is better than papa johns, etc. For every person that answers A, another will answer B. </p><p>For me, I like to get to level 90 then go back for my AA's. The reason is that a level 90 in basic quest gear mentored to level 50 is way more powerful than a "real" level 50 in even the best gear. With the way the mentoring scales, you are simply overpowered. Therefore, mentoring and grinding old content is easier/faster than level locking. This is especially important if you are playing a class that doesn't solo very well. </p><p>Of course, this also means that you miss most of the games content. Even if you mentor down and run everything you missed, it's still not the same as doing it when you were "supposed" to do it, since you are so overpowered for it now. It also means that you are "grinding" and not really playing. </p><p>The choice if your's and simply depends on your playstyle and what you want to do. </p>

[WanyenII]

<p>Part of the confusion about what skill allocation and accumlation strategy to use for building adventure and alternative advancement is due to the naming of of the 'Alternate Advancement' tree.  It is not an alternate, and it is not realy an option per se.  The only two options are 'when' you do 'what'.  You will do 'what', regardless, it is a merely matter of when.  The second option is what route you take to 'what'.  You can't take and cover every path, as there are more options than you are allowed to spend points on.</p><p>If you defer building 'Alternate Advancement' until later in an adventurer's career, the character will be significantly weaker than their counterparts both along the way, and for a significant portion of time once the character gets to near max adventure level.  In fact it will be dramatically pronounced in later levels if AAs were overlooked along the way.  However, if you lock in no adventure gain, and stockpile AA points you will be wasting a lot of time too, since those banked points give you nothing in return for sitting on them, and having them ready for when you can utilize them.</p><p>The additional new skills, and enhancement of core known skills through this ability tree make a tremendous difference in effectiveness in most cases.  However, because not all skills are sometimes even slightly applicible until later adventure levels, it does not make sense to blindly and carelessly purchase every 'Alternative' ability.  If this tree was instead called 'Specialization' or even simply 'Advancement' most players would probably characterize the relative significance much differently compared to 'Alternative Advancement'.</p><p>In my experience with 'Alternate Advancement,'  first in EQ1 both (before and after its introduction), and then again later when I moved on to EQ2; I would strongly recommend a variable mix, gaining at least some moderate AA as you go.  If you have a fairly full quest list for an adventure level range, move the slider to favor gaining more AA's until you nearly empty the list.  If it's fairly empty move the slider down to favor adventure experience gain, until you level or travel to where you can fill up the quest list again.  For newer characters I play, I tend to favor a 20/80 split, with 80 going to AA. </p><p> One last important point:  the AA choices you make, while temporarily permenant, are not etched in stone throughout all of time and space.  You can respec.  For free at least once, and otherwise for a perhaps nominal (or painful amount, depending on perspective and present situation and standing).</p>