ARGHHH - How to spend my AA's !?!

[Ardnahoy]

<DIV>I am about to do an AA respec, but I have no idea what to spend the points on.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My main criteria is that I intend to solo 99% of the time, and want to select a line that wil maximize my AA points for soloing. I do not plan to be an MT in either a raid or group. When I group, I will be pure DPS. The second criteria is that I will probably not max out all 50 points since I'm a casual player, so I need to pick something that will be useful from a pool of 10-20 AA points.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>When AA's came out, I put a bunch of points into the INT line. Unfortunately, this requires that I wield a [Removed for Content]' idol in my offhand. That offhand requirement is a killer. It prevents you from using a shield or a two handed weapon, thus crippling both your DPS and mitigation. It just wasn't worth the handicap so I did a /respec.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My next choice was to put points into the WIS line. I did so because I thought the second tier WIS ability was a weapon proc. Instead, it is nothing more than a crappy, one-shot damage shield. The WIS line is very weak.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now that we are getting a free /respec, I want to put points into a useful line of AA's. I've got 10 now, and they come really slow. I was looking at the AGI line, but am afraid that I won't be able to use it in dungeons or anywhere horses are not allowed. The STA line is nice initially, but is unimpressive in the latter tiers. The STR line seems my best bet, but has really useless (to me) middle tier abilities.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Well, I'd appreciate your help on this. For those who have experimented with them, which should I concentrate on?</DIV>

[Axlin]

Well if you're looking to be pure DPS then obviously you will want to go the INT line for the increase in INT and the increase in critical hits with your spells. For your second line I would go either STR or STA... although probably STR. STR gives you extra attack and haste so that when you're out of power you'll hit harder and faster. The STA line, on the other hand, increases your melee crit rate, which can also be pretty handy for DPS. However, I would think that STR would be better because of the fact that you hit harder in general, you hit faster, and because you hit faster your chances of getting a critical hit with melee go up (each hit has a chance of being critical... so the faster you hit, the more chances to critical per minute).Don't worry too much about using a symbol and all that crap to get the full benefits of a particular line. They throw stuff in there so that you get to waste 4 points to get to the useful parts of the branches, such as the spell/heal crit rate increases.<div></div>

[Xanoth]

<div><blockquote><hr>Axlin wrote:Well if you're looking to be pure DPS then obviously you will want to go the INT line for the increase in INT and the increase in critical hits with your spells. For your second line I would go either STR or STA... although probably STR. STR gives you extra attack and haste so that when you're out of power you'll hit harder and faster. The STA line, on the other hand, increases your melee crit rate, which can also be pretty handy for DPS. However, I would think that STR would be better because of the fact that you hit harder in general, you hit faster, and because you hit faster your chances of getting a critical hit with melee go up (each hit has a chance of being critical... so the faster you hit, the more chances to critical per minute).Don't worry too much about using a symbol and all that crap to get the full benefits of a particular line. They throw stuff in there so that you get to waste 4 points to get to the useful parts of the branches, such as the spell/heal crit rate increases.<div></div><hr></blockquote>i'd have to agree, first thing you want to do is max your spell crit on the int line.  once you've done that either start on str, or put 4 more points to increase your int higher and your over all spell damage.</div>

[joeygopher]

<DIV>Just stop before you start pumping points into heal crits! :smileywink:</DIV>

[Beldin_]

<blockquote><hr>Ardnahoy wrote:<DIV>When AA's came out, I put a bunch of points into the INT line. Unfortunately, this requires that I wield a [Removed for Content]' idol in my offhand. That offhand requirement is a killer. It prevents you from using a shield or a two handed weapon, thus crippling both your DPS and mitigation. It just wasn't worth the handicap so I did a /respec<hr></blockquote>You don't need the symbol, it is only required for the one spell, what makes theint line good is however the passive crit chance, and that doesn't need the symbol <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Kazander13]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ardnahoy wrote:<BR> <DIV> I was looking at the AGI line, but am afraid that I won't be able to use it in dungeons or anywhere horses are not allowed. The STA line is nice initially, but is unimpressive in the latter tiers. The STR line seems my best bet, but has really useless (to me) middle tier abilities.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>AGI line is very usable indoors. Trample for instance has twoi actual procs, one for being on a horse, and a standard proc. Now as long as your mount icon is up before you enter the dungeon, both procs are in effect. If you die inside and get rezzed then yes you only have one proc left but your not losing that ability completely. Joust is actually a nice weapon special in my opinion  and very powerful in upper ranks, the problem is more spear selection than anything, I MT a lot so use a shield and a 1 hander and I just hit 59 and let me tell you, the 2H selection is fine, but one handed sucks, and most are balanced for Mystics. I ahve recieved a noticeable increase in my avoidance from having agi so that helps MT a tad as well.</P> <P>STA line by all means rocks for melee crits, I agree with everyones posts concerning that. You can also never complain about extra HP's.</P> <P>INT once again, spell crits all the way.</P> <P>STR line adds battle haste but from what I have heard, that is not more than what is gained from the INT line in terms of damage.</P> <P>WIS I honestly don't know enough about to advise on, I had heard it was good for soloing but abviously it's not giving you the effects you want.</P> <P>To summarize, AGI: Higher dodge, take less damage. AoE damage is nice.</P> <P>STR Faster swings more damage//possibly couple with the STA for a combined stronger effect.</P> <P>STA more hp's melee crits, better if paired with STR</P> <P>INT Spell crits, mainly being what you want out of this line.</P> <P> </P> <P>For your play style and alloted points, I might consider STR/STA since you sound like the guy who want to see a noticeable difference number wise as opposed to dormant stats. I personally do not plan on maxing out any line, but rather a combination of mid range abilities from AGI/STA/INT as I am a fan of versatility.</P>

[Ardnahoy]

Cool, thanks for the responses, I learned a few new things that I didn't know before. Now, I have one more important question. Because we can only heal ourselves through lifetaps, does the Spell crit line increase the lifetap heal component, and likewise, does the Heal crit line increase the damage portion of our lifetaps? Anyone know for sure what they do?

[tanis147]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ardnahoy wrote:<BR> Cool, thanks for the responses, I learned a few new things that I didn't know before. Now, I have one more important question. Because we can only heal ourselves through lifetaps, does the Spell crit line increase the lifetap heal component, and likewise, does the Heal crit line increase the damage portion of our lifetaps? Anyone know for sure what they do?<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>yes  it  does. also  the  lines  i'm  wprking  at  this   time  are 4/4/8 for  int/stam/str. so  far  i  love  it. i  also  prefer  to  use  a  hammer and  really  dig  the  area knock  back /stun. it's  great  for  pvp.

[Xanoth]

<div><blockquote><hr>Ardnahoy wrote:<div></div>Cool, thanks for the responses, I learned a few new things that I didn't know before. Now, I have one more important question. Because we can only heal ourselves through lifetaps, does the Spell crit line increase the lifetap heal component, and likewise, does the Heal crit line increase the damage portion of our lifetaps? Anyone know for sure what they do?<hr></blockquote>heal crit does nothing for us as far as i know.because they are dmage attacks with a heal component, if the attack crits so does the heal component.its definatly not worth putting point into unless you want the end ability, which few people oether than those on PVP servers do.</div>

[Arthik]

I am currently tinkering with AGI line... Originally I went STR/INT lines, but now I'm going STR/AGI/INT.Trample is by far the most fun ability I've seen in a while. Little secret: The guy above is right about entering a zone while mounted. What he doesn't know is that if you get on a horse, activate Trample, then get off the horse again, Trample will stay in its doubled effect. Further more, you don't need a spear to use Trample, and it's especially fun with a weapon with a proc. When Trample goes off, it still counts as an auto attack, so when it hits the adjacent mobs, your weapon or your auras can still proc on them.I'm currently using a fun spear I got called Spear of the Fire Breath. The proc isn't that impressive, nor is the damage, but it really doesn't seem to get much better than that spear, and it's fun.Full out DPS, though, definitely STR/INT... It's the most used combo.<div></div>

[UnHoly Shad]

For max DPS/Tanking I did(50 AAs)STA - 8/4/8/8/0INT - 8/4/8/0/0WIS - 1/0/0/0/0With this I have 7.8k HP self buffed and around 4.8k mit.The spell crit(Legionaire's Wrath) goes to 68% with 8 points and the melee crit(Fervor of Faith) goes to 22% with 8 points.The increased HP(champion's Bulwark) gives 4% more HP.Over all I think it is a great build it has been working out very well for me. Hope this helps your decision.