AA Grind After Level 90

My Paladin has reached level 94, but he has not allocated experience to AAs after reaching level 90. Some guild members have stated that it is crucial to build AAs in the hundreds if not thousands as one levels to 100. That is a daunting prospect. I left EQ years ago mostly because of the potential AA grind after level 70. Auto-grant actually helped to bring me back (Paladin is played, not heroic FWIW).

My question has a few parts to it:

1. What are the approximate AA max levels for a Paladin as he progresses from 90 to 100?
2. How important is it to have those max levels and what type of time commitment does it imply? The character will mostly group, do HAs and have fun, maybe join open raids once in a while. No time or desire to actually be in a raiding guild.
3. Is it better to level to 95 or 100 without allocating to AAXP than to try to max each level?

Thanks in advance.

Playing a ranger and a warrior I noticed a big difference in survive-ability when getting standard tanking AAs. I imagine it will be the same for paladins so I would stop and get those.

I don't play a paladin but I would imagine that the tanking AAs would make a big difference.

Remember, on November 18, everyone with an All Access account who has Enable Auto-Grant should get all of the Veil of Alaris AAs for free when you are the proper level. Progression server characters will not get them regardless of level until the Call of the Forsaken expansion goes live there.

To Fanra's point, that means level 91-95 AA's will be autogranted. And only AA's from level 95 to 105 would need to be earned.

So if all access, autogrant is the way to go. Even if it's paying for 1 month, turn on autogrant.

What Fanra & Crystilla said. I stopped getting AAs at 93, in anticipation of the new expac dropping. Just dinged my trio to 96 last night, so I'm all set (Or, will be set on Tuesday!)

The other point I'd make to the OP, is to check out two useful websites:
http://www.raidloot.com/AA.aspx?class=Druid
http://www.eqaasearch.org/

They both have useful search criteria. The first will allow you to see the total AAs for your class, or subtotals by expac. It also has VERY useful AA descriptions.

The second one will allow you to search for a particular level. I find that useful, so that when I level, I can see at a glance what has opened up, and can note which ones I want before I level again. Depending on your class, about 1/3 of the AAs are fairly useless, and another third are mildly useful, depending how you play the class. Usually about a third are must haves. If you're casual (like me), get the good third, a few from the middle third that you find useful, and then level. You can always fill in the rest if/when you max out your levels. Doing this, I find it's prevented me from losing interest due to the sheer magnitude of AAs to get.

Both sites will allow you to search based on AA name, so you can see an entire line of AAs, and how they progress over time. Many of them have "sweet spots", ranks you definitely want to get quickly, with subsequent ranks much less useful (and usually costing more AA points). Of course, this point mainly applies to AAs from much earlier expansions, so if you're auto-granting, it's a moot point.

Tat

PS - to answer your first question, using the Raidloot site: For Paladins, VoA (which will auto-grant Tuesday if you're all access) has 254 AA ranks, costing 2519 AAs. RoF has 234 AA ranks, costing 2243 AAs. CotF (still a level 100 expac) has 104/973. TDS (now covering levels 101-105) has 173/2471. They don't have data for TBM yet, but probably will by Wednesday

Just a small note on raidloot's format - the # that Tatanka supply above *could* be off slightly so don't worry if it is.

Remember, Dzarn just created a massive amount of consolidation, AA name changes and even additional zero cost ranks for each class. So depending how recent someone did the last update for that class, that site could be a bit out of sync.

I'm trying to update eqaasearch.org (though with no volunteers and a business trip starting tomorrow, we'll see how far I get). May need folks to help finish up on test server post launch. The later half of classes (alphabetically) are missing some CoF and all TDS AA's for the site that's up.

Yep just waiting on the xpack for auto grant on current live char. Makes no sense to do otherwise.

And yeah the grind never ends it seems. Dont mind too much on 95+ as the AAs build fast but wont do a single one I aint got to do.

Recommend you get the AA as you are gaining experience. I would recommend going with a 10% to regular exp, and 90% to AA.

To get to the end game, as a raider, casual raider, or a grouper is a marathon and not a sprint. You need levels, AA, skill, gear, disciplines / spells, and game knowledge. It all ties in together. Take the time to figure out which are critical quests or quest chains for your character and work on them as you level and AA

http://eqaasearch.org/aainfo_search.asp?search_fd12=Paladin

use the Catagory select to focus on what your missing for Tanking, healing , surviablity for each level.
Dont wast time on getting All AA each level only the ones you need.


Due the two lvl 90 Daily Quests- daily AA only. Best 5 mobs killed for EXP.
at some point once you level past them the AA will be less and your wished you had done them more at the lower lvl range.

I have the complete opposite opinion. With AA autograph you're good enough to be a mediocre player at max level. Then you can get into ha groups to start racking up AAs. The game barely begins until 105. You obviously won't be a contender for top parser but you will be wasting time and pp on mid level gear. Get to 105 and then invest on your end gear. Unless you've identified a few must have abilities I wouldn't even do 10% AA.

Don't bother with aaxp until max level 105. Autogrant should suffice up to that point, then you can focus 100% on aa grinding. Your guild mates who say it's crucial tho grind aa prior to level 100 are wrong, assuming you have autogranted all aa up to level 85 (current cap, changing soon). After that, I'd say nothing is crucial for purposes of leveling to 105. Once at level cap, you'll be in the same boat as ever other fresh max level toon.

Regarding the aa grind, understand that the system was built so that you'd never stop leveling. Back in the old days, there were lots of aa's that just weren't necessary. So while it looked like a lot of work, it wasn't too difficult to focus on the core aa's that you really needed. I don't believe it was ever intended that you would max them all out back then. Now, though, aa points come fast and easy so it's not difficult to have all the aa's fully maxed well before a new expansion comes out.