Hey, returning to the game after a pretty long hiatus. Stopped playing in 2004 then again in 2006, never actually saw endgame or raided. Downloaded the F2P client and Ive been enjoying the game so I'm getting a gold subscription. I have a 70 Bard with 70 AA's and a 66 Ranger with 50 AA's. Both of my characters are geared from the Bazaar well enough (friend of mine dumped a lot of platnium/DoN crystals on me prior to quitting), but I can't solo at all (never learned how to, I always did camp group exp) and one mob will give me a lot of trouble. I'm also most likely behind on spells, not sure which ones replaced which. I also want to build my character to be raid ready. Never saw one and I'd like to start earning some serious loot. I'm kind of burnt out on WoW and it's formula, so I want to try raiding in this game. I decided to go 100% AA's on both characters until I see their damage and survivalibility change dramatically. Is it a bad idea to neglect basic leveling for awhile, or does grinding AA's slow down as you level your character up? I get insane AAs on my ranger at the DSH farm camp, and my Bard gets decent AA's in 70-80 hotzones, I want to keep that going. Also, what AA's are must haves for both classes? I've bought a few blind.
I'm not sure if you are boxing or just two different chars. Ranger for soloing, just grab a cleric merc for now and melee down one mob at a time to your heart's content. Looking into Headshotting pretty soon (HS), as that will give you much much faster AA. Bard at that level probably some form of swarm/charm kiting. AAs instead of leveling isn't bad, just make sure you aren't wasting your time. You could definitely use a few more at that range, as you are really low. Either way, if you only have 50 AAs, I'm guessing your version of insane and most people's is entirely different. Everyone will have a different opinion, but if you aren't getting at least 6/hr, don't bother. That number should really be closer to 10 or more. With headshot, dozens. Must have AAs is too large of a question. Ignore the stat ones for now and basically most others are at least somewhat useful. Defensive and offensive passives will likely increase your exp intake the most if you are staying at that level to AA.
Not boxing, two seperate characters. And yes, I get several an hour. Each quest turn in at the DSH gnome camp gives me 2 AA's, and the exp from the pulls is pretty rapid. I *just* started doing AA's this past weekend. Also, it seems Headshot only works on mobs that are too low level to earn me any exp. Do AA's treat kill exp different from basic leveling? Not entirely sure how the system works.
AAs treat exp the same as leveling (besides when grouping with much lower characters). Headshot working on exp mobs - but just barely exp mobs. Check out Glad's link, something should be there for that. It's a staple of ranger exp (like it or not, for some rangers ).
There's a lot of info already at eqoutrider. Look through the aa's section. There's probably 10 different threads on aa advice in the past few months. You just have to look for them. I didn't really mean for you to copy/paste there.
Gladare, It's good to see that EQOutrider is still around. I must have searched for it wrong, because when I searched for it before it didn't come up. Will be spending my time reading through the plethora of great information there (you helped me in my newbie thread too).
Askr's Accuracy. First three pages have at least ten threads about aa advice. Also, ignore anything penelope posts. I'd give you a list of people whose advice you should take earnestly, but I'd probably forget more than a few.
