When I played and the level cap was 65, in a raiding guild levels were more important than AA. So we all got to 65, then did our AA. Now though, I'm not in a raiding guild. I just came back and I'm 6 boxing. I'm in mid 30s for levels now but I'll be 50+ in no time. I understand some AAs have level requirements but xp is harder to come by the higher level I am. So is it better to focus 100% on AA at some point like mid 50s or something? I imagine it depends on classes too. I'm running monk, bard, cleric, mage x3 Thanks for any advice given Bryan Xenxu on Quellious
The standard advice is that you will get more groups at higher levels, so levels > AA. Since you're 6-boxing, the standard advice does not apply. As you just returned to EQ (welcome back), take your time and enjoy the ride.
Wow... that's a lot of multitasking. Anyway, a decent place to pause for some AA is 70-71. Reason is that you can still hunt some old world mobs that have very little hp for their level. Like in the Hole for example.
AAs make it easier for you to level, and the level 55-65 AAs are the most powerful. At those levels you will always be in the maximum AA experience bonus range, as they are the easiest to get. Against that is the high amount of experience awarded to high level quests, so there's no one way to do these things. The hot zone quests also award a large amount of experience, so they are a good way to level or earn AAs. Just do whatever you think will work best for you; personally, I get AAs early.
I suggest 65- 70, as you and any pets if you get the pet affinity AA at 65 can get level 100 buffs, which makes an old world kunark zone like Temple of droga rather easy to slaughter the mobs, the mobs in TofD top out at 60/61- the only problem is the last spider or goblin will run. Also a zone like that is useful to max out Defense and Dodge for the levels, and can be returned to until about 80 to let mobs whack at you to get casters maxed on defense and dodge, at high end any miss is a good thing.
As the previous posts suggested I highly recommend getting a good chunk of AA's before passing 71. Newer content gets much harder at the later levels if you don't have the AA's. Honestly anywhere between 55-71 is a good place to build up some AA's. Personally I say space it out a bit, find a spot you like hunt to hunt, grind some until bored of that zone, get a few levels, repeat. However you decide to approach it, I can tell you post 71 you'll likely regret leveling if you don't spend some time in the AA department! Welcome back & happy hunting
This is a game so do them as you like. I hit Griegs at 53 and earned over 200 AA's with good loot. I went in with maybe 30 or so from Burning Woods. I leveled and then hit The Hole where I still am earning PP and levels/AA's (up to 554 I think and not even 70 yet). I do one until I feel like doing another. I always try to put 30 in the bank before I level. But I only play one character and no alts. I will need the survival AA's for newer content when I can' find a group. You have your own army so your path will vary. Safe travels.
Hi! I stopped at 60, 65,75,and 80 to max out AA. I can still pull down 50AA per day doing the Franklin Teek quests and then "flipping" all the easy NPC quests in Oceangreen. As soon as you hit 1 level over the last tier you can also pick up the next higher Teek Task. (ie a level 66 can pick up the 70 quest). If you take the ones over and under your own level - you'll rock. Timers start when you take the quests - not complete them. Work that factor into your RL schedule and you can rock. -Rat (now level 80 and about maxed with 2500+ AA - and it shows)
Seems like a lot of folks either do 100% exp or 100% AA. OP, why not set the slider bar to 50/50 then you can earn AAs while leveling up more slowly? Also, don't forget to learn some leadership AAs while you're at it.
50/50 means that you'll hit both targets more slowly; 100% feels faster, even when it isn't. But some people prefer that, so that is ok. SOE keep on saying that at some point they will grant everyone all the LAAs for free - but they have been saying it for the last 2 - 3 years.
I run Bard, Shaman, Mage x2, Wiz x2, and I got to 100 with a range from 500 aa's (Bard) - 2000 aa's (one of the Mages), happily killing named along the way. While levelling I kept these aa's high: - Pet defensive + offensive (I was pet tanking, you could just focus pet offensive of course) - Spell damage, casting speed, mana reduction - Gift of mana line - Bard damage aa's like fierce eye I also had some aa in these: - spell subtlety (kept raising this when aggro got too high) - healing (Shaman only, heal and heal crit) For utility I had: - buff extension - group perfected levitate, invis, and invis to undead While levelling I didn't spend much on caster survival (if a mob got on one, he died). Now that they have high/max defensive aa's, if I realise and act immediately they MAY live. I also didn't spend on activated aa's ones requiring situational use (pet divine aura, frenzied burnout etc) - experience tells me that if I can't put it into the character's standard fight or pre-burn macro, it isn't getting used (I get tunnel vision, you may not!) except of course for beautiful, beautiful Exodus...
One point - your monk... Pretty sure you'll have to keep his aa's very high, and aa defensives maxxed as well as getting his augs. My sk was dropped at 91 with 2500 aa due to inability to out-tank the mage pet without a new round of augs and more aa's
Yeah, that was my reaction as well. If you have a melee character and a bunch of mage pets in the same box setup, the melee character will have to tank. If the mob you are fighting is stunnable, then the fact that mage pets can stun will help, but otherwise it will be rough. Unless you really like your Monk, I would consider replacing him with a caster. Perhaps a port-capable class (Druid/Wizard) to make it easier to move 6 characters around or a Shaman.
Exactly! Porting (especially porting right into your guild hall, and porting the whole group to the Wizard's bind point) is priceless, giving you: - Bard, Cleric, Mage x 3, Wizard And then you realise you only need 2 mage pets plus the mage garg pets to tank named, and you see how much damage your wizard does (double my mages on burn) and you drop one mage for another wizard so now you're: - Bard, Cleric, Mage x 2, Wizard x 2 And then you realize how a Shaman does enough healing for a group, and debuffs, slows, buffs the pets melee, and gives you a whole new line of buffs (you already get Cleric buffs from a merc) so now you're: - Bard, Shaman, Mage x 2 Wiz x 2 ...oh, wait, so THAT's how I ended up there !!
I do really like monk. Monk was my main way back when but then the level cap was 65 and monks couldn't tank for squat then. I imagine the same holds true now, except I heard their offense has been getting some love. When I decided to start playing again, I was either going to go bard or monk main (was leaning more towards bard). But if I can help it I want to keep monk on the table. I was also figuring on pet tanking at higher levels but wasn't sure how well feign death works as an aggro control these days.
IMO, you should stop along the way and max out a few specific AAs for each. The mages, look at the pet AAs and the ones that increase your DPS (e.g., crits). For the monk, CS/CA, for the cleric, Healing Adept, Healing Gift. AAs fly these days, so you should be able to keep key ones maxed pretty easily. Check out www.eqaasearch.org to help you see what AAs are out there for each class, and help you plan what you'd like to get next.
Good and bad... FD will take you down to 1 point of aggro instantly; it takes the standard couple of minutes to shed all aggro. But with a pet tanking your monk will always be tanking over the pet. You can shed aggro to a tank merc, but not to a pet.
Wow, six boxing. I two box (mage/shammy), on two separate PCs because I hate playing in windowed mode. Couldn't imagine six boxing. Don't really see much need for it anyway, with mercs. I've entertained the idea of adding a bard, since they are good pullers (something I'm lacking in my current setup) and I've read you can basically pull with the bard then have him stand there and melody while you kill the mobs.
It's easier than you think - just set up standard combat macros for engage, combat pre-burn and burn. I used to use mercs, but I found it both more fun to have my own characters, and often more effective. I feel the healers are muchbette for example. And for dps, Mercs seem to have all kinds of issues burning on named, and I'm not sure they have the dps output anyway. You just need to trawl the threads to see people complaining about Gelden, usually people with mercs for dps. For me, Gelden is the easiest mob out there, it's more the ones with fear/mez mechanics (like Crazed Scarecrow) that are the problem.
Thanks for the AA link. That will help a lot. So far 6 boxing hasn't been too hard. I'm not super efficient with it though. cleric just buffs and heals and I time heals to get as little aggro as possible. Bard just stands around on auto follow. Melodies are well worth it so far, especially mana regen and movement. Mages just summon/buff pets, send them in to attack, and single target DD so far. It doesn't take much with hotkeys. But I already know I'll have issues with aggro later and I'll have to learn to manage better / be more effective. That's part of the fun for me though - the chaos of trying to do well controlling one character (monk), and semi controlling my auto followers haha
