Improving Our Alternate Advancement (AA) System

Hail Norrath!

We are happy to announce an addition to our Alternate Advancement (AA) system that will launch next week. For some time now we’ve wanted to improve our AAs to make earning them more in line with the natural progression of an adventuring character – not two individual leveling mechanics. In addition to that, we also recognize that the 280AA barrier at level 90 isn’t “fun” though it’s necessary for us to balance the higher end of the game for all players.

So, in the interest of fun and improved character development, on Thursday, December 18 we are going to add the auto-granting of AAs to our system in the following ways:

1. Starting at level 10 until Level 90:

• 5 AAs granted upon reaching level 10
• 3 AAs for each level (16, 17, 18, etc.)
• 2 Additional Bonus AAs for every 5 levels (15, 20, 25, etc.)
• 3 Additional Bonus AAs at level 90 (for a total of 8!)

2. Players keep banked or used AAs and will be auto-granted AAs up to 280AAs at or before level 90.

3. AAs stop being auto-granted when 280AAs are reached at or before level 90. (Players can still earn AAs naturally, however.)

4. The 280AA bauble available in the store will be raised to 320AAs and usable at level 10.

5. Players with unused “Touch of the Steward” items given with the Chains of Eternity expansion which grant 280AAs will find it now usable at level 10 (down from level 90).

6. All characters will be updated to the new system which will include granting AAs for levels earned. Updated example:

• Level 48 character logs in with 0 AAs. Character will be set to 133 AA.
• Level 48 character logs in with 101 AAs. Character will be set to 234 AAs.
• Level 48 character logs in with 200 AAs. Character will be set to 280 AAs.
• Level 48 character logs in with 280 AAs or higher. Character will remain unchanged.

We’re excited for this update on Thursday, December 18, and we’re grateful for your continued support!

By my calculations that's only 314 AA at level 100?
5 at 10
90 levels of 3 AA
18 levels of 2 AA
3 extra at 90

5 + 270 + 36 + 3 = 314


Are we still earning AA from quests and killing or is this replacing that completely?

So I'm guessing with the increase to the AA in the SC bought bauble that SOE is increasing the heroic character to 95 also?

Wow, my joke though 0.0 I thought I was joking. Glad to see Auto-Grant in all actuality, though I wish it was more concrete rather than granting us nearly all our AA's. A 200~ish auto grant would have been MORE than gratuitous enough while still allowing some grinding.

Can't say I'm fully complaining though, this won't do much for bauble sales, so it really isn't a cash grab move either. Especially if the bauble is essentially only granting you all your auto-grant AAs at once.

You will still earn AAs from quests / killing names / the other usual sources. We are just putting you on a 280 AA-long waterslide from 10 till 90.

It's actually less than that, it would be:
5 at 10 = 5
79 levels of 3 (11-90 - 10 got 5 to start) = 237
16 levels of +2 (15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90) = 32
3 at 90 = 3
5 + 237 + 32 + 5 = 279
Note that the free AAs stop with the level 90 grant, or when the character hits 280, whichever is reached first.

*edits* Yeah, what they said, basically, but with math

Ah, thank you! I see my confusion.

Avoiding back to back posts.

My problem here is this actively discourages people from doing quests and killing names before level 90. That's the only "gotcha" I can see.

Err, sorry for the double post but now I just thought of something.

Will the CoE Baubles be effected by the 320/level 10 change? Because I still haven't got an opportunity to use mine, and know several other peeps who haven't either. XD

So glad I saved mine.

So, if i read this correctly, this means we can no longer prioritize aa advancement over exp advancement by manipulating slider; we have to level to get aa?

If this is the case, yuck.

That's great but what would be even greater would be if we could change our AAs by page, instead of by all of them at once. That's the way it used to be.
The way it is now, if you change any early AAs, you have to remember what all of the other 349 AAs were, and reset each one, all over again.

No. If you want to grind out AAs, you still have that option.

Ah, alrighty. At least we can use them earlier. The main reason I've never used that bauble is I'm always questing, with my slider at 60/40, so I've yet to have a single character with less than 280 at 87. XD

Excellent. Thank you

You can still earn AA points faster than the graph that Feldon was so nice to have charted, you just can't earn AA points any slower than that.

Awesome. Good change. Now let us keep Dungeon Marks and all will be gravy.