Two friends of mine and myself recently started playing EQ2, and will be playing together for at least some of the time. They are a brusier and a shadowknight, and I'm playing warden and I'm currently level 18. What should I be putting my AA points into? I would like to be able to heal decently while also be able to solo efficiently incase we aren't together at the time.
Hunt around a bit and you can still find decent advice. However you're going to want to go down the "Wardens" line in your warden AA tree to converty our spells to melee combat arts and start enjoying the benefits of a melee warden. You'll also want the str and sta lines in your druid tree mainly for the melee boosts (crits/double attack). That should carry you for starters. You might want to go for wild regeneration on the AGI line as well though your mileage will vary on the charm animals you have to take first.
The best thing to do is get an AA mirror so you don't have to run around with a crap half-and-half spec of melee and healing stuff.
frybrain87 wrote: First of all go down the STR line for 22 points. Then change spells into Combat Arts. The then AGI line down to increase the first tick of the heals. Then, while leveling up you probably want to spend AA into crits. YOu wont need them at 90 though. Easy to reach crit cap with items. Thats solo and group spec in one go. Those are imho the basics and you should be able to find the right AA spec yourself. Its basically AA into anything that supports heals, cures and buffs and the rest of it into those AA that support your DPS. Crit. mitigation buff is useless outside of raids. Speccing single DPS AA abilities seems useless to me. I rather put 5 into double attack and 5 into the 3 stances and 1 into the storm. If you dont raid, you ll never need a mirror as long as you have sufficient AA for your level.
When you say 'put 22 points into strength' exactly how many points should I be putting in each skill? Kinda confusing to me, as I'm coming from WoW and every class had defined builds for talent points.
Why on earth would you go str first before melee? There really isn't much point in getting Natural boon or the double attack when they only proc off auto-attacks (which would be all the melee you'd do prior to getting your CAs with the exception of the one attack you get in the str tree.) If you're going for a melee spec, You're going to want to get your combat arts first, then take Str for the fun stuff.
Kaidia@Nagafen wrote: True. Get the CA's in the warden tree, before hitting the STR line in the druid tree. this gives you far more survivability as a solo-warden. Also throw in a couple of AAs in the left tree-line in the warden tree (snare/root resistability and recast timer) Regarding the heal - well...yes, get the AA mirror and make a healer-setup wis/sta tree and such.
Hallowell@Nagafen wrote: I'd take AGI over either WIS or STA for a warden. The AGI line increases the amount of the first tick on your heals by 30% and causes the ticks to occur faster. Not only that, but AGI gives you tortoise shell, which can keep your group safe from nasty AOE's. The STA line is nice, but once you're higher level, the crit chance you gain from it is unnecessary. Don't get me wrong; if you don't have lots of great gear, then the STA line is essential, at some point, it becomes rather obsolete. Wisdom is, in my opinion, quite useless in most situations. Rebirth is a nice little tool I suppose, but hardly worth spending the points in if you don't have 22 points to waste. On your druids tree, STR and AGI are probably the most useful to you, especially if you solo a lot. Avoid INT completely if you're a melee warden (which you should be), and take WIS only if you really have nothing else to spend your points on. On your warden tree, the Movement and Wardens lines are essential. The end point in Movement makes you completely immune to root effects, as well as trivializing most slow effects. The Wardens line gives you melee attacks, which drastically increase your ability to destroy your enemy. Happy Hunting!
Here's my thoughts on AA's for warden that I wrote in a different thread .... Id like to add a few Idea's of where to spend pts in the early stages . Wich is what I gather most new wardens seek , but alot of the older experienced wardens seem to gloss over ,,, because they forget what its like to have only 25 AA versus 250 or even 50ish to spend is a big difference from less than 25. You also need to get rid of the notion that your going to have to start building your end result right now. The devs have put more than enough options for you to respec cheaply and still get full use out of current total pts at a few different intervals along the way. The price of respec per tree starts cheap , but will compound by 10 everytime up to 10 plat ... with enough time it will reset to 10 gold although (disclaimer : atleast the last time I used it before RoK) I only mention this because of a pittance what the money is compared to still having a few cards Deep in a dungeon while in a raid group. And if you could respec atleast 1 tree for an ability needed ... It would be worth all the plat you have spent on respecs ... imho. Here's my idea's for "Best Buck Gain" at different intervals of AA amounts. 10 or less ... The first best point spent is always shapeshift , Then youll notice the most gain with having 3 more mele hits from the druid tree that have side effects. From a healer stand point you might get more use out of the cures in warden line. But Id still take shapeshift for my first pt. 12+ pts ... At this point youve probably got an Idea If healing(for group) or dmg(for solo) is more important to you. For mele , Id say the biggest thing noticeable would be ... the ability to AOE from going down the Warden CA option, putting 3 pts in each abillity is a decent spec for 12 pts spent. However , any of the Mele/CA abilites will be abit frustrateing till you hit lvl 26 and get the Instinct buff ... wich even at apprentice level will make your frustrations a thing of the past. But sticking with the druid tree isnt a bad Idea either making those 3 mele hits stronger (look at the comparison numbers between ranks and do the math) ~~~~ For healing option ... 12 pts spent down either Agi line or Stamina line aint to bad ..... Then increase that heal boost for the next few pts. I could talk about the other few options for pts spent at 12-24 like roots,cures,pet charm ... but they're not going to make as much difference. Pet charm is kinda fun though 25+ pts ... Atlast you can pick an end ability on the druid tree !!! There are 2 schools of thought ... err used to be. Healing and Damage ... Let me assure you there is only 3 ways to increase your [Healing] ability at this early stage through AA's ... 1- group proc heal on druid str line , 2- hot increase on druid agi line , 3- crit increase on druid sta line. The cures might be considered a 4th way but would be situational. Druids are fine and dandy healers , the biggest bang for your buck will be increasing ranks of your healing spells. Plus you can always go into A "healing only mode" when your group needs it deep in the dungeon. ~~~ Damage Increase : 1-Mele CA's all 5 ranks with crushing/slashing boosted . You dont need to pick the Dot/debuff CA though , You can select it Grand Master at 24. 2- Alternate dmg you might select Infusion(dmg when heal) Especially group beneficials. Wich can be advantageous for the small oddball group with pet classes while you have a pet charm Too (spiders can be found in many dungeons) Plus the road to getting infusion will increase your spellls base dmg/disruption,focus,ordination/or more ranks of thunderstrike. The Str line is only picked to back up the warden mele line or to get the free heals in the beginning from mele hits. imo After that there is no way except pure stats/spells/gear to increase dmg. 50+ pts Because I only have a RoK account and I have no access to the shadow AA ..... I would say I am limited at this point. Either way .... you cant deny how nice it is to be able to select 2 end abilites .... Here is just an oppinion at 75+ pts Healing = Agi/Sta druid line with cures or reformation (lvl 35 for bat and spores) Dmg = warden CA + Druid str line with other druid CA's (Wisdom aoe root best for escape) However increaseing warden of the forest is always good. And having better roots will help you take down that group content combined with HO management. 100 AA's All I can say is Ive enjoyed being able to pick a decent charm animal spec (atleast rank 8 and increase your subjagation) Then have the full mele spec (prior SO) While also being able to have infusion. I found no need to pick healing specs while Solo or even casual groups. The Wardens healing abilites used premptivley or even left in reserve are very capable to success in most groups. A heal cast order does help in those times that pinch. An easy way to understand how our heals can be best utilized is by charting a time line of when they cast and finish ticking , taking into account recast also. Hence it is always best to lead with 1 of our most direct heals [palm or Hands] depending on the dire emergency. If your premtive you had the hot ticking allready .... The truth is there are many casting orders and they all depend on wich one you started with coupled with the situation. but switching between leafs and hands in casting order is paramount.
