Post by Uomanrotyr/Soman on May 12, 2008 10:40:27 GMT -8
Since the inception release of aas there has been an ongoing debate about what is more important, aas or levels.
My goal w/ this thread is to gather everyone's views.
I feel there's good in both, but an over-abundance of either can be the downfall of a player in EQ.
My personal belief is a toon doesn't truly come into it's strength until the mid 60's. What I found on my sk is the taps suck, snares are inefficient, and our dots are just utter garbage w/ the exception of the Asystole line for debuffs. At 60 you get a FD that has a higher success rate, 63 a longer duration and more efficient snare, dots though still inefficient, near the low 60's necro dots, and taps finally break into the 100's and become more worth casting. For my mage it meant my pet was no longer a wuss, he finally started breaking the 1000s on his nukes, rather than just nearing 1k, well for him it was just an enormous power jump. For my shaman the introduction to non-snaring/slowing hots and the fact that his slows became more efficient to cast made a huge difference. For my necro, there was little difference except for the fact they moved the required lvl for Critical affliction from the 50's to lvl 65, there was always the steady climb for necros and well, the jump in the pets lvl really didn't do much other than add a few hps and about 15dmg per hit, as compared to my mages pet dmg more than doubling. For my rogue, most of the lower lvl aas I found to be next to worthless until 59+ when you start getting things like SoS.
That said, I prefer to wait until the mid to early 60's until I start grinding anything other than run speed aas as it gets really boring doing nothing except defense and crit aas. I've found until this point you can really get away w/o even 1 aa and suffer no consequences as there's a massive jump in spells and skills at this point, and it's easier to solo those mobs that are hitting in the 100's now than it was in the 50's.
In the late 60's and the 70's you begin to lose alot of most toons solo capability w/o grinding aas, and in modern EQ if you can't solo you are generally going to end up sitting in the GL until it's time to log. For my rogue the mid 60's are really the last foreseeable chance for him to solo for xp.
Personally I grind about 200 aas as I slowly grind towards and into the 70s, as this allows me to keep my solo capabitilies intact, and for certain toons it has vastly increased their abilities. It gives me the chance to get some of the "Must" aas knocked out or down, plus allows me to get the fun and flashy aas that will truly pay off later.
Now, this is my view on people that prefer lvls over aas... No offense to anyone, I'm just invoking my right to free speech in expressing my oppinion. Toons that break into the 70's and up w/o any aa work are often a drain on a group. They can't keep pace, their potential is severly damaged, and their damage output or healing ability drops into a place that puts them where they're at best comparable to a well aa'd paladin, in case of healing. In the case of wizards, mages, druids and shamans it often means they get agro and die or just aren't able to meet their expected job duties because the strength of their spells isn't where it should be or they just can't cast as much as they need to fore fear of drawing agro.
Don't get me wrong, you can level any toon to 80 w/o a single aa, but often end up being a drain on any group you join and at that point you will have no solo ability.
Again, I see no point in grinding aas out in the 50's as the list is very limited and would become tedious as well as that at that point, there's nothing really farming, and the things you can farm it's at such a slow pace I go crazy. In the 60s you can farm items for alts, kill for pp, items, and xp and the list is much smaller in the 50s. In the 50s you can go farm giants or CoM and get items comparable to Fine Steel, as compared to the 60s where you can farm mobs that give xp and drop as much pp as giants as well as drop twink items that are truly worthwhile. For a necro at 53 their best dot does roughly 130ish per tick as compared to a lvl 63 who's best dot does around 400, and well as the fact that they have a larger selection of spells to cast on the mobs. For a tank class at lvl 55 the gear is nearly half what it will be at 65, along w/ half the hps. The higher lvl you get, the longer mobs will give you xp. In the 40's and 50's you have to kill mobs within 5-6 lvls of your own to get any xp pay out, in the 60's mobs 10 lvls below you are often light blue.
Anyways, this is my view on the matter. Again, I would love to hear other peoples views on this and hopefully change my oppinion.
My goal w/ this thread is to gather everyone's views.
I feel there's good in both, but an over-abundance of either can be the downfall of a player in EQ.
My personal belief is a toon doesn't truly come into it's strength until the mid 60's. What I found on my sk is the taps suck, snares are inefficient, and our dots are just utter garbage w/ the exception of the Asystole line for debuffs. At 60 you get a FD that has a higher success rate, 63 a longer duration and more efficient snare, dots though still inefficient, near the low 60's necro dots, and taps finally break into the 100's and become more worth casting. For my mage it meant my pet was no longer a wuss, he finally started breaking the 1000s on his nukes, rather than just nearing 1k, well for him it was just an enormous power jump. For my shaman the introduction to non-snaring/slowing hots and the fact that his slows became more efficient to cast made a huge difference. For my necro, there was little difference except for the fact they moved the required lvl for Critical affliction from the 50's to lvl 65, there was always the steady climb for necros and well, the jump in the pets lvl really didn't do much other than add a few hps and about 15dmg per hit, as compared to my mages pet dmg more than doubling. For my rogue, most of the lower lvl aas I found to be next to worthless until 59+ when you start getting things like SoS.
That said, I prefer to wait until the mid to early 60's until I start grinding anything other than run speed aas as it gets really boring doing nothing except defense and crit aas. I've found until this point you can really get away w/o even 1 aa and suffer no consequences as there's a massive jump in spells and skills at this point, and it's easier to solo those mobs that are hitting in the 100's now than it was in the 50's.
In the late 60's and the 70's you begin to lose alot of most toons solo capability w/o grinding aas, and in modern EQ if you can't solo you are generally going to end up sitting in the GL until it's time to log. For my rogue the mid 60's are really the last foreseeable chance for him to solo for xp.
Personally I grind about 200 aas as I slowly grind towards and into the 70s, as this allows me to keep my solo capabitilies intact, and for certain toons it has vastly increased their abilities. It gives me the chance to get some of the "Must" aas knocked out or down, plus allows me to get the fun and flashy aas that will truly pay off later.
Now, this is my view on people that prefer lvls over aas... No offense to anyone, I'm just invoking my right to free speech in expressing my oppinion. Toons that break into the 70's and up w/o any aa work are often a drain on a group. They can't keep pace, their potential is severly damaged, and their damage output or healing ability drops into a place that puts them where they're at best comparable to a well aa'd paladin, in case of healing. In the case of wizards, mages, druids and shamans it often means they get agro and die or just aren't able to meet their expected job duties because the strength of their spells isn't where it should be or they just can't cast as much as they need to fore fear of drawing agro.
Don't get me wrong, you can level any toon to 80 w/o a single aa, but often end up being a drain on any group you join and at that point you will have no solo ability.
Again, I see no point in grinding aas out in the 50's as the list is very limited and would become tedious as well as that at that point, there's nothing really farming, and the things you can farm it's at such a slow pace I go crazy. In the 60s you can farm items for alts, kill for pp, items, and xp and the list is much smaller in the 50s. In the 50s you can go farm giants or CoM and get items comparable to Fine Steel, as compared to the 60s where you can farm mobs that give xp and drop as much pp as giants as well as drop twink items that are truly worthwhile. For a necro at 53 their best dot does roughly 130ish per tick as compared to a lvl 63 who's best dot does around 400, and well as the fact that they have a larger selection of spells to cast on the mobs. For a tank class at lvl 55 the gear is nearly half what it will be at 65, along w/ half the hps. The higher lvl you get, the longer mobs will give you xp. In the 40's and 50's you have to kill mobs within 5-6 lvls of your own to get any xp pay out, in the 60's mobs 10 lvls below you are often light blue.
Anyways, this is my view on the matter. Again, I would love to hear other peoples views on this and hopefully change my oppinion.