Order to do AAs

[Hereki]

Titles
 
Some comments about AAs first.  You have to spend 6 points in general from 51, then 12 points in archetype from 55, and then you can start to put points into class AAs from 59, with 24 to give you the title.  These first three AA investments give you the titles, in order, Baron/Baroness, Venerable, and Elder; extra AAs at lower levels don't count towards titles.  PoP AAs don't fit into these rules, and you can get as many as you like based on their own level requirements from 61 onwards, without any previous requirement of numbers of AA or title, although some require specific AAs.

Levels of AA

Generally speaking, AAs scale according to their investment, but some AAs give better value per AA invested at level 1 than at level 3; SCR, for example, gives 5% longer buff duration for the first 2 points, 15% for the first 6, but 30% for all 12 (comment: this is actually exactly 2.5% per AA at all levels).  SCF, as another example, appears to give the most bang per AA at level 1: 2% for 2 AAs, versus 7% for 12 AAs at level 3; but also gives increased damage per level.  Other AAs don't scale: Mental Clarity gives 1 extra mana per tick regeneration at each level, but for 2, 4 and 6 extra AAs at each level.

Some people like to get a taster of one level of several different AAs, but this approach isn't generally favoured, so I will ignore it.

When to AA
 
It is always possible to stop and find a good experience spot to accumulate AAs; however, it is always faster to get AAs at higher levels.  The difference isn't great between getting an AA in 5-8 hours at 51, 4-6 at 55, or 3 at 62.  But in PoP tier 2 and higher groups at 62+, 0.5 - 2 hours is achievable.  So level > AAs, to this extent.  However, to function efficiently in tier 2+, a good set of AAs may be thought of as a requirement.  AAs may also be required at a lower level if you are keen on raiding - but all the raid appropriate AAs are class or higher (paragon, MGB, pet hold), so this only applies from 59 upwards.  If an AA is worth getting, it will improve your ability to gain experience faster; and so collecting a few AAs at a relatively low level might make achieving your goal (65+200 AAs, or whatever) faster to attain.  At some points, the extra spells or abilities you get from one extra level may make getting AAs at the same spot faster: getting Chloroplast at 55, or Greater Healing at 57, or a new pet, for example.

Where to AA
 
Spots to accumulate AAs include: as soon as you get 51, get 6 AAs; at 55, on Jaggedpine dryads; at 54-56, on High Keep bards and nobles.  Then at level 62, while the experience band is the widest for getting experience from old world mobs. Nurga and Droga are extremely good for this.

General AAs
 
Whenever you decide to get AAs, if you are under 61, and so confined to general/archetype/class, get run speed 3 and regen 3.  Some people might replace some of these with metabolism (for Vah Shir) or First Aid.  First Aid is a lot less worth getting once you have Chloroplast at 55, and Greater Healing at 57, but may still be valuable until you get Chloroblast at 62.

Archetype AAs
 
From the archetype AAs, the most popular approach is to get SCR3.  This gives 30% greater buff duration, and is good for all beastlords, with as great a benefit for groupers as for soloers.  The next most popular is to get CA3 - to generate more misses/blocks.  This seems to be preferred over CS3 (less damage per hit).  CA and CS are best for soloing players, but also apply to beastlords who choose to take the tank role in a group.

Class AAs
 
Of the class AAs, there is a great consensus to get Paragon.  For raiding players, this should be followed by MGB.  Pet Discipline is a requirement for many guilds, and so will be required for raiders; for non-raiders, suspend minion is very useful, and can substitute for pet discipline, although this is a PoP ability, not a class AA.  Physical Enhancement is often mentioned by people who have some defensive AAs.

PoP AAs
 
Important: if you have a high enough level to get it, get Bestial Frenzy to as many levels as you can, as soon as you qualify, even before any of the AAs mentioned above.  Of the other Pop abilities, Lightning Reflexes is spoken highly of - for defensive players.  Suspend Minion is another that appears to be popular.
 
Strategies to accumulate AAs beyond this point aren't clear; defensive and offensive AAs in general seem to be favoured, with some people choosing defensive over offensive, and vice versa.  Of the defensive AAs, as noted above, avoidance skills are preferred over mitigation.

[Tukash]

Nice write up.. I never stick to my plan.  Oh Oh that looks good... no gonna save up 2 more for (insert AA here).. nope spend the AA on the what I can get now.. LOL

[Hereki]

So long as you spend points on useful AAs, it doesn't matter; that is easy to do at first, when you can put 2 points into BF at every level past 60.  But the benefit of first Paragon, then Paragon + SCR3 is so enormous, you have to put them all on your list to get early.  I'd say do at least Paragon as soon as it opens up to you, even if you are a melee type beastlord.

[Tukash]

yea I have paragon and sc3 and BF5, cf2, prob go cf3 next.. but like I say.. I always change my mind LOL.  My magelo has all my AA's.

[Rippykin]

for non-raiders, suspend minion is very useful, and can substitute for pet discipline, although this is a PoP ability, not a class AA.

I have to respectfully disagree with this statement. I have both of these AAs with my mage. There's a lot of utility to having pet discipline over suspend minion for a non-raiding beastlord.

Solo usages for :

Pet Discipline:
- Have warder ignore casting mobs when pulling
- Have warder obediently follow you/return to guard point regardless of what's chewing/casting on it
- Reposition a mob to get out of the way an oncoming wandering mob with no fuss when soloing
- Send warder out to "fetch" a mob with /pet attack then /pet hold
- Safely bring warder along with you when pulling mobs. If you get jumped by a mob, your warder will attack, get aggro. You can then /pet hold and run back to camp with your warder being chewed on instead of you.
- Your warder can be told to stop attacking through a mob's enrage.

etc. etc.

Suspend Minion 2 (v1 is practically useless imo)
- Can use suspend to freeze warder buffs to stop them from counting down
- Can suspend warder, go invisible and then unsuspend warder with full buffs & equipment
- Suspended warder is not present to be affected by AE attacks, etc
- Can maintain a backup warder fully buffed and equipped
- Suspending a warder restores ability to enrage
** Suspend minion will NOT work if your warder is on a mob's hate list

For someone soloing, being able to move around invisibly and freezing pet buffs during rest breaks seems the most useful aspects of Suspend Minion 2.

Pet Discipline allows you to keep your warder around in the world regardless of aggro. You can issue /pet hold at any time and your warder stops attacking to either return to a guard point or follow you. Personally I think Pet Discipline is far more useful than Suspend Minion2, but bottom line is which set of abilities would work best for the invidual beastlord. I don't think that SM2 is a good substitute though for Pet Discipline. They are distinctly different abilities.

Regards,
Rippykin 63 Beastlord
Quellious

[Reaking]

Looking for spot to post my info, and this looks good.  First off a little background.  Number 1 I am a beast first and foremost for my soloing ability, when I dont want to group I dont have to.  Thus my AA's reflect my soling desires.  I broke em down into needs, offensive and defensive.  I got the normals first Rs3, and regen 3.  Then I did a little of everything in Archs and got scr1, cf1, nd1, cs1, ca1, scf1.

Next at the class lvl of course first I got Paragon, that makes us who we are.  As a solo char, with no raid responsibities I went for aas that would make me more valuablwe to a group or more dps as a soler, so i got Ambi, and ND, then to get my title I got more dps in FoS.

Since I didnt have my 64 or 65 spells I Aaed till I got my 64 spells, and I got scr3, bf3, pp3 to maximize my offensive skills.  Now when I get to 64 and continue to search for feo and revenge, I will focus on defensive aas with ca3, and lr 4, plus bf4, and pp4.

My thinking is if I cant get the 65 spells why be 65,  so I will make my char better with aas.  Hope this helps

[Hereki]

I first wrote the original post as a summary of a very long thread of peoples opinions about the order they did AAs in.  Hence the comments about PD/SM, and various other things in there - my opinions are slightly different :).

What it avoids is a separate discussion about when to do AAs, which can get very heated and emotional at times, and I tried to sidestep that.

There are basically four trees of AAs to choose from; ones that help with mana, defensive ones, offensive ones, and special effects (hobble, etc).

If you are a paragon bot, then you need RS3, regen3/metab3/any, SCR3, Paragon, MGB, pet discipline, ND3, roughly in that order.

If you are a dps beastlord, and always grouped, you should get BF5, baron, SCF/CF3.  Ambi and Fury of the Ages come quite low, as they seem to have little impact on your dps.  Add in Paragon and pet hold at some point, then stack in defensive AAs.

a solo beastlord will probably get AAs early.  Baron, CA3, Paragon, BF5, ND3, LR5, CS3 - all roughly in that order.  SCR3 and MC2 should be in that path, too.  SM and PD, mend companion and hastened mending, too.  I think that defensive AAs are a priority in this situation, but you should mix in offensive ones too, depending on what grouping you do.

[Hrann]

I always liked this guide because it pretty closely reflects the sum of all the answers you would get to a "Which AA should I do first" question.  Most likely no one person will agree with all of it, but most people will agree with most of it.  :)