Neglected AA long Enough, Please Help.

[Lupina]

I box an 81 Mage and 80 Beastlord.  I have been so concentrated on leveling, not well I might add, that I have neglected AA.
Right now my Beast has about 93 AA (pathetic IMHO) any advice would be greatly appreciated.  I typically duo with my T3 Tank and Cleric mercenaries, I sometimes group and rarely raid.
I pull with COTH, unless single and off tank with the mage pet if I get any adds.
At the moment the only AA's I have are:
Innate Run  - 3
Paragon of Spirit - 3
Spirit Frenzy   - 1
Mass Group Buff – not exactly sure why I got this.
Hobble of Spirits - 1
I have a few others that I can not remember right now.

My mage is in the same boat with 119 AA, but that is a discussion for another board (unless anyone else boxes a Beastlord and Mage)

Thank you very much in advance.

[Razimir]

I box an 81 Mage and 80 Beastlord.  I have been so concentrated on leveling, not well I might add, that I have neglected AA.
Right now my Beast has about 93 AA (pathetic IMHO) any advice would be greatly appreciated.  I typically duo with my T3 Tank and Cleric mercenaries, I sometimes group and rarely raid.
I pull with COTH, unless single and off tank with the mage pet if I get any adds.
At the moment the only AA's I have are:
Innate Run  - 3
Paragon of Spirit - 3
Spirit Frenzy   - 1
Mass Group Buff – not exactly sure why I got this.
Hobble of Spirits - 1
I have a few others that I can not remember right now.

My mage is in the same boat with 119 AA, but that is a discussion for another board (unless anyone else boxes a Beastlord and Mage)

Thank you very much in advance.

Focused paragon of spirit, hastened focused paragon of spirit, combat fury 6/6, ambidexterity, Spell casting reinforcement 3/3, Bestial Frenzy 10/10, Weapon affinity, Veterans wrath... Generally dps AAs (melee 1st, spell 2nd), defncive AAs, pet aa, healing AAs and utility last. Or get few ranks of all 1st, It is really up to your play style. I get dps AAs 1st, always. Too large question to reply properly.

-Raz

[Damim]

And if you do a little searching you will find this question answered ad nauseum.

[wildwaters]

Search is your friend, not ours >.<

[Sharrien]

I also box a beast/mage combo.  The advice above is great for getting your beast up to speed.  Once you have the basics, it depends on your play style and choice of targets.

If you are mostly going to be going after named and using the pets to tank, concentrate on pet AAs, both defensive and flurry.  I'm personally a fan of dots, so I would also get some Critical Affliction.  You can stack several dots on a target that is being tanked by a taunting mage pet with Burning Brimbody/Pyroshroud without worrying about taking aggro.  Get mage Malo AA and you can count on nearly all of your dots, slows and nukes to land reliably.  Even before SoF and mercs came out, I could duo named in SHIP with just my own heals.  With merc support I have easily taken named in Warrens and have confidence that I can do the same in Old Bloodfields/CoD once I start working on things there.

If you group more than just hunting with your duo, go for pet flurries, spell crits and melee crits to increase your dps.  If you plan to mostly tank with your beastlord, do defensives first.

I've been playing this duo for a long time and finding ways to get through content that usually requires a tank/healer or crowd control (love using CoH to split mobs), but since mercs were added, the potential of a beast/mage combo has gone through the roof.  Yeah, it's weak on dealing with adds and enrage can really ruin your day if you don't handle it right, but give me enough space to work with and I'll split a target out of crowd and can take just about any singled mob throughout most of the game.

[Sharrien]

One thing to add, get the 3 SoD de-aggro abilities Bite of the Asp, Raven's Claw and Gorilla Smash.  Bite is great for free dps and aggro control.  I use the other two as well if I want to debuff a named or stop a runner.  Also, get both ranks of Pact of the Wurine as they become available.

If you know anyone in a raiding guild or there are open raids on your server, beg, borrow, offer to sell a child or steal a spot on a Queen Malarian raid.  Success means you can buy an aug from Zeb that gives Enhanced Minion 4 which is a huge boost in pet power.