Offensive AA path

[grizzly89]

HI

I am a lvl 63 bst and just finished up SCR3 and was wanting to take a completely offensive AA path. I bot a healer so the only
thing slowing me down is my ability to kill mobs faster. I am commited to staying at lvl 63 for awhile(150-200 aa's) I guess. So
any help would be appreciated. I was thinking SCF for my weapon procs as well as WA just not sure what order is best. So if
anyone could lay out a path of aa's I can do at 63 that would be great.

Thanks

http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=1253629

[Shieara]

/ponder...I would go this way to start.

Bestial Frenzy 1-3
Paragon
Combat Fury 1
Weapon Affinity 1-5
SCF 1-3
Ambidex

Why do I list paragon?  More mana = more nukes and dots = more dps.

[grizzly89]

Thanks this is exactly what I am looking for. I guess you would stop at combat fury 1 since there is a drop off
in the return per AA. Would it be worth it to get it up to 3 at a later date?Ok this list sets me up for a month or
so.

Thanks

[Gunzak]

I have combat fury 3 and veterans wrath 1 and wish I had gone weapon affinity instead as the crits I receive are pretty low where extra procs would be a big dps increase.  I think with WA5 I would add about 10dps where I probly got 1-2 max with the 24aa i spent to get to VW1.  If I started over again I would get BF5, Ambi, WA5 and if high enough in level IBF5.  I would also get Sinister Strikes but probly last as that just increases off hand damage.

[Sorien]

Would actually put CF 1 at the end of the list and move Ambidexterity up further.  I am at a similar level to you at the moment and have just about maxxed all of my offensive AA'S

Looking at your weapons, it shows that you do not have any procs in your empty slots, which will hurt you as far as DPS goes as well.  I worked towards getting my 75 PT Life tap augs from BB LDoN and DoN while working on my offensive AA'S, which helped a lot in the DPS department.

I went this way...

Bestial Frenzy 2 (In your case BF 3 because you are 63 atm) (6 AA cost)
Weapon Affinity 5 (25 AA cost)
Healing Gift 3 (12 AA cost)
Spell Casting Fury 3 (12 AA cost)
Ambidexterity (9 AA cost)
Combat Fury 1 (2 AA cost)

That's 66 AA total + your current 18, which will put you around 84 AA

If you do not want to get your life tap augs, then just take out the Healing Gift 3.  If you do want to get your life tap augs, but at a later date, then just move Healing Gift further down the line until you actually do get them.

Also, Combat Fury is indeed a DPS upgrade, regardless of how miniscule it is.  I just got CF 1 last night and love to see the criticals.  I look at it like this.  It is damage that I would not have done if I didn't have CF, which will in turn kill the mob quicker.  CF 2 and 3 is definately my next two AA purchases, but that is a personal preference.  As is stated, CF 2 and 3 are minimal at best.

Also, since your healer will not be healing you as much if you get your life taps, you will be able to use your healer as a bit of DPS as well, which indeed increases the DPS as a whole on the MOB.

I would also invest in your defensive AA'S quickly after with...

Combat Agility 3 (12 AA)
Combat Stability 1 (2 AA)
Physical Enhancement (5 AA)
Combat Stability 2 & 3 (10 AA)
Lightning Reflexes 3 (9 AA)

38 AA total + the above total of 84 = 122 total AA'S.  Only 27 more AA'S to meet your criteria! before moving on to lvl 64. :)

Since you BoT a healer, it would make sense that these AA'S would be a secondary thought to the Offensive stuff.  It will make a difference in your DPS though since your healer BoT will have that much more mana to DD instead of heal you.

[Sorien]

Oh yeah...

And stick Paragon up there at the top of your list...

As Shieara stated, Paragon is all around awesome at our levels :) :) :)

[Shieara]

I tend to list low aa cost first because the aa burn a hole in my pocket.  It's just so hard for me resist spending them, lol.  But anyways, there are diminishing returns for CF 2-3.  You do a bit better with VW (efficiency: 1.5%/pt), but I think you will get more dps with Weapon Affinity so I would definitely get that first.  Here's the info on CF if you are curious according to Coprolith...

3) Combat Fury
- 3 levels, 2/4/6 pts
- Melee restrictions: none, always works (passive)
- CF gives you a chance to score critical damage on a normal hit. In addition to the chance you get from CF itself, your dexterity also plays an important role. CF1 at 100 DEX gives a 1% chance to score a crit. Each additional level of CF adds 0.5% to the chance to crit. For every 50 pts of DEX above 100, another 0.33% is added. So for instance CF1 at 250 DEX gives 1 + 3*0.33 = 2% crit chance, the same as having CF3 at only 100 DEX (1+2*0.5). The average critical damage is about 1.75X the average normal damage for a MH weapon and 2X average normal damage for an OH weapon.
- Efficiency: CF1 (at 250 DEX) ~ 0.8%/pt, CF2 ~ 0.1%/pt, CF3 - negligible (melee dps)

After that I think you have kinda a choice.  If you level to 65 you get a bunch more options opened to you on offense.  You would gain access to the rest of BF, pet crits/flurries, sinister, and I am sure there is stuff I am forgetting too.  If you stay at 63 and are dead-set on only offensive aa your choices are basically FoS and finishing up the CF line.  So you will have to decide which of these is going to be best for you in the long run.  If it were me, and I didn't want to level, I probably would get some of the basic defensive aa and think about healing aa and MC1.  Sorien's list is pretty much dead-on as far as defensive aa goes, though I would get LR3 before finishing up CS2-3.  Just a personal preference thing...I'm all about avoidance.

[grizzly89]

Ok just so everyonr knows my master plan.I do plan on staying at lvl 63 to level my alts on other account to
respectable levels(i.e. Cleric to 62 for V) that type of stuff.So I plan on getting alot of AA's but I just wanted to
start of with my offensive first. Then move onto my defensive starting with maxxing my avoidence for my lvl.
Thanks again for all the info now I better write it down so I can be somewhat orgainzed,lol.

[Tastian]

Just finished up tweaking the AA calc so figured I'd run some tests on it with your data hehe.  Of course, there will be variation based upon play style and preferences that I can't know for sure, but it's pretty close.

-  BF is far and away our best offensive AA early on.
-  Rank 1 of CF after that is actually a good buy because it's so cheap and because of your low proc damage atm it's ~3X as efficent as going right to WA
-  Ambi comes out ahead of WA as well with your current stats by a bit.
-  Then WA for ranks 1-5 are solid and I forget when you can start training warders alacrity, but after the changes that's about on par.

Also I couldn't know for sure how much you cast/nuke/etc for mana expenditure, but rank 1 of SCF since the change is another decent first pick up, but the next couple ranks don't stack up so well verse just getting more WA.

As I mentioned though play style will impact some of your choices, not to mention gear pickups and various other effects.  For instance, early on for me one of the best offensive AAs I got was CA.  The extra tanking allowed me to actually tank more in solo situations so I just stopped backing out and letting my pet tank at all.  That raised my dps a lot because I was melee'n the whole fight.  Paragon for the mana regen(and hps for more tanking) can have a nice impact on killing as well.  Not to mention it helps with those just got done buffing back up situations.  8)

As always the choice is yours and once you get past BF the rest are fairly close especially with your current setup.  If you come across some more procs or change your weapons you might see some changes.  However, going BF, snagging CF1 and/or SCF1 and then maxing weapon affinity is probably the way to go.  If you feel like grinding it out picking up ambi before doing WA works too.  *shrugs*

[Kanan]

Sorien.. not wanting to flame, and I've not read discussion about it elsewhere, so I'm curious.. why go for Healing gift over adept first?

I ask this because imo, the Gift only gives you a chance to increase the heal, whereas adept will always affect the heals.  Yes, when it hits, it's pretty damn nice, but even with all of gift and the DoN crit AA, I still don't see it crit heal enuf to warrant doing them first.

I guess a lot of it really is based upon a friend's advice & theory: go for AA/effects that always work vs one's that you have to have a chance for working.  Trusting the RNG is something I'm never really willing to do.

[rdahl]

Sorien.. not wanting to flame, and I've not read discussion about it elsewhere, so I'm curious.. why go for Healing gift over adept first?

If you do not want to get your life tap augs, then just take out the Healing Gift 3.  If you do want to get your life tap augs, but at a later date, then just move Healing Gift further down the line until you actually do get them.

If I remember correctly, Spell Casting Fury effects life tap heals and not Healing Gift.

[grizzly89]

My play style is straight up tanking the whole fight since I have a bot helping out. That will change a little once
I start working with my other alts. I have been looking for the dedgerex weapon that procs the 625dd so that
should help my procs out. I will aug that and my copper hammer with something but all the good ones seem
to have a lvl 65 req for the proc.I hate to spend crystals on something lesser and then not use them after I get
to lvl 65 and get the better ones.

[Kanan]

I had had SCF maxed out for a long time and I would see crit nukes and then get the extra healing then.  I would never see an exceptional heal however.  After I got healing gift (/cheer for the 40AAs from the re-pricing of GoD AAs) is when I started seeing the exceptional heals.

Max adept AAs, no healing foci (doubt it would affect it anyways), the 125 pt taps heal for 160, uncrit proc or heal.  The 100 pt heals for 125.  I don't recall what the 125 will max out at (640 jumps to mind, but I don't know atm), but the 100 pt on demerix will max out, on a crit nuke & crit heal, for 512 heal.

gonna miss demerix's unresistable tap when I finally replace it.  Ol' dependable ;p

[Sorien]

Sorien.. not wanting to flame, and I've not read discussion about it elsewhere, so I'm curious.. why go for Healing gift over adept first?

I ask this because imo, the Gift only gives you a chance to increase the heal, whereas adept will always affect the heals.  Yes, when it hits, it's pretty damn nice, but even with all of gift and the DoN crit AA, I still don't see it crit heal enuf to warrant doing them first.

I guess a lot of it really is based upon a friend's advice & theory: go for AA/effects that always work vs one's that you have to have a chance for working.  Trusting the RNG is something I'm never really willing to do.

Not a flame bud. :)  You just are trying to get clarity. :) 

I put Healing Gift up there instead of Healing Adept only because of the lifetaps.  If he stays at 63, then he will be purchasing the 75 pt lifetap augs, if he even goes for the lifetap augs.  Healing Adept only goes to 10% of healing effectiveness.  So...  10% of 75 is what... 7.5?  75 + 7.5 is 82.5, which is definately an upgrade, but not as good as when I crit proc for 150.  Or even Crit HG proc + Crit SCF proc for 300, which does happen often in a session.  The thing is that on lifetaps, you get minimal return off of Healing Adept.  You get a better return on Healing Gift.

[Sorien]

Sorien.. not wanting to flame, and I've not read discussion about it elsewhere, so I'm curious.. why go for Healing gift over adept first?

If you do not want to get your life tap augs, then just take out the Healing Gift 3.  If you do want to get your life tap augs, but at a later date, then just move Healing Gift further down the line until you actually do get them.

If I remember correctly, Spell Casting Fury effects life tap heals and not Healing Gift.

Incorrect...

Spell Casting Fury AND Healing Gift work on all lifetap augs.  Mine are 75 pt augs and crit proc SCF AND HG for 300 points of damage/healing often enough in a session.  :)