Which AA is next?

[Utqnia]

Well, I have been working a bit on some gear upgrades and getting myself back up to date.  I accrued most of my AA when I was 65, so its a bit lopsided on the earlier ones.

I just added the lifetap augs to both weapons over the past few weeks and now trying to decide what to do next.

http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=1258820

My playstyle is...

For the next month or so I will be 50% raiding / 50% 2 boxing with a cleric.  After that, a buddy and me are going to have our 4 team group assembled (Sk, Shm, Bl, Clr).


So (long run)I am thinking mostly DPS, unless the gains are too small to notice, my current thought is to alternate in a  DPS, DPS, DEF, DPS DPS, DEF type strategy for moving forward.

However, as a guideline, me and my cleric can 2box WOS field mobs easily enough I Complete Heal at 70% which I am between 50-60 % when it fires, but cleric on horse with self buffs and SA keeps up no problems.   I have tried 5 named and only won 1 time, died the other 4, for me to achieve this task, I am guesiing I need more defensive.  The fights basically get where I just cant quite CH fast enough.  I am thinking with my new lifetaps and some AA spent properly I could up my chances a bit on killing the named in WOS with me and my cleric.  I would like to be able to 2 box these named easier.

I have not tried the RCOD named yet, I think they are a bit lower arn't they?

Anyway, I have read through the DPS AA post above, but it doesnt seem to go into the newer ones or the benefit from lifetaps.

If anyone has time to look this all over, i really would appreciate it.  I have 9 banked atm because I am just not sure where to go from here.

[Kanan]

first things first - get improved beastial frenzy 5.. it doubles our DA chance.  On Yar'lir last night, I was #5 for dps, even when getting thrown around by every blasted knockback ae.  I attribute this to IBF mainly, followed by that loverly DoD pet spell ;p

After IBF, finish off Weapon Affinity.  Don't put another point into the double riposting AAs (increases our small chance of executing a double when we actually have the small % occurence of a riposte = massive waste of points).

Since u'll be joining up with an sk soon, the new pet snare is not as important atm.

Veteran's wrath is nice, but how nice, /points at tast's calc'r

The return on the OoW+ defensive AAs is extremely poor for us and not really worth the points.

[Utqnia]

Thanks, this is exactly the info I was looking for, i appreciate your help.

Thanks for your input, I forgot to mention my cleric is only 65 atm, and I cant afford the latest heal over time spell (65 rune turn in, 40k for the spell in bazaar :( ).  I think this will be the biggest difference in fighting the named in WOS, but I have to level to 67 and need 4 lesser runes to get it :)

Thanks for the input

[Shieara]

I agree with Kanan.  Get IBF and WA finished asap. 

Couple things to think about after you finish that...

If you are raiding you may want to think about pet affinity.  12 aa is a lot, but it has been very helpful for me to have Fluffy picking up group buffs and ae heals.  Only needed if your pet is dying though.  Along the same lines, finishing hastened mending will help your pet survive as well.

Other aa to keep in mind...sinsister strikes, warder's alacrity, finish melee crits maybe.

As a side-note, I farmed all my 66-68 runes for my cleric I box with at NC in the Packmaster camp.  You have two named there you can kill, and the spot is pretty easy to hold using cleric to pacify split.  Anyways, just a thought if you want runes for him and the WoS named are eating you. 

[Utqnia]

So NC is a bit easier than WOS right?

Where does RCOD fit in, is it easier than NC or harder?

I have never tried NC, only run through it some times.  Perhaps I will try tonight at this camp you are suggesting.  Any info on it would be good, otherwise I will simply go with the punches and try it on my own.

Thanks for the input, it is much appreciated. 

I will let you know how it works out :)  Is the XP comparable to WOS?

[Chickennuggets]

Something you may want to consider for when you are boxing (probably not as important for raiding) would be to  get through more of your healing gift AAs.  I have everything up to the last level of the last one completed, and got a string of crit LT procs with crit heals last night... like 3 of them in a row for 525 each.  Although for fighting nameds for runes and such its not that great with a cleric there... but it may help you hold out a little bit longer for the CH.  I have also crit Muada's on myself for just over 2900.  Do you have the cleric hit you with a HoT when you get in camp?

[Maylian]

Just a suggestion. If you have managed to solo (albeit once) a WoS named you should have absolutely no hassle killing a few wing bosses in BoT for 65 rune to try and get your HoT.

RCoD is just a little lower than WoS I would say. Normally less camped with just as many nameds and some better drops. Should be quite good to box there.

[Chickennuggets]

Agree Maylien.  The wing bosses arent too tough.  I am able to get a slow on all of them except for the Earth wing guy (not first cast, but get partial resists after a few tries).  Wouldn't take to long to zone in invis and run to them, and take them all out.  Then go about your normal buisness for exp'ing and such.

[Shieara]

I'd consider NC to be harder then Harbringer's Spire, but not as hard as RCoD/WoS.  RCoD and WoS seem about equilivent to me.  If you can camp rcod it may be a better bet for you on runes, since 70 ones can drop there but they don't drop in NC.  Only 66-68 in NC except from the bigger named like Menlo.

For the camp I was talking about, if you are coming in from DS act like you are going towards the WoS zone.  You'll go up to where you see the first mob on the path (a murkglider), and then after that there will be an area with ruins and several dragorns, kyvs, nocs, etc.  Once you get to the area with all these mobs, look right.  You should see a small path leading eastish, and that is the camp spot.   If you look at this map...

http://eq.mapfiend.net/view.php?map=causeway_1_5021.txt&bg=b&id=281

you can see where I am talking about.  If you cross a bridge going north you have gone too far.

The roaming ukun on the east/west path is the placeholder for the packmaster.  The one and only Aneuk in the area is the ph for the other named.  Pixxt something.  He is right next to one of those snake-women things. 

I farmed a lot of runes here.  At the time, my gear was not as good and I was lower level.  My clerics gear, err, well lets just say I need to spend some time on upgrading him.  So rcod wasn't an option for me, but anyways there is the best info I can give atm.  If I can log on later I can try for a loc. 

[Chickennuggets]

That is a very nice rune camp.  Just keep an eye out.. the unkan that PH for the packmaster pops at the other end of the valley that you will be in, and can sneak up on you.  IIRC the timer on that guy is 18 - 20 minutes (don't quote me on that though).

[Utqnia]

Hey all,

I went to this camp and did pretty well.  I appreciate your input.  I have gotten several runes here in not alot of time.  The named spawn often.  Thanks for this info, it is great.

I am thinking of hitting up RCOD next, once I get some more gear under my belt.  I have gotten to IBF4 so far, I am not a parser but I think it does help.

I tried af ew WOS named last night and did pretty well.  I killed the Bazu, but the Feran got me with his mana dot (cleric was in range).  Still got him to about 60 though and cleric ran out of mana.

The cleric got to 66 so he got the new fast heal, I have turned in 3 lessers already, the next one is the new HOT which is almost 1200 a tick.  This I feel will be the turning point for the WOS camps.

However I am very interested in the RCOD camps, since they are literally always free, and can drop some of the tier 1 armor stuff.  My thoughts are to gear my cleric with teir 1 stuff where he is lacking.  Still would have to do that faction though :/

Anyway, as far as AA go, I am thinking of WA next.  The 4box team is coming along, the Shaman has the SK to 65 already.

I do have a question about the cultural armor though.  The drake scales needed for plate and leather are different (glossy vs Metallic), and extremly expensive.  What are my options for farming these.  Are they only in instanced zones of DON?  Can I just go to Thundercrest the zone and get them to drop?

It is my intention that when the SK dings 66, the 4 of us will try a creator mission.  We will average level 68 and should get the lower one (is this right?), where I should be able to tank these mobs with 70shm HOT (full healing AAs) and CH.

With the SK and Cleric both needing scales, it is our thought to farm these ourselves, just want the best place.  Also heard they drop from a stillmoon instance, but never done it.  Any info at all on these would be great.  Thanks for all the input guys, I still have some very lacking gear and hopefully upgrades are coming soon.

Also, the 69 pet spell worth the trouble of getting?

[Chickennuggets]

I haven't done much if any exp in the DoN zones non-instanced... but the best droprate (still not good at all) is from the creator missions.  i Also think that an average level of 68 will get you the higher level missions... not absolutely sure of that though.

[Kanan]

the metallic/glossy drake stuff ONLY drops in DoN instanced.. which sucks big time.

On DRo atm, those scales/hides are going for 30k each =/

I'd finish off IBF first, personally, then do your WA5.  An extra 3% chance to DA may not seem like that much, but its worth that extra lil bit of dps.

[Chickennuggets]

They both usually go for ~20k each on Saryrn... around 8 - 10K to the /buyers for the groups that don't roll and sell to split.

[Stumps_Bertox]

Utqnia, buy some augs! :)
Full set of DoN augs will add several hundred hp, and some missions are a joke, like Diving for Lavarocks. I can duo it with a 3rd sitting for crystals in an hour, and the exp is pretty good.