Pre-Release AA Commentary

[Kanan]

Since Beta's NDA has been lifted, here's the incomplete, not-final information:

1) Feral Swipe is being fixed.  30 second refresh, not missing much at all.
2) They're adding an AA called Savage Claws, uping the damage on Feral Swipe.  I've seen reports of 5k discing hits on it, so it sounds worth a damn now
3) Roar of Rolling Thunder - upgrade to present RoT.  Is affected by refresh aas, so it goes off the same 7.5 mins
4) Taste of Blood - pet supposed to get dps etc upgrade briefly when it gets a killshot.  It has not fired for anyone, as the AA, as of yet.  There is a spell that is, by description, an exact duplicate.
5) Aura of Spirits - /shrug upgrade to the Para line.  Up'd the numbers, no real change to it.

General type AAs -
Forage AA - increasing skill cap by 50 for all that train this AA, ie, everyone now can do some foraging, previous foragers get their skill to 250 now
Attack Cap increase -  :roll:
JC Mastery - Everyone gets it now
Bandolier & Potion Belt Increase AAs - Each gain an add'l slot.
There's some expendable AAs, various effects.  I don't recall em, nor plan on buying em until I've gotten all the "worthwhile" aas from TSS.
Veteran's Fury Upgrade - Another crit damage increase AA
Hold the Line - Increase mitigation, decrease damage
Press the line - Increase dps output, decrease mitigation

I've missed several.  I think I hit on most of the ones for bsts that are of concern.  Please add where appropriate.

EDIT: Chopping in the stuff from the AA list post on the Veteran's Forum

General AA's:
Potential of Serpentspine (5 aa 5 ranks) - stat cap increase by 5
Deaths Door ( 5 aa 5 ranks) - upgrade to porlonged mortality
Combat medic (3AA 5 ranks) - bandage aa
Fast Healing (3AA 5 ranks)- plus 1 regen
Quick Draw (5 aa, 1 rank)- increase potion belt slot by 1
Battle Ready (5AA, 1 rank) - extra bandoleer slot
Glyph of Dragon Scales (3 AA, EXPENDABLE)- 25% melee/spell run for up to 1 minute or 10k dmg absorbed
Glyph of Arcane Secrets (3 AA, EXPENDABLE)- 20% spell haste for 2 min
Glyph of Draconic Potential (3 AA, EXPENDABLE)- 750 hp/mana/endur for 10min
Glyph of Destruction (3 AA, EXPENDABLE)- 10% melee crit dmg increase for 2min

[Tastian]

Feral swipe is a huge change.  Everyone that has dealt with feral swipe that has tried it out has been shocked.  The numbers on it are quite good. 

There is also an upgrade for mend companion.

To be honest, a lot of AAs this expansion were viewed by many(not just beastlords) as "meh".  Osh made some late changes, fixed feral swipe, and is still working on them.  I'm not sure what kinds of changes we still might see, but I'm hoping for a bit more at this point.  *shrugs*

[hokarz]

The new aa's can be purchased at level 71? Or sooner?

[Phumog]

The new aa's can be purchased at level 71? Or sooner?

You telling me with expansion almost here your not one kill from 71 yet?

[hokarz]

nope, had so many aa's I needed to get, still do and didn't want to be one kill from 71 and still be way under aa'ed. I figured before the expansion the sweet spot for return on aa's spent was around 600.  I'm at 444 with 5 banked and 33% into 70...so, I'm hoping by the time the expansion goes live, I'll have 30 banked and at 1 kill from 71 :) Yes, I plan on doing some serious grinding, hehe.

[Denti]

Today's AA list:

Potential of Serpentspine: raises statistic cap (5 ranks)
Death's Door: increases how far below zero your hp can fall (5 ranks)
Combat Medic: increases heal from bandaging (5 ranks, bind wound skill up to 300 now)
Fast Healing: increases innate regen (5 ranks)
Quick Draw: one more potion belt slot (1 rank can get 4 only with special items)
Battle Ready: one more bandolier set (1 rank)
Veteran's Fury: increases crit melee damage, doesnt work on special attacks (3 ranks)
Mercy Kill: raises finishing blow level cap to 70 (3 ranks)
Rage of Serpent Spine: increases worn atk cap (5 ranks)
Labyrinthine Mind: increases worn manaregen cap (5 ranks)
Healing Surge: increased crit heal chance (3 ranks)
Warder's Rage: increased flurry chance for pet (3 ranks)
Jagged Claws: upgrade to Feral Swipe, as said before now a very nice ability, basicly around 33 dps if chained and Feral Swipe went up from around 1.2 dps to around 15 (1 rank, alt activate: 647)
Roar of Rolling Thunder: Upgrade to Roar of Thunder (3 ranks, alt act: 648)
Aura of Spirit: Perfection Upgrade (3 ranks, alt act: 650)
Taste of Blood: pet buff, pet enters blood frenzy when getting a killshot (1 rank, alt act: 666 <-- says something, eh?)
Warder's Wrath: increased crit chance for your pet (5 ranks)
Fury of Magic Mastery: increased crit chance with nukes (3 ranks)
Mental Serenity: increased innate mana regen (5 ranks)´

Glyph of Dragon Scales: Damage reduction, 1 minute duration, up to 10k damage from spells or melee (1 rank, expendable, 1 charge [supposed to have 5], alt act 585)
Glyph of Arcane Secrets: mana and cast time reduction, 2 minute duration, doesnt include percentage heals (1 rank, expendable, 1 charge, alt act: 587)
Glyph of Draconic Potential: increases max hp/mana by 750, 10 minutes duration (1 rank, expendable, 1 charge, alt act: 588)
Glyph of Destruction: 10% damage increase on melee crits, 2 minute duration (1 rank, expendabel, 1 charge, alt act: 589)

[hokarz]

any idea on cost per rank? I'm thinking the sweet spot on aa's moved north another 150 or so.

[Denti]

The total aa i can spend went up from 1461 to 1787. However the AA skill Advanced Mending is bugged currently, it vanish from your aa list after buying rank 1.

AA costs might be fix or not, i do not know that. Most skills seem to cost 5 points each rank, some are higher, some lower but that seems to be the median.

Never had to xp to gain AAs so i didn't care much about costs, still have nearly 300 unspend left :P

[hakaaba]

My question to everyone is: What are you gonna spend your 30 banked aas on?  I'm actually not sure myself.  I think i'll probably spread em around into 1 rank of several things.

Assuming they all cost 5 i'd prolly go with:

2 ranks of Fury of Magic Mastry
1 rank of Warder's Wraith
1 rank of Warder's Rage
1 rank of Mental Serenity
Jagged Claws

[hokarz]

gonna try and go with  feral swipe (finally) then the melee crit aa's, then spell crit aa's and see what I have leftover...probably the warder aa's, but that might be stretching it some.

[Inphared]

I'm going with anything that improves my personal DPS, because it doesn't look like they've addressed pet survivability very well. For me, it will be:

1) Jagged Claws
2) Potential of the Serpentspine (as levels allow)
3) Fury of Magic Mastery
4) Veteran's Fury
5) Aura of Spirit (raiding purposes)
6) Warder stuff

[Sardarni]

The new aa's can be purchased at level 71? Or sooner?

Still no answer to that one question.  I just dinged 70 with 575 aa, I plan on staying here for a month or two till I get all my spells, some more aa's and the new zones clear up a bit.

[Vidyne]

bandoiler slot and potion belt can be purchased at 51.

All others were greyed out til i dinged 71 that I saw.

[Tigrah]

[/quote]
You telling me with expansion almost here your not one kill from 71 yet?
[/quote]

not everyone is insane to have that last percent. I've been holding at 21% into level 70 since getting it for the sole purpose of gaining aa's. to me aa's are far more important at present than levels I won't personally even have access to until next month when $ allows it *sigh*.... point being, not everyone feels it necessary to hug the line all the time praying for a level increase.

[Tastian]

Also, some people with an exp penalty I know were grinding AA and banking them for the expansion, but waiting on leveling for when they lost the exp penalty.  *shrugs*  Different strokes for different folks. 

Lots of AA options, and I'll try to start parsing the AAs by next weekend once things settle down some.