AA Check

[Zann]

Not really sure this is the best section to post, but I am having difficulty deciding which AA's to aim for next and was wondering if anyone could help.

My magelo profile is pretty much up to date and I am looking for AA's which help whilst main tanking in a full group.

http://eq.magelo.com/profile/1383387

Any advice greatfully received.

[Normy]

You have a majority of what you need to be a good defensive tank. I would get Force of Disruption rk2 as soon as you can, the extra agro on it really helps to hold agro. Then perhaps your Armor of the Inquisitor line. When tanking in a group I use this almost as often as it pops unless I'm saving it for a hard hitting named.

I personally like having quick buff to reduce the cast of PoT and Steely Stance, but I don't know if thats a really significant tanking help. Other than that though, you can start working your offensive AA lines. They will help slightly with agro since if you do more damage you gain more agro, but its marginal for a paladin. Still, any extra DPS speeds up the kills. I think you just about have everything that will help you to tank well in a group.

[Zann]

Great thanks for the swift reply. I have 29AA banked so will get FoD2 as soon as I next log on

[shiftie]

Looked over your aa and in my opinion you should focus on your healing AA.

Healing AA are an extension of your defensive AA. When content was designed so that paladins were not able to stun mobs a movement was made to let paladins mitigate through healing. The introduction of things like Burst spells and Ward of Tunare showed up on the scene. Blessing of life, healing light and the recourse from Preservation of Tunare will all be more effective in helping you mitigate when your crit healing AA are improved.

I would work on Healing Gift, then healing Boon - and lastly Healing adept.

good luck,
shiftie

[Normy]

I'm actually suprised you'd leave Healing Adept for last, to me that would be much further up the list of healing since it works on all heals minus AoM and it always works.

But either way, yes healing is another way to make yourself a better tank since you can offset quite a bit of incoming damage by learning to tab to yourself and hitting a burst heal as needed.

[knytul]

lol this is why i tell everybody who asks these same questions the Same Thing. Our class is too versatile for 1 certain "guide" to AA shopping. We have Tanking, Healing, Curing, CC, utility, dps, whole 9 yards. The first 50 aa's are probably the hardest because here is basically where you decide What kind of paladin you really wanna be. Is your favorite thing to Heal, tank, CC....etc.

So overall b4 this goes any farther, i do see you said "Main tanking in a Full Group", Some questions i have for you would be:
1) Do you feel comfortable now tanking in a full group? If so, then go with more offensive aa's to make the killing faster
If not: Which areas are you having issues in. Do mobs hit too hard? Are you not healing your group enough? etc....
2) What kind of content do you plan on concentrating on? Are you looking at farming items from Kora, CoD, OBF....or xping in other places where the XP modifiers are higher? In future content do you plan on looking at Undead more, or item mobs more...
3) Do you have a usual crew you run with...that theres an abundance of healing? do you have a 2nd tank? are u dps heavy?

Theres many other questions i could think up, but dont have the time for atm. These are questions imo you should think about for each and every AA you purchase. Basically, start with Question 1...Are you Comfortable. If not, what do you gotta buy to make yourself more comfortable...

[shiftie]

[Zann]

The reason I haven't concentrated on healing AA's is that I do have a usual group consisting of a shaman and J5 merc cleric, on top of that when tanking hard hitting names (such as Korafax names) I usual spam aurora for heal top-ups which isn't effected by aa's.

My next question is assuming I get all the healing AA's, is there a more effective heal than aurora for self healing whilst tanking? (I will however complete the Heal Crit AA's to benefit to heal procs).

[Lisene]

Aurora is good for helping to weigh in on a hard hitting mob when the healer is struggling. It'll never save your life in an oh shit moment though, that's burst. And burst won't save you without good aas and heal focus to beef it up, maybe not even then unless it crits. Group heal is the other main spell you'll get benefit from aas. Its far more efficient when the whole group needs healing, and each member willl get more from the group heal with your heal aas than aurora can do. In that situation I generally use Aurora after 1 or 2 group heals to top up the guys that didn't get healed to max from the group heals.

It really depends on what you do though as said above. If you want to build for raid I'd go heals, solo go dps, group I'd probably go heals as well because dps aas will just give you a % increase to bugger all (especially with a group weapon).

[Normy]

Lisene is correct. AoM is great when you can afford the cast time and are not being interrupted. However as good as it is, its not as reliable for the quick save as your burst heals, and AoM takes another hit on self healing if other members are taking damage as well. If you have more than one mob in camp, burst is also more helpful to save the squishie taking damage. This might not be the situation you deal with often though.

So if you are the only one taking damage, have controlled pulls and are only dealing with one mob, and can channel through being hit, AoM is your best friend. The only downside at that point is the agro potential lost while casting the self heal and perhaps mild downtime depending on your mana pool and how frequently you need to self heal.

[Wyvernwill]

[Lisene]

I'd also say to get your planar power beefed up as you can. It might be passive but you're way overcap on all stats so you'll benefit everywhere. Use magelo to watch your total stats vs cap, and bump it up together with yur gear. It looks like you might be able to max it even and still be overcap though, but if not bump it up as your main stats breach your cap.

[Nodden]

I'd say Healing Adept is >>> Healing Boon for sure.

[Dole]

When I worked healing AA's I balanced them out buying whatever was the cheapest.

When the shit hits the fan a paladin's healing strength can make the difference in group survival. In raids our healing really helps keep our group stay up, and lets the healers concentrate on the MT.

My AA path was Defense – Healing – then I spread things out between utility and offensive. My thinking at the time was our DPS (less slays) sucked so bad the AA’s weren’t worth it. I also put a good effort to get the best AC augs along with best gear I could get. My goal was/is to be a very mana efficient tank for the healer in my group,

In groups I find myself stunning a ton, and in hard content healing a ton, along with some CC. With multiple mobs in camp I work really hard on keeping agro on multiple mobs. In these situations our poor DPS goes to zero so why spend hard earned AA on them.

I have crit healed for over 26K with burst without epic. I'm not sure what it would be without healing AAs, but I'm assuming significantly less.

This path seemed to work for my play style. Your mileage may vary so make changes as you see fit.