New Pal, AA path

[rydar]

Hello,
im new to the paladin class and soon enough im gonna start collecting those plinks....
so anyone wanna tell me what are the golden path for AAs ?
Rydar from bristlebane

[knytul]

thats a matter of opinion my friend. 3 Main Categories are Defensive, Offensive, and Healing. How you choose to play your paladin will depend on which you will obtain first. Me personally i went some defensive, then ALL offensive, some healing, then finished them off, with some special ones in between like Holy Steed, MGB, etc.

[dindaur]

i'd max all defensives then probably max slay

[Brohg]

Slay before Punishing Blade, Knights Advantage, etc?

[varutia]

Highly depend on your play situation, group go defensive, healing and offensive, raid can go similar with mix of defensive, healing and then follow by offensive. Solo, go slay first, then defensive mix with offensive and healing last, generally do the cheaper and more effective tier first rather than hammering out everything in one line.

I personally think there is another category call utility AA, things like origin, spellgem slot, buff slot etc. Some of these would have high priority depend on your play style. I would mix some of these when doing AA progression.

I went all defensive, then mix of offensive and healing, then throw some utility AA into it. Some of the late defensive cost a lot of AA,

[shiftie]

You will see your greatest return on your defensives if you do CA first as dodging a hit completely is better than taking less damage when hit. Don't forget the new shield block aa as you earn a chance to completely block a hit when tanking. In order to solo effectively I recommend getting your healing aa's done. Given the new methods of mitigation for paladins Burst of Sunlight/Morrow will change your life for the better as they allow for a large return on solo and group abilities. Self healing in a group setting will allow you to stand in when your defensives aren't done.

As far as soloing goes slay undead and healing will make life much easier. The attack aa can be worked around with the triple attack ability given by your guildmaster and the tribute flurry ability. Get the dire totem of battle or try and keep the ranger predator line on your toon and you can have a pretty good chance to double attack also. This will make it easier to skip around the offensive aa's until you have the defensive line done. Whether solo or group defensive aa's make the world go round. They are only trumped by level in importance to your ability to do things effectively.

One thing you might also look into if you are doing a lot of soloing. Purchase the healing boon aa which allow for crits on the HoT's. This healing line of aa effect potions as well, as the potions have scaled nicely to level 80 you can crit for nearly 3k on a tic of a potion. While this is an expensive way to mitigate damge it is highly effective.

best of luck
shiftie

[rydar]

ok now im 50... im still real low..but as I get it, im gonna go
(note that I wanna solo in veksar)
- aa that give u better chance to crit
- slay
- utility : horse and gate
- healing aa
and then
- defensive aa

what u think ?
and what would be the best level to stop and do alot of aa u think ?

[knytul]

if you can survive on that, go for it my friend. No 1 person can tell you how to build your paladin, because we all went different routes. Just go with what you feel comfortable with. If you feel you need more defensive to tank better in ur current content, add defensive. If you wanna kill the mobs faster, go offensive. If you feel you could use some healing bonuses, go that way.

[varutia]

When soloing undead slay goes to number 1 priority, then follow by offensive if already can tank comfortably. Faster kill means less damage, it equal to a kind of mitegation when soloing. Crit line offers relatively low level of return verse investment, concentrate on slay first, then increase double attack and tripe attack, 2 hand bash is also great. From memeory the first 3 level of double and tripe attack will increase dps by between 6 to 7 percent each, far more than anything the crit AAs will give.

[Normy]

Just remember that the lower tiers of each of the types of AA's give the most return in general. The example being the heal lines, the first three ranks give more back per AA than the much more expensive ones later.

[Natems]

First off, before anything else, I would get run speed 3. Call it personal preference, but I do that for all my toons first as it helps in escaping from battles, pulling mobs, and in general for getting around EQ.

Specific to the paladin, I would go with CA 8, PE 1, CS 8, SU (max for level), ND 3, PD 3, then various healing/offense related AAs as needed. Healing Boon is great as it not only helps with pots, but it works with WoT/SoT increasing the healing power of the buff. Another good one is Spell Casting Reinforcement. It increases the duration of your buffs, including WoT/SoT, reducing overall downtime for rebuffing if you're soloing and your mana drain if you choose to use WoT/SoT.

As pretty much everyone stated before me, there's no one correct path and it definitely depends on your particular play style. I know that when I started my AAs back in the day, I did the bare minimum to get the horse which I think was 21AAs at the time (not sure if it still is) because that was my personal goal. If you solo a lot and focus on undead - which you should if you're soloing as a pally - then you may want to move SU up in your list of things to get. If you never solo and don't ever group where there's undead, you may want to de-prioritize it and focus more on defense/healing/offense/utility dependent on how you play your pally in a group.

[rydar]

one thing I was wondering... slay proc on crit ? so does more crit = more slay ?

rydar

[Natems]

I think there's actually a post somewhere in here on that, but here's the really short version. The SU check is independent from the crit check (I believe SU is first), so your SU AAs will determine frequency and power of your SU crits. Your Combat Fury AAs will determine the frequency of your regular crits and Veteran's Wrath will determine the power of the crits beyond doubling up the hit once you get to that point.

[Arethro]

[rydar]

[dindaur]

you can probably slack on run if youre doing horse

[Zorbee]

Offense, offense, offense!

I know you need to get some defensive AA's to do your tanking job, so I'd start with CA/CS/ND3 and PE, but after that I'd go straight to Combat Fury 3 and Slay Undead 3. In your low 60's those will make your offense against undead dramatically improved. Then you can nitpick as you need.

The key is for the most part, pick a line and max it for your level, it is far better to complete a line then get a hodge podge of low ranks of each.*

*Edit: ok as I read that I need to clarify, it is better to get at least the PoP level of ranks better than a hodge podge. You see, once you get to OoW you'll get only small upgrades for large amounts of AA. The first 3 (to 8 ranks in for CS/ID CA/LR) are the most powerful boosters. But what I meant is that you don't want to get CA1, CS1 and ND1 when you could be working on CA3 already with that many AA. For the most part, at 65 CA/CS8 and the hitpoint AA (ND and PE) will be vastly enough defensive AA to wtfpwn Veksar taking 3-5 at a time.

[AbyssalMage]

Okay, asking for help cause soon ill be doing the great journey to 70 (or 75 thanks to the incoming Nerf to Fabled Pet weapons) and I want to have this sorted out before I journey there

At 65 I have all my basic "Tank" AA's (i.e. Defensive and HP AA's maxed for level). Well, I don't have the PoP Cap increase AA's to raise my STA, thefore my HP's so I'm almost max HP's for level. I know I'm a slacker

I'm currently working Weapon Affinity (Thanks to fabled pet weapon) which will put me around 200 aa's (Just slightly less if I remember correctly) and then I'll be off to level again

My question is this. Once I stop to grind AA's again (Either 70 or 75) besides the Defensive and Slay AA's ill be imidiatly purchasing, what "general" order should I get the following?

*Buff Extension - This is more of a convenience to me. But if the other AA choices stink I may move this up (Plan to purchase in the 500+ AA range).
*Stun AA - Been looking at these and the variouse lines that require it as a pre-requisite. Should I be maxing this for level? Or is Spell Gems just as good and buy this and the variose lines later?
*Healing Gift/Adept - Buying this upto PoP is very temping but like Buff Extensions, it more of a convenience ATM for me (Another 500+ AA unless you think I should buy sooner).
*HoT AA's - Was thinking this was better after I get my HA/HG AA's but would you say this is better to get before b/c it works on HoT potions?
*Crit AA's - More for the eye candy. I know the ranks I can purchase now aren't very good ratio for the investment. So should this be 200-500 aa's or a 500+ AA?
*Spell Crit AA's - Are spell damage is pathetic. Should this be a 500+ AA? Or do Undead Nukes become more viable with investment into this line?
*Bash AA's - There's 2 lines. One increases Damage and the other makes it more likely to stun the mob. Either line worth getting in the 200-500 AA range?
*Anything I'm missing - These above AA's are the ones I'm eyeing ATM. Anything I'm overlooking that will help me either Tank or be a happier Palidin in the 70-75 range?

I solo/group so I almost exclusively Tank. Rarely do I get to be "DPS" as a Pally so thats why I put the Defensive and SU AA's as auto purchase when I stop again to grind the AA's. Im basically thinking from the minimalist stand point on AA's. My goal is to have the Pally to 80/85 before the next expansion with as few AA"s as possible to make a good tank (i.e. Ill be keeping my defensive maxed from 76+) but I also know being a good Knight means more than taking a hit but being able to do other things. Thats why I'm asking about these AA lines and any I may have over looked.

Note: Horse AA and Origin I wont be getting until the 1000+ AA mark. Gate potions, PoP necklace, and I have the TSS gate staff make Origin more about convenience (i.e. no bag space). Unless they give us Pegesus mount I can get to my destination just fine with SoE, SoW and Run 3.

[Ughbash]

One other thing to consider.

If you can get the Fabled Spear of Fire then you should consider Weapon Affinity. The pets are nice DPS and yoru weapon affintiy will add signifigantly to yoru dps.

While weapon affinty is good for all procing weapons this is the first weapon where I would say it makes a big enough differnce on to justify getting it early.

[Normy]

Well, this all gets a bit subjective. On one side, a case can be made that the less time a mob lives, the less damage you will take, so crits and other DPS increasers can/will help. That is especially noteable on undead mobs.

As soon as you can, get 1 rank of knights return strike. Don't remember what level is required, but its a great tanking tool. You mentioned your tanking AA's, I kinda assume you also mean shield block. If you don't have those, get them, they help alot on hard hitting mobs.

You might also consider at least a rank or two of Armor of the Inquisitor. I usually stagger the use of my epic and this for hard hitting mobs for the extra heal boost. But stacking them together makes nearly everything a complete heal.

I would ignore buff extension for the moment, its purely convenience unless you really really need DA extended. The stun AA is nice to build up for the agro stun, but if you don't struggle on agro then I wouldn't rush for it. Healing AA's at least through PoP are worth quite a bit. I tend to help heal myself a bit while grouping, and being able to get a good heal off can be important, but it strongly depends on your play style. If you frequently find yourself being more of a warrior type tank than anything else, then maybe they aren't for you. But the first couple ranks are more valuable than the later ones generally.

Spell crits go into the same line of logic as DPS=less time being hit. They work on your weapon procs, your undead nukes become more effective (although I can't remember if you have a good undead nuke at that point). But other than that, they won't do much for you. Personally I'd hold off until you are in the 70-75 range for those.

Bash AA's I still don't have, I don't find much value in them. If you deal with alot of gating caster mobs that are beyond your ability to spell stun, then MAYBE, but thats a rare case. I'd hold off on those.

[Tuathadendannan]

One thing you may want to keep in mind before you max out your healing , is if you plan on using a merc while soloing, if so just get the basic ones that give the best return, let your merc worry about your healing for now, go for the best return defensives then slays if doing undead.

[varutia]

For soloing, just go full on offensive and slay undead line first. I personally did defensive, follow by offensive and mixed in by healing and utilities.

Stun AA not worth it when you on low AA count, it require significant investment and you need to spend 9 aa each five level which is really lame. If you need spell interrupt, just wait till hand of disruption and get that only, you however still need spend a boat load just to get that due to pre-requisit.

I love the buff extension AA myself and did it early. The more clickies and buffs you have to cast the more you will love buff extension AA.

There are also some utility AA I loved like horse, port AA etc.

Crit AAs are good as well, I got them relatively early.