Druid AA Guide<o></o><o></o>



(Comments and edits most welcome. I've included the first section to see if this is useful; I'll add sections 2-4 if there is interest.)


Alternate abilities are a tremendous asset to the power of Everquest characters, and druids are no exception. However, it can be difficult to develop a road map with a blizzard of possibilities (1840 non-expendable as of The Buried Sea expansion.) This post is designed to meet two needs: factual information about the impact, and cost, of various AAs and some evaluation of the relative merits of different choices. There are four broad categories of AAs. Some improve spells that you cast normally (hereafter, spell AAs.) Others provide new abilities, some of which duplicate existing spell lines (for example ensnare, invisibility) while others are unique AA-only lines (radiant cure, convergence of spirits, etc.) I’ll call these “Button AAs”, because they can be triggered by hotkeys outside the normal spell bar. Tradeskill AAs are a distinct category that will be important (or not) according to how much you value tradeskills. Finally, there are Stat/Skill AAs. These directly improve base statistics, raise caps, improve skills (such as forage), or raise “hidden” statistics such as mana regeneration, melee avoidance, and mitigation.
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In terms of value, I divide AAs into 4 tiers. The first tier are abilities that change your game, and would be the ones that I’d pick first. Second tier abilities still have a significant positive impact, but are either less powerful or less cost-effective than Tier 1. In the third tier I’d put marginal AAs. To be in this category, the AA either has to be useful only in very specialized circumstances or to provide a minor boost even if completed. Fourth tier abilities, which are relatively rare, are those which will have little or no impact on your character even if completed. Within each AA line the cost-effectiveness tends to diminish as you purchase more abilities. I also attempt to note where the effectiveness of future AAs diminishes, which can help you plan purchases.
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Spell AAs<o></o>



Spell-related AAs can reduce mana cost, casting time, spell duration, monster hate and spell impact. The cumulative effect for a druid is substantial. Groupable druid gear has 30% focus effects for healing and damage (15% average effect), 15% spell haste and 10% mana savings. Higher end raid gear can yield 65% damage/healing foci (33% average effect), 23%(damage) to 30% (healing) spell haste and 20% mana savings. By comparison, AAs can boost healing by 65% (base increase multiplied by critical rate); direct damage (nuke) by ~35% and damage over time by 28% while decreasing nuke cast times by 10% and adding ~20% effective mana savings (SCM and GoRM). These abilities are subject to the laws of diminishing returns, in the sense that higher levels are expensive. However, they unconditionally improve your character. Here is the list of abilities and recommended priorities for obtaining them. Much of the quantitative information in this section is taken from the invaluable tables at Samanna's Reference desk - see http://samanna.net/eq.shaman/demystified.shtml.
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Tier 1 – Essential. Finishing these AA lines will have a strong impact on your characters. Most are required by raid forces for druid applicants.<o>
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Spell Casting Mastery – Reduce Mana Cost and Fizzles. Levels 1-3 have a 10% total mana savings (which is cumulative with specialization and gear) and an unknown fizzle reduction effect for a cost of 2/4/6 AAs. You will need 12 AAs in the archetype category to unlock further AAs, and this is generally regarded as the single most valuable and cost-effective set of AAs to purchase first to satisfy this requirement.<o></o>
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Mneumonic Retention – Add a Spell Gem. 3 AAs, and one of the first things you should buy. Druids have a wide assortment of spells, and more spell gems dramatically increases flexibility.<o></o>
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Gift of Mana – Add a chance of a free subsequent spell. Levels 1-3 have a 2/5/10% total chance of a level 66-70 healing or damage spell triggering the effect for a cost of 3/6/9 AA. Level 4 costs 9 AA and works for level 71-75 spells. Total cost: 27 AA. Once triggered you have a 12 second window to cast an “eligible spell”, which is level 1-70 (initial spell 66-70) or level 1-75 (initial spell 71-75.) This can either be used to simply repeat casts of the same spells or to get free casts of expensive spells (e.g. Adrenaline Surge heals or Nature’s Blazing Wrath for damage.) I’d swallow hard and get the full line in your initial round of AAs (if level 71+), or get the first three if level 66-70. This is an AA which can really impact your game.<o>:p></o>:p>
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Healing Adept – Increase base heals. Levels 1-3 have a 10% total effect and cost 2/4/6 AAs. Levels 4-9 add 3% each and cost 2/4/6/3/6/9 AAs. The total effect is 28% and the total cost is 42 AAs. This is an essential line for druids, comparable in impact to high end raid gear for healing. I’d recommend level 4 (13% effect for 14 AA) for your 1^st set of AAs, add levels 5-7 (22% effect, 13 AA) for the 2^nd set and add levels 8-9 (28% effect, 15 AA) on the 3^rd set.<o>
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Healing Gift – Add a chance for double healing. Levels 1-3 have a 10% effect and cost 2/4/6 AAs. Levels 4-12 add 2% each and cost 2/3/4/3/6/9/6/6/6 AAs. The total effect is 28% and the total cost is 57 AAs. This is a powerful AA that can be crucial when your party is taking rapid damage, although it is not as reliable as base damage. An x% chance of double healing increases your average HP healed by x%. This multiplies bonuses from focus effects and Healing Adept, and is also highly recommended. I’d recommend level 3 (10% effect for 12 AA) for your 1^st set of AAs, add levels 4-7 (18% effect, 12 AA) for the 2^nd set and add levels 8-12 (28% effect, 33 AA) on the 3^rd set.<o></o>
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Spell Casting Subtlety – Reduce monster hate. Levels 1-3 have a 10% total effect and cost 3/6/9 AAs. Levels 4-6 have an unknown effect and cost 4/4/4 AAs; the total cost is 30 AAs. This ability is essential in raids, useful in groups, and not relevant for soloing. It both makes it easier for the tank to hold the attention of monsters and makes you a lesser threat relative to other casters. A raid druid without these AAs will be likely to get summoned well before other casters who have them. Get levels 1-6 (30 AAs) in your first set of AAs if you raid; get levels 1-3 (18 AAs) in the first set and 4-6 (12 AAs) in the second set if you mostly group.<o></o>
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Spell Casting Fury – Add a chance for DD critical hits. Levels 1-3 have a 7% total effect and cost 2/4/6 AAs. Levels 4-12 cost 3/6/9/3/6/9/6/6/6 AAs. I will go with claims on the EQ boards (and limited parsing) for a modest 2%/level critical chance increase for subsequent AAs rather than the higher rates on the Crucible website. The total effect is 25% and the total cost is 66 AAs. By itself SCF increases damage by 25%. This ability is complemented by Destructive Fury and Quickened Damage, and the net effect of all three is a large 45% DPS boost from nukes. I’d recommend level 4 (9% effect for 15 AA) for your 1^st set of AAs. From there on it gets expensive with no affordable breakpoints. I’d therefore add levels 5-12 (25% effect, 51 AA) for the 2^nd set or 3^rd set of AAs depending on the priorities you attach to healing, nukes, and DoT spells.<o>
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Critical Affliction – Add a chance for doubled DoT critical hits. Levels 1-3 have a 10% total effect and cost 3/6/9 AAs. Levels 4-12 increase the critical chance by 2%/level to a maximum of 28% and cost 3/6/9/7/7/7/7/7/7 for a total of 78 AAs. Druid DoTs are weaker than the direct damage alternatives, but tend to be mana efficient and work especially well for soloing. If you solo with DoTs you can treat AAs in this line as being investments in the rate of earned experience, and you should get the line completed early. For other druids I’d recommend getting level 4 (12% effect, 21 AAs) in the first set of AAs and add levels 5-12 (28% effect, 57 AAs) for the 2^nd set or 3^rd set of AAs depending on the priorities you attach to healing, nukes, and DoT spells.<o></o>
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Tier 2 – Useful. Abilities in this category have a definite impact on your gameplay, but are not as powerful as the tier 1 abilities.<o></o>
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Spell Casting Reinforcement – Extend beneficial spells. 5, 15, 30, and 50% beneficial spell extension respectively for 2/4/6/8 costs, for a total of 20 AAs. This set of abilities is less obvious than the flashier damage and healing boosts, but extended buff duration is a benefit. This ability also extends heal-over-time abilities such as the SoTW AA (and, yes, even experience potions. It does not impact the Lesson of the Devoted AA timer.)<o></o>
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Destructive Fury – Higher nuke crits. Level 3 increases direct damage critical hits from 2x normal to 2.25x normal (3/6/9 AA cost, total 18). Level 6 increases DD crits to 2.4x normal (6/6/6 AA cost, total 18) for a total cost of 36 AAs. This AA line should only be worked on after you have maxxed out your DD crit AA line. For a 25% critical rate this AA line increases total damage by 6% at level 3 and 10% at level 6. If you use DD spells frequently, get level 3 in your second set of AAs and level 6 in your third set of AAs.<o></o>
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Quickened Damage – Nuke spell haste. Druid nukes tend to be slow to cast. These AAs give you a 2,5,10% direct damage cast time reduction for a cost of 3/6/9 respectively and a total of 18 AA. This AA does not impact efficiency (damage/mana) but does impact dps and helps when nuking between other spells (such as heals). Recast time is unaffected, so the impact on dps depends on your prior spell haste. It ranges from 7-10% (more yield for more prior spell haste), which is a substantial return for a group or raid druid chain-nuking. <o></o>
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Secondary Forte – Mana savings. Raises your specialization skill by 50 points in a spell discipline (conjuration, alteration, evocation, etc.); this amounts to a 2.5% decrease in mana cost. This ability has a modest but real impact for 9 AAs. <o></o>
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Enhanced Root – Reduce DD root break. 50,62,75% chance of avoiding a root breaking when a direct damage spell hits a mob for a cost of 5 AA/level (total 15 AA). Very useful for soloing and damaging parked mobs without melee. Druid nuke dps is substantially higher than DoT dps. This can be a double-edged sword, as it is sometimes useful to break root with a DD spell (to avoid agro from a pathing mob, for instance.)<o></o>
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Mastery of the Past – Eliminate fizzles. Level 1 removes fizzles up to spell level 54; this extends to level 71 spells by the 9^th MoTP AA. Cost is 3 AA/level for a total of 27 AAs. Fizzles are rare (~2%) for druids with high skill levels, but they are also both expensive and potentially deadly in the healing realm. The main drawback with this AA line is that casters usually employ their higher level spells the most often, so you really will only see an effect at level 1 (for common utility spells like ensnare) and level 9, with minimal impact in between. It will also not work on 72-75 spells.<o></o>
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Tier 3 - Marginally Useful. These abilities provide a minor boost and are less cost-effective than tier 1 and 2 AAs. They are only worth getting after the higher impact AA lines have been completed.<o></o>
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Persistent Casting – Cast through stuns. There is allegedly a 10% chance of casting through stuns at level 3; the cost is 3/6/9 AA for a total of 18. This ability is down-rated largely because it is a relatively small boost, and there is some well-founded skepticism that it actually works. There have been well-documented difficulties with spell channeling and related abilities that led to AA refunds in the past.<o></o>
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Gift of Abundant Healing – Heal over time proc. Cost 5/5/5/5/5. Nice concept, but the low odds (2/4/6/8/9% odds of triggering on a healing spell), short duration (5 ticks), and small amount (50 hp/level) make this ability a marginal addition to healing. 25 AAs for a 9% shot at a 250x5tick HoT is a very small return.<o></o>
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Quick Evacuation – Reduced evac cast time. A 10/25/50% reduction in the casting time for evac spells at a cost of 3/6/9 AA. The maximum spell haste possible is 50%, so levels 2-3 of this ability may not benefit raid-geared druids at all (they can have 40% beneficial spell haste with gear and a cleric buff). The availability of an instant evac AA makes this a niche ability even for group-geared druids; you must have burned your AA, be in need of a quick cast evac spell afterwards, and have low base spell haste.<o></o>

I'd suggest adding Call of the Wild and Exodus to Tier 1, as most groups/raids expect a druid to have these and they are extremely useful.

<o></o> Button AAs<o></o>

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Button AAs are new abilities that can be activated with hotkeys, typically with a cooldown timer required before reuse. Some replicate existing spell lines (e.g. snare and invisibility) while others are unique AA-only functions (group cure and heal over time.) Both are powerful and can be game-changing attributes. I have also included AA lines that lower the recast timer for button AAs in this category. I’d appreciate feedback on quantifiable information (effect, cast time, recast duration), as this can be difficult to reconstruct from memory once you’ve run through some AA lines.
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Tier 1 – Essential. Finishing these AA lines will have a strong impact on your characters.<o></o>
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Call of the Wild – Return to corpse. Expensive (at 9 AAs), but adds a unique ability. This is essential for raids (especially wipe recovery) and useful for groups, especially when in difficult to reach areas. A 10 minute recast timer, and occasional glitches when summoning fails, are the biggest drawbacks.<o></o>
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Innate Camoflage – Instant cast invisibility. The cost is modest at 5 AAs, and the impact on your game is dramatic. The ability to self-invis instantly, at will, and without burning a spell gem is very powerful. I’d make this one of your first AAs<o></o>
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Exodus – Instant cast evac. Very useful ability for a modest cost (6 AAs); instant cast with a long 72 minute recast timer. This ability frees up a spell gem, and is another game-changing AA. It isn’t even necessarily using this ability, but rather the impact of having a safety net when exploring new areas. The long recast timer is a drawback, and the spell can fail (like normal gate/evac) or not get cast (if you’re stunned.)<o></o>
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Ensnare – snare mob. This is a short cast (3 second) long-duration (14 minute) snare spell with a short 5 second recast timer. Affordable at 4 AAs, and again can replace a common entry on the spell bar. This AA does not have the resist modifiers of better druid snare spells, such as Serpent Vines. But it can be cast while your spell gems are grayed out, and you will find yourself using it frequently in a variety of contexts.<o></o>
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Radiant Cure – Group cure. This group spell is instant cast, relatively short range, with a 3 minute timer. It cures curse, poison, and disease based effects. This is a long spell line, with 9 progressively more expensive levels (cost 2/4/6/2/4/6/6/6/6.) Even level 1 will cure common annoyances such as tash. Level 6 will cure even most raid AEs through Deathknell (Prophecy of Ro), while level 9 will cure TSS and TBS raid encounters. I would recommend getting level 1 early. Group druids should be able to effectively use level 4 (14 AA cost). Raid druids will probably be expected to get level 6 or 9 (10-28 more AAs), along with quickened curing below, as a requirement.<o></o>
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Secondary Recall – Set an alternate bind point. A 7 AA normal-cast gate-type spell with a 10 minute refresh timer. The ability to set two independent bind spots can be surprisingly handy.<o></o>
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Spirit of the Wood – Group heal over time and damage shield. An instant cast AA series, with a 15 minute recast timer and 4/3/2/2/4/6/5/5/5 costs. Levels 1,2,3 are 200, 225, 250 HoT for 5 ticks (extendable to 8-9 with gear and AAs.) Level 6 increases the HoT to 333/tick and unlocks the powerful single target CoS line. Level 9 increases the HoT to 450/tick. This can be MGB’d for raids and is useful at the group level for AEs. This ability has not scaled with the damage inflicted by mobs since the plane of power era, but is still handy (and a prerequisite for an extremely useful line). I would recommend level 1 initially, level 6 if you want the single target heal, and level 9 in the second or third pass depending on whether the MGB raid function is useful to you.<o></o>
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Convergence of Spirits – Single target heal over time. This instant cast AA line with a 15 minute timer begins unimpressively (1000 instant heal, plus 500/tick for 4 ticks) but improves dramatically (1500 +750/tick, 2000 +1000/tick at levels 2-3; 3000 + 1500/tick at level 6). This AA can rescue characters who are about to die, including you, and is extremely powerful. The full line is expensive (3/6/9/6/6/6 cost, for a total of 36 AAs), but it is well worth buying the entire line for the unique ability that it gives you. Don’t be too stingy to use it. Requires level 6 of the SoTW line to purchase.<o></o>
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Tier 2 – Useful. Abilities in this category have a definite impact on your gameplay, but are not as powerful as the tier 1 abilities.<o></o>
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Mass Group Buff – Adds area effect to group spells. 9 AA cost, 72 minute refresh timer. If you raid, you’ll want this (and it will be expected of you.) If you don’t, it’s worth very little. I therefore put it in an intermediate category.<o></o>
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Quickened Curing – Reduces recast timer on Radiant Cure. There is a 3/6/9 AA cost (total 18 AAs) for 10/20/30% reduction in recast for the AA group cure (from 3 to 2.1 minutes.) Raid scripts are designed assuming that priests have this ability, and raid forces will expect druids to have it. Again, unlikely to be useful outside raid content, and I therefore place it in an intermediate category. Note that this increases a button AA rather than being a distinct one.<o>
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Nature's Guardian – Summon a pet. There are 6 tiers, with 3/6/9/6/6/6 AA costs for a total of 36 AAs. Levels 1-3 increase damage inflicted and non-extendable duration (30, 45, 60 seconds) while levels 4-6 increase damage (to double attacks of 625 for 10 ticks.) This is instant cast with a 22 minute cooldown timer. This is another ability (like convergence of spirits) where I would recommend committing to the entire line if you do it. This ability can dish out up to 12,500 damage, although the pet will quickly die to AE spells and wild rampages from raid bosses. In group contexts, or for raid encounters where the above mechanics don’t apply, this is a very useful damage-dealing ability. I placed it in the midtier mostly because of the fragility of the pet and the difficulty for retargeting (basically, it will only fight more than one mob if you’re actively taking damage from the additional ones.)<o></o>
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Shared Camoflage – Instant cast group invisibility. This has a utility similar to that of innate camouflage, except for an entire group. I placed this in the middle tier mostly for the high cost (12 AAs) and the fact that the instant-cast ability is only situationally useful relative to casting fixed-duration spells on people. Nonetheless, you will use it all of the time once obtained.<o></o>
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Tier 3 - Marginally Useful. These abilities provide a minor boost and are less cost-effective than tier 1 and 2 AAs. They are only worth getting after the higher impact AA lines have been completed.<o></o><o></o>
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Silent Casting – Decrease hate from spells. A random 1-20% decrease in monster hate from spells per tier. 5 tiers at 5 AAs/tier for a total cost of 25 AAs. This instant-cast AA has a 1 minute duration and a 36 minute cooldown timer. Although potentially useful, I downgraded this AA for a combination of high cost, short duration, long cooldown, and a random factor that renders it sometimes useless while triggered.<o></o>
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Hastened Exodus – reduce the reuse timer for exodus. Inexpensive (2/2/2 AAs) reduction in the exodus timer by 10/20/30%. I downgraded this mostly because Exodus is, by design, a backup ability rather than something which you routinely cast.<o></o>
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Nature's Boon – Stationary heal-over-time ward. 11 levels at 5 AAs/level. Starts at 40/tick and gradually increases to 110/tick. I’d appreciate duration and recast timer information, as I haven’t bothered to get it yet J Can be killed by AE spells, and feeble relative to cost and the damage that modern mobs inflict on players.<o></o>
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Origin – Self-port to your home city. This ability is handy for many classes because it provides access to the Plane of Knowledge, and is less useful to druids precisely because we can easily get there with spells. With the long recast time and high cost (7 AAs) are included, this is of marginal use for druids.<o></o>
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Spirit of the White Wolf – Limited duration beneficial mana preservation. This is a 9 AA instant cast ability with a 1 minute duration and a 10 minute recast timer. Some cold protection, but the main draw is an additional 15% beneficial mana preservation. This is a somewhat handy burst healing benefit undercut by the short duration.<o></o>
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Wrath of the Wild - Single use damage shield. 350, 550, 750 damage on the first hit you receive, with a 3 minute recast timer. Moderately expensive (3/3/3 AAs, 9 total) for relatively little damage. Some players like it quite a bit, so my downrating of this ability may simply reflect playstyle.<o></o><o></o>
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Tier 4 - Not Useful. These abilities have either no utility or can be employed only in rare circumstances.<o></o>
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Dire Charm – Permanently charm a pet of level 46 or lower. With a high cost (9 AAs) and a low level limit, this ability is an artifact of the PoP era. It has a long cast time and reuse timer, but the main problem is that it requires the developers to have thoughtfully provided low level eligible mobs in zones that you actually care to be in. In practice this is a farming tool that is arguably less effective than a normal charm in the rare places where it can be used.

Changes I would make:
* Consider swapping Critical Affliction (tier 1) with Quick Damage (tier 2).
* Drop Origin to tier 4. If you find Origin useful, consider simply setting your secondary bind point in your home city.
* Bump Spirit of the White Wolf to tier 2. The mana preservation is very significant, especially if you have Spell Casting Mastery and a mana preservation focus effect already. (I'm assuming that the druid is not yet at the point of using mana preservation glyphs.) Any druid that ever needs to chain cast heals should get this.

Very nice guide. I agree with pretty much everything else.

Very nice write up, the only thing I would like to add is that Destructive Fury affects both nukes and dot crit damage, so that makes it even more beneficial. I really appreciate this list since I play a raiding druid with a fairly low aa count, so I was able to get some nice insight from this and some of the other nice lists here on the boards.

Thank you very much ohioastro...you answered many of the questions I was going to ask about once I start AAing again. Great work.

Great list.

Couple notes I saw, GoM procs off 65-70 heals/damage spells.

One thing not really considered in your list is level restrictions. Some aa tiers do not unlock. Also, while I think levels >> aa, there are some AA I would stop and get as I level now, Mneumonic Retention at 55, that I did not have to deal with myself.

Also, the restriction of needing 12aa in Archetype and 6aa in General to purchase higher aa was removed.

Thanks Aldier. You raise a good point - I'm writing this from a level 75 perspective. In general PoP era AAs will be progressively unlocked from 61-65; GoD and OoW unlocked from 66-70; TSS unlocked from 71-75. DoDH unlock between 66-70, but some of the more interesting ones (like the pet) require level 70. I'll go back and gather the level information - I may need some help in reconstructing it however.

I'd put White Wolf at tier 1 or 2.

Shared camo is perhaps our most used and valuable aa.

It is a must have an probably most used next to my convergance of spirits.

Shared camo is perhaps our most used and valuable aa.

For you. I can't remember being in a zone in the last 6 months where this AA would be useful.

I'd put White Wolf at tier 1 or 2.

IMO this one's a maybe... I mean sure it's good if you've got everything else - it's free and quick mana pres that's nice if you remember to use it, but it really comes down to how valuable is one more heal is to you.

Now if it included det spells I'd be more impressed with it because your mana bar determines how long you go before medding when soloing. As is, at least for me I very rarely go OOM on a raid or in a group when I'm strictly healing.

For you. I can't remember being in a zone in the last 6 months where this AA would be useful.

Every single zone I have been in since I have had this AA I have used....maybe because you raid you don't use it but we use it in raids some of the time and regular groups all the time.

In fact the raid leader was cycling thru rangers the other day and finally had to move a druid over to get this fixed invis. Mine is 30mins vs rangers 20mins.

I would have to agree with Tenielle, Although Shared Camoflauge is one of my preferred AAs, it has it's limits, for I am sure that the zones Tenielle referres to are zones such as Frostcrypt, Throne of the Shade King and Ashengate, Reliquary of the Scale and these are both group zones and all sees Normal invis in these zones, u can use Philter of the Undead potions as a druid for Frostcrypt, but that is another subject.

Would somebody be willing to update this list? Raw SoF AA data is available at http://thedruidsgrove.org/eq/forums/showthread.php?t=16365 , but not all of the cost information is there, and I am nowhere near the AA count to start seeing that.

Thanks for doing this, it's very difficult to find any decent guide that's been written since the mass exodus around the GoD expansion, so most stuff is massively out-of-date. This is the best relatively-modern guide I've seen so far and an immense help to a confused return player who had never got as high as AAs in the first place.

I'd be interested to see a guide to the Stat/Skill AAs and which of those are essential, and any updates that change the priorities with the last couple of expansions.