I am currently lvl65 with just over 150AAs and Im having a hard time deciding on what else I should get before leveling. I considering lvl65 my "level cap" until I get most/all of the "highly usefull" AAs.

I generally 3 box a druid, mage and beastlord when I go xping and I am concentrating most of my AAs around that.

I know the situations determine how usefull AAs are. So, in general my question is (based on your own personal experience or what you've heard), how usefull are the following AAs in solo, group, and raid situations? Is there a noticeable difference by getting them?

Radiant Cure 2 and 3 compared to the 1st rank
Combat Agility Line
Channeling Focus 1-3
Persistant Casting 1-3
Secondary Forte (This would be alteration for me, any idea how much mana or what % it would actually save?)

Again, I know most the usefullness of these AAs are situational, but how effective are they when you are in that situation?

Any tips/info would be much appreciated!


Wildinar

Get 70.

If your PoFire flagged get your aa's there at 69.

Hmm. that really didn't answer any questions. And I am curious about channeling focus as well. I often have a problem while soloing with running, stopping, and casting without getting an interrupt message. Would channeling focus give me a better buffer for this?

I believe that how it works is that the game compares your position when you start casting to your position when you finish casting then determines the distance moved. A channeling check is made at this time with the distance moved being the modifier for how high the check must be to channel the spell. My guess is that the channeling focus AA reduces the distance modifier by so-and-so % and would help.

The reason the questions havent been addressed is that there is no point to being level 65 and having 150 aa. The access to new spells (and easy to get ones for 66-68) plus the inherent bonuses you receive vs mobs ... stop aaing is the only real answer.


Now if you would like to discuss these particular aa in general tho...thats a nother matter ; )

RC2 and 3 are useful, but only if you are fighting content where thay matter. RC1 handles most things perfectly fine, but if you hang out in certain neighborhoods with more counters then you may want to upgrade.

Combat Agility is wonderful because not being hit is a good thing. A really good thing IF you get attacked much. If you kite all the time and dont ever plan on getting close to the mobs its no big deal. One more time for the record -- do agility before you even think about doing stability.

Channeling focus is an amorphous one, because you never really know how much its helping. Also, there are two aspects to channeling. There is the already discussed movement portion, focus does seem to give you a much better chance of casting if you move / get moved during casting. The other part it helps with is casting through being hit. Soloing some mobs you have to go toe to toe and cast at times, channeling focus is what lets us get away with that.

Persistant casting is the only one of these I dont have. When it first came out there were some reports that persistant casting would sometimes cast through ducks so it seemed like little gain for possible huge headaches.

Secondary forte is a solid small mana savings, somewhere there are posts about the exact percentage but it isnt very big. Worth getting someday but for how much it costs it shouldnt ever be a high priority



Sliggoth, druid/ tradeskiller of seventh hammer



PS heh...the reason I planned on making this post was to comment on run, stop and cast interrupt problem. At one time...for some people on some systems...there is one important step to add. Run, stop, do a very short small turn, and cast. Back when velious came out and I learned about the goodness that was CS, I also found that unless I made a very short pivot turn before casting I had to wait too long to cast.

This was back on dial up and under old, old graphics of yore. But for some reason it helped immensely. Run, stop, pivot, cast.

Hmm. that really didn't answer any questions. And I am curious about channeling focus as well. I often have a problem while soloing with running, stopping, and casting without getting an interrupt message. Would channeling focus give me a better buffer for this?

No. But tapping a left or right key after you stop and before you cast will.

Channeling focus AA is more for channeling heals / oakenguard through melee hits.

Thanks all for the info, it will help alot :)


To explain my lvl65 150AA (well, 160 now ;p) situation......I am completely aware of the benefits of leveling, however, I am in a small guild of less than 10 active members and we enjoy LDONs, therefore, I have no plans of leveling beyond 65 until we all hit level 60+. We don't do any serious raiding, so I'm more interested in keeping within the same level range until we are all ready to move on together.

Again, thanks for the help. I just noticed the search feature near the top so I'll try to find those statistics on secondary forte.


Wildinar