With the dbl exp bonus this week, ive been grinding aa's, I plan to try to max all healing, dotting and nuking aa's. I have the first tier of healing aa's and nuke crit aa's.

What I was wondering is, how much the further tiers of healing and nuking aa's will help, how much of a increased chance, and how much more dmg? and for the dotting aa's, how will that work? every once in a while when a dot is going, one tick it will crit? and how often with all aa's maxed?

Thanks for any help/advice.

On the dotting ones, ever so often a tick will double. It's a good AA if you solo a lot but if you group it can have unintended consequences - if you get 2 dots to crit in the same tick you're probably going to be wearing the mob. I'd make sure you have subelty AAs first.

Healing aa's: no use when solo, limited use in group (and raid) in most cases. Try to find equipments with 'mana pres V' and 'boon of pious' to handle healing. If you feel overburdened, purchase some healing AA's; otherwise, pass. (I often find my level 68 healing does too much with all the aa's I bought.)

DD aa's: very useful in group! Especially there are aa's that make you cast faster DD's. druid DD's have long casting times so it definitely helps. After bumping up your cold resist (so that you can resist your own spell) you can try the rain spell -- tempest wind in a group. Cast it when there is only one mob in the area (since it's an AE). This spell has 3 waves so you have 3 chances to crit -- it's a very high chance when you have all your DD aa's purchased. If all 3 waves (with one crit) do full damage it's about 4.5k. While this spell is doing damage, you can cast another one, like a fire DD for 2k+. So in 1 tick you've done 6.5k-7k damage. (It takes 6 sec to finish the 3 waves and the AE range is 20). If you stand near the tank, even if you draw agro the mob will not go out of the AE range and still be hit for full 3 times, and it will be easy for the tank to get agro back. However before you get your vs. cold to 250 I don't suggest you try it :)

DOT aa's: very useful when soloing! Don't need to explain this I think.

The difference comes down to soloing vs group/raiding. I get all of my exp in groups and all of my loot comes from raids. So, my AA's developed from that situation.

My opinion is that all healing AA's, adept and gift, should be maxed. Druids are a priest class, and their heals are important in raids and in groups. DPS AA's are good for show, but keeping your group alive is what will make you valuable.

But, if you only solo, then go for affliction AA's first, so you can get more mileage out of your dots.

Healing aa's: no use when solo, limited use in group (and raid) in most cases. Try to find equipments with 'mana pres V' and 'boon of pious' to handle healing. If you feel overburdened, purchase some healing AA's; otherwise, pass. (I often find my level 68 healing does too much with all the aa's I bought.)
I am completely maxed on healing AAs. I have the Qvic sleeves with Discordant Healing (increase healing by 45%) and Mana Preservation V. Too often on raids and sometimes in groups, I find my heals still do too little. We will be facing Tunat in the next few weeks and just need the last MPG raid for Anguish access.

If you sometimes heal and don't care whether your heals do anything or not, don't bother with healing AAs. If your primary role in groups and on raids is healing, get the healing AAs. When healing on raids or in non trivial group content, I rarely have time to do damage. Damage AAs for me are less important than healing AAs. I'll get them, but not till after I get defensive AAs.

I saw a difference in crit heals occurring with each set of Gift purchased. I did not see much difference in crit heals when I completed Healing Gift 3. I started to see a difference with Advanced Healing Gift 3. I saw a substantial difference with Healing Adept Mastery 3. 8k crit heals make me very happy.

DD aa's: very useful in group! Especially there are aa's that make you cast faster DD's. druid DD's have long casting times so it definitely helps. After bumping up your cold resist (so that you can resist your own spell) you can try the rain spell -- tempest wind in a group. Cast it when there is only one mob in the area (since it's an AE). This spell has 3 waves so you have 3 chances to crit -- it's a very high chance when you have all your DD aa's purchased. If all 3 waves (with one crit) do full damage it's about 4.5k. While this spell is doing damage, you can cast another one, like a fire DD for 2k+. So in 1 tick you've done 6.5k-7k damage. (It takes 6 sec to finish the 3 waves and the AE range is 20). If you stand near the tank, even if you draw agro the mob will not go out of the AE range and still be hit for full 3 times, and it will be easy for the tank to get agro back. However before you get your vs. cold to 250 I don't suggest you try it :)

If you are standing close to the tank / mob then not only can you be hit by Tempest Wind but you reduce the number of waves that hit the mob. When you cast Tempest Wind and you are in range then you get 2 waves (each wave hitting you and the mob).

I think the OP was looking more for some hard numbers regarding percentages, etc, not the relative situational value.

Here's what I've picked up from the board over the years (and in some cases, parsed for myself):

DoTs: CA1-3/ICA1-3 all add 3% each to a DoT tick critting. AM1-3 add 2% each, so if you get all AA's in the line, DoTs have a 24% chance to crit (per tick).

DDs: SCF1-3 add 7% chance to crit total (not sure how it breaks down per tier), and at SCF3, the crit is for a 100% bonus (less for first two tiers). FoM1-3/FoMM1-3 all add 2% each, so now a total of 19% chance to crit (100% bonus). DF1-3 don't increase the crit chance, but the size of the crit. I've read 5, 10 and 15% respectively, so I assume DF3 gives crits with a 115% bonus.

Heals: HA/HG1-3 and AHA/AHG1-3 give 10% per set, so at AHA3 your heals do 20% more, and at AHG3 they have a 20% chance to crit. Not sure after that.

Hope this helps!

Tat

Guess I did not read the question carefully.

This is an Excel chart showing the effect of different healing AA's + focus effects.
Healing adept: you have 28% increase in every heal (2%, 5%, 10%, 13%, 16%, 19%, 22%, 25%, 28%).
Healing gift: you have 22% chance to do double healing when maxed (2%, 5%, 10%, 12%, 14%, 16%, 18%, 20%, 22%).
http://eq.forums.thedruidsgrove.org/showthread.php?t=11793

The following two links have discussion about DD AA's. Crit (double damage) rates go like 2%, 5%, 7%, 9%, 11%, 13%, 14%, 15%, 16%. Looks like the last 3 are not so useful (24 aa's for +3% crit rate).

http://www.therunes.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2231
http://eq1.eqsummoners.com/viewtopic.php?t=11703

Haven't found the dot one yet.

I guess your situation is most likely solo or in a pickup group. So the chance for healing AA's to make a huge difference is not very high -- either the tank in your group, or the mobs you are fighting, or both, may be too weak. However if you do max your healing AAs, don't waste your money on a pickup group; buy spell cast subtle to reduce hate, and find a regular group with a good tank.

If you are standing close to the tank / mob then not only can you be hit by Tempest Wind but you reduce the number of waves that hit the mob. When you cast Tempest Wind and you are in range then you get 2 waves (each wave hitting you and the mob).

Sorry I should have said 'stay close to the mob but out of the AE range'. The AE range is 20. If you target your tank instead of the mob, and stay behind the mob, you'll likely to be out of the AE range (assuming the distance of tank and mob is 10-15 and the distance of you and the mob is >10). When you get agro, the mob just turns around to hit you so your tank can grab agro back easily.

The tempest wind spell has 3.5sec cast time compare to 6sec+ for other DD spells. Also it has a -50 to cold resist adjustment. Finally it does 3 waves of damage (once on cast, once 3 sec later, once 6 sec later) so you don't get as much agro as a straight DD. It's just that, when you have 2 mobs and the tank may just hold one agro for you. So I usually don't use it on multi pulls.

This thread has destructive fury info. It looks like the 3rd rank adds 25% to crit damage, way over the old estimate of 15%.
http://eq1.eqsummoners.com/viewtopic.php?t=25316

Healing aa's: no use when solo,


If you regularly use a pet to solo then you may care to increase the output of your biggest heal. Situational I know.