When Shadows of Luclin came out, I was 51. Of course I went up and explored
a bit, but I soon went back to my old stomping grounds of Chardok, where I
did the majority of my XP-ing.
I did, of course, look at the new Alternate Advancement abilities. While
they seemed nice, getting levels seemed more important to me. One leapt to
my eye, though: Innate Run. Slow running had been the bane of my existance
from the day I created my character. Getting from one place to another took
a long time and was risky, since mobs would pounce on me. So when I
collected a few thousand plat (the most money I'd ever had up until that
point), I went into SolA and bought myself a pair of Traveller's Boots.
This helped a bit, and while I wasn't SoW-fast I could still outrun most
mobs.
However, tboots were no good in Chardok and other underground places. And
running away from mobs was still something I had to do upon occasion. So I
decided to put all of my XP into AAXP and start working to Innate Run 3. I
noticed the difference right away; even when I got Innate Run 1, I was
outrunning my guildmates when we were doing naked corpse runs. And when I
finally got Innate Run 3, I'd often get tells from groupmates, "Wait up, I
don't have SoW." To which I'd reply, "Neither do I." =)
After getting Innate Run 3 I abandoned AAXP and just started levelling.
Eventually I got to 60. After I hit 58 I went on an XP binge, determined to
hit 60 as soon as possible. So when I did a couple of weeks later I was
somewhat burned out and backed off a bit from XP-ing.
I did start researching what AAXP to get. Before I could get any of the
cool AA abilities I needed to spend three more points in the "General"
category. All of the "General" abilities seemed equally useless to me.
Since I was underequipped in resists, I put a point into Innate Magical
Resistance. Then I started a debate on the EQ Cleric forums. After stating
my reasons for choosing Innate MR and hearing the counter-agruments, I
allowed myself to be convinced that Innate Regeneration would be useful -
especially since this was before the Mod Rod nerf and many clerics spent a
lot of time exchanging health for mana. So when I eventually got two more
AA points, I put them into Regeneration.
To be honest, I never noticed much of a difference in my health
regeneration. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably choose Metabolism
so that my stat food would last longer. Of course, that awesome stat food
didn't exist at the time, so no one made much of an argument for Metabolism.
For my next set of abilities, I wasn't sure what I wanted. I was thinking
of getting Healing Gift so that I could eventually get Divine Ressurection -
y'know, the 100% rez. However, before making a decision I consulted the EQ
Clerics forums. They were almost universal in recommending that I get Spell
Casting Mastery.
The description of Spell Casting Mastery is poorly written. It talks about
how choosing that increases the chance of a specialization check. What it
actually does is reduce the mana cost of casting spells. When I got SCM 1,
I noticed a slight difference. SCM 2 made a larger difference, and when I
got SCM 3 it made a *huge* difference. Spells cost *much* less to cast now.
I couldn't believe how many Aego's I could cast and still have useful mana
left over. I'm glad I consulted the forums; this has proven to be an
extremely useful AA ability.
By the way, I dinged SCM3 while I was in a group in the sewers of
Cazic-Thule. SCM3 also marked the time when I dinged my second title. So
excited was I by this new title that, with the group's permission, I camped
and logged right back on so I could see "Venerable Monual Lifegiver " floating over my head.
It wasn't long after getting that title that I left AoH to join Winter's
Light. WL is a raiding guild, and one of the first questions the other
clerics asked me was, "Do you have MGB?" Alas, I did not - I'd only just
met the requirements that would allow me to begin saving up for Mass Group
Buff, and MGB requires *nine* points. So at every raid I had to watch the
other clerics talk about who was going to MGB while I sat on the sidelines
feeling vaguely impotent.
Two things happened after that: Planes of Power and my smithing obsession.
With the level cap raised to 65, suddenly I was back on the regular XP
trail, devoting a portion to AAXP still. I quickly hit 61 but ground to a
halt there as I started devoting all of my non-raid time to smithing. I was
still making XP during raids, and through the sheer number of raids I went
on, I got up to 63 and 4 unspent AA points. At one point in my smithing, I
found that in order to progress I'd either need to find a Grandmaster Brewer
to make some tempers for me, or become a Grandmaster Brewer myself. I chose
the latter, and I had to spend 3 AA points in New Tanaan Crafting Mastery to
allow a second tradeskill to go above 200. Now I was back down to 1 AA
point, eight away from MGB.
After finally becoming a GM smith, I went back to finding XP groups. It was
amazing how rusty I had become after three months away from the XP grind,
but eventually I dinged 65. Then I started doing AAXP - and I finally
understood why all my guildmates seemed to have an incredible number of AA
abilities. If you found the right camp, you could get 2% AAXP for every mob
killed. Think about it - 50 mobs to get a complete AA point. That could
take no time at all.
Suddenly the AAXP points began flowing. I reported my progress to my
guild - "Ding 24", etc. When I said "Ding 27", one of the guild clerics
said, "Grats MGB Mon!" I had to explain that I was still 3 AA points away
because of New Tanaan Crafting Mastery.
Sunday night I decided to get those last three points. I found a group in
the Inner Caves of the Plane of Valor. While these mobs also gave about 2%
XP per kill, the group I was with couldn't kill them very quickly - I had to
dump a lot of mana into the SK, who was the Main Tank. As the hours passed
people dropped out and I started finding guildies to replace them - level 65
types with lots of AAXP and good gear. Our kill rate went way up, and I
dinged one point, then another, then watched avidly as the AAXP bar went
slowly up on my last point until MGB. For months I'd been waiting for this
so I could feel more useful during pre-raid buffing (and raid wipe
re-buffing). *Months* I'd spent waiting for MGB. And now... 40% of the way
through, 60% of the way through, 80%, 85%...
...and then the group broke up. Everyone had to log. Even though I was up
way too late as it was - had to work in the morning, dontcha know - I still
felt frustrated. I asked for a group and even put LFG on in the Nexus -
something I hadn't done in ages. Alas, the only nibble I got was a guildie
asking for help farming spell components in LoY. I went to help, but
discovered that the mobs were green or light blue. He got his drop, and I
even got a drop myself for when I eventually work on getting the new Pure
Blood spell. But I got no appreciable AAXP, and I logged.
Last night I tried to attend our Bertoxx raid, but the late-night effort to
get the last bit of AAXP was too much. I fell asleep waiting for the raid
to start, woke up after it had begun, realized I was waaaaay too tired to be
useful, logged, then collapsed into bed. I woke up at 4am, refreshed. I
went to my computer and logged in. I asked if anyone was doing groups, and
we tried to get a Tactics group going, but we didn't have a slower. So I
went to the Nexus and put LFG up and - wouldn't you know it - got asked to
an IC group in PoV.
I made my way there and we began pulling. 86%, 90%, 92%, 94%, 95%, 97%,
99% - and then, for no reason I can determine, we had two people pulling at
once. The chanter was focusing on slowing the mob on the Main Tank and
didn't notice the add. I healed the tank and watched as both mobs, one
unslowed, started beating on me. I couldn't get DA off and down I went.
Darnit.
I ran back as they dragged my corpse outside. I rezzed myself and we went
back inside. We pulled, killed a mob and, at long, long last, I dinged my
30th AA point. Yowza. While usually I would announce to my guild and my
group about dinging an AA point, this time I did neither - it was 5am, so
hardly anyone was in guildchat, and my group was busy killing the next mob.
So despite this huge huge milestone for me, I didn't cheer about it publicly
at all. I just quietly exulted.
We were chain-pulling, so I waited until things were relatively quiet, then
a couple of mobs later opened up the AA screen. I went into the Archetypes
tab, highlighted Mass Group Buff, then clicked Train. Huzzah - I now had
MGB. I closed the AA screen then tried to find out how to actually activate
the ability. I opened up various windows - it's not a combat ability, it's
not a general ability. Where the heck is the hotkey? Finally, I opened up
the AA screen again. Oh, look - a button that says "Hotkey". I highlighted
MGB and clicked the Hotkey button, and there it was - a hotkey on my cursor.
I put it on the toolbar, then clicked it to see what would happen. Oops -
"The next group buff you cast will be a Mass Group Buff." I didn't mean to
do that. Cancel, cancel! I clicked on the hotkey again, but no - "You will
be next be able to cast Mass Group Buff in 1 hour 11 minutes 45 seconds."
Dangit. I was worried that I'd suddenly be draining my mana in a group,
when I realized that I actually hardly ever cast group buffs. Just to clear
the queue, so to speak, I loaded up Heroic Bond and MGB'd it. Losing 900
mana I could handle.
Eventually I had to log off and get ready for work. So here I am now,
having gotten MGB. I can be useful at raids now. Yay!
I have a question for y'all though. Where should I go next for AA? My
inclination is Divine Arbitration - someone in one of my groups said it was
*the* most useful cleric AA ability, even more useful than MGB. I don't
know if I agree with that, but it does seem very useful - a way to instantly
heal a tank (at the cost of everyone else's hitpoints), and something that r
ecycles every three minutes. I can see lots and lots of uses for that, in
groups and in raids.
I've also been thinking about Planar Power and Innate Elightenment so that
my WIS cap can be set at 355. That would help tradeskilling (my raw skill
in smithing is 223, and I've been toying with the idea of getting my
tailoring up) and my mana pool.
Then, of course, there's Radiant Cure which will be very helpful with those
nasty PoP dots. And, of course, there's Healing Gift for helping with my
heals, etc.
So many different paths. Which would you recommend for someone in a
high-end raiding guild?
--
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Archon of Rodcet Nife
Winter's Light
Drinal server
This page is Copyright by Skaarak; Everquest (TM) is property of Sony Online Entertainment
All stories and art work are Copyright@ by the origial owner/writer.
Most, if not all stories, were taken from newsgroup alt.games.everquest (AGE), I recommend that anyone who gets a chance to read it should!