AA Strategy with Auto Mentor Inc

[Twiz]

I've started my 4-box group (Mentored 42 SK, Def, Mentored 52 Dirge, Swash) and have gotten the Defiler and Swash to level 18, /lock'ing at 10 to maximize AA gains.

With GU53 around the corner and the ability to auto-mentor to a certain quest level, has anyone re-thought their AA strategy? I'm going to try to stick to the /lock for now but the pull to just hit dungeons and grind is pretty strong!

What's everyone thinking of doing?

[Noxxy]

I race to cap then worry about AA later (not recommended on a PVP server) - I honestly still believe this will be valid no matter what changes

Simply:

Grind-fest till about the low 50s - which involves TD to about 12, then WC, BB, SH, FG, etc etc etc all the way to 50ish

After 50, I find DoF just doesn't have enough interesting dungeons to keep the levels coming - so at about 53ish I zip back to places like BM and start the quest lines (yes, I totally miss commons, ant, ts, nek as I have done them literally dozens upon dozens of times) - the beauty of doing BM at low 50s is it will be grey so I can just zip through the place

Once I hit the low 60s, I race straight into SoS and grind there a few levels (quite a few), then off to the other KoS instances

Once I have finished those I am normally around the 68/69 mark - then hit RoK and quest till 80


Simply, what I have outlined above is a very fast way to cap in a play-style I enjoy (grinding till my ears bleed) - but, what can be obviously seen is I will be short of AA

To make up for the lack of AAs, I hit Moors (get some good items there too plus a fair few plats) - this will get me to about 120ish AA

Do all the lvl 80 dungeons (RoK) - hit up TSO

Then I have to make a choice - do I want to go back and grey quest (yes grey) all the old zones or do I want to just be happy hitting the TSO dailys for a fair chunk of AA each handin (plus of course plats and chance at fables)

Personally, the majority of the time I grind the AAs out via sharding, then, once my dailys are locked-out, I go back to some old zone and pillage it - as I have done the zones so many time I know which quests are easy and which ones involves a lot of running around for nothing

So there's my simple strategy - race to cap, finish my 'dailys' (shards), then go back to some old zone and grey speed / cherry pick quest

I honestly believe it is still a valid way to go

[Twiz]

Thanks for the response!

I chose /lock so I wouldn't have to slash through greyed out quests but with the auto-mentor function, I may just grind it out; it plays much more to my style. I may /lock at certain times if I find myself outleveling a particular area too quickly, however.

Thanks again for the post. It's fun learning how others go about their business with the box party. :)

[Lokked]

(recently re-subbed with all new accounts. Yay RAF)
I too am struggling with not /lock'ing in order to clear all named in each zone for maximum AA. When I last played, I 5-boxed, and having 30+ AA on each of my lvl 35s was completely OP.

But, I got so bored from the lack of progression and the tedium involved in flipping back and forth from EQi to EQ2Maps to make sure I got all the named in a zone, I quit.

This time around, I'm going to use my RAF to its full advantage and speed my boxes through instances (still attempting to kill as many named as possible, but screw quests and forget camping named).

Look at it this way: AA doesn't benefit from RAF while leveling. If you are on RAF, you are wasting your time /lock'ing. You could level 2 separate groups to cap not caring about AA faster then you could level 1 to cap /lock'ing while tediously scraping the content for AA xp.

Once RAF is gone, you will level 3x slower and could progress with less /lock'ing while going through all available content.

Just my advice. I've done it once being a nitpicker with content - maximum Quests, Named/Placeholder Camping, completing all Collections. It just makes the game boring. I'm trying it Noxxy's way this time around. All in all, I think a progression from level 1 to 80 is not meant to experience all content in that period anyways. It allows replayability to vary.

[Twiz]

I'm still /locked at 18 in order to get my AAs up to speed but will probably start grinding with GU53. The AA slider should make it so you can earn AAs while grinding, so I can explore, quest, and grind to my heart's content.

In addition to the AA slider, the Chronomagic functionality will allow me to mentor down later on to pick up quests and/or named kills.

Edit:


Just my advice. I've done it once being a nitpicker with content - maximum Quests, Named/Placeholder Camping, completing all Collections. It just makes the game boring. I'm trying it Noxxy's way this time around. All in all, I think a progression from level 1 to 80 is not meant to experience all content in that period anyways. It allows replayability to vary.


I think you are probably right. I was astounded by the amount of content at the lower levels. I never got to the point of keeping track of everything (gah), but I was trying to hit the main questlines in a handful of zones and found myself getting bored at times. All in all, it was good to get the AAs going (21 aa's at level 18) but I'm ready to start plowing through new content.

[mesmerise]

hum auto mentoring is the devil IMO, just look how EQ market is ruined, so you wil see lv 80s people farm zone with zero risk and run over peeps with the right lvl ?, they will just kill all named for full master chests and then stop mentoring to skip trash?.....i dont understand why they will put this kind stuff in EQ2, for me its just stupid.


edit : well GU 53 went live this week ,i didnt know!! guess i have to see how aumentoring works now...

[Lokked]

You need to use an NPC is the major cities to Auto-Mentor down. You can unmentor at any point (when not in combat) but you need to return to the NPC in order to Auto-Mentor again.

So no unmentoring to skip trash. Still, for lower level dungeons, skipping trash is not necessary (Trash leashes, just run the adds out) (I do this right now with my appropriate level team in the low level dungeons, so I don't think its going to matter that much).

[asgradth]

What's everyone thinking of doing?

A lvl 80 team with 80 AA and Kunark Armor/Jewelry will perish/wipe/die in any non-mentored TSO Instance, unless you have an optimal group w/ 2 healers, a dirge and coercer, and even then, expect trouble.

A lvl 80 team w/ 180 AA and Kunark Armor/Jewelry will perish/wipe/die in any non-mentored TSO Instance, yadda yadda yadaa.

The question you must ask yourself is: Do I want to grind Levels, then AA... Or, do I want to grind Levels and AA?

If you're only going to Box, then do whatever makes you happy. Your team is already more efficient than a pug, cause you designed it that. Raiders/Min_Maxers tend to frown on lvl 80 toons with < 100AA, especially in a TSO Instance... But since you're boxing (and now w/ GU52) you can easily mentor down the instance to 50, then pop back to 80 and clear it for your single shard in 2-10 minutes. You don't need those stuckup raiders/min_maxers! :D

Now, if you think camping named and clearing quests are 'boring' or 'grind work', then you won't survive a week running the same 8 grey TSO Instances with no loot drops, no shineys, no chests and no aa (except for quest aa)... It took me 1 week to get the 38 shards for T1 armor, doing this very thing... Then another 30 days of doing this to get the 112 shards for the T2 armor (some days i just couldn't bring myself to do another grey instance).

I recommend locking your level 10, have like 75% of your Combat XP go to AA and just play. The content from 10-50 is plentifull and you should not get bored. The content from 55ish to 67 is severly lacking, so turn that XP Back on and power through the Sky. Once you hit lvl 67, Kunark baby, Kunark.

I ran my 2nd team through the game w/ Combat XP Disabled from lvls 10-65ish (60-65 were a nightmare), and I still ended up @ lvl 80 with only 142AA. It's taken over a month of various questing, double AA weekends, and some mild raiding to get the next 40AA.

Hopefully, with the ability to move Combat XP into AA XP, you can max out your AAs faster.

[Twiz]

The AA slider definitely adds a little flexibility to the process. I love questing and grinding so having the flexibility to /lock, disable xp, fiddle with the slider really appeals to my fickle nature. It changes the feel of the game (questing vs. grinding), so it's actually a great deal in my book.

Right now, I've got my my first team of 4 at 22 (2 mentored toons, however) and have started a 2nd team of 3 to level up different classes to see what I like best. I can see myself leveling a 3rd group to the low-mid 20s (alts are way too much fun). So far, I've got the accounts organized by class type, ie. all tanks one one accounts, all healers/2nd healers on another, etc. It makes it much easier for me to swap classes in and out.

Team 1 looks like it'll be: SK/Defiler/Swash/Dirge/Inq (5th account pending)

While doing this, my 80 necro is grinding shards during my lunch hour for the SK. Go heirlooms! I may level my 48 fury up a bit to do shard runs with the necro (sitting at entrance..not sure if it'll work but I'll give it a shot) and save up shards for the DPS/Utility account (currently swashie and warlock). If all goes to plan, I should have a fair amount of shards to spend for the SK by the time Team 1 gets to 80.

My goal is to have at least 1 team in the 70s by the time the new expansion comes out. It may be optimistic seeing as I get about 2 hours maximum every morning for playing. I'd also love to get at least 1 epic weapon (Fabled) for the team although I realize that it may be hard without a full group of 6. Modest goals for sure! :D

Either way, I'm having loads of fun with all the combinations.

[Noxxy]

Good to see you are enjoying yourself Twiz


Team 1 looks like it'll be: SK/Defiler/Swash/Dirge/Inq (5th account pending)
- personally, I don't use my inquis much as I prefer the temp
- make sure you spec for melee to squeeze some extra dps out of it (spec with the dirge in the group)


... love to get at least 1 epic weapon (Fabled) for the team...
- a fable is easy peasy with a group of 5
- go for the sk first for the extra aggro
- don't even attempt getting the swash class weapon (fable) till your fully t2 sharded, have 6 accounts and want to die many times

n0x

[Twiz]

- a fable is easy peasy with a group of 5
- go for the sk first for the extra aggro
- don't even attempt getting the swash class weapon (fable) till your fully t2 sharded, have 6 accounts and want to die many times



Ha! Good to know! The SK is definitely the focus of this group. He gets preference on shinies, money, loot, etc. I like the look of the SK epic and we all know that it's about appearance, not winning or losing. :cool:



- personally, I don't use my inquis much as I prefer the temp



I chose the Inq because the spell names sounded cooler! Just kidding... really just wanted access to a 2nd healer and Inquisitor seemed to be my natural choice. Ultimately, I want to get the Inq to 20 and run through a dungeon or two with the others. Rinse and repeat with a Berz/Templar and then make a choice. Both seem pretty awesome from what I've read...Inq just has better spell names. :D

Out of curiousity, mind elaborating on why you prefer Templar?

Thanks for the info! I was getting worried about the Epic weap stuff (too much EQ1 back in the day).

[Noxxy]

TBTH if you don't have access to a good guild - or can't afford to buy a spot (could be any price really up to a few hundred pps) - your out of luck re class epics - the x4s will tear you a new one if you try to box them so not even worth the effort

Aim for the class fables - just be aware that they all aren't equal in difficulty (i.e., pally fable is a serious walk in the park whereas the swashy...)

IMHO a temp + shaman combo simply equates to 'cannot die mode' (well...most times) - so this is what I prefer when going heavy/deep

If I'm running through guk et al, I bring the mystic / temp and can basically do everything bar the heavily scripted stuff (but that's more of a boxing short-coming vs a healer short-fall if you know what I mean)

Whereas I will drop the temp for the inquis when completing speed runs (basically, anything RoK, and easy EF/ LS TSO runs)

Just really depends on what you plan on doing and what you enjoy

[Twiz]

Yeah, I have no delusions about my ability to get mythicals. It's all fabled for me. I don't have a raiding guild at my disposal and something about buying drops/spots just doesn't sit well with me. I multi-box due to playing from about 5am to 7am weekdays before the kid wakes up and it's rare for me to see the computer on weekends.

Getting one epic is good enough for me at the moment. I was end-game in EQ1 and have absolutely no desire or the time to dedicate for raiding in EQ2. It would be awesome, but gotta keep the priorities in order. :)

Thanks again for all the help!