AA Points and Tradeskillers

[pennyrose]

I have searched the site for answers to this question and found one very old thread that addressed it. I thought I would re-open a discussion since people do have much more experience now to draw from.

My main is a 55 druid, non-uber, and I spend a good deal of my in-game time tradeskilling. I'm not an uber-tradeskiller, either, but I am persistently working my way up. My druid does smithing (189), tailoring (184) and fishing (181); my cleric does brewing (210); my paladin does pottery (228) and fletching (154); my wizzie does baking (228); my necro does tinkering (184). At any rate, the one this discussion relates to is the druid.

I spent my first 3 AA points on crafting mastery so that she could go over 200 in both skills, though some days I wonder if I will ever get those two skills high enough to require the mastery...chuckle. She now has her 4th point and is working on her 5th. I am debating what the most useful thing to acquire with the last 3 low level points.

To give you a little more info about my specific situation, I'm in a small guild, usually solo or partner with one other person, am not an intense or high-powered combat player, prefer root-rotting to charm- or quad-kiting and prefer outdoor zones to dungeons. With my wis gear and a KEI my wis is at 254 at this point and I can reach the max of 255 easily enuf by adding a stat food or drink.

I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to invest the 3 remaining points and be interested in seeing general comments on the topic as well.

Thanks.

Pennyrose Mysteller

[Lilosh]

Common Consensus seems to be Run3 with the first 3 points.

It's better then SoW or Jboots, since it works indoors.

And it's always on.


Failing that, get Regen 3, perhaps.


-Lilosh

[Ariene]

Run3 - If you ever decide to raid in the future you won't be able to keep up with the raid in an indoor zone without run3. It is almost required nowdays.

If you never intend to raid, you might consider metabolism - makes the stat food last forever.

[Taushar]

Totally agree with the posters, Innate Run Speed 3 is absolutely a must for the first 3 points. It was my first 3 and it has save my hiney a few times specially indoors (i.e. Seb). I collected about 40 AAs before I started on my Tanaan AAs. There are just too many must have AAs before thinking about getting Tanaan AAs. Currently I have 3 of 6 on Tanaan and have GM'ed in Pottery, JC and Brewing. My third one was for baking but it's taking a bit of time. I have put a lot of points on Wisdom increase AAs and currently have 295 Wisdom and it really helps on tradeskills. My next GM would be fletching since I can do that with just store bought items (saving every pps atm).

So, even if you want to focus all AAs on tradeskills only, I would suggest on PoP skills to bring your wisdom above 255. Of course being level 55, this is not available to you (must be at least 61 I believe before it kicks in). So putting them in to innate Wisdom can't hurt Druids specially those times when you don't have Wisdom buffs or stats food/drink available.

Taushar

[Reflan]

This is going to sound very contrary, but I would never put points into wisdom if you're a druid. Or shaman or cleric. Not even as a pally, unless you already have SU3 and plenty of other other melee AA. Wisdom is very easy to get. Almost every raid item or other upgrades you can wear eventually will have some wisdom on it, and if you still feel short of wisdom, you can get pretty cheap items in the bazaar for tradeskilling that have plenty of wisdom on them. The time spent buying wisdom AA would be vastly more profitable just spent on buying other AA's, or on leveling, which will make you much more able to do things in the game that get you great equipment, more money, etc.

Leveling never hurts. It lets you do more and do it in more safety, gives you abilities you never hard, and helps you be considered more for loot that drops if you are in a guild that raids much, usually, as giving great loot to someone who is lower often seems like you're spending guild efforts on someone who may not ever level to be as useful as his guildies. 55, especially, is fairly low in today's game(AE's can hit pretty hard and you're a long way from many of your best spells or abilities), and you can make 60 extremely quickly these days in tier one POP zones, etc. And at 61 you have access to planar power and innate enlightenment, a mere 5 AA that can net you up to 15 extra wis all by themselves. Your being 61 gets your max to 260 without the AA, so with them, you're at 275 wisdom without getting a single extra raid drop or buying a thing. Not bad! The higher you go, the more you can take advantage of that extra possible wis/int. Once you go past 60, many things green out or become poor exp, and once you go past 61 it gets far worse, so you may not want to go too far, depending on your situation.

[Seriena]

With my druid, I did run 3, wisdom and metabolism.

Run 3 is an absolute must have. So, if you're trying to decide what to spend your last 3 points on other than tanaan mastery, buy run 3. You won't regret it.

[PinyonTreedotter]

It depends on your style. There is no one best way to use the AA points.

That being said, Run3 can be a life saver. I don't normally time my SoW/SoE -- just wait until it runs out. If I'm mid-kite, no big deal. I'll wait until convenient to re-SoW. I've also been the puller for groups in, e.g., LGuk and Velks since I can outrun anything there, even if I don't snare. Many times, I don't even bother to cast SoW (particularly in The Bazaar with the lag problems).

I did Wisdom3, then Run3. I'm currently saving them until I decide what to do. Was Wisdom wasted? I don't think so. I was able to get to 255 sooner than if I had not used it, which I considered a real plus for my tailoring. Now that I can get wisdom > 255, I am using the flexibility to add mana/hp items. It also allows me to wear my lvl 16 quested anklets (to my knowledge, the highest level item that allows my beautiful toes to show -- I used to use a GEBS for tailoring, but that's bagged now).

While it is nice to look forward to lvl 61, I'm not holding my breath. I'm having too much fun at lvl 54. I like my title of Wanderer, so have had normal experience turned off for a long time. It's good to keep an eye out for what might happen down the road, but you have to play in the present.

[Tudani]

Even if you never hunt indoors I'd go with run 3. First, its usefulll for running through indoor zones (such as SH and stuff). Second, you never know when your sow is going to run out or get dispelled by a mob who aggro'd you and run3 will save your life then. As a shaman I get instaclick self only sow, but I still find run3 the most usefull AA I ever spent points on....about even with Canni 5.

[Taraddar]

I do agree that there is no best option since value of different aa's depend not only on the class but how that player plays and what they are looking for.

Total domination is worthless for an enchanter that doesn't charm.
Healing adept and healing gift aren't worth much to a druid who just solos but are very useful for a druid that frequently ends up as a healer in a group.
Those are just a few examples.

Having said that I would definitely recommend run 3. As a shaman with instant click sow item I didn't see any real reason to get it but I went ahead and did it. It's been great. Never having to worry about not being able to out run most mobs. Having near sow speed even when indoors where you can't sow.

Personally I've never seen any reason to spend aa's on any innate stat especially wis/int. Wis and int are soo easy to raise now a days that even with the aa's raising the cap to 355 it isn't all that hard to get up to the cap. Especially when consider that c3/c5 is very common buff these days and most casters practically live with it up. Personally I'd do innate resists before I did any innnate stats.

[Reflan]

As they say, with Run3 you don't have to run faster than the mob -- you just have to run faster than your slowest group member.

Definitely a must-have. Even if you just hate running through shadowhaven!

By the way, even run 1 will let you outrun a very good percentage of the game's mobs. But...you still want to run at least as fast as everyone else, or you'll be breaking up the momentum when running places with friends, raiding, etc. -- and maybe getting killed, who knows. I'm a shaman with insta-click SOW boots too, and run3 was precious to me even so. I like speed so much I even got jboots for my druid before there were AA points to spend on runspeed. Believe it or not, they saved his life many times.

[Sanna]

55, especially, is fairly low in today's game

I could have sworn I saw a Baron frog hop past in the bazaar the other day. Lag (AAAAAAAAAH) kept me from double checking, and as i had my finger on my gate button anyway, it didn't occur to me till later to ask zone to see if I had been right.

And this is on SULLON. If you die an xp death (mobs or an even-/green-con pk you), it comes out of your XP bar, not AA at all. And on Sullon, there are sooo many of those. Yet a frog has 6 AA in, what, a month and a half?

granted, if i had had only one charactor, and had never gotten bored and started tradeskilling at ALL, I would only be an estimated 40, maybe 42. and that's since Dec 12. Even so, the Tranquility book would STILL turn me down, I would STILL not be 51, and still no Run3 or Baroness.

Run3 is SO going to be my char's first AA points. After that, my monk will start in on the Aid and Hit-Harder/Heal-Better points, while the druid will turn herself into a disguised wizzy while tanaaning whatever I feel like next.

I (recently 27) never thought I'd be 24. My roommate (recently 57) never thought she'd be 30. We all have our versions of 'high' and 'low' levels. But even so... 51 is NOT low.


So... there.
^_^
Just ask a nooob in gfay. "Twelve? OMGosh, I'll never be twelve." "What? I have to go GET my body??? I don't know where I died!!!!!"

[Frabbens]

At present I'm nearly halfway through 51, and I have one-quarter of my first AA point. Here's what I have planned for the first bundle, presuming I ever get them:

NTCM, Run 1, Regen 3, then Run 2/3

I haven't seen that this is very popular as a path, but my rationale for wanting to do Regen 3 first is this: Run 1 apparently makes a big difference already against standard-speed mobs; I have jboots for outdoor hunting; I can't remember the last time fleeing from a mob in a dungeon would have made a difference. Whereas, since I do a lot of soloing and small-group work and consequently take a fair beating, an extra 3hp/tick will keep me out of trouble a bit more and save me a chunk of self-healing over time, which makes it nearly as good as flowing thought in practice.

Anyone else followed this line of thinking?

[PinyonTreedotter]

55, especially, is fairly low in today's game(AE's can hit pretty hard and you're a long way from many of your best spells or abilities), and you can make 60 extremely quickly these days in tier one POP zones

<sigh>

I could have made 60 by now. If I had wanted 60. I'll eventually make level 60, but I'm enjoying the game right now with what I have. There is a standard answer to your question for the hard-core gamers (which this author probably is) -- Run3, then Stamina3 (for HPs) for nonmelee or Regen3 for melee -- it doesn't really matter since you are just buying your way into the priest/cleric AAs. For the rest of us (the majority on the servers, probably overwhelming majority), choose something that complements what you do. I chose wisdom, since I wanted to get to GM tailoring with as little pain as possible. I don't regret that choice. Now, I might be hard pressed to decide between wisdom and the New Tanaan Crafting, but the three points into wisdom was the right thing for me to do.

Run3, though, does have many benefits, even if you are not in a Tier-conscious guild. But, play your own game.

[Calabar]

I worked my ranger and my druid up to 51 side by side. I thought a lot about how I would spend my first points. Then my guild broke up and I just couldn’t bring myself to play those characters. So I started playing my kitty shaman. Now I’m half way through level 50 and looking forward to AA points again. Some day I do hope to take more than one trade skill beyond 250. But for now I’m going to start with run III and then most likely buy up my hit point regeneration. As a shaman my hit points are also my manna, so the faster my health regenerates the better.

[EnfinitiStarr8]

I have a 52 Ranger who is almost to his first AA. Many of my guild already has 20+ AAs and I find when SoW runs out in dungens I fall behind so my first 3 are going to RUN, then my next 3 to Regen. The fun for me is going to be when I'm 55+ and Archtype open up to me... Should I go with more DPS, or get my defence up so I can take/miss hits more? Just spend one point in each, what...?