My Personal Must Have AAs (first ~1000)

[Leigh]

I put together this table for myself, and thought other casual pallys might get some use of it. After intense analyses of AAs, and wanting to get the best bang for my buck, I've sorted out the must have AAs along with their most efficient level vs. return. Higher levels are more expensive and you get less out of them effective-wise. So one must choose carefully! Further levels are of course good to get, but the effects are categorically diminishing returns. Keep in mind this is for the casual solo'er and not the raider. Your first 1000 AAs will probably come from level 51 to 75. If you don't have well placed AA's post 70 you'll have a hard time. This is my personal intention until level 80.

Importance = how often it is used. Ie. high: constantly used, medium: handly to have, low: rarely used, but still get it.

Left the obvious ones out like Hitpoints and Mana and Slay Undead, those s/b maxed to your level always. Lay Hands as awesome as it is --- well honestly I keep saving it for emergencies that never arrive. I'm sure you do too. Hopefully this saves someone some time.

AA - level – importance - benefit

CS - 18- high [evasion 39 for 77aa]
CA - 18- high [mitigation AC mod 45 for 77aa]
Runspeed - 5 –high [50% speed increase, for 13aa]
Armor of Inquis- 4 –med [66 seconds of +90AC and +30% on heals received, for 25aa]
Blessing of Life – 3 - high [innate proc to heal self for 240hp on any swing, for 21aa]
Double Riposte- 6- high [chance to double riposte 50-80% range, for 27aa]
Heal Boon - 6- high [crit HoT heals chance 20% for 36aa]
Knight's Adv -6- high [double atk % chance boost, for 33aa]
Speed of Knight - 4- low [chance for an extra 2h hit with 2hers, not very effective, but only 12 aa]
Knight's Return Strk -2- high [bash on riposte for 13aa]
Planar Durability -3- high [3.75% increase to hp for 9aa]
Steadfast Will -2- high [chance to not get stun for 9aa]
Shieldblock -3- high [ 5% chance to fully block attack for 18aa]
Combat Fury -6- high [increase chance to crit by 3.5% for 21aa]
Vet's Wrath -6- high (crit dmg increase by 190% for 36aa, some say it affects Slays)
Weapon Affinity -6- high [increase procs via innate combat effects by 10 per level, for 30aa]
Eyes Wide Open -2- med [easier targeting on healers during swarms, 2 extTarget slots for 10aa, 10pts per level after that]
Quickdraw -2 - med [2 extra potion slots for 10aa]
Immobile Bash -3- med [chance to stun mob for 15aa]
Heal Adept -7- med [22% base healing boost for 27aa]
Heal Gift - 7- med [18% chance crit heal for 24aa]
Spell Cast Fury -3- med [chance to crit nuke by 7% for 12aa]
Destructive Fury -2- med [spell crits get 15% base spell increase, for 9aa]
Gift of Mana -level- low [10aa]
Metabolism -3- low [decrease food consumption by 50% for 3aa]
Divine Stun -1- high [interrupt stun up to level 68, I use constantly for aggro, must get rush to judge; insta cast, for 6aa]
Rush to Judgement -3- high [reduce reuse on Div Stun to 9 sec, for 9aa]
Hand of Piety -4- low [group heal 2250hp for 12 aa]
Inquis.Judgement -1 –low [activated +600dmg to weapon bonus, 20 uses, 5 min duration, 12min cd, for 7aa]
Radiant Cure -2- low [ cure 12 curse/poison/disease and 4? detrimental counters, for 9aa]
Lay Hands - 11 – low [7aa, LoH gains a HoT component at level 11]
Holy Steed - 1 – low [fast horse, 9aa]

Add:
Physical Enhancement -1-high [increase evasion and mitigation mods by 2 each, for 5aa]
Spell Cast Mastery (Lvl80) -3 – high [reduce mana use by 10% for 18aa]
Spell Cast Reinforcement -4 – high [buff duration increase by 50%, affects short terms, for 20aa]
Mnemonic Retention – 2 – high [2extra spell slots for 9aa]
Divine Aura - 1 - low [rarely used, but must have, for 6aa]
Mystical Attuning – 5 – high [increased buff limit, 5 for 25aa]
Planar power -15- high [ stat limit increase by 75 for 60aa]
Quick Buff – 2 – high [faster buffs by 15% for 9aa]

Post level 80, endeavor to get:
Shackles of Tunare, Balefire Burst, Leap of Faith, BoFaithful, Valorous Rage, Shield specialist, 1st spire, Healing light.

/cheers

edit: for clarity and to add AA info.
After a bit more experience, have revised the frequency on use for some of these.

[shiftie]

what level are you writing this for?

I have a very strong feeling this is quite bit off.

[Leigh]

then suggest your corrects!

[shiftie]

[Luthair]

If you're not max level I wouldn't bother with Weapon Affinity, immobile bash (still haven't bought this at nearly 6000aa), or spell crits. I would also suggest skipping Quickdraw, Eyes Wide Open (raiding AA predominantely) and knights return strike past rk-1 is pointless unless you swarm.

[varutia]

Healing boon is terrible return verse investment at lower level. Radiant cure also become less relevant as you level up from personal experience.

[shiftie]

You are missing:

Physical enhancement
Spell casting mastery - This reduces mana cost on spells.
Spell casting Reinforcement - this increases the duration of beneficial spells, clicks and some discs. Must have as it increases the duration of things like Armor of the Inquisitor, deflection, holyforge/pureforge, anguish bp which are all important to combat functionality but then enhances quality of life by not having to refresh clickies and spells so often.
Mnemonic Retention - increases spell gem cap (you can load up more beneficial or detrimental spells) quite important as you level up and get new spell lines.
Healing Light - A passive healing proc more potent than blessing of life because you can increase the proc rate by increasing your stun rate whereas Bolife is fixed PPM. You can increase the stun rate by using the AA stun, cast stuns and then doing things like clicking epic or using Symbol of the planemasters as your weapon imbue instead of the fury line.
Cloak of light - if you are soloing as a paladin this AA pays dividends when you are mainly hunting undead.
Divine Aura - this opens up a lot of utility game play, and doesn't require you to keep the spell memmed, or allows you to have both the spell and aa on the ready.


Skip Healing boon and go with more adept - this increases the base of procs and such
Skip - eyes wide open
Skip - weapon affinity
Skip - Speed of the knight - favor a 1her and shield, you bought shield block now make use of it.
Skip - quick draw - you can now click things from your inventory, every bag slot you have is a potion belt slot.
Skip - Immobilizing bash - bash stuns are mostly irrelevant.
Skip - Vet Wrath - your crit rate is going to be fairly low at lower levels, as this only mods your crits you will get more return out of passive swings via Burst of power and Flurry.
Skip - Metabolism ... really? Unless you bought this a long time ago before the change and just included it b/c you made the choice eons ago. You no longer have to spend points in general, archetype to unlock class. You can go straight for the class AA.

@ 81 you can purchase shackles of Tunare - this allows you to drop the spell and use the AA opening up a spell gem.


As I said with level - if you are 85-86

Balefire burst - fade
Leap of faith - warp ability (forget which level this is)
Blessing of the faithful - kill shot dmg proc (must have for the soloing paladin)
Valorous rage - nice dps increase
Shield specialist - this allows you to skip the 2her AA and focus only on using a shield till you have extra AA to spend on 2her. The single weapon set saves you money and allows you to allocate AA resources other places.
First spire - an additional healing mod that stacks with epic or AoTI or can be used separately to spread out the healing boost.

[Leigh]

Wonderful, I enjoy a good lively discussion.

I am level 73, now with 500AAs. The above post is my intention until level 80, after which the game drastically changes. A lot of focus is required in defensive abilities, and you won't have as much time to put into offense anymore. The way I figure, the 1000 AAs for any new player will come from level 51 to 75. In fact anyone level 70+ w/o AAs will get creamed. Here are my thoughts, and keep in mind players at my level reap AAs like they're going out of style. Most casual swarming sessions (45 mins, LotD included) yield 25 AAs. If you look carefully, my post is not trying to say "max this ability before you go on." It digs deaper and says, "you will get a good benefit if you get a few levels of this ability, at a relatively cheap price in AAs." 1 swarm round of approx 11 mobs (all I can handle right now) usually gives me 5 AAs with LotD. (I know, awesome to be a slacker and get the AAxp bonus).

For me, an extra Eyes Wide Open slot opens up easier targeting during swarming for those pesky healer mobs. An extra potion slot save me the annoying search through my bags for a DS potion mid swarm. I currently use haste, clarity, HoT, DS. If I need it mid swarm I want it in my pot-slot.

RE: "If you're not max level I wouldn't bother with Weapon Affinity, immobile bash (still haven't bought this at nearly 6000aa), or spell crits. I would also suggest skipping Quickdraw, Eyes Wide Open (raiding AA predominantely) and knights return strike past rk-1 is pointless unless you swarm."

I can’t agree with WA not being worth the investment. Weapons knights wield usually proc heals or stuns for aggro. Immobile bash isn’t that expensive, you should’ve bought it by now cheapskate! You’re probably right on spell crits - probably not needed as they don’t up our dps much, but they are cheap! Knight’s return strike 2 is also cheap.

re: “Healing boon is terrible return verse investment at lower level. Radiant cure also become less relevant as you level up from personal experience.”

How can you say this?! Healing boon at level 6 crits are a live saver in my experience, and quite cheap! But I guess I can’t contest your words as that what experience has shown you. I don’t know, I get a lot out of it. RC2 is handy to have. I rated it as “not used often” but when you need it you’ll be glad you had it. If nothing more than to save you having to mem a cure spell post battle. And it’s cheap.

Yes I was missing the below in my list for various reasons:

Physical enhancement – Agreed, already bought it, thank you for mentioning.
Spell casting mastery – Not Avail to my level yet (80 I think?) But I agree that this is one of most important.
Spell casting Reinforcement – Agree. Have maxed it so forgot to post it. Thanks again.
Mnemonic Retention - Agree. Have maxed it for level so forgot to post it. Thanks again.
Healing Light - Not avail at my level. But I will get this when avail now that you describe it. Ty
Cloak of light - Not avail at my level. But I will get this when avail now that you describe it. Ty
Divine Aura – Agree, thought it was a no brainer! (got it)


“Skip Healing boon and go with more adept - this increases the base of procs and such”
I disagree. Healing Gift/Adept at level 7, Boon at level 6 is the investment I’m suggesting. Cheap AA vs. percentage reward. Healing G/A/B starts to get a lot more expensive after these levels, and the player won’t get as much % increase in effect. 80% of my heals are the over time versions. Nice to have the base and crit increase too, but the Boon is what the solo’er needs.

Skip - Speed of the knight - favor a 1her and shield, you bought shield block now make use of it.
I disagree. This should make good discussion as I personally think shield block needs to have it’s effect increased for the amount of AA they are asking to put into it. IIrc level 3 of shield block increases full block chance by 5%. Beyond level 3 it gets very expensive for 0.5-1.0% increase per level. Now, since most young knights might be swarming for fast AA gains, they should be using 2handers for the riposte dmg. That is if their AC and avoidance/mitigation can handle the pummelling of the swarm. I personally only use 1hers on raids or tanking for group situations where my dps isn’t needed. After level 80 though, I expect SB to be crucial, worry about it then.

Skip - quick draw - you can now click things from your inventory, every bag slot you have is a potion belt slot.
Are you saying I can click the potion while it’s inside my bag? If so then QD is obsolete! If I need to put it into my root inventory slot to click it, then I still say QD is is needed. As I said above, An extra potion slot saves me the annoying search through my bags for a DS potion mid swarm. I currently use haste, clarity, HoT, DS. If I need it mid swarm I want it in my pot-slot. On silver membership my slots are fuller than full. Even if I buy more slots they'll fill up quick.

Skip - Immobilizing bash - bash stuns are mostly irrelevant.
Can you please clarify? I have found bash to be a timely stunner to prevent runners and gaters. 1.0 seconds to get a stun off is too long sometimes.

Skip - Vet Wrath - your crit rate is going to be fairly low at lower levels, as this only mods your crits you will get more return out of passive swings via Burst of power and Flurry.
Burst of power not avail yet. Again, first 1000AA will be earned in the level 50s to 70s. I dislike Flurry, it’s too much AA for very little return. Already getting alot out of VetWrath, I think it's valuable at any level.

Skip - Metabolism ... really? Unless you bought this a long time ago before the change and just included it b/c you made the choice eons ago. You no longer have to spend points in general, archetype to unlock class. You can go straight for the class AA.
It’s only 3 AAs cheapskate! It keeps our horse from devouring our iron rations… it also makes the stat food last much longer, for 3 AAs! That’s like 6 kills!

Your suggestions post level 81 (shackles AA, Balefire Burst, Leap of Faith, BoFaithful, Valorous Rage, Shield specialist, 1st spire) will be adhered to diligently. Appreciate the input!

[shiftie]

I just remade a paladin from scratch a month ago and used about the same methodology I listed for AA selections.

I used my in game knowledge of abilities to construct the path of least resistance. Targeting sweet spots for aa. I had a lot of help so I won't bother with those details, but the toon is now lvl 95 with almost 4k aa. At level 90 with inferior gear and about 1800 aa I was tanking in zones I really shouldn't have been able to with the help of a wonderful cleric friend and smart aa choices.

I'm very familiar with swarming and what and how to increase the return on aa investments. I can assure you that boon favored over adept or gift is a terrible choice. At the AA count I listed the toon has 1 rank of boon but max adept/gift. Boon is an afterthought, it is useful, just not vital - whereas adept/gift are.

The return on weapon affinity is low and while it is relatively cheap to buy procs fire at a fixed rate all things considered. They are also just that "procs' they can't be relied upon for anything.


Eyes wide open: entirely not worth it. But then again most of us are seasoned at swarming before this UI mod ever existed.

re: speed of the knight - swarming for paladins is done with a shield, period the end. Shield block is another defensive check that did not exsit before your purchased it. Now that you have it use it. The addition of shield block and the use of a shield allows you to increase the swarm size, increasing the swarm size increases overall dps more than any riposte gain on the use of a 2her. This will make more sense later on. But in terms of AAing with the intent to swarm, keeping 1 weapon set 1her/shield allows you to avoid 2her aa and save those fast aa bonus at getting you more functional. Why split your efforts for marginal gains in both categories, when you could focus the gains in 1.

re: quick draw - Hold down the left click on a potion in a bag, and then drop it in a hotbar slot voila - every hotbar slot is a potionbelt slot.

re: immobilizing bash - most undead don't run and at low levels you can root a mob if you must, it isn't likely to summon. You can bash stun without immobilizing bash fyi.

re: vet wrath - did you go to your guildmaster and train points in triple attack? This was added way late for paladins as such if you don't have trip attack maxed flurry won't fire. Now with that said you will get more out of passive swings than you will of a crit mod at your level. But do w/e you want on that one I'm not going to try and convince you that your crit rate is rather low and as such your vet wrath return is going to be really low.

As an aside but totally related. The only way to increase slay frequency is to increase swing rate. Slay is a fixed % 5 (6ish with holyforge) of all swings hit or miss. Increasing frequency through flurry is going to do more to your overall dps.

3 aa's wasted on metabolism (lol statfood) are 3 aa's that could have been spent on something more useful.

[varutia]

[Luthair]

[Leigh]

I will try the methods you have suggested and see how much fun it is.

Secondly, the hotbar/bag slot for potions isn't working for me. It only works for the potions that are aligned in my potion belt. Ie. if I have haste in pot.belt, but I don't have clarity in belt, I can't trigger the clarity potion directly from the hotbar.

I think I set it up properly. I dropped the bag slot into hotbar, then I linked the "clarity" slot inside the bag to the hotbar. It doesn't work. Do I need to keep an open root inventory slot and move the potion there every time I want to trigger it?

Or maybe it's cuz I was using mouse, it was on my 4th hotbar. Do I need to move it to a numbered key?

edit: Tested VW, it does not affect slay undead. An increase in 1-VW level did not increase max Slay crit, all else was equal.

[Leigh]

[shiftie]

I'm not on bristlebane anymore. So she wasn't in Fu. I was speaking in terms of tanking relevant content IE Beasts Domain, with inferior stats, level and gear because of the smart AA choices along the way. I got the most important/efficient things I could which allowed me to enter relevant content faster at a much inferior position to most tanks in those zones.

Swarming? Let's just say I'm overqualified on swarming. Discussing what is legitimate or not is kinda moot because that isn't even what I was talking about. And no I didn't ever use the blood dot and cleric splash heals to power level... if you've ever tried that approach you are uhmmmm "doing it wrong"

The potion belt thing... hrm , you probably don't have the VoA expansion then I'll wager.

[Leigh]

Right, I don't have VoA expansion.

[Tersur]

Weighing in on the subject of heal over time spells. These are fairly worthless for us at this stage of the game. Any priest class will overwrite our hot with theirs. I do not leave it memed. The only time i find it useful is strictly while swarming or soloing. The hot value on hand of piety will not crit. Im unsure if the hot component on lay on hands will but the aa investment in crit heal over times really dosent seem worth it unless your running out of stufft to buy.

[varutia]

Healing boon crits the heal over time component of the ward line, so even if you do not use heal over time spells, it is not completely useless aa to get. However because you need instant heals a lot more which means investing in healing adept and gift first, healing boon is just lower priority for me, it is not a must have aa in first 1000.

[Leigh]

To each his own, right? For a handful of AA's my crit HoTs are a worthwhile investment for my play style (solo swarmer). I will agree that a raider/grouper will not need that line due to overwrites. I personally trained Adept and Gift up first, got them to a decent level 7, and then trained up my Boon. I recall saying, "I wish I had trained Boon up first." With it I don't need to cast a heal on myself for 42 seconds with HoT and WoT up; leaves me more time to get sword swings in. Invariably 1 cast of Pious heals me for at least 4680hp. WoT usually heals for the full 28 procs, 10000+. I'm only flexing 24000 hp buffed, so perhaps this is why I prefer HoT.

Oh, I will also grudgingly admit the superiority of 1h+shield while swarming. I was able to swarm 50% more mobs because of it. With max double riposte and max Knight's Advangtage (double atk) the sword was screaming Cleanses constantly. I still enjoy the crits on 2h'ers, perhaps once I get my AC and evasion higher I will go back to 2h.

Oh, I will also grudgingly admit the inferiority of Speed of the Knight (1 extra hit with 2h). Knight's Advantage is much more important. SotK is acceptable for the small amount of AAs it demands, but I've decided to not pursue training it further after reading parsed info on it.

[shiftie]

[Leigh]

I can post any suggestion I want, it's a free board and my post(s) should be viewed at face value: a suggestion. The same way I only take your suggestions that I deem worthy and ignore the rest. But I don't need to argue and try make you think you're wrong, you're not going to believe it no matter what I say. My suggestions will prove themselves either right or wrong through the reader's in game application. Not through argument but through action.

Besides, we're splitting hairs and we play at different levels! A handful of AA's is being spent on something I adamantly believe is a must have AA around level 70. Suggesting anyone will be in a world of hurt for using 36 aa's (one hour work) is ridiculous. Any reader will look at it and either, "yeah you're right, I'll get that" or "you're frikin' bananas, I'm ignoring your suggestion!" Either way, doesn't bother me. I thought I'm allowed to post my thoughts without the AA gestapo coming down on me flexing their will. Unless you're a dev, your words are only opinion and not law.

My so called swarm is 17-20 mobs now, and is just fine for me right now, and this is only with full abilities ready. I come close to 20% hp sometimes and have to use LoH. A small swarm if I don't have enough protection will be 12 mobs. I just came back and don't have the AAs nor practice other knights do. But I'm getting there! I bet everyone started with a swarm of 5 to start with. Didn't you?

[Leigh]

Total AAs in my list come to 781, so there's room for movement prior to the silver 1000 cap. Perhaps I should call it first 781 AAs.

[shiftie]

This site doesn't get a lot of traffic, aside for people looking for guides and other relevant info. There are a lot of new players looking for guides here lately b/c of FTP. You posted a decent amount of bad information contrary to what most of the knight community accepts as fact/law, as has been parsed and tested hundreds of times over.

For instance in one of your other posts you took the liberty to post that attack raises proc rate. If ugbash hadn't corrected you and a new person read that it would be very misleading and otherwise would screw them all up.

You are correct you can post anything you want. But if you say "oh hey attack raises proc rate" all because you are looking for a sentence completion via the order of 3 means you open yourself up to be told that you are wrong. You can't go back and respend AA you already wasted within the bonus. Playing scientist and testing the relevance of a suggestion is rather annoying.

What time and aa are wasted within the low aa bonus and deemed a half hours work becomes like 4 hours later on, when you get to content that actually matters for those seeking to progress.

You've already recanted on several of your suggestions or otherwise admitted you forgot about things and left them off your list.

Calling something "must have" is a whole lot different than saying first 1000 aa suggestions. The former promotes the idea that you have some sort of authority on a particular topic and people shouldn't deviate from it. "Must have" is very definitive.

[Brohg]

1-900-MixALot' do it again, I dare you both. No goddamn patience with paladins sniping at each other on samanna.net. None.

[Leigh]

Sorry Brohg, sorry Shiftie. That was unworthy. But funny for a bit.

[Leigh]

Almost completed my objective of AA's. I'm now able to clear all of Crypt of Decay in 3 pulls with these AAs and guildlobby MGB buffs. Still the same level as when I'd get my ass handed over there. My AC is not significantly higher, maybe 300 more. I'm just swinging the sword more and procing Slay more and critting like a demon now with Vet's Wrath + CF6.

[Elric]

Glad to hear things are improving