The Spirit Realm

It's literally been 7 or so years since I tried to level up a new character, beyond just keeping up with the 5-level bumps for new expansion. But recently I have started a new Necromancer and I'm powerleveling him with my higher level characters. So far it's been amazingly easy. I now have my Necro at level 67 after just a few days of work, but I ran into a problem I didn't expect. Since it's been so long since I tried to do this, I'm not that fluent in exactly how it works, so I thought I'd see if someone can explain it to me.

When grouped with my level 85 Paladin, the Necro gets good XP. I go into zones where the Paladin can lay waste, the Necro doesn't do much but stand to the side and snare or nuke once in a while, but my Paladin does all the work and the XP flows in. However, at level 65 I decided to hold up on level progression and switch to AAs for a while and wrack up a few hundred AAs before moving on. I'm not in any big rush and level 65 seemed like a good place to hold up for a while and get AAs. However, no AA XP came. None. Not even a tick. My Paladin is slaying mobs right and left and they are all grey or green to him, but dark blue or white to the level 65 Necromancer, but no AA XP at all. None. Zero. Zilch. I don't mean just bad AA XP. I mean NONE!

So I swapped back to regular XP and once again it flowed in quite nicely and he's now level 67 and will be level 70 soon.

Can someone explain the AA XP calculation and how it differs from regular XP? That way I know where I can stop the regular XP and switch to AAs and make it work.

Thanks.

aa xp is based off the highest level in the group.

My cleric got around 200aa at 62 with my palli, who was at that time, 78. Was very good aa for the cleric but they were also DB mobs to the palli, no idea if that makes a differance, or maybe our level gap was a little lower.

If the mobs were Grey to the Pally necro would get no AA. Best best to PL aa's is to find a place where mobs are lb-db to the pally but die really fast. Pally will take a share of the xp unlike killing greys to level the necro.(think while killing greys to pl the lower toon gets all the xp since higher doesn't get xp off greys)

I moved over to the Direwind Cliffs undead and that seemed to solve the problem and give me what I was looking for. I'm going to go ahead and Ding my Necro to Level 70 (He hit level 69 last night) then I'll switch over to full AA on him. The undead in Direwind Cliffs are still light blue to my level 85 Paladin. With my Necro at level 70 they should still be yellow or red to him. They die quickly if my Slays go off and the AA experience should allow me to collect 100 or more before I get too tired of the place. I may try soloing with him there as well and see if that AA is better.

Then I'll go looking for someplace new. Maybe move to Frostcrypt after that or go into Loping Plains Graveyard.

FYI this also applies to shrouds. shroud a toon to lvl 60, group it with an 85 and kill away. If you're killing things that are dark blue to the shrouded one and grey to the 85 even though the shrouded one gets an exp message every kill, when you unshroud you will still get zero AA. I found this out the hard way after a 3 hour "PL" Session. Wohoo /le sigh.

Don't forget the aa xp curve they added for low AA toons.

I linked my Necro up with my level 85 raid geared Shaman and started root rotting mobs. That seems to be the most beneficial way to gain AAs. I moved to Icefall Glacier and I do not group my Shaman and Necro. I pull with my Necro, my Shaman VPs the mob, Necro dots him down below 50% health, and my Shaman finishes him off. Necro gets the XP. Rinse and Repeat.

The only limitation is my Necro's mana and the refresh of VP (which is a minor concern). If I had the mana I could kite til VP refreshed, but after 4 or 5 mobs, I'm OOM on the Necro so I have to sit and med up. Otherwise, root rot is the way to go for now. I'm currently at about 250 AAs and counting.