Alternate Advancement Slider – Thoughts?
stargrace 
With GU53 came the option for players to be able to convert their combat experience into alternate advancement experience, something we all saw in EverQuest and something I personally missed a LOT in EverQuest II. Before GU53 you would have to have been level 80 before your combat experience converted.
There are a lot of benefits to this new feature, one of which is visiting older content. In fact a lot of the features from GU53 has players returning to older content and I couldn’t be happier.
To the right is Ishbel, my new iksar bruiser. She leveled to 15 along with Feelix her trusted Kerra friend (paladin) and then both of them turned off their combat experience by setting aa to 100%.
Now, there are a few differences when you do this at a level lower then 80 – and you may actually want to stop gaining experience at level 79 so that you can take advantage of these.
First of all – turning your achievement bar to 100% takes certain factors into consideration. It’s not just that you’re gaining aa but that you’re gaining it based on what you would normally be gaining for combat experience. What do I mean by this? If you have vitality, that will add to the experience. If you use a combat experience potion, this will also add to it. If you have a bonus to experience based on the fact that you have other level 80’s on your account, this will also contribute as will any experience you gain while there are server events going on. Once you hit level 80 this is not the case. It doesn’t give you a bonus for anything aside from mentoring someone lower then yourself.
Ishbel may only be level 15, but she’s got 35aa so far and counting. Her and Feelix headed to Wailing Caverns, Commonlands, Antonica, Blackburrow, and The Firemyst Gully (an instance in Antonica) to take down encounters. Now that Lore and Legend quests have changed (you no longer have to hunt down books, but simply examining a piece to the collection will grant you the starter quest) she also managed to finish off a few of those – which is something I’ve never actually completed while “on the go” before. L&L have always been something of an after thought, if I was near a book I may pick it up but other wise chances were that I would not be. While you may think to yourself “dang, this seems almost TOO easy now!” I think the motivation is a welcomed change.
Speaking of things being too easy – there are specific reasons these changes are coming. In February the game will raise by another 10 levels, which will mean 90 levels total. While people who are veterans of the game will have little trouble with gaining those levels there is also new players out there who will find 90 levels exceptionally daunting and may even see them as a deterrent to the game. By allowing some things to be ‘easier’ it opens the game up to those people. I tend to agree with people that some things may be a little too easy (like skill ups, I barely hit a mob and I raised my skills effortlessly) but I can also understand why these changes were put in place.
What do you think of the new alternate advancement slider? Have you taken advantage of it yet? Any plans to? Let me know below!
In the mean time, happy gaming and I will see you in Norrath!