Arysh (the coercer pictured above) is getting close to level 80 (finally) and she only has 70aa. This is what happens when you don’t do a single quest with a character (I think she has a grand total of maybe 20 completed) and only get discoveries when you tag along as a boxed character. Now that she’s getting up there, I’ll be switching my play style around some. I’ve had the coercer on the laptop dragging her around while I play the mystic in group – I’d like the coercer to have a better role and so I’m going to start putting the mystic on the laptop for healing / buff purposes and playing the coercer. Now, why on earth would I want to just drag my coercer around for 79 levels and not quest her? Pretty simple, I already have an 80 coercer + an 80 illusionist with epics. I’ve done this before, and doing the whole questing bit just simply wasn’t interesting to me at the time. It does mean I’ll pay for it now, but I don’t really mind that, either. It’s nice to switch things up a little.
The trio headed back to Obelisk in Moors. We had a fairly clean run aside from my laptop disconnecting randomly at the beginning. Reset the wireless router and I was good to go. The healer shield refused to drop (again) and the shadowknight / paladin one was what we got (again). It was still a fun run, and each time we do the zone it gets quicker. There was still a little time to waste afterwards so we headed to Vault of Eternal Sleep in the hopes that luck would stay steady and perhaps we’d get another praetor’s guard for the coercer this time.
Has anyone else noticed a decline in master drop rate? We’ve been doing instances pretty much every day and have yet to see a metal chest aside from the one that dropped the praetor’s guard yesterday. Not a single master spell at all has dropped from any named. Slightly discouraging, but understandable I suppose. I’m wondering if this is intentional, perhaps in preparation of implementing research npc’s that’s been talked about on the forums.
Channels on Kithicor seemed especially rude last night, I tend to phase most of it out but it’s been difficult. I’ve been spoiled by the EQ channels which are far more calm and relaxed. In EQ2 channels are flooded with people selling no trade fabled items to others who may not be able to complete the zones. In EQ this simply doesn’t happen, items that are left to ‘rot’ are announced as ‘free for all’ and whoever gets there first is able to loot it. In fact while I was playing EQ if anyone attempted to sell ‘rotting’ loot they were instantly set upon by the remaining members of the community berating them for trying to sell a piece of no-trade loot. Ah, how things have changed.
After Vaults I decided to call it a night, as I have a Wizard 101 article I need to complete today for Beckett and would no doubt be up early. I spent a good portion of the early evening playing W101 and had a blast, got my wizard Angela to level 17 and worked my way through the early portions of Krokotopia. I used to have a subscription to the game but I really wasn’t playing nearly enough to warrant the $10/m (which is a GREAT plan by the way if you’re actually constantly playing) so I decided to buy some crowns to permanently unlock zones for my account. If you don’t have a lot of time to play this is a perfect payment plan and I’m so happy to find an alternative means for the subscription. I’m not leveling up through content especially fast, and it basically reduces my $10/m down to $5/m based on my play times.
Hope everyone else had a fantastic evening, and are looking forward to the long Easter weekend!
Honestly, it depends on how well geared you are.
I run with two people who have their epics (though not mythical) and who are geared in T2 TSO gear. There’s three of us – but I’m boxing a coercer (who’s not level 80 yet) so there’s 4 total.
The experience is really nice, though we do it for the loot / aa and void shards. The buff set up (we’re a shadowknight, mystic, conjuror and the boxed coercer for power buffs / hate buffs / haste etc) is really important when you’re not running with a full group and are not raid geared.
It’s a great rush though. Doing the RoK instances in a trio, or any instance for that matter, is always a lot of fun.
I’ve noticed that you’re doing some of the TSO instances as a trio. How are they for experience? Lore and I are finding it slow going getting from about halfway through 78 to 80 and are looking for something to get us that last bit to 80.
Also, what instances do you find more suited to a trio? She plays a guardian and I’m running a monk with a fury on the second box. We tried one of the Befallen instances and died 5 seconds into the first pull.
As far as AA cap goes, I haven’t verified for myself but have read in a lot of places that SOE has changed it so you can get over 100 AA’s before level 70 but you can still only use 100 of them until you hit 70. Likewise, you can get over 140 AA before 80 but can only place 140 of them in your AA trees until you are level 80. So, no more lost AA if you hadn’t hit the established adventure level.
Actually, it ends up balancing out as you level up, and you’ll find that by level 80 you’ll have no problems (especially if you quest your way up) gaining 120+aa by that time. Most of my level 80 characters were nearing 140, and are hovering around that mark since I have not really ‘quest grinded’ since RoK released.
There’s not too much catching up to do, once you hit 120 though it seems to go a LOT slower, at least in my case. I feel way behind the curve at level 79 with only 70aa. I think the cap is 100 at level 70 until you level past there, I remember Kasul hitting that number easily on his assassin as he leveled up. It’s slowed down some now, but he’s still got a lot of points.
How many AA’s do you normally end up with by 80? I’ve been leveling by solo questing, and I’m at 39 AA’s, rapidly nearing level 45. The number was worse a few days ago, I recently went on an exploring binge, and discovered via a guide that I could get a ton of AA for all the nameds on the first quest in the D’Morte timeline. Short of doing more grey quests for AA’s (I will occasionally take a pass through the journal and complete the greys rather than delete them) or disabling one or both forms of exp, I don’t what I could be doing differently – it looks like, the way the exp curve is set up, you just have to plan on catching up later on.