As a returning player to AoC I have a number of previously created characters, several of them at Level 80. During my ‘time away’ the AA system was altered to what it is now; I found that some characters had some AA perks whilst others had none. Finally I do subscribe and thus have access to the option of gaining perks over time, etc.
What I am wondering is whether these older characters will in practise ever be able to make for those lost AA points? Whilst in theory the gaining of points over time could catch up, we are talking a formidable amount of time.
To ask whether those perks really matter in the endgame, would seem to me to be a little naive. But I am unaware of any way of re-distributing AA perks and do now doubt how viable my old characters will be these days.
You need some AA’s, like Pressing Strikes and Decisive Strikes, and your class’ preferred golden perk or combination of two silver perks.
I bought an instant-lvl-80 at the shop while I was not subscribed once, and I did not get the corresponding 79 expertise points, and there’s no way to get them after that. In my opinion it’s really unfair that F2P don’t get these points per level. If you claim you had points and they are gone, try /petition in-game, or contact customer support.
There’s no way to re-distribute or re-set your AA points / Perks which is kind of unfortunate as most of us don’t know the first time around what’s good or not.
You will gain points via kills as you play and those points will add up to create AA points (granted it’s slow, but it’s there), inaddition you get AA points from the Daily Log in bonuses, 1 the 3rd and 2 the 4th week I think.
There are some dungeons that require certain Perks in order to complete them so there’s that hanging over your head for end game stuff.
For normal dungeons and solo play you won’t be any worse off than the normal F2p player is.
You will just gain them while playing like everyone else does. Of course they will make the characters stronger, but it will be no game breaker for you if you have none or only a few in the beginning. Just figure out which perks are essential for which class. Rough answer to that from this thread:
Rogues: Tainted Weapons (short: TW, needed to remove healing effects from enemies) and Finely Honed (short: FH, needed to remove shield buffs from the boss)
Soldiers: Resolve (used to remove “wreck effects” from yourself)
Healers: Steadfast Faith (short: SFF, needed to remove ruin effects from yourself and your group).
Mages: Unbinding Charm (short: UC, needed to remove root effects from yourself or another player)
Most fights require these perks but there are certain fights where you can avoid certain mechanics by doing extra stuff, in those cases the perks just make the fight easier and a lot more safe.
It is safe to say that pressing and decisive strikes are a first pick for every class.
After you have those essential AAs plus some more depending on the class everything else is just the icing on the cake. You will eventually fill up all of them, and you gain them passivly while playing. While it is annoying that you lost already gained points it is far from putting you behind whith no hope to ever catch up.
As others have said you will catch up. If you are a PvE focussed player once you have certain perks so you can participate in various level 80 fights if there isn’t another who can cover for you (eg you do not need two healers with the perks in a group so long as the one with it is alive).
As you are subscribed not only do you get the train over time option you also get a +30% (i think it’s that high) gain to any AA points you earn … this really does speed up the mastery xp gain so you reach 1million and get the 3mastery+1expertise point to use…so keep active killing things and completing quests even if waiting for queues or raids to fill…
In addition to this you can buy the “suspicious crates” listed under the Consumables section of the trader which can randomly give you +50% mastery xp gain candy (also levelling xp and PvP xp candy ) - these last an hour of game time.
One quick question, slightly off topic. I notice on my ‘Old’ barbarian that he has a perk in the ‘red’ section that gives him a small % increase in damage, however that perk does not occupy one of the two perk boxes, does that mean that in addition to that I could add one or more perks that do use up those boxes?
The answer is maybe … most of the perks occupy only one of the two slots and therefore you can put in a second one. Try dropping another one into the unoccupied slot.
Some of the perks will occupy both slots - the ones which are like this state it in the perk description… I would have to double check but I think when they need two slots to work once you put it on the perk bar then it duplicates the icon into both slots to indicate it’s filled them both.
Also just checking that you are aware some AA give you not only the perk to slot (in the perk menus on the left menus) but a combo/spell to use on the right AA spell/combo menu.
Eg tainted weapons = need to slot the perk from left menu into perk bar & need to add the tainted weapons combo(ability) from the right menu … and click on the right menu tainted weapons icon to activate the ability.
But others do not have a perk to activate just the spell/combo on the right menu = finely honed for example on rogues and celestial gaze for healers
Must see what class you are, if you have a rogue or a mage or an healer, the AA is a MUST, the ones in the middle, otherwise nobody will join you. If you want to speed up the AA levelling do MONAPALACE or chaos, do not waste time soloing. Doing RF is a fast way too.
