EQDiva

I used to play EQ over 4 years ago, I was never very serious or hardcore about it, but I'm getting back into it again.  I've been playing for about a week or 2 and have my bard to the mid 50's.  I'm about to switch over to AA abilities while I wait for one of my buddies to catch up in levels.  I'm curious if there was any sort of guide, or someone who can give me general advice as to what the best order to obtain AA's is.  Some look really good to me, and others not so much, but I've been away for so long, I'm not sure if some changes may have occured to make some AAs more useful, while other have been trivialized.  Any help would be appreciated greatly.  I'm generally going to be playing with a berz/rng/drui/bard combo if that affects the order I get AAs in.  I'd like the option to be able to solo more AAs in the meantime, but we're planning to level together mostly.

Aftons 

I am in a very similar position to yours. There is an AA guide in the EQDiva archives. I normally play with my berserker husband and have earned and used 19 AA points by the time I reached level 54, where I am now. I put the maximum points allowable for my level toward innate stats - health regeneration, strength, run speed, stamina (which increases AC). Since I am a Vah Shir, I also put points toward innate metabolism, which makes me use less food and water (Vah Shirs are big eaters and drinkers). I am really glad I did this, rather than levelling up quickly, because it is easier to get AA points at lower levels and also gives me a chance to experience all the zones at each level. I have noticed that the AAs make a noticeable difference in my fighting skills. I stay healthy way after everyone else in my groups and can hit harder and run faster than before.

There is no point in putting AAs into something you only need once in a while - like wisdom and intelligence for learning tradeskills or charisma for selling. Better to use a song for those things.

I am limited in which AAs I can choose by the fact I am on the Combine progression server, which does not let you use AAs from an expansion that has not yet been opened on progression. If I could, I would have put five points into Battle Ready, which lets you add extra slots into your bandolier. I want that so much I can taste it. At this point I am accumulating points so I will have them for Boastful Bellow and Fading Memories.

Hope I told you at least one thing you do not know already!

Lady Lietta Contralto

Black Knights of Stromm 

LiettaContralto@gmail.com 

There are a lot of different ways to play a bard, and there really isn't one single path for acquiring aa's. Some are useful to all playstyles, and others come into play in some areas more than in others. Do you want to raid, do you want to pull, do you like to solo, do you want to see your dps going up? Realistically, you'll probably want to work on a little bit of this and a little bit of that as you go, but there are some areas you'll want to emphasize more than others.

If you raid a lot or your playstyle is often defined by your /melody group buffs on your friends, you'll want to get extended notes pretty early, If you mostly solo or duo, or play with a bunch of melee, or really don't care terribly much about your buff songs and spend your time pulling and mezzing, then extended notes really isn't important. Just one example.

I just finished up a series of three guides to developing a bard for my guild. One of them is about the different ways to approach aa's and how they can be useful, but it's really, really long, in depth, and detailed. If you want it, you can pm my inbox and I'll send it to you. I don't really want to spam the boards with my own "guides" but if you're interested you'll probably find it useful.

FreedymFry:

I just finished up a series of three guides to developing a bard for my guild. One of them is about the different ways to approach aa's and how they can be useful, but it's really, really long, in depth, and detailed. If you want it, you can pm my inbox and I'll send it to you. I don't really want to spam the boards with my own "guides" but if you're interested you'll probably find it useful.

Please Post em Freedym. I'd like to read and discuss your thoughts on being a bard :)

Edit: Amazing guides Freedym I believe they should be posted and stickied.. the thought and knowledge in them will help any bard plan their progression thru the game.  Thank you for pming them to me.

I'd be interested in the read, as I'm mostly a group with melees and not a raiding bard.  I'd like to see a good AA tree on where I should progress =)

Ok I posted them to the Kazumi's Guide section of eqdiva. They are written for my alt's guild which is currently just starting demiplane, and rather than go through and try to edit it to be more generic, I left it how I wrote it, but it's pretty applicable across the board. They're meant to be informative, rather than instructionary. If you guys have comments, feedback, different opinions, or want to correct some mistakes, go for it. Especially when it comes to mods - that's my weakest knowledge point personally.

Also there are a couple other things I could have put in but didn't. Someone recently mentioned that the tracking aa's are good for pulling, and they definitely are, I just figure though that people wouldn't want to get them till way later down the road, as 100 tracking is good enough for most of our purposes at most camps. Also, in the raid guide, I left out mana drain, Ervaj is the best mana drain in the game though, about a 1k dd mana drain with a good brass, but there are very very few events I've found it useful on and so I didn't include it though. Some people have found some good uses for dark echo (reflects detrimental spells back on the caster) and I didn't include it for the same reason, but that doesn't mean it's always useless, just very rarely used (and never by us in our raids now or in the conceivable future).

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy them and get some use out of them.

 - Freedym Fry

In the interest of some effort of organization I will review based on the older format, separate posts to follow.

General AA's ( available starting at level 51 ) -  you need to chose 6 of these before you can move on to the archetyp aa’s .
Cost 1 per rank generally

Innate run speed ( 3 ranks )
Innate regeneration ( 3 ranks )
Innate metabolism ( 3 ranks )

Common consensus is run 3 is a given, and debate and personal preference between 3 hp / tick or reduced food consumption dictates your second choice.

Archetype AA's - available at level 55 ( if I recall you need to pick 12 / 24 of these before you can unlock the next tab / pick up your next aa based title )
Cost generally rank 1 = 2, Rank 2 = 4, rank 3 = 6, so 12 points to max each as a guideline

Spell Casting Fury - 3 ranks ( allows you to crit with DD spells including weapon procs )
Natural durability 3 ranks,
Combat Stability 3 ranks,
Combat Agility 3 ranks,
Combat Fury 3 ranks,
Finishing Blow 3 ranks ?,
Mnemonic Retention - additional song slot 1 of two possible second available at level 71 ?,
Mental Clarity - AA based flowing though / mana regen,
Mystical Attuning - adds buff slots

I personally went with some defensive but found my offense lacking so I maxed combat fury, SCF for proc crits, picked up a couple ranks of Finishing blow ( should have in retrospect put the points into finishing up some defensive lines instead, but it's fun to hit a fleeing low hp mob for 32k every once in a while. )

With the changes to mana regen with the rest state - I skipped FT as recovering mana now is very fast, and with my current gear by the time I run out of mana I usually want a quick break anyhoo ( though Fade is not yet in my skill set being only level 58 currently )

As I don't raid, I also skipped Mystical Attuning as I don't have a buff space shortage issue when only grouping / soloing - if and when I get to the raiding stage, this will be worth pursuing. Since I have nearly maxed the aa's I find viable at this point, I flipped to regular exp again and am now grinding toward 59, and will likely stay focused on leveling till 64, then flip back to farming some aa's for a bit with the upgraded charm. AA's past 55 I have not looked into too seriously yet, other than aiming to obtain fading memories as soon as I achieve the appropriate level ( 63 ) I will update with my two cents on further aa's a little later, this covers up to the mid 50's which was the OP's reference point.

Once I hit 64, I aim to get Fading Memories level 63 required 6 pts, then finishing up the 16 pts I have left to do in the Archetype level aa's, followed by,

Level 59 Class Abilities ( 71 pts )

Ambidexterity 9 pts,
Instrument Mastery 3,6,9,
Extended Notes 3,6,9,
Singing Mastery 3,6,9,
Physical Enhancement 5,
Scribble Notes 3 ( reduce song mem time by 50 % )

PoP AA's Level 61

Planar Power POP General - 2 pts per level, 10 levels increase stat limits by 5 per rank. Only ones worth investing here I think

POP Class

Lighning Reflexes ( Level 61 ) 3 pts per rank 5 ranks ( increased avoidance )
Innate Defense ( Level 61 ) 3 pts per rank 5 ranks ( increased mitigation )
Harmonious Attack ( Level 61 ) 2 pts per rank 5 ranks ( increased double attack )
Coup De Grace ( Level 62 ) 2 pts per rank 3 ranks ( adds to npc level limit of finishing blows )
Fury of the Ages ( Level 62 ) 2 pts per rank 3 ranks ( addition melee critical hits )
Fleet of Foot ( Level 62 and 64 ) self only run speed increase
Sionachie's Cresendo - ( Level 63 ) 2 pts per rank 3 ranks ( etended notes increase )
Ayonae's Tuetalage level 63  2 pts per rank 3 ranks - increases instrument mod cap
Boastfull Bellow level 63 6 pts AA bsed DD 250 range pulling aid
Fading Memories 6 pts 1 rank level 63

The above is plenty to keep me occupied for a few months so I haven't looked deeper into the aa's.

Hopefully with some level references included above, this will help you plan your path somewhat.

IMHO - focusing on avoidance / durability and aa's that increase song effectiveness, then looking to dps increase makes sense as I primarily solo / duo.

Admittedly, it's been a long time since I dinged my first AA, well over 1k now, but I always felt that levels > AA with a few exceptions.  Getting class-defining tools, such as Fading Memories and run speed (get as much as you can as fast as you can) should be a priority, but other than that, the AAs can wait til you're at level cap.  It's easier to get a group if you're at cap, you hit harder and have more tools available to you, your skills have much higher caps, your songs are resisted less etc.  If you're mostly a soloer, I guess it doesn't matter much since you're fighting mobs of an appropriate difficulty to your level;  but if you're into grouping, I'd go for levels until you reach 63 for FM, grind out the AAs for that and then move on.  My perspective is that of a multi-boxing group/raid bard who rarely does pick-up groups, so feel free to disregard it if your situation is different.  ;)