A couple of questions from a newbieFollow

Just started not long ago again and having some fun, but just having a few questions I want a little help with.

1) My fiancee is playing with me (mainly duo) and she is a Berserker. She has been gaining AA with me but hasn't spent a single point. She enjoys the game, but not the in-depth mechanics. I'm noting on 3 AA lines she can get either increased DPS, increased Attack Speed, or increased Multi-Attack chance. She is a dual-wielder, and while she does use CAs, she doesn't time them or anything, so boosts which require nothing on her part (such as those 3) would be cool. For now (not endgame, as we are far from it) which would be the best to take, and in what order? She has 22 AA right now (We are both locked at 24 atm) so we can max one, but only get a point or two into others. We plan on grinding some AA so...which one first?

2. I am a Warden and truly enjoying the Nature's Boon AA ability (When you hit, has x% chance of AE healing group members) and pumping it up (currently I have 6 points in it, 4 in Multi-Attack and 4 into Nature's Blade.) My question is two-part. One) Multi-Attack. Is this a double-attack? Or does it randomly do extra hits (like a chance for 3 strikes, a chance for 2, etc) Second question: On a Multi-Attack, does any of my "on hit" procs each have a separate chance of activating, or is there still only one chance for the proc during a multi-attack (for example, if I multi-attack and hit 3 times, do I have 3 chances to proc or only one?)

3. Given our duoing nature, which craft would be best for my fiancee? I am a Sage (to enhance my spells since my fiancee isn't much on hers, plus I could possible trade spells for CAs) and also made an alt for Weaponsmith (to forge master-crafted weapons until we get fabled stuff.) So the other things I've considered for her is Tailor (to make Cloth/Leather armor (which benefits me), armorsmith (which benefits her). She is pulling more for Tailor (since it also allows one to make the hex dolls) and backpacks to help carry more things. So opinions would be helpful.

4. Reading the Recruit-a-Friend power-level guide (easy to Google) it mentions we can level-lock at 24 and go to Fallen Gate for good AA (lots of named heroics or something to this effect.) Is this something doable as a duo, or does it require more? We're finishing our AQ quests to ensure our armor is decent (not going to aim for MC until 32) and weapons are the best we can get (by MC with my weaponsmith) to help our success. I'm sure the guide is from a "mentored down tank SK" standpoint which I do not have available.

5. What are good Racial Traditions to take early (Before level 30) for Sarnak and Arasai? I took the OoC Power Regen for me and Arasai took the increased multi-attack trait, but now we're both 24 and haven't picked our second.

Thank you for your time and opinions, they are greatly appreciated.

First off, welcome to EQ2! Second off, I apologize for being long winded in my reply.

1. I play a 77 Berserker that duos with my hubby's 77 Mystic, it's a fun pair. :D Here's what I did, but tell your fiancee to do whatever she feels most comfortable about raising:

On my zerker's Warrior tree I ended up going down the WIS line first (the one that starts with Belly Smash) and put 4 points in Belly Smash, 8 points in Seasoned Veteran (+DPS) and 10 points in Unshakeable (+physical mitigation), then got Stance Mastery which removed penalties from stances, enabling me to use my offensive stance more often without taking a negative defensive penalty.

After that I actually went over to the Berserker tree for a while and raised Enhance: Chaos (top rank hastens reuse by 15%), Enhance: Blood Rage (top rank gives +50% to the healing), Enhance: Controlled Rage (top rank removes all penalties) and Enhance: Destructive Rage (top rank gives +25% DPS) all to rank 5. This allowed me to put a point into Perserverence which is a self buff that gives one big heal per buff if you drop below 30% health (great for "oh crap!!" situations).

Then I hopped back to the Warrior trees and went down the INT line next (starts with Acceleration Strike). I put 4 points into Acceleration Strike, 10 points into Slayers Speed (gives +attack speed), 10 points into Parry (increases your parry chance) and then got Relentless Assault which increases your ability reuse and recovery speed.

Afterwards I went back to the Berserker trees and got Enhance: Berserk Rage, Enhance: Wall of Rage, Enhance: War Cry, Enhance: Weapon Counter and Enhance: Juggernaut all to rank 3 (rank 3 is the max for War Cry, the first two ranks cost 2 points each). This opened up a short term buff, Berserk, which increases your DPS and attack speed for 10 seconds and can be reused every 1 1/2 minutes.

Level 70 allows you to put 20 more points into the Warrior and Berserker tree, so I've been working on the Strength line in the Warrior one. I've also put some points in the Shadows trees, basically just randomly remembering to do so whenever I forgot what I had been working on. So far in the Shadows trees I have Consummate Defender and Battle Hardening from the Fighter line at rank 5, which allowed me to take Sneering Insult (great for grabbing aggro back), then in the Warrior line got got Rallying Cry at rank 5 and Absorbing Blows at rank 4.

Ok, my long-winded part is done, hopefully that's of some help. I usually don't give out AA suggestions but it sounds like you two play like my hubby and I do so this time it seemed appropriate.

2. OBD answered this one well for you!
3. My Swashbuckler is a Tailor and I don't regret it one bit. It is nice having an Armorer around as well if you guys have enough characters for both.
4. It sounds like you'll both be fine in Fallen Gate, it's full of heroic mobs so just take your time and get a feel for the place.
4a. About armor upgrades: You stated you want to stay at 24 for a while, which I wholly approve of--having more AAs early on is a huge help! I can understand not wanting to get Mastercrafted yet, however, I have a better alternative anyways. Frostfell starts this Thursday and you can earn tokens to buy Legendary armor and weapons and fairly nice jewelry from a merchant there. The 22 armor would be available to you and if you decide to level to 30 before the end of the event (ends on 1/6) then you can pick up the 32 armor as well. Here's a guide to all the items you can get with the Frostfell tokens.
5. I admit I have no idea here--never played a Sarnak and my 24 Arasai Warlock still hasn't picked her level 20 racial yet either.

Edited, Dec 5th 2010 8:56pm by Cyliena

Per your last post:

1) You can betray back and forth as often as you wish! Yep, you can be a warden/fury/warden/fury/warden/fury. They even recently made a change so that you keep your learned spells! So if you have a few Fury masters, go to Warden, decide to go back to Fury, your previous spells as a Fury will remain Adept/Expert/Master or whatever you had them at in the first place. (Of course, becoming a Warden for the first time will make all your 'new' spells all apprentice).

2) "Favor" is actually faction with your god. It's gained by giving your altar any items that are Treasured or above. So most dropped items, and quest rewards that you don't need can be sacrificed to your god (Level of the item will determine how much Favor you gain). Once you have enough points you can pick up a blessing (which will lower your Favor by the amount stated on the blessing). Picking up a blessing once, gives you two charges to use. Once those run out you simply go back to the altar and pick that up again, or pick up new ones.

Also note there are two categories with blessings, lets call them the Left and Right lines. You can pick One blessing from each Line to have active at any time. So at max level there will be 5 abilities under each the L/R lines..and you will be able to pick one from each of those so you have 2 different abilities to use at will.

Edited, Dec 7th 2010 10:24am by Dyadem