Help! What is this about spent and assigned AAs??Follow

Today I spent 607 AA, but only 589 were 'assigned' and I didn't ding 600. I don't understand what is going on, and can't seem to find anything on it, in the news or here on the sight.
It used to be, just spending them was enough, what's up?

Help! Please

And thanks ahead of time for any enlightenment you can provide!

Ah ha. Change in cost, I see, and free stuff, could be. I haven't used any Glyphs yet, but I do understand they have changed AA around a lot since these toons started getting them years ago. I guess I won't grumble too much, heh, AA aren't that hard to come by these days. I thought it strange that my oldest toon, a halfing druid has zero difference, but my ogre warrior has a difference of 18. They always pickin' on poor Ogres anyway, eh? :)

Thanks Yther. Good hunting

I see now that I ding based on the assigned, and the achievement changes with the ding. Only two of my higher toons are unaffected.

I guess it would be kinda nice if they let on what they were up to, ... nah, silly person...

good hunting

I was on EQ forums today and saw a thread which discussed the issue. It basically says that the auto granting of "Eyes Wide Open" AA (all 5 ranks, general tab - affects all classes) has caused this discrepancy amongst characters that already purchased ranks of the AA.

Characters that had purchased some or all of the ranks of the AA did not get a refund as yet...hence the shortfall between spent and assigned AA's, on those characters.

Hope we get a refund by the next patch .

Edit/Update: Looks like we may not get a refund... :http://eqresource.com/board/index.php?topic=1792.0

Edited, Aug 2nd 2013 5:54pm by hexeez

Yes it has me wondering also. Though the OP on the link is quoting EQ's Elidroth (see link in the OP's post), so I guess they are really planning to auto grant the Leadership AA's at some point.

That is rough if SOE-EQ devs does not give some kind of credit to those who had leadership AA's on and sacrificed 20% (iirc) of their xp gain....... for all those years.

It makes the unrefundable 40 AA's for Eyes Wide Open-AA line look trivial compared.

Heh, I expect some heated arguments on EQ forums as the day re that LAA auto grant grows nearer.



Edited, Aug 3rd 2013 3:58pm by hexeez

The leadership AA thing is tricky for a couple of reasons (It's already been a heated discussion on the o-boards due to Elidroth's rather old hint that he was looking to change things):

1. It's an abandoned system originally tied to an expansion as a selling feature of that expansion (in hindsight they should have just been AA or level-acquired abilities or standard features --which several of them are in pretty much any newer game). A system they shouldn't extend in my view as it is unnecessary cluttering/complication.

2. The cost of earning them, depending on your playstyle, is either trivial or prohibitive in the current game climate. Example: you don't box and are casually playing a new character... you won't be earning LAA as you won't be grouping. You 2-box with mercs and don't mind grinding xp at a sweet spot to max LAA then it isn't such a big deal --just a bit of time. It was a big deal before boxing became commonplace and mercs came along.

3. Just like AAs, if you "did it the hard way" you have had the benefit of using the feature long term. If they granted all of the current LAA tomorrow it just means equal footing/benefit moving forward. The only person that gets shafted in that deal is someone that just finished LAA grinding... which probably is a handful of players at any given moment, most of whom it is alt #78 anyways.

The thing is... even a half-baked movement on this such as cloning the LAA into the AA window (earn them either way becomes the choice... LAA can be worked on sooner than AA is all) hasn't been done. So basically, it might be on the to-do list, but that list isn't exactly getting accomplished in a timely manner.

I'd prefer it if they don't just give everyone the LAs directly, but just make them a tab in the AA gui. As mentioned, there are tons of people who'd like to have those abilities, but unless you're one of those people who fight to be the group leader when grouping (and there's always someone else who wants it for some reason or another), it's nearly impossible to gain those abilities at all unless you box. They should just be abilities that you have if you've spent the AAs, some of which may benefit the group you're in, regardless of whether you are leader. That would solve a lot of problems I think.

Also have to realize that a lot of the new features in the game have already eliminated the value of most of the best LAs anyway. The target windows alone eliminate about half of the useful LAs and are now a standard feature of the game. Not to mention, there's a hell of a lot more you can do with those windows than you could ever do with the LAs. And they don't cost anything.

Marking NPCs is nice, I suppose, but is it really worth spending anything on? Back when targeting/assisting options were limited, sure. Today? It's a novelty at best.

About the only LA that I really notice (and like/need) is the buff bar on target NPCs. It allows group members to see when their debuffs/dots/whatever fade on the target. Given that this sort of information is often lost in the spam of combat, it's nice to be able to see at a glance. At least, I assume this is an LA effect, since I don't see this information except when grouping with certain guild members.


I do agree that if they just outright give this to everyone, they should refund something to those people who spent the time/exp on them before. It's why I'd rather they just make them an AA tab. That way the abilities you already paid for just transfer over directly (you get those AAs), but it makes it easier for more people to get those abilities as well.