AA Starter Guide

[Prima]

Summary: Get Red Shadows of Xotli ASAP, especially if Avatar spec. (What's RSoX do?) Prince of Terror and other end AA feats are good but more situational.

Recommended General feats:

• *Decisive Strikes
• *Pressing Strikes
• Chromatic Warding (PVP or very early or very high-end PVE)
• Field of War (PVP)
• Any of the protection feats (heavy Phoenix Cloak users note: HoXes are vulnerable to cold while PC is on)

Recommended Mage feats:

• *Will of the Sublime
• Unbinding Charm (useful or required for some dungeons)
• Ethereal Escape (critical if PVP)
• Then choose based on playstyle.

Recommended Herald of Xotli feats:

• *Red Shadows of Xotli
• Then choose based on playstyle (see Pekka's post below for more detail on HoX-specific feats).

TIPS:

• You need to purchase 10 AA ranks to start the timer on RSoX. The cheapest way to get 10 ranks is just to buy the first rank or two of 5-10 AA feats. But remember: Some (not all) AA feats require a perk to be slotted in your AA bar before they can be used. So don't waste points in a feat if you're never going to slot it.
• Remember that you can spend points to finish a timer early.
• Remember that Expertise can be purchased from the item store (Phials of Tranquility).
• If you do not PVP, then the only way to purchase feats that require Prowess (the feats in the right and middle columns) is time-training or Expertise points. Therefore, consider saving your Expertise points for Prowess feats.

[Ruhenous]

Chromatic Warding is also good for PvP and some PvE encounters. Especially in PvP, with all the t4 gear floating around.

Red Shadows is probably the best PvE AA, imo. BUT, a case could be made for Enslaving Fire. The extra stun is especially nice if you're a Possession/General spec.

[pekka]

Nice post, I add some basic info:

Hunger for More - Hell Strikes combo hits an additional target with full dmg; improves the HS combo dmg with 0.5/1/2/3/3 % per Rank; Rank 5 has no further dmg modifier but let you hit a 3rd target with full dmg.

Enslaving Fire - new rank of Pillar; applies 0.5/1.5/2.5/3.5/4.5 sec aoe stun Rank 1 → 5

Prince of Terror - 15sec duration and 1 min cooldown; +89 fire dmg/+66% weapon dmg/+372 fire prot; +Spiritual Wrack for 30sec; turns combo finishers into unholy dmg + boosts BTD dot (crits!)

From the Beyond - has a 25sec duration, 2 min cooldown; transforms the user into demon form and charges the target; Hellstep cd is 5sec for its duration; Demonic Link affects it but not the other DE duration- and cd modifiers

Red Shadows of Xotli - extra self ress with 10min cooldown; passively gives +100 Strength and Intelligence; gives to both demon forms +325 Str (975 combat rating, 650 armor) and +450 Int (270 magic dmg, 225 elemental protection)

[Skant]

i almost never use enslaving fire to long animation if i want a stun in pve i double tab b4 i finish a normal poif 2. in pvp i currently almost always run FtB the charge to keep people from running away from u is great charge=>hfb oh u want run like a little **** i charge and hfb another time GG.

in pve really depends on encouter usually im in full BB gear pos/gen build agro whore so i go with the self ress. some encouters i pref FtB to jump between bosses / adds etc.

[TeamVernia]

Prince of Terror is also very good for selected fights (burst, aoe, bosses with low magic mitigation).

Tempted to try this on Emperor but will miss extra res. Worth it? lol

[Chaman-bourru]

What about quickening death ? Is it usefull ? I mean... reducing the cast time of AoE stun kind of seems intresting to me. in a PvP perspective of course

[TeamVernia]

What about quickening death ? Is it usefull ? I mean... reducing the cast time of AoE stun kind of seems intresting to me. in a PvP perspective of course

I haven't tried it yet, but it seems useful. Lots of AAs to get it to 5, though, so I end up using PoT. Training FtB soon.

[Chaman-bourru]

do you know how much it reduces the cast per point ?

[TeamVernia]

If it's Avatar it should actually be ok if you give golems tanks a second to get aggro, otherwise you're screwed.

Could go one step further too, I use Possession + PoT on Thoth, worth it for watching those adds melt and seeing 60k bursts, but at least they're CCable.

Yes I've done this as well haha. Just scared to do it on Emperor, because I know it'll be trouble.

[tafale]

If it's Avatar it should actually be ok if you give golems tanks a second to get aggro, otherwise you're screwed.

Could go one step further too, I use Possession + PoT on Thoth, worth it for watching those adds melt and seeing 60k bursts, but at least they're CCable.

That sound too crazy tbh since I've major aggro issues (14% hate decrease iirc unbuffed) without PoT and if not taking it easy and also giving them a head start with really good tanks, also you only have a few sec to dps before they get kited.

Thoth is decent enough since you can CC adds.

Golems suck