Achieivement Points

[Signe]

Someone post this on the official forums and I thought it might be useful to some. (even if he can't spell achievement.. though I do like his rendition of minimum)

Allow me to explain the concept of Acheivements, and how they can be attained and utilized:

The Basics:

Just as levels can be used to describe advancement for Adventurers, Artisans, and Guilds, Acheivements are measured by levels. The maximum Achievement Level is 50. For every level of Achievements that you earn, you earn one Achievement Point that can be spent to improve your character.

You must own the Kingdom of Sky expansion to use the Achievements system. You may use the Achievements system from level 20 on.  There are no grandfathered points.  Everyone starts at 0 Achievements, whether you're level 1 or level 60 already.

You may view your Achievements in the Skill window ("L" by default). If you are using a custom UI, then you will not be able to view Achievements, most likely.

There are 12 Achievement templates, for each basic class. This means that Wardens and Furies share the same Achievements, as do Guardians and Berserkers, and so on.



How to Gain Achievements:

Achievement Points (or AP) are gained by earning enough Achievement experience (Axp).

You gain Axp by:

    * gaining an Adventuer level from 20-69
    * gaining an Artisan level from 20-69
    * discovering new locations
    * completing a quest which is appropriate for your level
    * completeing a collection quest
    * killing a named target or encounter

In addition, all experience you earn after reaching your maximum level (currently 70) will be applied directly to Axp.

Every Achievement level reached gives you one more AP to use.



The Paths:

You will notice that there are 26 abilities you may spend your AP on.

Every class has a starter ability. This ability requires 1 AP, and can only be raised to Level 1. This starter ability opens up the five Achievement "paths".

Each path is related to a base attribute. Therefore all classes have a path dedicated to Strength, Agility, Stamina, Wisdom, and Intelligence.
The first "depth" in each path will increase the associated attribute directly, by 6 points per AP spent, to a maximum of +48.

The next three abilities in each path are related to the general attribute, and will increase in power as more AP are spent on them.

The final depth in each path is the master level achievement. These abilities may only be raised to Level 1, but that one level costs a full 8 AP.

Restrictions:

Virtually all paths are related in some fashion to a particular type of weapon or armor that will be required in some fashion to use some of the Achievements in the paths.

As an example, the Agility path of Paladins and Shadowknights is related to the use of a great spear of some kind. In additional, several Paladin and Shadowknight achievements require the player's character to be mounted. A good illustration of this is the Joust achievement which greatly increases the damage of an attack by a Paladin or Shadowknight, IF the crusader is both mounted AND using a great spear.

The Templar achievement of Turn Undead, from our Wisdom path, requires us to be wielding a symbol.

It is possible to find paths which compliment each other well, or possible to find paths that use weapons you can quickly switch.



Spending Achievement Points:

Everyone starts at 0 Achievements, whether you're level 1 or level 60 already.  When you've earned your first AP, you can spend it by opening up your skills window ("L" by default), clicking on the Ahievements tab, and then double clicking your starter achievement. A confirmation window will appear asking if you really wish to spend your point.

After you've done this, you have now opened the five different paths for use. After you earn your second AP, you can purchase a point in the first depth of any of the paths.

However, the later depths are still locked to you. To unlock an achievement, you must first meet the prerequisite, which is typically to spend 4 AP in the previous achievement.

Therefore, if you wish to open the second achievement in your Stamina path, you must first purchase your starter achievement (1 AP) and then spend 4 AP in increasing your Stamina.
 
The master achievements in each path are slightly different.  They cost 8 points for just 1 level, which is both the minimum and maximum level you can purchase master achievements at.



The Bottom Line:

You can only earn a total of 50 points ever.

The bare minimum required to maximize a path completely is 41 AP (1 AP for the starter, then 8 AP per achievement in the path). This will leave you with just 9 AP to spend elsewhere in other paths.

The minimimum required to reach the master achievement in a path is 25 AP for one path, and 49 AP for two (24 AP per path, plus the starter AP). This means the most master achievements a single character may possess at any time is just two. It is mathematically impossible to possess three master achievements at this time.

Obviously, this opens up a great many possibilities, even if you choose to acquire a master ability or two. Be careful and methodical in your selections. Though it's been stated that there will be a way to reset achievements at some point, the method becomes costly quickly.
 

[HaemishM]

Any list of what some of these abilities are?

Also, sounds a whole helluva lot like talent points. Not that that's a bad thing.

[Sky]

I know wizards are griping because some of our achievements are melee-based. 

It also sounds rather half-baked as I've heard it, they really should have just ripped WoW's talents (including interface).

[tazelbain]

> You can only earn a total of 50 points ever.
> The bare minimum required to maximize a path completely is 41 AP (1 AP for the starter, then 8 AP per achievement in the path). > This will leave you with just 9 AP to spend elsewhere in other paths.

Fun, you have to make irrevocable choices but you cant know if you want it until the very end.  Did they bring Brad in to consult on this?

Weird that it has a limit.  I figured AA points were attempt to keep players on the treadmill forever.

[Venkman]

Yea, this has always sounded like a wierd hybrid between old-skool AAXP from EQ1 and the more fluid/intuitive Talent Points from WoW (itself basically Diablo 2's skill point, itself I'm sure dating back even further).

They did mention they'll eventually put in revocation/unlearning at some point.

I do wish it was just 1 point per level. This third XP bar (after Combat and Crafting) feels more kludged. But as long as the abilities/enhancements are useful, I'll adapt :)

[kaid]

Hell they have upped the level cap twice now and added in aaxp I wish blizard could add even one of those things in my lifetime hehe.

I was messing around with my conj last night to check what was available. There are deffinatly some interesting things one I would kill for is magic leash. This aaxp lets you root your caster pets as well as upping their spell damage. This would make those pets SO much more usable. As it is they won't melee but they sure love to snuggle up next to the mobs and get blasted by aoes.

Being able to stick them at the back of the group so they can unleash their nukes would be awsome.

Some of the powers are just buffs to existing skills and some are new powers to use. Pretty similar to how aaxp were in eq1 and you can get some at level 20 so more folks get to play with them.

kaid

[sarius]

I've got to start reading eq2 forums.  I hope there's a list somewhere to sort all this out.

[Nebu]

Sounds like a system where you just hoard points, learn about all of the potential combinations and finally commit.  I feel for the first few people making mistakes along the way for the rest of us to benefit from.

[HaemishM]

Sounds like a system where you just hoard points, learn about all of the potential combinations and finally commit.  I feel for the first few people making mistakes along the way for the rest of us to benefit from.

Fuck them. That's what the hardcore uber "gotta have 'em all first!1!" catasses are for.

[kaid]

I recommend at least until the other pages are updated going to the www.everquest2.com class forums for the classes you are looking for. All of them that I looked at had a thread about the alternet advancment stuff for that class. It looks like they were being tweaked pretty heavily up until the end of beta which is probably why the main sites do not have them posted yet.


kaid

[HaemishM]

Hit L in game and you'll see the paths you can take. If you are a dagger assassin, like me, you'll want to take the INT route. The str route is for swords, agi is for bows, sta is for spears, wis is for rapiers. At least I think that's right.

[Sky]

What if you find a nice rapier at some point? I don't see the requirements fitting in very well with the way EQ2 loot works.  I can discard a bunch of those AAs because my wizard uses a dagger/tome right now. When he finds something better, my loadout changes and I can't use my dagger AAs?

One I liked in particular calls for you to use no secondary item, just a 1h primary. Sure...let me just throw away those stats for some minor benefit!

I looked over the whole thing and found maybe 5 I'd like to use, and 3 of those were for stats. Just seems like another one of those systems for people who have to grind out everything available in the game and I'll never bother with it, especially at $$ when I can't access the content for another 30 levels or whatever.

[Venkman]

That's what the hardcore uber "gotta have 'em all first!1!" catasses are for.

Exactly. I'll gladly let others pave the path through the bugs and the nerfs. I got KoS for AAXP, but I don't need to activate the abilities this exact second. That's what people with more time and dedication are for :)

I have a very casual outlook on this sort of thing. RL conspires to ensure I'll never ever be first in something in this genre... and given what these games are like, that's a good thing.

[shiznitz]

That's what the hardcore uber "gotta have 'em all first!1!" catasses are for.

Exactly. I'll gladly let others pave the path through the bugs and the nerfs. I got KoS for AAXP, but I don't need to activate the abilities this exact second. That's what people with more time and dedication are for :)

I have a very casual outlook on this sort of thing. RL conspires to ensure I'll never ever be first in something in this genre... and given what these games are like, that's a good thing.

That is going to be my approach as well. 52 zerker, fwiw.