AA Rankings by Function

[Tanise]

Nice list.

I cannot stress how great an AA innate metab is though. Anyone can raise Baking in a matter of hours and the extra 50hp from Platters more then makes it worth it.

[Daabu]

Have one warrior with a zero weapon skill and have the other capped.

The difference in aggro is miniscule at level 65...if I remember correctly, something along the lines of a swing's worth. There have been EXTENSIVE tests on how hits and misses play absolutely NO role in aggro. Tests where 15hits 10misses pulled aggro at the same exact time 5hits 20misses did. Tests where damage deviation went nearly double...and yet, it all has to do with your weapon swing.

By the way, in order to do the test you described, you'd need at least 3 characters...
One to pull initially. Then one warrior has to stand there and taunt until successful. Then the other. Then, you need to have them both turn autoattack on at EXACTLY the same time. As in, no deviation at all. Why? Because the one who turns on attack first will get aggro, otherwise (assuming all other things equal).

If you give one a simple atk buff, nothing will change. If you give one haste, or a weapon with more potential damage per second, then he will get aggro.

Either way, though, you can't compare two toons at the same time, because of things like attack time syncs, proximity agro, and I'm sure there's more.

I have logged tests done by respected members of the EQ community to support my theory. All you have is "I tested this back in Velious." If you can show me otherwise via a controlled test, then i'll be willing to change my tune. Until then, increasing your average damage will do two things for your ability to maintain aggro: Jack, and Shit.

[Tanise]

Run3 I can see but run5 is expensive. If you are a full time puller then yes but if you generally have someone else pulling those 15 AA can be better spent at first.

[Gimmel]

Sinister Strikes will NOT increase your aggro.

As was mentioned, there is every reason to believe that SS will increase your aggro, since it adds a DB to the offhand. Aggro is not based on "potential" damage per se, but on some other formula that seems to weight the DB portion higher than the rest of the damage. Some have suggested damage+db, but that doesn't quite work, though it is closer than the "potential damage".

[Mvreena]

Very nice post! Sticky it? Move it to the library?

I had finally finished off the standard warrior defensive AA route, and was getting to the point where my AA path wasn't totally set in stone, so I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go. This helped clarify things for myself. While I don't agree with all the rankings, that doesn't mean this isn't an invaluable tool for any warrior.

[Daabu]

As was mentioned, there is every reason to believe that SS will increase your aggro, since it adds a DB to the offhand. Aggro is not based on "potential" damage per se, but on some other formula that seems to weight the DB portion higher than the rest of the damage. Some have suggested damage+db, but that doesn't quite work, though it is closer than the "potential damage".

Hmm...I haven't bought sinister strikes yet (theres still a few more things I need to get before hand -- or that, rather, I want to get. AETaunt refresh, shielding discs, I still havent gotten run5 yet either) -- but if no one has done it by then, I can try to run a test.

If someone else is able to / willing to run some tests, that would rock my socks!

[Isk]

Stickied for now, will move to Library later.

[Plumppoopsie]

Good write up .. almost goes by what I did pre GoD (was working resists when GoD came out).

As for 65 vrs AAing.

I stoped to AA at 51, 52, 56, 58, 60 .. to slow down lvling to let friends catch up ...

and can say, without a doubt, it is faster to get AA's at 65, then those lvls, not even close.

60 sees a big power boost in your toon, so get there ASAP.

Also as MA, the higher lvl you are, and stronger you are .. the faster your group will kill and get EXP.

[Bustauff]

Excellent post!

Now for what I think, AA's should be used on the bassis of making you survive an encounter. If you are the MA of your guild you may want to go with CS3/CA3 and LR5/ID5 first, being that you are the one taking the hits. If you rarely tank for your guild you may want to go ND3 Sturdiness and the other HP AA's (although the others only give a small amount). My thinking for this is simple. If you are not the one taking the hits directly then you need to have as many HP as you can get to survive those AE's and such. Because when it comes down to it, it is all about SURVIVING.

Bustauff
Dwarven Godfather

[Daabu]

I edited the post to rank all DPS abilities, instead of trying to split the two.

Any comments/suggestions?

[Busstin]

I would like to think that hp AA ( ND, PD, PE , Sturdiness 1 ) then CA. With Incite and a couple good weapons you can pretty much take care of that non agro so all you need is hp and tanking ability

Just my 2 cp

[Hellslayer]

Just curious as to why Sturd 1 is ranked above Planar Durability? Sturd 1 results in 25hp/AA while PD gives me around 28hp/AA. Is there something other bonus from Sturdiness that I don't know about?

[Daabu]

Planar Durability is scaled depending on your gear (1.5% of your current hp for 3pts). You got 28hp because you sit at 5600hp'ish unbuffed, I presume.
Not every warrior has the same hp, though, and I wanted to simplify things by making it appeal to the lowest denominator. I suppose I could put a rule in there that says "Sturdiness here only if you have less than 5k hp unbuffed", but that overcomplicates things.

[Plumppoopsie]

Magelo makes HP AA's easy to pick.

Just plug in different AA's and take the one with the best HP to AA's.

Don't let someone's writeup, that you don't know, override common sence.

[Daabu]

Well, yes, okay, you're correct, obviously.

The point of the writeup wasnt to list the order one should get HP AAs so much as to list which order points are best spent overall for tanking -- the mix of hp vs LR/ID. The other point of the write up was to help distinguish between DPS AAs and Aggro AAs.