What to spend my aa's on next

[Tweelis]

What should I be looking for next in regards to aaxp progression? Mostly I solo, occasionally group up (prefer to do this but RL doesn't permit it all that often) and raid once in a rare while.

Here's my magelo, current and up to date. Feedback will be appreciated.
http://eq.magelo.com/profile/402042" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Merlaina]

Personally, these would be my choices, in order. I didn't see until I started on the list that you're only 85, so some probably don't apply to you yet, and there are others that are 90 restricted that I would put on here were you level 90 (improved twincast, aegis, etc):

Host in the Shell
Drape of Shadows
Quick Damage 4
Natural durability to 6 (not that high priority, but it's cheap)
Destructive Fury to 18
Fury of Magic to 18
Spell Casting Mastery to 4
Spell casting reinforcement to at least 3
Twincast as high as you can go
Elemental Alacrity and Elemental Fury as high as you can go
Discordant defiance to 15

Host in the Shell is nice for harder or named mobs to help your pet tank by a good bit, plus it's a fairly short recast (6 minutes I think). Drape is great, though not always terribly easy to use. Especially with mercs healing since they follow you and after you drape the mob will follow the mercs, and thus you.

[Tweelis]

oops, forgot to update that part of magelo. I'm really 86. Thanks for the reply, gives me something to shoot for.

[Tweelis]

Ok, so it took awhile but all the AA's Merlaina listed are done plus a few others. Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated. For what it's worth I'm mostly grouped with a chanter and we have a tank and healer merc with us most of the time. Once in awhile we have others join us. Lesson burns are done solo almost exclusivly and although raiding is fun it just isn't in the cards for me. Although my magelo gear is not up to date my AA listing is 100% accurate as of this posting.

tl;dr
I'd like AA suggestions for a solo/group mage.

[Mendoros07]

From reading your Magelo, great job first of all on getting all those aa's!!
I noted you don't have Secondary Forte. This is simply a must. Get it, and depending on what you have already specialized in, whatever your next that you use the most will go up and help you save some mana in that spell class type.

When I solo, and I get a named, Companion's Aura is simply amazing to click close to the end of the fight when you risk your pet's life the most. You have that, but get the hastened aa's to go with that.. having that aa pop an extra 5 minutes early really helps when you get back another named shortly after or whatever.

Spell Casting Deftness which reduces the cast time of beneficial spells -- you would not think would help much in combat but there are spells that are beneficial which we do cast in combat, depending on your play style. Again your choice but they are cheap! Your pet heal and Tellurian Stance are examples. Again depending on your style.

Get the last 3 ranks of summon companion just for the nice free chance to not only summon your pet quickly to you but to "fade" or clear his agro. Freaking priceless at times. Some use it as a pulling technique as well.

Mystical Shield and Mental Fortitude. One for an added 5% to resist any spell other for a higher chance to prevent getting charmed. That's just me, I'll take anything that can help me avoid/reduce/mitigate anything.

Forceful Rejuvenation. Just simply so in a burn situation you can blast off with your weave of spells and then hit this aa and recast all the spells that are have normally a long reuse timer like your garg right away.

If you solo a lot and find yourself pulling agro from your pet, finishing off those spell casting subtlety aa's to reduce your spell agro is nice. In a burn/named situation finishing off the Silent casting and then getting the hastened silent casting to reduce your timer by 3 min per rank is also very sweet. These are expensive I know but if you solo a lot... they come in handy.

I am always grouped with a necro and I can't remember in a group environment the last time I got summoned over the necro so I have not used silent casting in a while.

Of course it goes without saying that CA/CS and Armor of Wisdom... all great, expensive but great if you again find that you are often getting hit/summoned etc and taking a crap load of damage. Either that of find a necro to group with Best damage mitigation ever.

You could if you really start to rack them in consider shared health and right after that the extended shared health aa's to increase the range you can be from your pet to be able to actually benefit from that aa. Again I have these aa's and have not used them in for ever but that is simply because of my usual group makeup and play style. Might be something to consider if you find yourself soloing lots and maybe to make more aa's you dont pop that healer merc in say a LOD 30 min burn and find yourself in a bad spot with a bad pull and your health dropping fast before your pet can take agro or you can move away.

[Tweelis]

Thanks Mendoros, this helps a bunch.

My playstyle is dictated by circumstances more than anything. When soloing it's pretty much at the top of Beza or Zeka so I can use my AtA and AtD line of nukes on the constructs. Since the mobs don't hit very hard the turd herd is out as much as possible since they'll get redirected to whichever mob hit me. It's earth pet all the way up there since there will be 2-5 mobs on my pet at any given time. Surge of Shadowflares gets put on my pet at pretty much any Godrm proc. The silent castint timer reduction will help a lot as I'm popping twincast and improved twincast whenever it's up.

When I'm grouped it's wtih either a chanter or cleric most of the time. Sometimes my pet tanks but other times we'll use the merc to tank. What we do is completly up in the air. One thing I'll look into though is getting some augs to help out my mana pool. One of these days I'll even get the LDoN conjuration and evocation raid aug.

[Mendoros07]

Aye indeed. Your style is very much my own. I 2 box my chanter, and have found his stuns are a WONDER on any mob that is not immune. I would rank stuns as good if not better than slows. Honestly with 2 healer mercs, slows etc from chanter and some added dps and a mage it's a great combo.

I noted you worked on your theft of essence etc. I love beza Zeka.. wicked for a LOD burn. If you have the faction make sure to get the type slots that increase damage for both your summoned nukes.. the one from this expansion and the previous one. I mean it's not HUGE but everything helps. When I do beza zeka I have both those 2 nukes loaded and I chain them.

There is sooo much crap to work on. I have 4 chars and my mage is one my alts. Working on all 4 is a chore in itself. I have still to finish the aa's for my mage that give the added 100 hp per rank and 50 mana for rank. I also never bothered to get him the Delay Death line. On my raiding main I always got those... many a times I remember being right down at the purple club dead on the ground and getting that heal and having those few extra HP below 0 helped. Never bothered with any of my others since they would group or solo -- if you were dead you were dead. Although we have healer mercs now which is great.. maybe you get lucky, having mobs that quad you for lovely hits.. felt like this aa line was rather weak but with 30 levels of it as I said before anything helps. That will come eventually.
Good luck.