Alternate Advancement, previously referred to as Achievement Experience, is an alternate and additional experience system in EverQuest II. Alternate Advancement is earned in addition to normal experience (with all experience being converted to Alternate Advancement at the level cap). That Alternate Advancement can be used to acquire special abilities and powers that allow you to customize your character.
Many players refer to Alternate Advancement points as "AAs" because of a very similar system that existed in EverQuest I. SOE has an Achievement FAQ, but please note that it is outdated and only applies to the Kingdom of Sky expansion.
Class and Subclass Advancements[]
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Who can earn Alternate Advancement?[]
You must own the Kingdom of Sky expansion and be level 20 or above to take advantage of the Class Alternate Advancements system. If you own the Echoes of Faydwer expansion or later, you begin earning Alternate Advancement at level 10, and can apply your points to the Subclass Tree.
How do I earn Alternate Advancement?[]
You can earn your new powers by completing quests, defeating notorious enemies, acquiring rare treasure, exploring dangerous places, and by earning adventure experience once you have reached level 80 or by using the conversion slider after you have reached level 10. These accomplishments earn points that allow you to choose new powers and specialties to set your character apart from the crowd.
A new slider bar has been placed in the Alternate Advancement window which enables you to select a percentage of the experience (XP) you wish to divert to your AA. For example if the slider is moved to 0% then none of the common level experience you gain from killing monsters will be diverted to your AA. The 0% setting is the default setting. You still will gain AA though by turning in quests and killing specific mobs. If however you place the slider at 100%, you will no longer recieve standard adventure XP. All your XP, including the amount gained by quests will be converted into AA. The slider in essence is a percentage of standard adventure level XP diversion. This can be incredibly usefull if you decide you wish to complete a series of quests without leveling or you wish to retain your current adventure level but want to advance without the standard XP going to waste.
You earn Alternate Advancement by:
- Completing quests (See Soloing Timeline) that are rated for level 10 or higher.
- Repeatable quests generally give AA on the first completion only.
- Some quests do not award Alternate Advancement.
- To maximize Alternate Advancement gain, only complete quests that are the same level, or lower, as your character.
- Completing a quest a lot higher in level than your character level (red con) will result in less Alternate Advancement gain.
- Out-leveled (grey) quests give the same Alternate Advancement as even level quests.
- Defeating special enemies, such as named bosses, for the first time - if they con green or higher. See Monsters that award AA.
- If the special monster is gray to you, then you can mentor a low level friend to make it green, so as to earn Alternate Advancement from it.
- Looting rare treasures (this includes status items and the various ancient treasure vendor items). See Items that award AA
- Exploring the world, finding landmarks and generally clearing the fog of war from the map. See Discovery Locations.
- Completing collection quests
- Some collection quests do not award Alternate Advancement.
You can earn up to 200 Alternate Advancements Points. Up to level 70, you will be limited to spending 50 points in each tree. After level 70, this limit is raised to 70 points in each tree. As with adventure and crafting experience, lower levels of Alternate Advancement are easier to attain, while higher levels take more time to level up.
How can I spend my Alternate Advancement points?[]
You can spend (assign) points in either tree at any time, but you must follow the tree's progression. For the Class tree, you must spend 4 points in each bubble (except the beginning ability) in order to progress to the next. You can spend a maximum of 8 points in each bubble. When you spend 22 points in any one line, you can apply 2 points to the "final" ability. These abilities are usually very useful, and you get a prefix title along with your ability.
As for the class trees, each tree is different. As a general rule, you have to spend 3 points in an ability to be able to spend points in the next ability down the tree (connected by lines between the bubbles). Some abilities have only one or two ranks, but require more than one point to raise them. When you spend the required number of points in anyone section of AAs, you are able to spend one point to acquire the end ability. Each AA is part of one of the sections, and you can see which section an ability belongs to by reading the tooltip. You can only apply a point to the end ability if you spend the required number of points on AAs that are part of that section.
You can spend your Alternate Advancement points in all three Alternate Advancement trees with a maximum of 50 points in each, whereupon at adventure level 71 the cap for each tree is raised to 70. The maximum number of points you can earn is 200.
PvP servers have an additional cap placed on the number of Alternate Advancement points you can assign. You cannot assign more than 1.5 times your adventure level in Alternate Advancement points. For example, at level 22 you can assign no more than 33 (1.5 x 22) Alternate Advancement points. Any additional Alternate Advancement points you may have will be stored until you reach a higher level and are able to assign them.
Where can I respec my AAs?[]
If you decide you do not like the way you have allocated your Alternate Advancements points, you may reallocate (aka. "respec") your points; this unassigns all of your points in one of your trees and allows you to spend them again. You must respec each each tree separately, but (as of GU 37) you can spend the reacquired points in either tree, up to the maximum. The cap for AA points is 50 per tree up to level 70, where it is increased to 200 points (70 per Class/Subclass tree and 60 for the Shadows tree).
To respec your Alternate Advancements, visit:
- NPC: Wynia Vethe <Achievement Counsel> Location: South Qeynos in Concordium Tower
- NPC: Nexa L'Dur <Achievement Counsel> Location: North Freeport in the Academy of Arcane Science
- NPC: Aelia Naeni <Achievement Counsel> Location: Kelethin in the Order of Arcane
- NPC: Tria L'Belk <Achivement Counsel> Location: Neriak, City of Hate in New Foreign Quarter
- NPC: Warzok Riz'sok <Achivement Counsel> Location: Gorowyn
The counsels will also give you one free Class Achievement Respec Card and one free Subclass Achievement Respec Card per character. (Start a new dialogue for each one.)
Alternate Advancement respec costs start out at 10g, followed by 1p and then cap at 10p. 30 days after your latest respec the cost will reset back to 10g. Character Development costs start out at 1s. There is no card for respeccing character development.
If you often switch between two Alternate Advancements setups, consider acquiring a Mirror of Reflected Achievements.
Helpful tips on earning Alternate Advancement[]
- AA XP is earned starting at level 10, thus you cannot get AA from any mobs, quests, or collections that are below level 10 even if you are above that level.
- Lore and Legend quests give a very good amount of Alternate Advancement and will give you a mastery strike against them.
- Heritage Quests can earn you much more Alternate Advancement than normal quests.
- When entering a zone for the first time, try to pick up any Bootstrutter quests in the zone so that you can complete the quest while gaining the discovery Alternate Advancement.
- It is no longer necessary to mentor down for gray quests. Starting with LU45, you earn AA XP from all quests, even if they are gray. However, you must still mentor down if you want to earn AA XP from named monsters.
- Starting with Update 53, you can choose on a sliding percent how much of your normal XP is diverted into AAXP, letting you choose which you need more right now. That means it is no longer necessary to disable combat experience to keep up with quests.