A bunch of questions

[keogh]

Thank you all for the feedback, there's a lot of really helpful stuff in everyones posts.

4) You can get ldon tokens via buying from other players, killing world bosses, or gambling. You can complete the easy ldons with just a tank/heal/dps or even just dps/heal, tank/heal, or even just dps as your gear and AAs get better. You just need to have all guys grouped to accept the mission. You can leave the others behind in the vale to get points while you go clear the ldon with 1-3 toons.

Seriously? I don't have to drag everyone with me? My mage can clear a normal ldon in about 15 minutes. I definitely feel like I'm wasting more time getting everyone situated than actually doing the ldons.

5) next augments after 55-70 zones would be the ones from NtoV bosses in T2, then the quest augs from T3, quest augs from T5, zone drop augs from both T6 zones, zone drop augs from T7, zone drop and quested augs from T8.

This is definitely helpful. I will look into the augments and plan accordingly. There just seems to be a massive gap post-seb.

About LDONS, well, they are nice for xp and cash and you can indeed get some points there that will allow you to buy very nice items when you have done many many of those adventures. Fastest way is, as previously said, to hunt World Boss (but you don't have the gear for it yet), buy it in Bazaar or donate.

I started hunting world bosses, gave a few hours to the effort but only found 2 up. Those 2 definitely felt easier than kael/ssra named. What kind of spawn timer do these guys carry? Thought I had read 12 hours?

[Sian]

Then I guess you probably hit tiers 0 world Boss ? Otherwise I am surprised that you managed to kill them...but I don't clearly remember what gear/level I was when I first tried to kill them. Those world boss are hard to find up because everybody hunts them for the World Boss Hunter quest which can be triggered once you have finished the Headhunter quest (I hope you have triggered it because the reward is really really nice and makes you hunt in different places).
As far as I know, they are on 24h respawn timer.

[Tyhanna]

Then I guess you probably hit tiers 0 world Boss ? Otherwise I am surprised that you managed to kill them...but I don't clearly remember what gear/level I was when I first tried to kill them. Those world boss are hard to find up because everybody hunts them for the World Boss Hunter quest which can be triggered once you have finished the Headhunter quest (I hope you have triggered it because the reward is really really nice and makes you hunt in different places).
As far as I know, they are on 24h respawn timer.

World bosses are the last I knew 24 +-8 hours.

[Tyhanna]

Like everyone else said, dont miss or by pass any content, the 1.5 is need before you can get the vp key. so in other words there are things that are needed for doing other things.

Personally I wouldnt have made a necro and mage,one or the other and would have made a wizard and bard in that mix. The chanter will be a good thing you'll see. Sks are good tanks but very low dps, but stand up to being feared.
It takes a while to get to that 10k ac or higher unless you donate to get it. You wont see the 10K+ till you get to the higher tiers.
Augs will come in time, do some ldons to get the pet focus aug.

Ive been playing on this server since aug of 2010 and ive retired one toon, changed what my line up was a few times. You may find when you get up into the tiers you might want to change what you box for many many reasons that I wont go into.

Do the 1.5 2.0, HH quest, world boss quest, and all zone quest along the way.

[keogh]

Well, I've taken everyones advice and ground out 5 of the epic 1.5's last night. This has led me to ask another question... My warrior... the epic 1.5 was 1H slashing, I have been using 2H slashing (major malfunction 148 dmg/38 delay) which essentially is a 4/1 ratio while all the 1H'ers I see available are 1.5/1 ratio. My memory is a bit rusty on agro, but I seem to recall a bunch of fuss about larger chunks of damage causing superior hate numbers than constant/faster/smaller amounts?

Anyways... is there a clear and decisive superior choice or is it situational and sometimes one style is better than the other?

While on the subject, is a shield truly worth the loss of DPS when most weapon choices are pretty close or superior to shield AC?

Appreciate all the suggestions, thank you all very much.

[bishbash]

Dual wield with warrior, and put some Kiss of Life augs on both your weapons. More chances to proc a lifetap heal

[Grey]

only time you might consider shield is if you pick up a doner shield and usually only if you leaf it. Maybe xeru shield.
Sometimes its better to use a shield, situational type of thing.

[jsre]

Just on shields.. Shield block is the most effective defensive aa there is. It's the equivalent of 1000 avoidance, or 4000 agi (assuming both were uncapped). Also, it's more effective as a damage reducer the higher your other defensive skills due to avoidance skills stacking - e.g. a flat 10% avoidance when you already avoid 50% of hits, is a 20% reduction in damage taken). When you start adding things like shaman's agi buff, or the donor aura, this stacking really starts to add up.

So a shield with the shield block AA is very helpful in situations where you can't quite tank a mob without one, and assuming your war can hold aggro.

When comparing 2x1H to a 2H for dps, add the 2x1h damage together and average the delay. Base dual wield rate is around 75-80%, so at the same sort of ratio the 2H should still outperform 2x1H in terms of raw weapon dps. You miss a lot of proc damage using the 2h though, which when you factor in things like the shaman/bard proc buffs make using 1h's generally far superior. Likewise for aggro.

Think THF have tweaked the way hate works, so you'll have to experiment to find the best way to generate aggro. A little spoiler though - once you have kiss of life augs and 1.5 or 2.0, your tank isn't going to be losing aggro easily.

[Ydiss]

Just on shields.. Shield block is the most effective defensive aa there is. It's the equivalent of 1000 avoidance, or 4000 agi (assuming both were uncapped). Also, it's more effective as a damage reducer the higher your other defensive skills due to avoidance skills stacking - e.g. a flat 10% avoidance when you already avoid 50% of hits, is a 20% reduction in damage taken). When you start adding things like shaman's agi buff, or the donor aura, this stacking really starts to add up.

So a shield with the shield block AA is very helpful in situations where you can't quite tank a mob without one, and assuming your war can hold aggro.

I've considered this as an option. I was wondering if the block focus effect increases the block chance when using this AA.

NM, I've found the answer here (from you )