EQ2's GU52 - Toxic Expertise and XP Conversion

I heard it from a halfling that EverQuest 2's new game update, Monument and Might (aka GU52) is coming out today. I've already discussed the item proc nerf and research assistants so instead I'll look at two other subjects I'm interested in: Toxic Expertise and the XP conversion to AAXP for level 80 characters.

As a ranger, the change that may most affect me is the change of the Toxic Expertise passive ability in the Predator's Intelligence line from being an increased chance to crit spell damage (and thus poison) to taking away poison being able to crit and just having the ability add a straight percentage increase to poison damage. As a test, I attacked training dummies in my guild's hall and using Expert's Caustic Poison my average poison damage for 420 poison procs was 1316. Once the GU goes live, I'll conduct a similar test and see what the rate is. Perhaps I should have done more testing, but Expert's poisons are kind of expensive even when I make them myself.

Now, I should add that the test was conducted with no items that increase my spell damage crit percentage. Unlike a lot of players, I only wore one piece of jewelry that increased my spell damage crit percentage on a regular basis, so I figure my dps is going to take less of a hit than most players who min/maxed their toons.

The other item I'm going to look closely at is the conversion of regular experience to alternate achievement experience for level 80 characters. Right now I am at 183 AA points and with approximately 20 weeks to go til the next expansion, I'm wondering if I will hit the 200 point cap before November. If the conversion rate is significantly increased, I may start grinding out the Qeynos writs in Jarsath Wastes. Believe it or not, after almost three years of playing the game I still need a lot of faction with the Qeynos city guilds. Doing those quests would give me three benefits: gaining Qeynos faction, status for the guild and decent AAXP. I don't mind grinding so much if I am accomplishing multiple goals.

To establish a baseline I completed all four of the Qeynos city writs yesterday and found that my AAXP gain was only 1.5%. I'll be interested to see what the gain is the next time I log into EQ2.

That's all for now. I'll probably post the results next Tuesday. I'll try for Thursday, but I have the feeling that real life is going to get in the way.