Tradeskill Alternate Advancement

Alternate Advancement of all types is commonly called AA. Instead of gaining a new spell or combat art automatically, as is the case with leveling up, players earn individual points that can be "spent" to refine existing skills or add extra abilities. Pressing L while in-game opens the user interface window with all AA options for both adventure skills and tradeskills. For more details on the general way Alternate Advancement (AA) works, see the article on Alternate Advancement.

Tradeskill Alternate Advancement was added with Live Update 61, so that players can customize their tradeskill-related abilities without diverting points from the adventure-focused Alternate Advancement (AA) trees. Prior to the launch of the Destiny of Velious expansion in February 2011, points for Tradeskill AA and the various AA trees for adventuring were pulled from the same pool of AA points. This change granted players the freedom to customize their characters with equal respect for both types of game play.

How Tradeskill AA Points are Earned
Tradeskill AA points are unaffected by the AA slider that gold members (paid subscribers) can adjust freely to apply bonus AA gain for skills adventure-focused abilities. Instead, Tradeskill AA is gained naturally after players reach level 10 in a tradeskill, until they reach a maximum of 40 points (at level 18) to spend on skill customization.

Basic Benefits of Tradeskill AA
This type of AA provides bonuses to harvesting and general skills that are used in the crafting process. Players who've already begun working on the tradeskill will recognize many of the skill modifiers for this type of AA from the crafting process; most can effect the speed at which a crafted item is completed, boost the chance of successful completion, improve the durability, and more. Likewise, any player whose interest extends to harvesting materials for the purpose of crafting, will see the advantages of adding AA points to boost skill.

When players reach level 90 in their chosen trade, a new type of customization system unlocks and points are gained in a similar manner. While this second tree is often referred to as Tradeskill AA in casual conversation too, it is a part of the Prestige Talent System. For more details, see the article on Tradeskill Prestige for details.