Dear gearheads, After reading this epic thread about worn AC and reading about the mechanics of avoidance and mitigation, I did the math on my iksar beastlord and realized I'm already over the soft cap of 350, with a mitigation AC value of 393, if I calculate correctly (Edit: and I didn't: worn AC 393, mitigation AC 354). That means if I put on 10 more AC of gear, I gain only 1 AC of value from it. Womp womp. My question is: is it feasible in this era to go hard on AC on a beastlord and achieve enough mitigation to tank things Paladins and SKs tank? Or is it better to just hit the AC softcap, then go for other cool bonuses like additional HP, focus effects, Aura of Battle, Flowing Thought, clickies, etc? The beastlord softcap is 350 and Paladin/SK/cleric/bard is 403. To hit 403 on my beastlord, I would need 530 additional worn AC (impossibru), or 1,060 more agility (lol). I think I may farm an Orb of the Infinite Void to use when tanking tough stuff, as shield AC goes over the softcap (or "raises" it). I'd appreciate any input, especially from more experienced players of beastlords, rangers, monks, etc.
Beastlord will never be on the same level as knights. The first issue is a simple lack of AC - even with busted Velious and Luclin itemization, plate armor offers a compounding advantage. Knights have a higher AC softcap, better AC returns after the softcap, and more worn AC. The other big part of having more AC is, as you have already realized, wearing a shield. When a knight is using a 55ac shield and you're using a 35ac shield, you're still falling behind. Beastlords don't lose as much from a shield as, say, Rangers (because Beastlord offhand DPS is the same as a bard's, AKA joke status), and while you're elevating your mitigation game it's coming with a substantial tradeoff. The other issue beastlords have over knights is HP. Knights just get more of it. In PoP, the difference might be 1k hp, for now it will be less. When CHeal is the game's defining heal, your smaller HP pool means it takes much more mana to keep you up even if you manage to mitigate the same. Beastlords do have some tricks in their toolbox that knights don't have. So while you'll never take hits like a Paladin, getting in quick slows or tossing in a quick /disc when a big mob rolls into you before heals are coming steady do give you the ability to do the job adequately enough in most group content. As far as how to gear, there aren't a ton of choices out there (yet). Where you do get choices, you will have to pick and choose where to be successful and accept the tradeoffs that come with that. The Best-in-Slot dream gear scenario I built on AK had, compared to what I had when we were sunset, some 150 less displayed AC, slightly lower resistances, less flowing thought, and nearly 100 less displayed ATK; I accepted those tradeoffs to gain a 15% mana pres (from 10% that I had), 35% cold nuke focus (from none), 900 HP and 800 mana. Right now, the best gear by and large chooses itself--when I look at Tigree's gear I don't see a whole lot of instances to drop stat x to pick up stat y in any meaningful way besides dropping some +stats to pick up 10% mana pres or ID3--a lot of people like to ask this question in a vacuum without considering the context of the lack of options in our era EverQuest. TLDR; you're never going to tank like a knight, best gear is best gear ain't many choices about it until endgame PoP.
Lulu summed it up nicely! I'd add that if all you care about is surviving melee damage, then the question isn't 'how much AC?' but 'how to balance AC vs. HP?' Even with 10% overcap returns, more AC is always better. Gearing for AC usually means losing some HP, though. Understanding how to navigate that trade-off isn't trivial. The answer depends on your class, but also on your focus (group vs. raid content, spot heals or HoTs vs. CH, long-run average heal efficiency vs. survivability in the worst-case scenario, etc.). As a general rule of thumb, for a raid-focused BL in Velious healed by a cleric, I'd probably value 1 AC at about 1 HP. I'd value AC a bit more if my focus was long-run efficiency in exp groups or if I usually rolled with a shaman or druid healer. YMMV, though! These things are largely a matter of taste. Even for tanks, once you're in baseline raid gear it just doesn't matter all that much (at least in Velious) whether you go hard on AC, HP or some combination of the two.
Oops. Correction: my worn AC is 393, so my mitigation AC is 354. Sad! Ok, thanks for the tips, folks. Sounds like I can just choose the best item on a slot-by-slot basis. However, considering the bst AC softcap and what Lu said, I may trade out some AC for hp, even if it's a so-so trade. I box cleric and necro. HP will increase CH efficiency, help deal with damage spikes, and help with raid AEs. Thanks folks! I hope this discussion helps other people fine-tune gear choices.
Not at level 60 with TAKP code with pitiful monk returns and softcap. An enterprising soul could rip the one off the DBG forums and make the handful of necessary modifications.
There's a formula on the wiki for figuring it out, but it's not too bad to do the calculations yourself. Just add up all your worn AC (exclude the shield for now). Multiply the total worn AC by 1.33333 with a calculator. Subtract your classes softcap AC value from the number you get. Then you just find out what % overcap returns you have, and figure out what X% of the remaining AC is. I honestly find this way easier since Torven has confirmed himself that each worn AC point is more like 1.33333 AC. Shield itself you should be able to just add to the softcap straight up. So 403 knights go to 458 base with the 55 AC shield from NToV equiped. Works that way for all classes, but I believe the offhand item needs to be classified as a shield, so I guess the ability to bash with it? I'm not 100% clear on that part.
Don't forget to add defense skill/3, spell AC/4, and agility/20 to the pre-softcap mitigation AC. http://wiki.takp.info/index.php?title=Calculating_Your_Mitigation_AC
Shmak, I bet your AC is already over the softcap. Let me know? Knights get 1/6 of their AC over the softcap, which is better than most. With plate armor, it may be worth it to go hard on AC. 120 more worn ac would be 20 more mitigation AC for you.
Sure, the Knight gets ~75 AC and a 10% better HP table. But in your trio the Beastlord will if anything have more HP with Talisman, Stamina, and Spiritual Strength. And Block/Stonestance should more or less compensate for the AC. I wonder why I don't see more Beastlords with shields. Beastlords don't get high ratio 1H weapons like Knights, but the warder should more than compensate for that. I know that I am always wearing my Orb while pulling - it's +10% AC for my scrub monk. Something like this for sure. I think people used to PoP overvalue AC in Velious, where the softcap returns are less and HP totals are lower.
