AC > HP? or vice versa?

[Sanori]

I am currently in mostly Helanic Tundra. I'll be adding one more Valorium Ring of Gallantry and 2 Electrified Earrings of Tempest. That will bring my hp to about 4150 and ac to 1275. I have the Corroded Plate Guants and Helm, but I don't think I'll finish the quest for the helm. I have playing with Magelo to see what Warlord's does for me, since we'll looking that direction in the not-too-far future.

I noticed that when I threw in some pieces of Warlord's gear, such as the helm, legs, and boots, that my ac rose but my hp dropped (since Helanic has such nice hp on it).

So my question is, should I take the 200hp hit from Warlord's and get the extra 20ish ac? My guild does not raid PoP yet, I am the guild MT, but I do hunt in PoP a lot for xp and AA.

One thing I considered was keeping my Helanic gear for pre-PoP raids and then throw the Warlord's stuff on for PoP hunting. But it would be a pain in the arse to carry it around, or bank it and have to make frequent visits to the bank.

Discuss...

[Sanori]

Let me rephrase...

I would obviously swap out the Helanic guants for the Myrmidon Guants, and the Helanic BP for the Warlord's BP because they are clear upgrades. But the rest of the stuff is a trade off of hp for ac...

[Jysin]

As it stands, I wouldnt trade off your hitpoints for AC. If your guild dosent touch anything, and specifically if you dont MT raids in PoP, I wouldnt ditch 200hp for 20ac. Thats pretty harsh regardless which expantion youre playing on.

Keeping in mind that in PoP the returns for AC are much greater, you can start now by keeping in mind what items you go in bids / rolls for. Make sure its a nice balance of AC and HP. You dont want to fall short in either one.

Hope this helps.

[Shikarii]

1275AC and 4K+ hp's at 60 isn't nothing to sneeze at..i can't open magelo's here; so i am wondering what/how many aa's you have..
usually it's a tradeoff for 1AC=10 hp's; but it's almost an even trade for you; so i'd stay with the more hit points and get 61 with the planar durability ( i think it's called that so you can go over 255 in stats ) and than try out the armours again in your pofiles to see if you're past the 255 stamina cap with the warlords gear.

[Sanori]

Shikarii I have 18 AAs - RS3, Regen3, and ND3.

I guess my mode of thought is that the 20ac I'll get by adding Warlord's to my profile will not mitigate enough damage in PoP xp grinds to make up for the 200ish hp I would lose.

In addition, I would rather spend the time it would take me to get to ally with giants, by doing AAs and getting CA3 and CS3. I am betting the mitigation from CA3 and CS3 would blow 20ac out of the water.

And lastly, in PoP groups I tend to find my stats being mostly maxed by buffs already - especially strength and stamina. Once I add my Myrmidon BP, I am not sure the 5ac upgrade on the Warlord BP would be worth the hours spent factioning.

If there's any difference of opinion...please do post.

[Shikarii]

most of my guildmates have scattered pieces of myrmi/warlords/cultural...i think you're best bet (although time consuming) is to just keep plugging your magelo account with the pieces and see how it pans out )

overall from what i remember; most of my guildmates have myrmi gloves, warlords arms and legs and maybe helm; bracers are usually the BoB or cultural ones..but i'd stick with your gear now since it sounds like losing the 200 hp's will hurt you more than gaining 20AC; and your next few AA's will definately help out your hit point level your at now.

my guess would be start getting the next level of items ( vindi or statue BP ); and depending on guild progress start some ST keying or if you're still on CoV faction go smack up Dozer if it's an option on your server. We wer e fortunate to have Dozer available to us and the benefits of the quest items there are still worth hanging on to in terms of what we fight ( just about halfway ready for VT )

[Friedrick]

Personally I would do the Warlord's helm and gloves if you get them. I would not do the boots or legs, they don't have the hps as you already know that your current ones do. But, the Gloves and Helm would be upgrades both HP and AC wise. Unless I missed something in your Magelo, your stamina was only like 167 so you have quite a ways to go to max it.

I would exp in WW personally to kill the faction/exp birds with one stone. Honestly the factioning for Kael wasn't that bad. I did it in a week or so killing in SS to get my Warlord's BP. Killing green mobs sucked but it beat continuing with my Indicolite BP. All you need is to get non Kos to Kromzek, then turn in Dwarf heads or Kobold paws. I was still kos to Rif and Tmax when I did my turn in. The train leaving was very memorable, LOL.

You may consider a Helanic Tundra Cloak as well. Very nice cloaks as you would trade off 6 AC or so for some very nice HPs. Your AC is quite good for your level and gear and you probably wouldn't miss a few here or there for the right HP upgrade. I would wear one but I have shroud of the Dar Brood so I don't want to give up the haste. I wear the belt instead :)

Friedrick - 63rd Warlord on Tunare Server

[Sanori]

Friedrich thanks for the input.

I was actually in the process of having a Helanic cloak made but chose to go with the Lodi Shield for the resists. With the Shield, my bracers, and the Tempest earrings, I can almost get away with not switching any gear out for HoT.

I'm also working the Loyalist Shield of Honor quest.

[Smakz]

Keep the cultural, the raw HP it gives far outweigh the AC you get with warlords. your AC can be augmented through other slots, till you start raiding things to upgrade your cultural with (stuff with equal or greater HP and more ac).

[Froog]

Keep Hps over ac =) 200 hps greater than 20 ac

Froog
65 Marshal War
RoD

http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=392020

[Brudal the Fat]

HP is more important in all cases imo. Never would drop even 2hp for more ac but I am a HP whore to so up to you.

[Gahid]

here's what I've learned about upgrading equipment - I can think and wish about what I want, and I can toy with my Magelo till my fingers bleed, but in the end I always just use what I can get :)

At 1200+ac and 4723 unbuffed hp with only ND2, it's seemed to work out quite nicely :p Although I'd consider myself far from uber :)

HP>AC usually, imo, after reading about some ac parses. Hell, I use a Hammere Golden Hoop still, even though it's -15ac.

[Federiko]

HP > AC to a point...go for raw hit points rather than STA gear. All the time I see people piling on STA gear when it doesn't help anything besides your Magelo. You'll get a 60 STA buff on a raid or some exp groups, use it to your advantage.

Raw HP > AC > STA

[Callon]

The old wisdom was something like 10 hp = 1 AC if you're below the pre PoP AC softcap (roughly 1260) on your average hunts. Parses in PoP have showed a higher or nonexistent cap to AC, but gains from it that don't justify 10hp for every AC. Based on what I've seen on the boards and my own experience, I'm using around 4-5hp = 1 raw AC to judge gear. I know some people value AC even less than that.

You might keep the 1260 figure in mind for hunting older zones if you're below it but it doesn't look like you have much trouble with that, especially if you add some buffs.

[EmiliaEQ]

Its relative....
For non PoP HP = King

As for PoP
A few parses have showed that +100ac is 2% less dps taken.
(Check the threads, numbers arent totally exact but they seem ok)
Thus 100ac will give you 2% more hp (since you'll take 2% less dmg)

This is a very blunt formula :

1200ac 6000hp +100ac = 2% more hp = 120hp virtually gained
So 1300 6000 = 1200 6120

1400ac 8000hp +100ac = 2% more hp = 160hp virtually gained
So 1500 8000 = 1400 8160

For me atm :
1800ac 9600hp +100ac = 2% more hp = 192 hp virtually gained

After some point it is insanely hard to raise your HP.
Raising ac is still relatively easy and will give you more benefit.

Btw : Call of the Rathe is your friend. So are bards :)
Btw: Dont forget to use ND3/PE/PD3 when comparing items for PoP