Defense mod question

[loyalty]

How valuable is percentage defense modifier vs ac. Currently trying to decide if I should the powerful plate helm with 10 more ac and 50 hp or use the traitor helm with 14 percent defense. Thanks for any input

[Sian]

The % defense will raise your ac too. If there is only 10 ac difference both on raw stats, the helm of traitor will give you more ac in the end when equipped since it will raise ac again. Or did you mean that once equipped, there is only 10ac difference ?

[Stickybuds]

If your a tank, i would hold onto that helm with the %def mod until you find another item with % def mod (and you will, there are several for tanks, and several for non tanks too).

[Deadspirit]

Make sure your looking at the #mystats command when you make decisions on armor.

The stat valuation from inventory will not provide correct numbers. Run your own tests with #mystats.

[Noren]

A high defense skill % mod is pretty awesome for a tank, and contributes AC that affects avoidance but not mitigation. My understanding is this:
All classes have an AC softcap, and there is no hard cap for EQemu servers unless it was explicitly put in (take that with a grain of salt, because I haven't verified it).

According to our ChaosSlayer (/wave!):
http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showpo ... ostcount=1

RULE_REAL ( Combat, NPCACFactor, 2.25)
RULE_INT ( Combat, ClothACSoftcap, 75)
RULE_INT ( Combat, LeatherACSoftcap, 100)
RULE_INT ( Combat, MonkACSoftcap, 120)
RULE_INT ( Combat, ChainACSoftcap, 200)
RULE_INT ( Combat, PlateACSoftcap, 300)
RULE_REAL ( Combat, AAMitigationACFactor, 3.0)
RULE_REAL ( Combat, WarriorACSoftcapReturn, 0.45)
RULE_REAL ( Combat, KnightACSoftcapReturn, 0.33)
RULE_REAL ( Combat, LowPlateChainACSoftcapReturn, 0.23)
RULE_REAL ( Combat, LowChainLeatherACSoftcapReturn, 0.17)
RULE_REAL ( Combat, CasterACSoftcapReturn, 0.06)
RULE_REAL ( Combat, MiscACSoftcapReturn, 0.3)
RULE_REAL ( Combat, ACthac0Factor, 0.55)
RULE_REAL ( Combat, ACthac20Factor, 0.55)

If you look closely, you'll see all of the softcaps. As a warrior, you're looking at
300 + (35 + 2 from max def AAs) for a total of 337 raw ac softcap.

Once the cap is reached, all raw item AC has a diminishing return of 45% for warriors.
Let's say your warrior has 7630 raw AC from all items and augs (no buffs). You then have

337 + (7630-337)*.45 = 337 + 3281.85 = 3618.85 total raw AC
That's right your AC is not nearly effective as #mystats might have you believe.

Raw item AC determines your mitigation and chance for enemies to 'miss' attacks on you. Generally, the more AC you have, the more likely the hits against you will not be max hits. I have witnessed tanks with 1k difference in AC take the same max hits on THF, fwiw.

Avoidance AC from from agility and defense skill contributes a different kind of AC. It has no effect on mitigation, but it does affect your chance to avoid damage. I don't know the raw numbers, but my anecdotal experience was that defense skill mods are pretty awesome.

Shields are exempt from the diminishing returns. You will get all 100% of the shield AC and any augs on it, but it's unclear to me whether the shield must be in the secondary slot or not to qualify.

If you'll take a look at Urahara (I'll pick on Beatboxin for a moment!)
You'll notice that he used to wear Shield of the Omniscient in secondary, but swapped it out for one with 4 aug slots. Why? Because he can and should pile up ALL of the AC that he can on a shield because it's penalty-free. He is getting 615 raw item AC from his current shield. Smart guy.

Further reading:
http://samanna.net/gen.info/effects.shtml#4
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index ... d-you.160/
http://www.monkly-business.net/forums/s ... hp?t=16555

[Argonas]

Defense mod is an indispensable avoidance boost. I'd recommend always having your highest possible equipped.

As far as the ac softcaps go, I dont think THF uses interval ac which is where those rules apply. But i could easily be wrong. It has been a while hehe.