AC is only good for monks!

[Aranticus]

One word:
Stoneskin.

stoneskin might not cover all the damage absorption due to it being DR10/adamantine. as of mod 8, shroud, vod, hound mobs are unable to bypass adamantine, come mod 9, not sure how is the trend going. most notable raid boss able to bypass stoneskin is reaver

gawd you idiots, stop casting ss in reaver!

[Aranticus]

Well, since they get +10% resistance to Grazing blows every 4 levels, and everybody already gets 50%, then they'll already be at 100% resistance to Grazing blows at level 20 anyways (if the bonuses add like that).

doesnt work that way. the bonuses are not additive. the heroic durability feat reduce incoming grazing by 50%, if you slap on a tower, its 50% of the 50% so you still get 25% damage coming in. no amount of grazing resistance will get it to 0, only DR can

[Aranticus]

***EDIT: the question now is how many of the grazing hits are going to be magical? My understanding is that they will be slashing/bludgeoning/peircing. Anyone know for sure?

Val

high AC is most useful in tanking situations ie raid bosses, where they matter, DR magical is useless. note that after GH the proportion of mobs with magical attacks increases

[Aranticus]

I cannot confirm personally, but a guildie who has spent a lot of time on Llama land said he got hit by an elite orthon defender for a 45 pnt glancing blow... insane if true, but that would fit with your analysis.

are you referring glancing to grazing? if a regular barb does 35 glancing on a thf, it wouldnt amaze me that an elite orthon can do more

if you are referring to grazing then read this

This is correct.

Still working through the thread, but I just ran numbers for the following builds vs. an Elite Orthon Defender.

On Normal: (Monster Grazing Hits on 15+)
2 AC Guy: Takes an average of 28.65 points of damage per swing from an EOD.
100 AC Guy without a shield: Takes an average of 4.275 points of damage per swing.
100 AC Guy with a large shield: Average 3.61875 damage per swing.
100 AC Guy with a tower shield: Average 2.9625 damage per swing.

On Elite, our guy hits harder, and Monster Grazing Hits are on 10+:
2 AC Guy: Takes an average of 45.84 points of damage per swing from an EOD.
100 AC Guy without a shield: Takes an average of 11.39 points of damage per swing.
100 AC Guy with a large shield: Average 9.2025 damage per swing.
100 AC Guy with a tower shield: Average 7.015 damage per swing.

There's a significant benefit for keeping your AC up, converting swings that would have been real hits into grazing hits. I think there's still quite a reason to work on AC, as you're still preventing 3/4 of the damage you are taking while also negating any secondary effects of the attacks (except on a roll of a 20). If the monster has on-hit effects attached to its attacks, the differences between grazing hits and normal ones become even more pronounced.

[DragoonPenguin]

You could always go with

Kaelth's Touch - (Trinket) Undead Guard, Faith (Grants DR 5/evil).

except for those fun mobs ive hears that will be added to the endgame in the coming mods. devalz or something... i dunno for sure but i think their attacks are evil aligned

[Inspire]

Actually a couple guildies have been trying other specifically built high AC "grazing proof" characters with more DPS potential than Monks.... monks are not the only exception to AC come M9.

[Comfortably]

Actually a couple guildies have been trying other specifically built high AC "grazing proof" characters with more DPS potential than Monks.... monks are not the only exception to AC come M9.

I am surprised how many people started posting in this thread. I was just trying to get a rise outa all the monk haters out there. But, there have been some great Q's/A's as a result and for that I am happy.

[Comfortably]

I'll put my monk's DPS up against any barbarian's DPS against Sorjek any day of the week. Arrae? Of course not, because turbine gimped handwraps, but that's a different discussion.

I'd still like to see the math behind this statement Sam, I have a feeling that the math may invalidate the quoted statement.

[Inspire]

I'll put my monk's DPS up against any barbarian's DPS against Sorjek any day of the week. Arrae? Of course not, because turbine gimped handwraps, but that's a different discussion.

Im interested now, I have dual GS Warhammers on my G2wF Barbarian for the Abbot and Sorjek(and Raise/Amp);

• Holy/ Goodburst/ Goodblast
• Holy/ Goodburst/ Healing 30% Amp

with 46 strength and Barbarian PA3.

Now my Monk has;

• +2 Holy of GUB Handwraps
• Master of Thunder stance

and can double madstone to 32 strength.

Its close because of Wind Stance, but I think the Barbarian comes out on top just because of the 18-20 Goodburst damage, although an argument could be put in for FoL. Also it depends on how quickly the group could beat him down, over a longer period of time the monk speed may catch up but in most groups I run in Sorjek wouldnt last long enough for that to happen.

[Mobeius]

MY brother and I farmed the Symbiot, getting them on the 24th and 17th run respectively. Then we realized it has 1 freaking durabilty and breaks whenever you die. What a waste.

Anyone selling earth soul gems on Khyber?

Yea have to bind it and then do the adamantine rituals on it...

Golden Greaves are easier to come by and the Cursed Crypt Locket is good too.