AC can matter!

[scottmike0]

I see a lot of AC threads these days and want to let newer players in on some old threads with uber AC.

Westside build.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=174696

Highesxt possible AC thread

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=173504



Enjoy!

not bad but i got a monk who is planning to beat it soon muahaha and have 10/epic and more hp
right now theoritically my monk can reach a 98 soon it shall be +3 profane natural ac higher being at a 101 even though its 1 less than u mine isnt a triple-class so the dr beats everything and bein able to void strike just makes it much better

[KraahgDaAxe]

Iiiittttt'sssss Alliiiiivvveeee!

[TheDjinnFor]

not bad but i got a monk who is planning to beat it soon muahaha and have 10/epic and more hp
right now theoritically my monk can reach a 98 soon it shall be +3 profane natural ac higher being at a 101 even though its 1 less than u mine isnt a triple-class so the dr beats everything and bein able to void strike just makes it much better

lol necro.

[dmslasher]

not bad but i got a monk who is planning to beat it soon muahaha and have 10/epic and more hp
right now theoritically my monk can reach a 98 soon it shall be +3 profane natural ac higher being at a 101 even though its 1 less than u mine isnt a triple-class so the dr beats everything and bein able to void strike just makes it much better

you realize you just commented on a thread thats almost a year old?

[aristarchus1000]

at least the thread has useful discussion on AC thresholds for various content.

[kcru]

Not saying everyone needs a 70 AC endgame, because, I would be amazed to see a barb with that. I'm just saying, 10%-20% for enemies to miss you may not seem like a lot, but it's better than nothing and can make a big difference in various ways.

That is just my two cents.

I agree. Everyone posts the "never get hit" values. Getting hit only half the time is still pretty awesome (same as displacement). Getting hit 80% of the time doesn't suck either... that's the same as a Blur, which is highly desirable.

Add in the fact that all of these scenarios stack with displacement/blur, and then you can reduce that damage by DR, and it all contributes to a lower healing load and makes it more likely that your friendly cleric can keep you alive and/or not run himself out of mana (at which point you'll die anyway if you're always getting hit.)

If you stay alive you'll be around longer to deliver the damage that you "give up" for extra AC, it just takes longer. A lot safer though.

[Thrudh]

I agree. Everyone posts the "never get hit" values. Getting hit only half the time is still pretty awesome (same as displacement). Getting hit 80% of the time doesn't suck either... that's the same as a Blur, which is highly desirable.

Add in the fact that all of these scenarios stack with displacement/blur, and then you can reduce that damage by DR, and it all contributes to a lower healing load and makes it more likely that your friendly cleric can keep you alive and/or not run himself out of mana (at which point you'll die anyway if you're always getting hit.)

Excellent post... Something the vets seem to forget a lot... An AC that gives you 50% protection STACKED with displacement is extremely useful AC.

10 lower than those "never get hit" values is much easier to achieve without gimping your DPS.

[-Satureon-]

http://imageshack.us/clip/my-videos/59/sygd.mp4/

http://imageshack.us/clip/my-videos/862/fsab.mp4/

sorry for the bad resolution (original file was 4+1 GB, compressed to 50+15MB)

Satureon: 84+5 beholder proof ac, 42-44 unbuffed str.
Self buffed ac atm: 84+ 1 haste + 2 recitation if need+ 4 boost +5 block
Could have more 3 with the time when get +4 dex tome and some lesser modify/additional crafting.

Atm better to have nice dps than uber ac. but why can't be both?

[sirgog]

68ish is enough to see misses predominantly from Harry. Ditto for Sulu in VoD (I think completely immunity is about a 72).

Both are +56 to-hit on Normal, 53 if you bother with Waves of Exhaustion.

50 if you add in a hit or 20 with a Strength Sapping weapon.

[phillymiket]

I guess, barring awesome gear, AC is useful depending on what you are doing.

My first life as a monk I tried to get AC but at cap realized it was pointless and switched to pure DPS while grinding raids and epics.

Now I'm doing a halfling AC build as I level quickly because I'm just going to TR at 20 and there is no need to run much elite content or grind raids.
AC is awesome for that. There is nothing like running through the vale explorer with no healer near you and taking no damage and only needing to stop when the area is clear while others need to return and repair, buff and get more SP.

You can really level fast with an AC build.

Ultimately I may switch back to DPS depending on what AC I can obtain when I'm done TRing and will stay at 20.

[Zildoran]

With around 60-65 ac on my capped monk right now with easily accessible gear I find it isn't useful in a lot of the endgame content. It was great until after Vale, then I find I usually just switch to DPS focused gear, Garments of Equilibrium or DT with a guard effect. I wouldn't say it was a waste, but I could have hit almost the same numbers on a Half-Orc Strength/Wisdom build and had vastly superior dps.

It requires a lot of grind to reach that 72-80 AC...combat expertise (more sacrifice dps), insight weapons, chattering ring. I just don't see it worth it for a big drop in dps compared to hitting twice as hard.

I do agree that it made leveling easier and probably helped the healers in the party keep some of their sanity

[grodon9999]

It requires a lot of grind to reach that 72-80 AC...combat expertise (more sacrifice dps), insight weapons, chattering ring. I just don't see it worth it for a big drop in dps compared to hitting twice as hard.

That's simply not true, if turning off power-attack makes you hit half as hard you're doing something really, really wrong!

With the modern gearing and buffs we have available 80 AC is possible while TWFing on a STR build. Their is SOME DPS loss (actually that depends . . .) but half? Come on . . .

[Arlathen]

With the modern gearing and buffs we have available 80 AC is possible while TWFing on a STR build. Their is SOME DPS loss (actually that depends . . .) but half? Come on . . .

Jumping in on the end of this thread, but just thought I'd say I have a build planned to hit 74AC while TWF and in Power Attack mode. Struggling to find a way to push this much higher tho...

[dunklezhan]

Whilw zombies are not generally good resources to study if you want to know how the living work, in this case I deem this case of necromancy... acceptable.

AC is one of those things I've just not been able to acheive - I haven't tried because of all the 'AC doesn't matter' type stuff. Based on my experiences so far I still don't really see how I personally am going to acheive the sorts of numbers you need at L10+ without masses of specialist hard to get gear (that I'm not prepared to grind for), even for a 20% miss rate, but its good to hear an acknowledgement that an AC target doesn't have to be 'only hit on a nat 20' to be worth it.

[Jiirix]

Those numbers are horribly distorted
25+ in 1-4 and you'll never get hit, which means 15-ish still gets missed
30-32 ac is all you need for all the quests up to Desert / Gh, and still never be hit.

Desert is around 44-ish to never get hit
gh is around 52 ish to get missed a lot, (still get high in madstone and trial though)

50-ish to never get hit in vale
same for orchard.

That's nice info, regardless that it is a year old. My guildies told me to get rid of my mithral breastplate because I only have 33 AC unbuffed on my level 9 char. Reading this thread I think I'll keep it till gh.

[Emili]

Depends on gear balancing...

Back when monk was comming out and we discussed the synergies of such for rangers I stated that the splash was very much OP in face of building an applicable AC build for the time, It gained a lot of AC with little expenditure to DPS output - EinarMal - posted the build many of us touted was the next does-it-all in a single package toon. The SnB back at that time could barely compete with such.

Today with sets like ravager, shintao, eClaw gloves, guards ... the amounts of off placed dps rivals AC gear ...

[Pintail]

[QUOTE=Absolute-Omniscience;3116729]Those numbers are horribly distorted
25+ in 1-4 and you'll never get hit, which means 15-ish still gets missed

Unfortunetly not true. My monk had a 32 ac in wind stance at level 3 and was hit twice and killed by the Ogre
at the end of Ringleader in harbor. Crits still hit and hit hard.

[redraider]

AC all depends on what you want to do. So much of the forums are focused on epic - which I completely ignore - and in epic - ac is generally useless unless you can hit the 85+ numbers.

For those of us who enjoy the journey from 1-20 much more than end game grinding, AC is a LOT of fun. And yes, all the way through Amarath AC is worthwhile. In the brand new lvl 17 quests (Xoriat series in the Twelve), a mid 60's AC makes you uber on Norm (haven't run hard or elite yet).

If you solo a lot, AC on a decent DPS build makes the journey very cool.

40's in the desert.

50's in GH and the vale.

60's and 70's in RR, Amarath, and IQ.

My TWF dual Kop 18/2 Ftr/Rog Stawart Defender could hit low 80's self buffed and run Sin's elite solo quite neatly (I didn't say easily...). I think that's the best test, not some epic grind...

[NaturalHazard]

I guess, barring awesome gear, AC is useful depending on what you are doing.

My first life as a monk I tried to get AC but at cap realized it was pointless and switched to pure DPS while grinding raids and epics.

Now I'm doing a halfling AC build as I level quickly because I'm just going to TR at 20 and there is no need to run much elite content or grind raids.
AC is awesome for that. There is nothing like running through the vale explorer with no healer near you and taking no damage and only needing to stop when the area is clear while others need to return and repair, buff and get more SP.

You can really level fast with an AC build.

Ultimately I may switch back to DPS depending on what AC I can obtain when I'm done TRing and will stay at 20.

esp if the ac build is a tr with all the gear laid out?

[NaturalHazard]

[QUOTE=Pintail;3872848]

Those numbers are horribly distorted
25+ in 1-4 and you'll never get hit, which means 15-ish still gets missed

Unfortunetly not true. My monk had a 32 ac in wind stance at level 3 and was hit twice and killed by the Ogre
at the end of Ringleader in harbor. Crits still hit and hit hard.

you could have a AC of ! billion and you would prob still get hit by those attacks, those crits where prob 20's the ogres use clubs right so 20 to crit? dont think they are impact clubs or have improved crit blunt at that level.

A roll of 20 always hits, then you got grazing blows............. I hate grazing hits, or what ever its called.