Ac is out HP is in?

[BlackPlague]

Player: Hey you, what's your ac?

Player1gimpnon-contributingpartymember922: 45 why?

Player: Why are you using a tower shield if your ac is so low?

Player1gimpnon-contributingpartymember922: Lolz, what should it be at lvl 16?

Player: 55ish (....)

Player1gimpnon-contributingpartymember922: That's a lot of points spent on ac. I prefer hp.

Player: You wonder why you die so much in here? You're a manasponge. (something along those lines)

Player1gimpnon-contributingpartymember922: I die because no one's buffing and we're going too fast

Player3: ...

[Shiler]

What is this too fast hes talking about?
But at least he has hp right

[Bacab]

AC is a Fool's errand now (sadly)

DR and HP is where its at.

The baisic idea is "A good defense is a good offense".

If you kill the mobs before they can hurt you...your AC does not matter as much.

I consider offense=DPS and Crowd Control. If you can contribute to these...you are helping.

Trip/Improved Trip and Stunning Blow/fist is also crowd control.

[TheDearLeader]

Displacement is my best AC.

Also, what's a shield? Do I put at at the end of my Greataxe to make it swing harder?

[d4rkstars]

well, 45 at level 16 is very low for someone wearing a tower shield

the point is not to say AC is the only thing that matters - point is that if you are someone who invest in AC (as the tower shield wearing should imply) then you dont have enough


so he is basically right - either you have high AC - either you dont wear a tower shield (which lowers your dps a lot)

middle AC is totaly useless, there are many ways to avoid/reduce damages (as said in previous messages : displacement, blur DR, hit points, skill)


my lvl 15 melee, has 55+AC while TWF (and i dont have any stupid feat like two weapon blocking or dodge ...)

[Psyker]

If you are dieing the responsibility lies with YOU.

45 AC, while higher than average, is about the same as 10 AC at level 16 (enemies will hit on every swing except for a 1 whether you have 1 AC or 45AC at level 16), therefore rather than use a tower shield you need to use a two handed weapon or two weapon fighting so you can do more damage and kill them before they kill you.

One of the responses to why you are dieing is no one is buffing...what are you doing to buff? Do you have heroism, rage, or haste POTS? What about fire/acid/electric...resist? Do you have backup healing in case your healer gets killed or is not healing you enough?

Don't blame your party. Instead ask yourself "what should I be doing differently?"

[Bacab]

BTW...OP...Blackplague...

are you
Player1gimpnon-contributingpartymember922

*or*

Player

In this banter?

You for the 45 AC Tower Shield?

or Against it?

[Khanyth]

Also, what's a shield? Do I put at at the end of my Greataxe to make it swing harder?

I've been told that a shield is what they call your greataxe when it's turned sideways.

[Darkrok]

Also, what's a shield?

A returning ranged weapon for Captain America.

[TheDearLeader]

A returning ranged weapon for Captain America.

Holy sh-....

You're right. And that leads be to the big question:

Why do we have shields like the Epic Ward of Undeath, that deal Flaming Burst and Greater Undead Bane damage... but are not imbued with returning?

Turbine, GET ON THIS! XD

Also, enjoy my baby +1.

[bendover]

Displacement is my best AC.

Also, what's a shield? Do I put at at the end of my Greataxe to make it swing harder?

Displacement is for the weak! I say let them hit you. It's much more fun getting hit

[Seamonkeysix]

[Templarion]

What I have understood, yes. HP is in.

Either you go all the way to ac or not at all.

In the beginning of the game ac has more meaning but the beginning of the game is also the quickest part of the journey from 1-20. After level 17 the leveling starts getting more problematic and thats where you probably spent most of your time.

This is not fundamental truth - only based on my experience.

[grodon9999]

Either you go all the way to ac or not at all.

Not true. You can minimally invest in AC right now and break 70 (With power-attack on) which is useful in 90% of the situations where AC actually works. I do agree that gimping your DPS completely for AC is silly.

If you're at 16 with 45 AC, drop the friggin shield.

[BlackPlague]

My OP was neither actually about Ac vs Hp nor about Ac vs Dr

Since we are getting onto that subject, I'll quote an excellent sarlonian player "Unless you can raid buff into the 90s, Go Kensai." I think that unless you're at the top of your game with the top gear, dr and hp are currently more important. But that is only because since returning to the game my previously high ac toon has become a gimp. It has recently become my belief that the most important aspect of a build has actually become Healing Amp.

I was just posting some annoyance at a Pug.

All I can hope for is that the OP's target reads this thread and learns a few things...

[Fourfingers]

I'll quote an excellent sarlonian player "Unless you can raid buff into the 90s, Go Kensai."

From personal experience I'd disagree with that statement a little. My high AC toon has seen 87ac before and has rarely needed to stay that high. Being able to get an AC into the 80s has been good enough.

This is still assuming we're talking about AC and not music.

[caution]

I understand the issue caused by high-AC in a d20-based system which is why we say that low or average AC is useless (eg. 40 AC versus raid bosses).

What I have noticed from experience is my low AC builds are extremely squishy (comparatively weaker to the equivalent 'moderate' AC build). When a toon has a low AC, I seem to be getting hit more!

I first really noticed this with my gimped WF monk (ALL feats in improved DR, WIS score of 6) and tanks who just didn't bother with AC (like rangers who just wore robes for effects).

All the threads I have read over the years (I have been playing since Mod 3 or so) have always focused around achieving high AC and being un-hittable, very little discussion has been made towards impacts of low AC.

One theory I have is that mobs have an attack chain that is similar to ours with the whole -5, -10, -15 swing system. If this is true, then I am suspecting what I am seeing would suggest AC is not pointless, because as your AC starts getting over 20 points lower than the untouchable threshold, you will suffer more hits.

Also think about number of times a kobold has swung at you once but hit you 3 times!

I also understand that you will be crit-confirmed almost every time, but why do I notice is typically a stream of numbers comming off me rather than big crits??

For the ney-sayers, we also don't see a stream of 'missed' messages or mutliple attacks in the combat log, but is that because we don't see AI rolls/effects?

Before I try and prove such a radical concept (as I need to roll up new lowbies and screenshots), does anyone else notice this or think I am smoking too much??

[Therigar]

I don't know how it is on Sarlona but on Ghallanda, Cannith and Orien it is HP unless you can have ~70 AC @ L16 (including party buffs, so standing/self-buffed ~62). It has been that way for 18 months or more on Ghallanda and just carried over to Cannith and Orien as they went live.

AC is a fools errand for most players -- especially new players who will not have the gear needed to get to 70+. The latest end game content and epic makes even that seem like paper.

It absolutely is all about DPS, HP and DR right now.

[Benjai]

..

[CaptainCameo]

I've been focusing my fighter build around hp, dr and dps. It's working out pretty well. I soloed the bloody crypt, tear, stormcleave outpost and redwillows ruins before level 6.

Yeah, when you have dr, you don't really need ac. It's one of those things now that's just "nice to have."