A simpleton confused about armor

[Maxxcore]

Hey guys!

So I just started playing melees, and I have questions pertaining to armor, and what level of armor I should be wearing as different classes. Namely, when is heavy armor worth the reduction in dodge? I was following a kensei fighter DPS build (Carpone's I think?) and he recommended light armor for maximum dodge. Currently I am playing a bladeforged SWF paladin, with adamantine plating, but I am wondering if I should swap that for the medium/light armor equivalents?

I know there was a time when even casters should wear heavy armor if possible, but I do not know what the current best settup is, I am often playing the meta 2 years after it's passed haha!

Thanks!

[archest]

I would say to use as much in the way of PRR and MRR and the heaviest armor you can without negatively effecting your build.

I have a main toon eldritch knight with mithril medium armor.
with feats that allow medium armor proficiency with out negatively effecting spell casting.

I think the game is more dependent on PRR and MRR and dodge than it s concerned with AC for characters.

Armor Class, also called AC, represents your chance to be missed by melee attacks.

https://ddowiki.com/page/Physical_Resistance_Rating

[Tilomere]

Endgame mobs have up to 600 or so to-hit, which means any AC less than 300 is treated as 0. So the current rule of thumb is that if you aren't getting more than 300 AC, wear light armor and use evasion to max dodge. The only exception to this rule is if you are face tanking mobs on a dps build with raw power creep, in which case you make your own rules up.

However, SSG is nerfing dodge. My best guess is that Casters will no longer be able to hit meaningful levels of dodge, and therefore should be building into wearing heavy armor and a heavy shield. An example plate/shield setup is here.

[droid327]

Endgame mobs have up to 600 or so to-hit, which means any AC less than 300 is treated as 0. So the rule of thumb is that if you aren't getting more than 300 AC, wear light armor and use evasion to max dodge. The only exception to this rule is if you are face tanking mobs on a dps build with raw power creep, in which case you make your own rules up.

What mobs have 600 to hit, and how often do you actually run into them?

[Tilomere]

What mobs have 600 to hit, and how often do you actually run into them?

High level red names, like dooms or dungeon/raid bosses. You generally run across 1-4 of them a dungeon, but if it is a raid you may be tanking them for 30 minutes straight.

[Bjond]

I would say to use as much in the way of PRR and MRR and the heaviest armor you can

MPRR is good, but you have the other part 100% backwards. Light > Medium > Plate for physical mitigation IF you build & gear for it. You loose FAR more dodge than you gain back PRR going for higher weights. A decent dodge build (rogue and/or monk) can even rig Cloth > Light for physical.

The outright killer for Cloth and Light is the MRR cap (50 & 100 respectively). However, from a practical standpoint, it's actually hard to get more than about 90~110 MRR on a Medium armor build without a defensive stance or PLs. Unless I can get around 130~140 MRR, I'm going to prefer Light+Evasion+100M to Medium+120M as a DPS. Picking cloth with only 50 MRR is choosing to be a pack stone and gearing for MRR Cap+30~50 can be very costly in terms of raid time (ie. cloth is NOT first-life or first-character friendly).

Build and role complicate things. There's more MPRR+HP support for Medium & Heavy. Some tank sets don't have non-Heavy options. The trade is typically around 7 dodge v 15 PRR for Medium v Heavy, which means Medium wins. It can be a lot more for Light v Medium, such as 12 dodge v 40 MPRR + 6 CON.

It's harder to heal dodgy builds, too. Incoming damage isn't as predicable. It requires faster response. It's a real grey area on what's best for tanks, but the top skull-pushing builds are mostly Heavy.

The final caveat is that if you just plain can't reach your armor's dodge cap, Heavy might be as good as it gets for you without a total build+gear rework.

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AC is a separate issue, but IMHO, the line is closer to 200 than 300 for trash mobs. And, it's highly variable for raid bosses. My tank has 430 AC. It's great for trash. Most of the raid bosses I tank hit every single time. Some whiff. It's weird. In general, I'm not a big fan of AC for raiding. It's more of a quest-only stat and then only if you get a LOT.

Oh, all of the above is "at cap". While leveling up, AC is King. Even 100 AC makes a big difference in epics. 50 AC in heroics is amazing. Everyone is so focused on building for level cap that advice can be grossly misinterpreted when context is sub-cap.