SK - To AC or not to AC

[Jafir]

Hi, I've got some potentially complicated questions. I've been playing exclusively with a trio of IRL friends and don't foresee that changing. Ogre Shadow Knight (me), Troll Shaman, and Gnome Enchanter. I've tried to do a lot of reading about stat priorities and what to go for as a tank. It seems like with a Shaman healer HP is a lot less valuable because of a lack of Complete Heal. I've read a few comments here or there about AC being good to stack with a Shaman healer. I've also read comments that AC is an all or nothing stat and not to stack it unless you REALLY stack it. Are these comments true? If so to what extent? How would you balance HP/Resistances/AC with this trio?

Current Set (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Green:CurrentAC)
Future AC Set? (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Green:FutureAC)

Help me out. Am I being stupid trying to stack more AC, or is actually a valuable endeavor?

[Ripqozko]

Hi, I've got some potentially complicated questions. I've been playing exclusively with a trio of IRL friends and don't foresee that changing. Ogre Shadow Knight (me), Troll Shaman, and Gnome Enchanter. I've tried to do a lot of reading about stat priorities and what to go for as a tank. It seems like with a Shaman healer HP is a lot less valuable because of a lack of Complete Heal. I've read a few comments here or there about AC being good to stack with a Shaman healer. I've also read comments that AC is an all or nothing stat and not to stack it unless you REALLY stack it. Are these comments true? If so to what extent? How would you balance HP/Resistances/AC with this trio?

Current Set (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Green:CurrentAC)
Future AC Set? (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Green:FutureAC)

Help me out. Am I being stupid trying to stack more AC, or is actually a valuable endeavor?

Group or raid, raid hp>ac, group ac>hp, but strive for pieces with good both.

[Snaggles]

I used to remember the 10hps = 1 ac rule but people on p99 generally think that's aggressive in weighing AC. If that was the case, nobody would wear Hammered Golden Loops over conventional earrings. If your sham has torp it's really not a mana issue and slowed targets should be very easy to trio (like WW dragons).

That said, the comparison you showed is a huge step in AC for very little overall hps lost. I just would pick better 1h if you really want to move in that direction OR stay with 2h. Even torped a solid 2h is going to be multiple times more dps than the WESS. It's still likely double the DPS of a 1h (like a Sword of Pain which gives a free instant junk buff/GCD clicky). You might take a bit more damage over the course of a fight that lasts the same amount of time, but if you kill the npc even 10% faster (assuming + charmed pet) you will take 10% less damage.

If you want a general target for MR I would say 110-130 unbuffed is very useful for fighting blue cons. Having a few quick swap items like jacinth rings, runed bone fork, and a tranix crown though is handy.

[Keebz]

Stacking AC is probably fine, _if_ you aren't sacrificing too much stats. For example, some of the pieces are solid, like the Silver Chitin Bracers, Spike Seahorse Hide Belt and even the earrings. They bump your AC and stats. I'd get those. However, some of the pieces like the BE items w/o stats, the crystalline torque, and the gem encrusted ring are less than ideal. Don't get those. I'm also in the 2h camp, but if you want to test out sword/board from time to time, feel free, but don't use a WESS. Among other things mentioned above, the proc is super annoying.

This probably breaks your grouping rules, but if you wanted real upgrades to some of the other slots, you could try going to open HoT/WToV raids and getting some quest armor. Buying MQs is possible as well, but it's a lot of plat.

[Solist]

Group or raid, raid hp>ac, group ac>hp, but strive for pieces with good both.

This.

It’s really just that simple. No, really. It is. Stack AC. Win. Then get 60, raid, realise AC does nothing against anything raid related. Keep an AC set for group content until your gear is good enough you can’t tell the difference.

[Pint]

Good advice but its worth pointing out that you're not a warrior so stacking raid hp will never be necessary

[Solist]

I used to remember the 10hps = 1 ac rule but people on p99 generally think that's aggressive in weighing AC. If that was the case, nobody would wear Hammered Golden Loops over conventional earrings. If your sham has torp it's really not a mana issue and slowed targets should be very easy to trio (like WW dragons).


Those chardok earrings are worn by people who don't parse. They are unoquivically the worst earring to wear for any damage facing class. Great wizard, raid MT, ranger and AE damage rogue/melee earring. AC is game breakingly good on p99 currently for all but rangers.

[Danth]

Coming from a (mostly) non-raider shadowknight, long since 60, who typically duo's with a shaman, sometimes with an additional friend or two:

Careful of old threads on this board; P99 has changed a great deal over the years. All or nothing on AC was characteristic of years ago on P1999 when AC was implemented differently than it is now. Nowadays, due to changes over the years, AC has much more consistent returns against non-raid opponents.

If you're grouping mainly with a shaman, gear for AC first, but not totally to the exclusion of health. Torpor heals a fixed value, your shaman won't usually run out of mana, so you can kill just about anything you out-heal. Hence lowering the average damage roll you take (via higher AC) is the most useful thing you can do. That being said, you still have to be able to survive the "unslowed" part of a pull, too, as well as feign fails and such. There's little reason to wear, for example, a Blood Ember bracer when you can trade it for a second Silver Chitin wrist (they're not LORE) and you gain 40 more HP for a measly 1 AC loss. Likewise trade the neck for something with some health on it, the helm for one with nearly similar AC and HP, they're maybe a little harder to find but they're out there. You can of course use the cheaper pieces as filler in the meantime--not like they don't work, just something you can probably do better in the longer term. Shooting for 285-300 worn AC and 3000 unbuffed health as a non-raiding Ogre is very much do-able thanks to the Ogre's inherent statistic advantage, even with a 2H on. With a 1H weapon/shield it should be fairly straightforward. Don't forget as a non-raider you can access Thurgadin pieces via either MQ or Kael Drakkel farming (your trio can do it), and even Skyshrine or Kael armor (depent on faction) via MQ. Some of those pieces are worth looking in to.

The AC-based 1H is a fair idea. Don't sell the 2H; keep both. Mostly you'd only have a shield on during the unslowed part of a tough pull or when clearing through fairly tough things at a fast rate with a charm pet doing most the damage. In that case you'd probably dual-wield shields if you could and the damage you do with your 1H weapon is practically immaterial. You may elect to get the free 1H sword from Velketor--your trio can easily do the lower kobolds and free is nice. When you want to do damage you use the 2H.

Raiding entails different set of gearing considerations both because of raid mob ATK values and because of Complete Heal. There are a few raider players who seem to have forgotten what it's like to play the game normally, without temple veeshan gear or 50 people at their back. As always, read the advice posted and filter it as necessary--keep the good, toss the superfluous, use what you find useful for your own needs.

Danth

[Ripqozko]

Good advice but its worth pointing out that you're not a warrior so stacking raid hp will never be necessary

it helps tho, ive def had to MT on my pally for certain things, like lord bob.

[Snaggles]

Those chardok earrings are worn by people who don't parse. They are unoquivically the worst earring to wear for any damage facing class. Great wizard, raid MT, ranger and AE damage rogue/melee earring. AC is game breakingly good on p99 currently for all but rangers.

You might put up a post with some more insight. These are worn by a lot of raiding guild MT’s, warrior bots, and knights.

I’m not a fan of lost AC but just from everything I’ve heard and read the community (by large) is a supporter of them.

As for Pint’s comment on stacking Hp it’s true. That said having a buffer of hps helps with human error and mob rng. Often 100 worn AC on a casual geared basis is almost 800 hps.

[Solist]

The community at large are idiots. Most people suck at EQ.

[jolanar]

As a non raider I've always been an AC guy, both here and live.

But you rarely have to choose all or nothing, outside of the Golden Earring example. Most good gear has solid AC as well as str/sta/hp.

[Toxigen]

the easier the content, the better AC is

harder content, HP

pretty easy to understand

[Snaggles]

The community at large are idiots. Most people suck at EQ.

Well, yes that’s true :)

I was just hoping you had more to share since you mentioned parses and it being game breaking/making.

I’ll mess around a bit when time permits. Just lvl 60 pally but I can adjust about 100 worn AC including a sevelak shield. Should be able to calculate incoming (tanking) dps on a cliff golem with some healer help. A few fights averaged in each setup.

As a non raider I've always been an AC guy, both here and live.

But you rarely have to choose all or nothing, outside of the Golden Earring example. Most good gear has solid AC as well as str/sta/hp.



Exactly this. With a limited supply of items the best are stacked with all sorts of stats. Only a few head-scratchers outside the HGL

[Philistine]

I play a warrior and parsed HGLs vs Black Sapphire Electrum Earrings while leveling in The Hole for hours at a time and hundreds of kills (ie, not an amazing sample size, but not terrible), and experienced about a 4% increase in damage taken when tanking Slab and Docks mobs with the HGLs vs the Black Sapphire earrings and only a 1% damage increase when tanking GT mobs, which average a few levels higher.

Now that I'm 60 I've tried stacking AC while ramp tanking vindi compared to when I'm in full HP mode MT'ing Vindi, and am able to pull off a modest 150ish displayed AC difference. I've found that in RT/AC mode the average hit I take is about 20 less than in MT/AC mode. That said, my sample size here is very small (I've only thought to track this over the course of a few vindis).

Take this for whatever it's worth...which is probably not much :p

[PabloEdvardo]

AC is broken on p99, the numbers are way off and hard AC has barely the impact that it did on Live

tanks overwhelmingly used Kael armor back on live because of the higher raw (worn) AC, and they were parsing their mitigation back then to confirm it (something that wasn't as common in Vanilla/Kunark)

as a Live Shaman, AC was so good that there was a huge noticeable difference between shamans wearing leather/chain and shamans wearing "plate" with high AC. A set of Totemic or Jaundiced meant you took significantly less damage while slowing.

on p99 it's wildly different. You can't really "feel" the difference with higher worn AC like you could on live. There is some parsing which shows it still has an impact, but it's not definitive like it once was.

[Jimjam]

Well, yes that’s true :)

I was just hoping you had more to share since you mentioned parses and it being game breaking/making.

I’ll mess around a bit when time permits. Just lvl 60 pally but I can adjust about 100 worn AC including a sevelak shield. Should be able to calculate incoming (tanking) dps on a cliff golem with some healer help. A few fights averaged in each setup.





Exactly this. With a limited supply of items the best are stacked with all sorts of stats. Only a few head-scratchers outside the HGL

Yeah on the forums it is easy to assume BiS BiS BiS but the reality is you’re grouping in chardok between HoT, wexit, dragon raids … you’ve still got like a karana’s tear or sarnak earring of the station and a golden earring drops … of course you roll for it.

[Solist]

Vindi is a terrible mob to parse AC on. It don't mean shit for him.

[Solist]

AC is broken on p99, the numbers are way off and hard AC has barely the impact that it did on Live


AC hasn't been broken here for 5 years.

And shamans get some of the highest returns for worn AC of any class. Aside from monks and warrior they seem to get by far the best results. Ditto shamans, druids, clerics, rogues... Then some classes AC does absolutely nothing (cough ranger, absolutely zero effect at any level).

I'd say what is broken is mob ATK values here. Kunark dragons, vindi, velious dragons, some velious named etc all just ignore AC as they are so incredibly over tuned. But random other content like velious trash/flurries, dagarn, zland..ac is incredible. It's the ATK values that are completely jacked to shit here, seeminly at random.

The fact that resists are also completely broken on p99 and it's effectively impossible to resist any dragon ae in the game does sway towards stacking HP for a lot of classes though. Even 255's across the board doesn't see much effect on a huge amount of content. Look at old live ntov, sontalak, vp videos from 20+ years ago and dudes in very basic late kunark gear and early velious mismatched junk barely took an AE from Sont.

[Jimjam]

AC hasn't been broken here for 5 years.


It is still broken - just not so severely and in a different direction - I don't want to downplay how the implementation has improved, because it really has.


The issue, as you identify, are there are many mobs which are massively overtuned. The classic velious experience is AC hard cap (at a relatively achievable number) and very late velious minimal gains after the cap for the tankiest classes. On this server, most classes make decent gains after the cap as a fudge to make amends for the overtuned mobs.

This was fudged as it was apparently easier to produce classic differences in tankiness between classes that way rather than rebalance and retest everything from the top down. I can respect that logic.


Due to the work involved in rebalancing every single mob in the game (not just for attack, but accuracy, avoidance and mitigation too) I don't see the issue ever being resolved to full classic. That is a bit of a shame, but since the current implementation has SoV being defeated day 1 in Kunark gear, and the massive over proliferation of high end gear p99 servers accumulate it does seem to be a compromise which works reasonably well.

[Ennewi]

The fact that resists are also completely broken on p99 and it's effectively impossible to resist any dragon ae in the game does sway towards stacking HP for a lot of classes though. Even 255's across the board doesn't see much effect on a huge amount of content. Look at old live ntov, sontalak, vp videos from 20+ years ago and dudes in very basic late kunark gear and early velious mismatched junk barely took an AE from Sont.

Similar complaints were made in classic, but based on their descriptions it does sound different to what takes place here. By most accounts back then, 175 seemed to be the magic number at least during that point in the classic timeline.

https://web.archive.org/web/20010204234000/http://boards.station.sony.com/everquest/Forum2/HTML/052807.html

NOR_Bard
Station Member posted 01-29-2001 02:50 PM
(Reposted from the Concert Hall. Sorry Kaearia, couldn't resist ) -=B=-

...

3. The decline in the importance of bard resists

In the 55+ large target encounters, resists seem to be less important. Back when I was 45-50, having bards to boost everyone's resists could make or break a Nagafen/Vox raid. Raising resists was so important most bards at these raids chose to use a drum instead of weapons, foregoing doing any damage.

Against Gorenaire, Talendor, Trakanon, etc, having my resists at 255 doesn't seem to make much if any difference. I get feared and take full AE damage anyway. Giving mobs spells that are so difficult to resist diminishes the role of a bard in these raids. I currently only play resists because a lot of my friends enjoy seeing their resists in the 200+ range. Personally I don't think it makes that much difference from the 150-200 resist most players are achieving with equipment and spell buffs. I hear there's a "soft cap" at 175 after which resists make much less of a difference.

Solution: Remove the "soft cap" if it exists. Improve the player resist rate against these high-end targets with maximum resist, so that there's a significant benefit to getting up near 255. Double-check to make sure there's no roll-over bug when resists exceed 255 (or whatever the max is in your code).


Ripley
Station Member posted 01-29-2001 04:40 PM

Bards are useless on Big Raids, for 50+ characters. The only thing we contribute are high resists, and Thott of Afterlife has demonstrated that any resists over 175 or so are useless anyway.

Menadin
Station Member posted 01-29-2001 05:25 PM
Please take the time to fully understand the issues that were raised on the Concert Hall. Many of these ideas are well thought out in my opinion. Although I doubt you’ll be able to address all of them I hope you’ll at least give them serious consideration.

...

With regards to uber mobs and epic encounters, I’m disheartened to see my role as a resist buffer diminished to the point of non-usefulness. When my guild fought Antonican dragons, my resist songs often made it possible for people to stay in the fight when they normally would have succumbed to fear or be destroyed by the dragons breath. This does not seem to be the case with Kunark/Velious mobs where maximum resists of 255 and an apparent soft-cap of 175 offer the same protection. If this is the case then the new blue diamond jewelry plus other items effectively eliminates this role for me on raids and turns me into a liability rather than an asset.

dyahannah
Station Member posted 01-29-2001 11:37 PM
ok couple of quick points here absor so please bear with me...

...

2-resists at raid level encounters are basically meaningless, and it does seem that a combonation of the rumoured soft cap of 175, and the persons level have more of an impact on whether they resist or not, to me this is a very serious issue because if we are not needed for resists, then we should be able to contribute in some way...and we all know that bard melee blows

[Solist]

You know on p99 we had 355 resists for 3 years right.

They were still largely useless. There is nothing classic about how it’s implemented here is what I’m getting at. Anecdotally you can watch videos and see people resisting on a large scale ae’s. Simply not the case here.

The worst is the unclassic hitpoint update. Tank hp rate of change display should be really slow. Like maybe 30% per second maximum displayed rate of change. Tank HP bars used to smoothly sail up and down like waves. Not jump to specific numeric values and I hit a reaper if >20%.

[Ennewi]

You know on p99 we had 355 resists for 3 years right.

They were still largely useless.

Yeah it got mentioned from time to time late into Kunark on blue, that supposedly 255 could be exceeded, though no one had the exact number and this was well after the 3 year mark. EQ rumors seem to die hard.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

The worst is the unclassic hitpoint update. Tank hp rate of change display should be really slow. Like maybe 30% per second maximum displayed rate of change. Tank HP bars used to smoothly sail up and down like waves. Not jump to specific numeric values and I hit a reaper if >20%.

Do you have any evidence to suggest this was a purposeful mechanic, and not simply due to low data rates back in 1999-2001 with dial up?

On a technical level, what you are describing could have easily been caused by simply not getting data packets on a timely manner. Most multiplayer video games do what is called interpolation, which basically involves filling in the gaps between data packets on the client. This gives the appearance that you are getting data when you are actually not.

My guess is this wasn't an intended mechanic (the HP bar not being precise). What was probably happening was you were getting that HP data packet every few seconds, and the bar was simply interpolating between the old number and the new number. Having a smooth animation on the client looks better than a jump, and gives the illusion of intent.

Unless P99 purposely tries to emulate low data transfer, you won't be able to get those kinds of unintended behaviors in 2023. Even poor quality internet these days is much faster and more reliable than dialup in 1999.

[Toxigen]

make number bigger take less dmg

get red health bar bigly CH

[Ripqozko]

most gear you can tell whats better, dont go all DSM in this thread thanks.

I love HGL's but i prefer tanking harder things on my pally and dont do regular farm group content like that with it (use my ranger then).

Most gear is pretty obv whats better.

[Danth]

make number bigger take less dmg

get red health bar bigly CH

Original poster has a shaman healing him, not a cleric.

HGL's

Great item for increasing health pool and drawing out a CH rotation. Not a great item for maximizing Torpor effectiveness. As you said, it's not rocket science.

[Snaggles]

Bag space is a serious problem, for warriors and any pack-rat knights. I have a few higher ac items but not a set to swap around.

Usually I will use a 1h and shield if tanking anything notable just to avoid any unsolicited advice or hindsight quarterbacking if we wipe. If CH(s) is keeping up easy on easier fights I’ll use a 2h because doing 20dps is depressing AF.

[Solist]

Yeah it got mentioned from time to time late into Kunark on blue, that supposedly 255 could be exceeded, though no one had the exact number and this was well after the 3 year mark. EQ rumors seem to die hard.

No.

ON P99, you could exceed it. On this server. On the client, numerically. It showed. \

The 255 client shown cap wasn't till like 2013 or something. We did initial VP kills with 400+ resists in FR, still got chewed by nex and noone resisted. As it's broken. Was an indoor zone then too, so we could LoS it.

Not sure how to say it any clearer. There was no 255 cap. You saw 256 on the client, on xp mobs the resists scaled fine. You saw 304MR if you had 304MR, on p99. And that was 304MR. Dragon resists here are insanely overtuned. I'm not talking about showing 255, and having some effect past 255.

[Solist]

Sorry for double post.

Here's a video of P99 blue in my guild a dozen years ago. Check Daltheb's PR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd7XriSDYG0&ab_channel=Daltheb

Once songs are on (RIP song window), you can see 398PR. I used to rock 455 in one set of gear on Motec, and for nexona pushed 420FR. Think I had like 2200 mana or something haha. Still didn't resist much more, as they're so broken.

[Philistine]

Vindi is a terrible mob to parse AC on. It don't mean shit for him.

I'd be curious to know how you know this. Have you parsed him? If so, what were your findings?

(Edited because my initial post sounded douchey- sorry for that)

[Solist]

Yes, extensively.

Why else would you think I would say this (https://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3584699&postcount=18).

That's not to say my post wasn't hyperbole, it has an effect. Just such a minor effect it isn't worth sacrificing HP.

[Philistine]

Yes, extensively.

Why else would you think I would say this (https://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3584699&postcount=18).

That's not to say my post wasn't hyperbole, it has an effect. Just such a minor effect it isn't worth sacrificing HP.

Honestly I'm glad to hear it wasn't just snark for snark's sake. I'm always surprised by douchey we are to each other on this forum considering we all share the same niche hobby and am glad this was not that.

I'm also glad to hear you've parsed it a bunch! That'll save me the trouble of doing the same.

I don't plan on giving up HP for AC for raid mobs either! I agree it doesn't seem worth it.

[Ennewi]

No.

ON P99, you could exceed it. On this server. On the client, numerically. It showed. \

The 255 client shown cap wasn't till like 2013 or something. We did initial VP kills with 400+ resists in FR, still got chewed by nex and noone resisted. As it's broken. Was an indoor zone then too, so we could LoS it.

Not sure how to say it any clearer. There was no 255 cap. You saw 256 on the client, on xp mobs the resists scaled fine. You saw 304MR if you had 304MR, on p99. And that was 304MR. Dragon resists here are insanely overtuned. I'm not talking about showing 255, and having some effect past 255.

Ah gotcha. Sounds like something to be explored for custom content, assuming there isn't a better option to get resists more classic.

[Ripqozko]

Ah gotcha. Sounds like something to be explored for custom content, assuming there isn't a better option to get resists more classic.

can we finish normal content, nothing custom until we get food duration.

[Ennewi]

can we finish normal content, nothing custom until we get food duration.

Bread and circuses.

[Solist]

can we get dragon+giant+everything else atk values fixed
can we get dragon resists fixed
can we get spells landing on dragons like classic
can we get classic leashing mechanics not this weird permanant wipe thing.
can we get AC working on all classes
can we get classic sneak pulling reduced assist range
can we get classic dragons able to move
can we get classic trash able to move through wings
can we get pathing that works like it did for every zone in the game until it was 'fixed' except ring war and sky, and just fix those two.
can we get loremaster dropping swc again like all evidence pointed to
can we get AE caps removed like classic
can we get some raiders in CSR roles
can we get some raid rules rotated or randomly selected every quake out of a pool of raid rules.
can we fix red and actually listen to red players, instead of staff who've never played red trying to run red corruptly until they're run off and the damage is done.
can we get classic amounts of items to drop from dragons/giants, not this half drop nonsense we have.
can we get a new server at current timeline, like classic new servers were.
can we get luclin minus shar vahl.

:)

[Samoht]

I'd be curious to know how you know this. Have you parsed him? If so, what were your findings?

(Edited because my initial post sounded douchey- sorry for that)

It's because AC is useless in end-game tanking. NPC level and attack power are so high that they hit for max damage every hit anyway. It's why warrior tanks stack HP.

[Jafir]

New Set (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Green:Fatfug)

I put together a new set based on a lot of the recommendations here. Some of the items are a long shot, but technically they don’t require raiding AFAIK.

Thank you for all the great replies.

Since I have a Shaman in my trio and can avoid the AGI penalty would any of you recommend also using the Stonemelder’s Band?

[ithaqua]

Maybe a https://wiki.project1999.com/Black_Bear_Pelt_Cloak instead?

[Ennewi]

New Set (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Green:Fatfug)

I put together a new set based on a lot of the recommendations here. Some of the items are a long shot, but technically they don’t require raiding AFAIK.

For head slot...

https://wiki.project1999.com/Circlet_of_the_Falinkan

That or narandi crown, though crown would be a long shot, requiring raid attendance/farming a sizeable chunk of platinum. Really all-around great upgrade. A shame rangers didn't get it until post-Velious.

[Snaggles]

I would add a +6 neck to the list. It would be a fun upgrade for your whole trio to farm.

[Toxigen]

gnome enchanter

ouch

[Solist]

Is there a better enc option tox?

[Toxigen]

Is there a better enc option tox?

I mean considering gnome illusion exists, yes.

[Pint]

The community at large are idiots. Most people suck at EQ.

This probably should just get stickied at the top of every class discussion thread lol

[Pint]

can we get loremaster dropping swc again like all evidence pointed to


We got a couple of these off 99 before ppl complained and they nerfed it.

Also for what it's worth MR vs fear seems to work fine so it's always been confusing why they couldn't tune the other resists as well

[Danth]

I put together a new set based on a lot of the recommendations here. Some of the items are a long shot, but technically they donÂ’t require raiding AFAIK.

Looking like you found some good imrovements over your initial test builds. Keep in mind value-oriented items like 6/65 rings that can last you a long time until you get the items in those slots that you really want. Heck, my guy still wears those 6/65's, because I've never got up the motivation to bother replacing them.

Stonemelder's is a very interesting item. I don't wear one myself because I can't stand the thought of the -35 DEX, but presently you don't have a proc weapon so that's irrelevant. It seems like an attractive prospect.

In terms of cost, that stuff might be cheaper than you anticipate. With your trio, Norrath is practically yours for the taking. You'll be able to obtain the blood runed armor, dragonwing mantle, silver chitin wrists, crystal chitin arms, seahorse cloak, 6 neck (if you want one), dragonscale boots, velks sword, idol of the thorned, all for free if you want. My wife and I have duo'd all of those, and you aren't a duo! Collar of the Storm is very obtainable if you choose to go Kael faction. In theory your enchanter could even do the haste belt; in practice that's one big ticket item and otherwise a lot of stuff you can camp with your group (or even solo in some cases, like the idol) and obtain at no cost. You also have access to some other items not listed that might be worth looking in to, like Thurgadin armor--your trio very much can do some of the giants that drop armor, if you aren't inclined to MQ.

I don't like Faceguard of Bentos the Hero. It has a hard time justifying its immense cost. A Crystal Spider Eyes has only a couple AC and maybe ~15 HP less, adds mana, and costs not even 1/10 as much, or is readily camped by your trio from the low 50's on. Nor would I recommend fussing with eyepatch of Plunder in your case since the haste click is largely moot for you, given who you're hanging out with.

Cheap is good because I assume the other people in your trio still have their own needs, too. Shamans, in particular, are rightly known for being rather plat-hungry.

Danth