Back slot question for lvl 56 Ranger
 

Hello, I have a well geared 56 ranger. I’m currently soloing in KC. I currently use Lodi Shield for my back for the AC, STR and Resists… my question….

For back should I continue to use Lodi Shield or should I switch for Hierophant’s Cloak? And why?

Thanks.

I prefer Lodi Shield over Heiro Cloak on my Shaman. I find that the large boost to resists save me more often than the extra ~100 HP the Heiro Cloak has. Unless you are over 200 WIS, the mana difference is minimal. You are getting like ~120 mana on Heiro Cloak vs. ~115 mana on Lodi Shield (at level 60). If you're over 200 WIS your getting like ~95 mana on Heiro Cloak vs. ~55 mana on Lodi Shield.

The automatic enduring breath is also a nice QoL feature. You never have to worry about EB again, and you can sell/transfer your cheaper EB item like Fishbone Earring to save a space in your bags.

If you wanted to min/max you would have both and switch between them based on the content. Most people (including myself) are not rich enough to casually bag a bunch of 15-20k items on a single character lol.

Both are good items, so you can't really go wrong either way. In my opinion just keep the Lodi Shield. Buy a Heiro Cloak to swap out for non-casters if you want your Ranger to be as awesome as possible. It's not required though, you'll do fine with just a Lodi Shield if you don't want to spend the money.

Neither buy a Pom cloak

Edit: blue thrones cheap asf now

Personally I don't like PoM Cloak for any class that can use a Lodi Shield. You pay like 35k for a slightly better Heiro Cloak you are going to switch over to a Lodi Shield anyway when you need Fire/Cold resists. It's pretty hard to beat an item that gives +20FR, +20CR, and +10 MR in a single slot. This means you are fairly likely to switch out your PoM Cloak anyway when fighting casters, so you aren't benefiting from it.

PoM Cloak is much better on a Monk, because they can't use Lodi Shield. On a Monk you're getting more HP than Heiro Cloak when not STA capped, decent resists, and more AC.

EDIT: Blue Thrones are 30k according to the wiki, and Blue Crowns are like 5k. 35k is the price of Lodi Shield + Heiro Cloak, but you can sell those back later, unlike PoM Cloak. So if you have 35k to spend, I would just use Heiro Cloak and Lodi Shield, instead of spending it on a no-drop item that is in-between the two stat-wise.

The sky cloak?

Sky cloak works from inventory. but yea, its a must :D

It’s much better because of the 15 stam +hp, Lodi has none of that. It’s over 100hp with the stam. Rangers aren’t large races so it’s harder to cap.

When you swap out to Lodi Shield for resists you are getting +0 HP from PoM cloak.

A slot that swaps out to a resist piece often shouldn't be worried about as much.

If you can afford PoM Cloak and Lodi then go for it. If you have to choose due to money issues PoM Cloak isn't worth it. You can buy lodi and heiro for the same price as PoM cloak and get the best od both worlds. Plus they aren't no drop.

Why would you swap, you do you. Ain’t no one swapping if ya have Pom. The resists are still good on pom. You always stay with your choices tho so to prevent a 30 page thing I’ll just concede and say do whatever dms says. Good luck

Hard to answer that without knowing your budget and overall goals but I’d probably keep Lodi and prioritize money on other game changing items like Earthcaller, sky cloak mq, ring 9, etc.