AC and p99

[Troxx]

I guess I am just old school and too tied down to all my research on live. Granted … my research and extensive parsing on live did not start in earnest until some time well after Gates of Discord.

But I digress …

I got 2x Hammered Golden Loops on my warrior here. Then I got 2 for my Pal. Then another 2 for my necro then another for my bard and sham.

The casters I understand but for the plate tanks I will be honest - I held off for a LONG time as I didn’t want to suck the -15ac hit per.

I really haven’t noticed a difference other than I have 8 more stamina and 75 more go per ear. Perhaps this is simply because I am really only considering the raid mobs they are tanking and the ~100hp more I have per ear. Clearly this is a unique time in eq where complete heals are complete and more hp is always good …

But is ac broken?

I mean I have a 60 Ranger and ac doesnt seem to mean shit for her. But for the tanks? Does it actually help?

My experience thus far with these earrings is that negative xp be damned the hp is amazeballs. But they are also xp capped so not slumming on “trivial” targets found in xp groups.

I guess my question is for the raid goons amongst us who have experienced both HIGH hp and “meh” ac and HIGH HP and HIGH AC …

Does that extra armor class mean anything?

Or on p99 is ac a wash?

[Eisai]

/watch

[Snaggles]

If I was spending a lot of time soloing blues and crawling I’d prob have an AC set to swap for some of the more painful items like HGL’s. At least with the pally my bags are full of garbage like ragefire armor, CHA gear, and clickies so no room for extra AC stuff.

IMHO, most blue stuff is painful to slog through. The AC loss sucks but the HP gain is bonkers. Anything I have a CH on me the earrings won’t matter. Anything slowable matters even less. That said, I haven’t used my full lull kit in like 2 years so maybe it makes more sense to pack an Ivandyr’s and some other junk than for the lull I’m too lazy to swap for anyways.

[Snaggles]

In short, AC scales for all classes. It is more apparent classes with real defense skills. For my ranger it’s all MR with hps when I don’t sacrifice SV’s.

It’s not going to make a cleric’s life easier unless you are severely getting bruised up over long play sessions. In that case an extra 50AC won’t make things much better.

I’ve duoed Trunt before with a beefy monk. He took maybe 4 CH’s that were no where near scrapping the bottom of the HP bar. With c2 we ended the fight at like 75m. I expect with 300less AC and no avatar it would have been more difficult but two earrings isn’t going to make any difference.

[Eisai]

earrings make ALL the difference!

[Crede]

I was told get to 1200ac on a knight then focus on hp after that. Never tested on Ranger, pretty sure they still get rocked with 1500 ac.

[Ripqozko]

Originally Posted by Crede [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I was told get to 1200ac on a knight then focus on hp after that. Never tested on Ranger, pretty sure they still get rocked with 1500 ac.

Ranger ac is broke, doesnt work. Knights do, i noticed a nice change at 1300

[Goregasmic]

Originally Posted by Ripqozko [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Ranger ac is broke, doesnt work. Knights do, i noticed a nice change at 1300

Can you elaborate on ranger AC being broke?

Most of the seemingly good ranger guides out there are like "if you want to have a good time as a ranger build it like a tank" but then everyone says you'll be fear/bow kiting to 60 so at that point str/dex/mana seems to make more sense?

[Jimjam]

Originally Posted by Goregasmic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Can you elaborate on ranger AC being broke?

Most of the seemingly good ranger guides out there are like "if you want to have a good time as a ranger build it like a tank" but then everyone says you'll be fear/bow kiting to 60 so at that point str/dex/mana seems to make more sense?

Claims are made that after a very low amount of worn AC rangers get no further benefit, almost as if they have a very low cap on worn ac with no post cap returns. Or something like that.

Certainly my ranger gets whaled on by easy mobs, despite having a fair whack of AC gear, but even a small amount of spell AC seems to help /shrug. anecodotal / unmeasured / untests on my part, but I've seen others present evidence, such as parses of rangers tanking worse than shamans (perhaps the shaman was just better buffed? idk).

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Claims are made that after a very low amount of worn AC rangers get no further benefit, almost as if they have a very low cap on worn ac with no post cap returns. Or something like that.

Certainly my ranger gets whaled on by easy mobs, despite having a fair whack of AC gear, but even a small amount of spell AC seems to help /shrug. anecodotal / unmeasured / untests on my part, but I've seen others present evidence, such as parses of rangers tanking worse than shamans (perhaps the shaman was just better buffed? idk).

I almost wonder if rangers were designed to capitalize on avoidance AC. From a DnD perspective that would make sense. They are supposed to be good at dodging and parrying, rather than heavily relying on armor. That's why they get the Weaponshield disc.

If they were designed around avoidance AC, that may be why the have a lower worn AC cap. Sadly avoidance AC doesn't do much on p99, so Rangers just get screwed over.