+28 Health vs +4 Armor? - Guild Wars Forums

hellboy909 · May 21, 2006, 12:46 AM // 00:46

So I have two sets of daggers and was wondering which was better, mathematically:

+28 Health

or

+4 Armor

Same reqs and damage.

Advice? Opinions? Unintelligible rants?

spencemandoo · May 21, 2006, 01:09 AM // 01:09

personally i would take the health because most of the time its like +5 armor vs ele attacks and health bonus is always there no matter the situation

healthsoldier0570 · May 21, 2006, 01:15 AM // 01:15

I don't have Factions, so I don't know what Assasins are like, but I would go with the health +28 as well. Neither the health +28 or the armor +4 are max, but the health would help better.

GunnerMan1 · May 21, 2006, 01:28 AM // 01:28

thing to do is use Gurus damage calc, put in you 70 armor stat and some avergae dmg you may receave. The put in 74 AL and see how much it reduces your dmg. If it reduces more than 28 then use the armor.

Rukmedes · May 21, 2006, 02:53 AM // 02:53

Hp. No arguement here.

Blaarg · May 21, 2006, 02:57 AM // 02:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by GunnerMan1

thing to do is use Gurus damage calc, put in you 70 armor stat and some avergae dmg you may receave. The put in 74 AL and see how much it reduces your dmg. If it reduces more than 28 then use the armor.

Another thing you have to take into consideration with this though, is degen. Health helps against degen, but armor has no effect against it.. The same thing goes with skills that go through armor.

Personally, I would choose the health.

Omnidragon42 · May 21, 2006, 04:46 AM // 04:46

Look at it this way: Health mods pad your bar, giving your monks more time to heal more health, while defense reduces the damage you take, making your monks heal you less often (for lower amounts)
For an assassin I'd prefer Defense.

MCS · May 21, 2006, 05:35 AM // 05:35

For every 100 damage you take the 4 armor will reduce damage taken by 6 which absolutely rapes 28 life in a long fight in a short one the health is better.

Ole Man Bourbon · May 21, 2006, 07:12 AM // 07:12

Get a +5 armor for cheap

Mandy Memory · May 21, 2006, 07:19 AM // 07:19

Armor is better in every situation but spike and degen. Since they arent max I am assuming its not a pvp character...ruling out spike. Degen can be devistating...but chances are you are the average assassin who takes a lot of hits, which points to the armor because it will help you more in the long run.

samifly · May 21, 2006, 08:06 AM // 08:06

Armor is better for nearly everything, unless you have vamp daggers.

Fractal Star · May 21, 2006, 08:20 AM // 08:20

I was actually going to post an almost identical question, so if you dont mind hellboy i'll ask it here instead of a new thread.

I have the same querey with regard to a 30hp or +5 armor bow grip for my ranger. The genereal consensus here seems that the extra hp will be better, but is being able to take 30hp more damage (which isnt really that much) a whole lot better than reducing by 5 every time? My thoughts being that health goes down in a fight but armor dosent.

Red · May 21, 2006, 08:51 AM // 08:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fractal Star

I was actually going to post an almost identical question, so if you dont mind hellboy i'll ask it here instead of a new thread.

I have the same querey with regard to a 30hp or +5 armor bow grip for my ranger. The genereal consensus here seems that the extra hp will be better, but is being able to take 30hp more damage (which isnt really that much) a whole lot better than reducing by 5 every time? My thoughts being that health goes down in a fight but armor dosent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+5 armor does NOT decrease your damage by 5. This isn't Shielding Hands, people. Otherwise, earth eles with Kinetic Armor (Armor +84) would be unkillable. So I plugged some numbers in the Guru Calculator and came up with some data.

At 60 armor, base damage = real damage. 100 points of damage will hit for 100 HP.

At 65 armor, the following base damages yield their respective real damages.
36 --> 33.01, 72 --> 66.02, 144 --> 132.05
From these, we can assume that the armor-to-damage is a linear function. That is, +5 armor will help the same against forty hits that do 100 damage each, as they will against one hit for 400 damage.

So, to be simple, let's just assume you will take 420 damage all at once.
420 damage against 65 armor --> 385.14 damage. The +5 armor just decreased the damage by 34.86.

Against normal damage, Armor will help you more than 30 HP

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Now it's armor penetration time! Assuming 25% armor penetration, and that same 420 damage figure...

With 60 armor, 25% penetration of 420 points of damage: 544.67 damage
With 65 armor, 25% penetration of 420 points of damage: 510.40 damage
The difference is 34.27. Still, the armor protection is better than 30 HP

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Final conclusion: against normal damage, and even low levels of penetration (Sundering or Lightning Orb, anyone?), Armor > HP. However, Armor offers no protection against straight degen or armor-ignoring spells like Obsidian Flame or Blood Magic.

Personally,I adore the armor, only because I love seeing two warriors hack at my monk and get nowhere. XD

Fractal Star · May 21, 2006, 09:36 AM // 09:36

Thanks Redly, those sums are exactly what i hadnt tackled yet to come up with the answer my self. Confirms my thoughts though

Aera · May 21, 2006, 09:43 AM // 09:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rukmedes

Hp. No arguement here.

Armor. no argument here.

Assasins have 60 armor, AND are in frontline "tanking" all the time. The least thing you want is it to take a lot of damage all the time!

Quote:

Originally Posted by spencemandoo

...most of the time its like +5 armor vs ele attacks...

He didn't say the armorupgrade was vs elemental attacks, you also have +5 vs ALL attacks.

Maxiemonster · May 21, 2006, 09:56 AM // 09:56

Anything but Monks should use +5 Armor over +30 Health. Monks have to able to stand a full Knockdown spike, while all others can get healed by Monks during Knockdown spikes.

Numa Pompilius · May 21, 2006, 10:02 AM // 10:02

I'm gonna go against the grain here. If you're a warrior and doing random arena, then you should take the +30 hp, because you'll be the continuous target of degen. You probably wont take a single physical hit, you probably wont have a monk around, but you WILL be degened - and armor helps exactly zilch against degen.

As for assassins, I've not played one, so I don't know if they've got more problem with physical damage (if so, take armor) or degen (take hp).

Desbreko · May 21, 2006, 12:13 PM // 12:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aera

Armor. no argument here.

Assasins have 60 armor, AND are in frontline "tanking" all the time. The least thing you want is it to take a lot of damage all the time!

Actually, assassins have 70 base armor, so they're a little more resilient than casters. Any assassin who tries to do anything resembling tanking, however, is going to die no matter what mods are on his daggers.

Still, I'd take +5 armor over +30 health. From my experience playing an assassin through the Factions campaign, most of the damage I take is affected by armor. (Elementalists, rangers, and ritualists make up a large part of it.) And if I am being hit by enough armor ignoring damage to kill me, it's usually well in excess of 30 HP more than my max health. There've only been a few times where the added health would've saved me, whereas the extra armor reduces a lot of the damage I take from incidental hits.

Ole Man Bourbon · May 21, 2006, 02:50 PM // 14:50

I agree in that W's should take fortitude over armor.

Something else that needs to be mentioned (again :P) is that the more HPs you have, the more it takes to heal you--it's more efficient to take less damage and heal for less bulk (like the Prot Spirit 55 concept).

Wacky · May 21, 2006, 03:02 PM // 15:02

Both. Your max health only matters when you're low on health, so weapon switch when your health gets low, and get both benefits.

May 21, 2006, 12:46 AM // 00:46	#1
hellboy909 Academy Page Join Date: Feb 2006	+28 Health vs +4 Armor? So I have two sets of daggers and was wondering which was better, mathematically: +28 Health or +4 Armor Same reqs and damage. Advice? Opinions? Unintelligible rants?

May 21, 2006, 05:35 AM // 05:35	#8
MCS Banned Join Date: May 2005	For every 100 damage you take the 4 armor will reduce damage taken by 6 which absolutely rapes 28 life in a long fight in a short one the health is better. __________________ I just wanted to see if I can do this. Leet.

May 21, 2006, 01:09 AM // 01:09	#2
spencemandoo Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Mar 2006 Profession: Me/Mo	personally i would take the health because most of the time its like +5 armor vs ele attacks and health bonus is always there no matter the situation

May 21, 2006, 01:15 AM // 01:15	#3
healthsoldier0570 Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: May 2006 Location: Crystal Desert. Profession: Mo/W	I don't have Factions, so I don't know what Assasins are like, but I would go with the health +28 as well. Neither the health +28 or the armor +4 are max, but the health would help better.

May 21, 2006, 01:28 AM // 01:28	#4
GunnerMan1 Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Under World Guild: Eye Of The Serpant Profession: R/	thing to do is use Gurus damage calc, put in you 70 armor stat and some avergae dmg you may receave. The put in 74 AL and see how much it reduces your dmg. If it reduces more than 28 then use the armor.

May 21, 2006, 02:53 AM // 02:53	#5
Rukmedes Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Dec 2005 Profession: Mo/W	Hp. No arguement here.

May 21, 2006, 04:46 AM // 04:46	#7
Omnidragon42 Krytan Explorer Join Date: Oct 2005 Guild: Pantheon of Shadows [dei] Profession: W/A	Look at it this way: Health mods pad your bar, giving your monks more time to heal more health, while defense reduces the damage you take, making your monks heal you less often (for lower amounts) For an assassin I'd prefer Defense.

May 21, 2006, 07:12 AM // 07:12	#9
Ole Man Bourbon Jungle Guide Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Atlanta Guild: GONG Profession: W/E	Get a +5 armor for cheap

May 21, 2006, 07:19 AM // 07:19	#10
Mandy Memory Desert Nomad Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: USA Guild: Xen of Sigils [XoO] Profession: W/	Armor is better in every situation but spike and degen. Since they arent max I am assuming its not a pvp character...ruling out spike. Degen can be devistating...but chances are you are the average assassin who takes a lot of hits, which points to the armor because it will help you more in the long run.

May 21, 2006, 08:06 AM // 08:06	#11
samifly Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Dec 2005 Guild: Girl Power [GP] Profession: Mo/Me	Armor is better for nearly everything, unless you have vamp daggers.

May 21, 2006, 08:20 AM // 08:20	#12
Fractal Star Academy Page Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: United Kingdom Guild: None - i'm free lance at the mo' Profession: E/	I was actually going to post an almost identical question, so if you dont mind hellboy i'll ask it here instead of a new thread. I have the same querey with regard to a 30hp or +5 armor bow grip for my ranger. The genereal consensus here seems that the extra hp will be better, but is being able to take 30hp more damage (which isnt really that much) a whole lot better than reducing by 5 every time? My thoughts being that health goes down in a fight but armor dosent.

May 21, 2006, 09:36 AM // 09:36	#14
Fractal Star Academy Page Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: United Kingdom Guild: None - i'm free lance at the mo' Profession: E/	Thanks Redly, those sums are exactly what i hadnt tackled yet to come up with the answer my self. Confirms my thoughts though

May 21, 2006, 09:56 AM // 09:56	#16
Maxiemonster There is no spoon. Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Netherlands Profession: Mo/	Anything but Monks should use +5 Armor over +30 Health. Monks have to able to stand a full Knockdown spike, while all others can get healed by Monks during Knockdown spikes.

May 21, 2006, 10:02 AM // 10:02	#17
Numa Pompilius Grotto Attendant Join Date: May 2005 Location: At an Insit.. Intis... a house. Guild: Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF] Profession: W/Me	I'm gonna go against the grain here. If you're a warrior and doing random arena, then you should take the +30 hp, because you'll be the continuous target of degen. You probably wont take a single physical hit, you probably wont have a monk around, but you WILL be degened - and armor helps exactly zilch against degen. As for assassins, I've not played one, so I don't know if they've got more problem with physical damage (if so, take armor) or degen (take hp).

May 21, 2006, 02:50 PM // 14:50	#19
Ole Man Bourbon Jungle Guide Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Atlanta Guild: GONG Profession: W/E	I agree in that W's should take fortitude over armor. Something else that needs to be mentioned (again :P) is that the more HPs you have, the more it takes to heal you--it's more efficient to take less damage and heal for less bulk (like the Prot Spirit 55 concept).

May 21, 2006, 03:02 PM // 15:02	#20
Wacky Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Feb 2006 Guild: Trans Tasman Alliance [TTA] Profession: Me/	Both. Your max health only matters when you're low on health, so weapon switch when your health gets low, and get both benefits.