Curse

kazjun · Oct 22, 2007, 12:19 AM // 00:19

Depends on what normally kills you. Do you die from spikes or pressure? It's a lot harder to spike someone with 600+ hp as opposed to 480 (or 405 which is pretty common). Do you die from pressure? And what type of pressure? Hex/degen pressure +hp is probably best, though it doesn't really do that much. You're better off taking some form of condition removal (plague/mending touch to help your monks). If its melee pressure than a +7 vs physical. If you face more ele damage, than a +7 vs ele. The +5 is good if you're not sure what type you're coming up against. Though you should weapon swap. The armour mods are pretty cheap after all. No reason you shouldn't have all 3 armour mods.

Darkobra · Oct 22, 2007, 12:28 AM // 00:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeek Aran

Because prot can be on every character and makes armor useless?

Not if there's a mesmer on their team.

Zeek Aran · Oct 22, 2007, 12:50 AM // 00:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkobra

Not if there's a mesmer on their team.

Uh... if you understood what I said... I meant you CAN'T have prot spirit on every character, and even then, armor would still matter. What does a mesmer have to do with anything?

Oh, and the more health you have, the more damage you take while under prot, and therefore the more to heal.

Lord Natural · Oct 22, 2007, 04:19 AM // 04:19

I prefer the armor, in pve. Besides, you can always weapon swap depending on the situation. If you're facing some one-hit-kill HM boss, then the health might be a life saver. If you're just fighting weaker groups, you have the advantage of being able to ride out an armor set then swapping to +health if it looks like death might be imminent. Every mod has its own advantage. It's not like you have to sit there degening out on a +5 set when you can press f2 and switch off to a health bonus.

Asplode · Oct 22, 2007, 08:42 AM // 08:42

If you're trying to figure out if you could save a couple K on your shiny new weapon by getting a +5 armor handle, and if you're wondering if it's a worthy investment, sure.

Not sure about pve, but in pvp you can gauge the spike effectiveness of the opposing team within the first two or three minutes, and this is when you can make your judgment. A few guidelines though...

Tombs: Always health. There's too much splinter, degen, and spike to gamble otherwise.

GvG:
Warriors: Go with health. Not only do you have diminishing armor returns, you have armor-ignoring skills as your biggest enemy. the +5 armor for what I believe a previous poster said was just over 4% reduction is nothing if you're caught in frenzy. Also, that health is going to come in handy if you're split off without a healsig and catching a poisonous parting blow from an unfriendly ranger.

Midline casters: If you can afford it, devote two sets, one with armor, one with health. If you're just getting trained or parahated, put on the armor, if you see three characters converging on you, put on the health. If you're bad at weapon swapping, peace out. If you can't afford two defensive sets, take a moment at the beginning of the game and glance at your partybars once in a while, gauge how fast their spike is. If it's fast, make your defensive set health, if it's slow, make it armor. If you could even marginally mitigate a slow spike, you can save your monks a bit of overhealing, but you'll save yourself against a fast spike if you have health, because you're probably looking at a lot of midline assist on fast spikes.

Monk: Usually on a monk you have a couple sets you're swapping through, you have your dual 20/20 set if you're confident in your preswapping, a secondary set (+20e vs denial, or a double fast enchanting aegis set, Or a 10/20 enchanting divine spirit set, etc), a high set with dual +15/-1's, and a shield set. If you're extremely brave, you could go by the previous method to figure out how best you could mitigate enemy offense, which is dangerous since you won't ever have a clear picture of enemy potential, or you could swap in your secondary set to an armor set and have both, but I would just say go with health, because shatter enchantment will kick you in the teeth otherwise.

TA: Armor is usually your best bet, since there's rarely an faster-than-reaction-speed spike in TA, and all battles are a fight for efficiency. I say rarely, not never. I've seen someone evaporate in 1 frame off 0 dp before, no lie.

RA: You're pretty much screwed regardless of +5 armor or +30 hp, enjoy your dishonor points.

Spazzer · Oct 22, 2007, 05:56 PM // 17:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeek Aran

Uh... if you understood what I said... I meant you CAN'T have prot spirit on every character, and even then, armor would still matter. What does a mesmer have to do with anything?

Oh, and the more health you have, the more damage you take while under prot, and therefore the more to heal.

It's harder to over-heal someone who has a high max HP.

Circus Midget · Oct 22, 2007, 06:37 PM // 18:37

Not exactly sure why this has made it to three pages....the answer is simple....(assuming you have the money or are on a pvp character)

Have a set of both. Assuming that you are a monk. (or 60AL) Have the +5 armor on unless you're being degen'd or are playing a team such as blood spike or obsidian flame spike, in which case you would use the hp +30 to give your monks as much time as possible.

Phaern Majes · Oct 22, 2007, 07:07 PM // 19:07

Just be a 55 monk and the whole point is moot.

AlienFromBeyond · Oct 22, 2007, 07:18 PM // 19:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gigashadow

True, your actual mitigation % number goes up more slowly the more armor you have, but in terms of longevity they both increase it by the same factor. For example, regardless of what your armor value is, if you add +40 to it, you take half the amount of damage you were taking before, so you live twice as long. Adding +5 works the same way, the result is just smaller.

Edit to add some numbers:

Let's say with ar60, it took 1000 hp worth of damage to kill you (this includes your base hp and the amount of healing that monks have available to dish out)
Adding +5ar, making ar65, it would take 1090 damage to kill you (1000 / .917)

For a warrior with around ar95, it would take 1834 damage to kill him (1000 / .545)
Adding +5ar, making ar100, it would take 2000 damage to kill him (1000 / .500)

The percentage increase in survivability is the same in both cases (an additional 9%). The warrior has gained an effective 166 life points worth of damage mitigation, while the 60ar caster has gained 90.

Beat me to it. This is why I use +5 armor on my warrior, and wave my 121 armor in the face of my caster friends.

Dante the Warlord · Oct 22, 2007, 07:29 PM // 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlienFromBeyond

Beat me to it. This is why I use +5 armor on my warrior, and wave my 121 armor in the face of my caster friends.

Im thinking you are using sentinals? IMO the best warrior armor against the nukers. If so i think that 116 armor + 30 HP would be better then 121 armor. XD i have 515 HP, probably should use a rune to give me more attributes instaed of health.