Mixed FoW Armor

I'm planning on getting obsidian armor for my W/Mo. I'm wondering what pieces to get. I know I want a dreadnaught's/gladiator's mix, but I can't decide how to balance AL with +energy to get the most out of my armor. I know my helm will be a duelist's helm, so that's not an issue, but what about the other 4 pieces? What should be dread's, and what should be glad's?

Suggestions, please!

Chest and Legs provide the only real energy (+3 and +2 respectively) so its pretty safe to go other types of the rest.

Pretty safe yes but also pretty stupid/useless.
Chest and legs get hit the most so if you want to get some defense, you'll have to put it into your chest and legs.

For simplicity and other stuff: 8/8

Head: 1/8
chest: 3/8
legs: 2/8
hands: 1/8
feet: 1/8

5/8 of hits go to you chest/leg area.
3/8 go to smaller places.

Glads gives the least amount of armour of all sets. The only set worse than glads is the basic set which gives the same defense but with no energy.

OP, no offense but you're using swords only? You're a W/Mo only? You have to come here and ask for strangers advice, people of which you're not even sure they have ever seen a warrior's skillist...

You seem to still be inexperienced and because of that, I would advise you to not get fow yet.
It's better to wait, buy the 1.5k cheapo versions and getting used to those. Once you know how swords, axes, hammers work. Once you have to ability to think of W/* builds to do anything you want. (Once you have played other professions, at least 2 others) then is the time that you can get fow. And you won't even have to ask anyone because you'll know which set you will get... out of your own.

I'm telling you this so you don't go off to buy fow armour and then, 3 weeks later you shoot yourself in the head for having bought something you don't like after all X.x

Also, if you wear FoW and get into a pug then people may report you for ebaying if you look/sound inexperienced

Don't get me wrong, I do agree that if he has to ask, then he probably isn't ready to get FoW armor. But where does he say that he only uses swords and only has a warrior/monk? Did he edit the post or something?

Also though I could well be wrong, I don't agree that he would have to play other professions before he's informed enough to get FoW armor. It may help, but it is possible to only focus on one profession and master it to a point where you should have no problems knowing exactly what you need for your profession. Besides, though your first FoW armor is a big deal, once you've been playing for awhile (as you obviously have) its not that hard to go back and redo it. In fact it may turn out to be an even greater learning experience.

Even though I've been playing the game for ages I don't know 1/4 of the stuff that most of the relative noobs on these boards know, as I only soloed and I didn't allow myself to look things up about the game until I had gone through and beat prophecies and factions a couple times with a few different professions. As a result, I look back and many of the things that I was doing were completely useless as I didn't realize exactly how things worked, as they weren't working like they were supposed to, but that's the handicap that I realized I would have, and I wanted it that way. For me it's much more enjoyable to go through the game blindly and find as much out about it myself as I can before I go to a website and learn the ultimate builds and the ultimate weapon mod combos and what not. Which I have done and am now looking for those very things, so I can see what they are like in comparison. So the point is that though it may be easier to find out about everything before you rush in and do it (and cheaper), it might not necessarily be as much fun.

Livingston

Just buy 15k and buy separate sets... thats the best way. Even with the armour changes I still use Glads... as long as you have a good monk you will be right.

No offense, Don? I do take offense, because you are making assumptions about me.

Inexperienced? I don't think so. Don't be prejudiced, not every wammo is an idiotic noob.

Been playing for 8 months. Beaten Prophecies, haven't beaten Factions yet because I took a short hiatus from GW around the time it came out, and when I got back I was more interested in advancing my other Prophecies characters than starting a new campaign.

I've gotten compliments on my skill using a profession combo that has a bad rep. I know how to use axes and hammers, I've tried them both and prefer swords. I still keep a hammer in reserve, but I seldom use it. I've tried other secondary professions, they don't appeal to me as much as W/Mo, I ran out of energy too often. I have played 5 professions to at least level 15. I have given all profession except Assassin a shot.

I've had the '1.5k cheapo' armor since... let's see... early February? Sounds about right.

Also, I am not asking people to tell me what to get, I'm asking for SUGGESTIONS. I'm asking for people to tell me what they think is best, and why, so I can use that information to help come to my own conclusions.

I KNOW what the hell I'm doing, or I wouldn't be doing it. I am cautious by nature, which is why I asked for suggestions in the first place.

I KNOW that most hits strike the chest, which is why I should have mentioned that I'm not really asking about the chest armor. That will be Dread's, I've known that from the beginning. I thought that went without saying. I'm really asking how much of the rest people think should be Glad's, if any. Without the chest, it doesn't add a whole lot of energy, but with some of the noob healing monks I've encountered, whose job I've had to do in large part (yes, I've been in parties with monks THAT bad), every little bit helps.

Livingston, I can relate, I've been there. What you describe for your early GW experience sounds almost exactly like mine. I made a lot of stupid mistakes which, in hindsight, could have easily been avoided. I STILL don't "go to a website and learn the ultimate builds and the ultimate weapon mod combos and what not". I make my own builds, mods, etc. and they work wonderfully, though I probably should brush up on my protection prayers, now that I think of it.

And don't feel bad about not knowing what the noobs know, I don't either. I don't usually learn it until it's common knowledge.

Anyway, at this point in my post, I'm thinking of skipping the Glad's, as 2-4 energy isn't worth sacrificing so much AL, but I still want suggestions before I start farming ecto.

Heh. Believe me I don't feel bad about it, as that's the way I wanted it. Simply pointing out to Don that just because one doesn't know all the "common knowledge" of the board about what’s super duper uber and what's not, doesn't necessarily mean one is inexperienced.

I realize now that he thought you were only using swords because of your helm choice, though I wouldn't come to that conclusion myself as I would guess that swords were your fav weapon and that when you wanted to switch out, you could simply swap in a 1.5k version of something else, and either not show the skin, or choose one that goes well with FoW, like the Kurzick helm.

Anyway this is my own thoughts on the subject. My main is a W/E which I solo with, w/o henchies where I can in Tyria, with henchies in Cantha. For the most part I act as a fortified Fire Elementalist with sprint and healing signet.

Personally I don't like Glad armor as I feel it makes the warrior in me much less warrior like, in which case I should have been an Elementalist primary if I really cared that much about the extra energy.

To me +7 energy doesn't really make that much of a difference where as +10 AL to elem dmg does. Though I do realize the +7 could be more beneficial to a W/M as there are skills you want to keep up during combat where as a W/E just blasts stuff (of course using certain skill chains yada yada.)

As for you, you have said that you wanted Dreads and Glads mix. As Don so skillfully pointed out, it would be pretty pointless to go dreads on the gauntlets and boots due to the low hit rate in those areas. So there are really only 2 logical choices for a mix.

1) Dreads on Chest
Glads the rest.

2) Dreads on Chest and Legs
Glads the rest.

Now this will give you either +4 energy with #1 or +2 energy with #2.

To me #2 is just silly and I would really like to hear someone's argument that it would make a difference (And I'm serious about that. If someone thinks it can please explain)

#1 is +4 energy which is just 1 shy of the requirement for most low energy powers, so I could see where that could come in handy as it could mean the difference of adding a low cost skill to an initial skill chain. From my point of view though, if you don't need it specifically for a certain skill chain that you can implement on a regular basis, then I think it’s just as worthless as #2.

Personally I use Dreads on Chest and Legs and Berserks on gauntlets and boots. I don't really notice an increase on dmg taken with this combo compared to full Dreads, and when I do it's minor. This combo gives me +10 health, which I didn't think would matter much at first, but from my experience this often allows me to just barely survive where I would have been wiped were I in full Dreads. I notice the difference and to me that’s the most important factor.

Of course if you travel in large groups on a reg basis then more than likely you aren't going to notice a difference with +10 health, as your healer will either keep you up, or she's out and your party's going down anyway. In which case it probably doesn't really matter what you put on gauntlets and boots as the difference seems pretty negligible and plus 2 energy may very well be the best option...

Livingston

Yeah, I'm leaning towards '#2'. I usually mix adrenal skills in with low energy monk skills (Word of Healing ftw!) so that my 20 energy goes a bit farther, but if I get -60% DP, I don't have enough energy for healing breeze, or to res my teammates, which sucks, since I have on numerous occasions been the last one standing and able to res. In fact, +2 energy would allow me to res regardless of DP. And -20 AL isn't THAT bad if it's only areas that rarely get hit. I rarely solo, so your setup of Dread's and Berserk's wouldn't do much for me.

Anyway, thanks for your input.