A little complex

I have been having this argument with a fellow player now for about a week and I've decided to throw it open to see if anyones sat down and worked it out.

This applies I guess really to warriors only but may help with other classes.
I have recently taken up the hammer as my everyday weapon which present me with a small problem. Obviously I dont have a shield with a hammer which springs up the age old question of what to do about damage reduction. I have bought a seperate set of armour for runing up for this build by the way.

Being that I use strength for Dwarven Battle stance what is the best insignia for this? The absorption one (knights?) or Sentinels for the large standard armour points?

The other one is this. As I build up my own weapons with my own mods which is better in the long run? Fortitude or a warding type mod?
My thoughts are that the fortitude only gives you initial protection from the first hit then once that health is gone its useless. I am aware that you can be healed back up to that point but then it is negated the second someone hits you again. My thoughts are that a warding mod may give you more protection over time (this applies to the physical mod to but I forget its name) In FoW in the forge sometimes I will stand and tank lots of enemies in a doorway for an extended period of time. Its in these situations where I feel a higher armour would be an advantage over higher health.
Anyway Im sure someone has strong opinions on this one and can put me straight
Thanks for your help

This should probably be in the warrior forum but I'll answer anyway. If you are going for the best possible protection then probably the 100 AL would be your best bet. (I personally use Gladiators for most situations but that's just me) Since the change of damage reduction to only physical, Knights armors is very limited in its uses. I mainly use it for farming various areas that have physical damage. Knights is also more useful against large quantities of small hits. 100 AL is better for large amounts of damage. You should also consider the Sentry's (I think that's the same) if you are using stances or Platemail if you want the extra armor without investing 13 points into strength.

Fortitude and defense mods are often the topic of debate. I've seen many calculations in which defense comes out superior but none of those calculations take into account things like degen, armor ignoring damage, or life stealing. Unless you are looking to farm a specific area which you know won't be filled with life stealing, degen, or armor ignoring damage then you should go with fortitude. Also remember that 99% of the time you are healed in the game, you are overhealed. Having fortitude instead of defense means you have less wasted overheals. That is assuming that you are always healed at the same amount of life regardless of your mod.

Since you didn't specify what you would be using your armor and mods for (PVE, PVP, PVE farming, etc.) its hard to give you more specific advice. However, if you are PVPing, then go with gladiators and fortitude.

I prefer the of Defense upgrade which gives both physical and elemental protection or the Warding one. Warriors have such high armor against physical already that adding a little bit more isn't always that important. It's the elemental damage that can become a problem.

Also, you can solve your dilemna by having two hammers; one with the +armor upgrade and one with the +30hp. Just switch weapons as needed.

Thanks for the help guys. Probably a little bit of Pve but hopefully more pvp for the hammer build.
Cheers for all your help

If your attributes are all in strength and hammer then Sentinels and +5 armor mod plus 3 runes of +10 health makes sense - kinda the best of both worlds.

I usually look at the fortitude mod as useless until you use up your normal health then you have that last 30 health so it doesn't help until you get to that point. Armor +5 meanwhile helps against all normal damage you take along the way.

with a hammer warrior i put a +5 armor mod on my hammer and wear sentinals armor. i preffer higher armor so i take less damage to start with. now that we have lions comfort i dont really mind putting 13 into strenght, but if im using a +30 hp hammer i will use a major hammer mastery rune and put the extra points into tactics.

when i was hammering in pve i used earth magic to supliment armour issues..

also [card]backbreaker[/card]+[card]aftershock[/card] can be pretty powerful

about the hammer grip thingy

defence for PvE

fortitude for PvP

generally

I think in PvE its mainly your owns choince, it wont matter too much. Here are a couple of good hammer combos:

For High end PvE

[skill]Backbreaker[/skill] + [skill]Crushing Blow[/skill] + [skill]Holy Strike[/skill] + [skill]Stonesoul Strike[/skill]

For General PvE

[skill]Earth Shaker[/skill] + [skill]Aftershock[/skill]

For PvE or PvP

[skill]Devastating Hammer[/skill] + [skill]Crushing Blow[/skill] + [skill]Fierce Blow[/skill]

They should all work well.

Good Luck, Hammers = Fun.

~A Leprachaun~

Hammers are awesome. So effective, and even without a shield you can tank in most PVE scenarios with just a couple of skills.

Also, "Watch Yourself" = Sheild in diguise.

Hmmm, hammers. Never tried them before. With some of the skills posted above it makes me want to try it out