+ Armor mod vs +HP mod

Looking to upgrade a sword with either a +5 armor mod or a +29-30 hp mod. Would like to hear your thoughts to advantages/disadvantages of either mod. Thanks in advance!

+armor is better in PvE until you start to pile up DP. Then health becomes better.

The main advantage of +health is that it makes the number bigger when you flex your PvEpeen by clicking your health bar in team chat.

Armor advantages: Better unless you're stacking 3 sup runes. A guy with low hp and high armor is easier to heal.
Armor disadvantages: DoT's ignore armor.
HP advantages: Gives you a better relative return if your maximum hp is lowered by deep wound, sup runes, death penalty, etc.

It's marginal either way. I've always gone with armor just because it's cheaper. If I get a HP upgrade I sell it and buy an armor one.

I suggest that you stick with the armor upgrade as well. The health upgrade does not do you any good until you reach 0 health, whereas the armor upgrade helps you from the momment combat starts until it is over.

If youre in the frontlines say as a warrior or even some midline cases like a ranger or paragon, the +hp is always more beneficial due to you having a higher base armor and being in a more vulnarible position. On a caster as a monk or mes or ele, i usually always run + armor and have a +hp on switch for dp if needed.

I prefer armor because I think of it this way, armor can protect that health from being lost. +health may be better for degen but when your getting hit by attacks id take more armor any day.

Some people like cake. I prefer pie.

There's loads of armor ignoring dmg out there (holy dmg), or even partially ignoring (like lightning dmg). Also many hexes do dmg regardless of armor, life steals from vampiric skills ignore armor completely, then there's degen, where armor doesn't matter at all.
If you're going to be tanking by using your armor you're going to be taking a skill for it anyway.

+5 armor works in some situations but not in all, and +30 hp well, it's basically always a welcome extra, isn't it? Even if on the long run from getting direct damage you would have been better off with the extra armor, it's not like the extra hp isn't handy either and it's better in any other situation as well.

Almost everyone I know has several weapon sets anyway, to switch given the situation. As an all-round option if you absolutely had to take only 1 type of sword with you on a deserted island you would probably be better off with the fortitude mod, but why limit yourself to 1 weapon?

Holy damage does not ignore armor. Lightning damage doesnt either. Most air ele skills have armor penetration but the damage doesnt ignore armor. There is a difference between armor ignoring and armor penetration.

In pve most the damage you take is not going to be armor ignoring, so I'd go with +armor.

Never seen the big deal with +30hp, beyond making an item look 'prettier' and being easy cash.

It's true that holy, dark and chaos damage doesn't ignore armor, but it will ignore +armor to physical or +armor to elemental. That's why in general a +5 armor is better than a +7 to either of those. That's also why Sentinels insignia is worse than the old sentinels, since it now doesn't have any bonus vs. those other types. Good news is, you rarely encounter those types of damage, so it's not that bad.

In PvE, it's all about aggro control, and the mobs will attack someone who is low armored and/or low health. To the average AI, I'm sure +5 armor is probably just as much of a deterrent as +30 health, so it really doesn't make that much difference. The +30 can help if you have more than a single superior attribute rune, but otherwise there won't be enough of a loss of health for it to really matter. That +5 armor will help with most of the damage you will encounter; physical, elemental, and the three other types I mentioned will all be lessened with the basic armor upgrade. If you're facing a lot of degen and armor-ignoring damage, or simply DPing like mad, the health mod might help more. Just depends on the situation.

Though, the armor is a lot cheaper for having such a similar effect overall. It's definitely a better deal, hands down.

I <3 Blessed Insignas.

Armor all the way in PvE.
PvP has too much armor ignoring damage and is often about spiking so +health there.

Both serve different purposes. +Armor is better against attacks while +Health is better against degen and armor ignoring damage. Personally, I like both

In PVE i prefer armor.
But it depends on your teamate monk skill really.
+ armor - health : your monk will expense less energy, but will have to have more reflexes.
- armor + health: your monk will have the time to react as you take damage, but will have toi heal more as you loose more.

Yes, the +30hp works against all damage. But only if your damaged enough that its the only thing keeping you alive. Personally in PvE, the times that does happen and I stay alive are very rare (I use whichever mod I find first, but if I'm buying I'll get +armor).

However the +armor helps every single time you take armor affected damage and since you took less damage, the monks spend less energy healing you. And I can't think of a mob in PvE that does purely armor ignoring damage, even if I ignore their wanding at you.

So even if they have armor ignoring damage, the +armor mod will probably help more because of it protecting against the other things they chuck at you.

Though having multiple weapons would be the best choice. Switch to the +hp just before you die and switch back to +armor once your healed for its protection. Though if your health doesn't dip below +30, you didn't need to switch.

In PvP, I take what the group leader tells me to take.

Enemy AI seems to consider health total very relevant when selecting a target. If your monk has 600hp, it's very rare that it will be targeted at all in PvE.

For general PvE use, there is far too little armour-ignoring damage, nor any intelligent spiking, for +hp mods to hold their ground. For the most part, +armour mods will save you a lot more health over the course of a battle. (besides... they're 50x cheaper!)
It is still nice, however, to have a higher-health option available for when DP gets a pain (armour-switching works in PvE, I take a minor-rune headgear for emergencies)

However... for PvP, I'd probably say +hp is the mod of choice.

Personally i consider health better because it gives monks more time to react and heal you the +5 armor only makes a difference is long draw out battles and pve has ALOT of downtime

Best option is just to have both weapons, your considering the +29/30 HP so i assume you have the money for it, buy it get some more money and buy the +armor one, since its pretty cheap.

SO true, I am hardly targetted and pumped health on all my heroes as well.

Armor can be very good, but gives much less buffer, and when DPeed goes down fast, becoming even more vulnerable.

Though with very high damage in HM you could well think that a bit of armor +15-20 instead of 100 health, reduces a lot of damage as well. It is a persoanl choice, but i like health. 20 armor is like 25% reduction or so, on the 200 damage the difference will be big, but with the new skills you should just take a paragon and take health in my opinion, as the reduction in damage taken can be overwhelming in a good skilled party.