Was going over the threads, and saw a comment that made me wonder about people's thought on this: So, barring magelo padding, and also NOT including being MT on raids... Which of the following augments do you believe give you the most survivability vs current content, and why do you think that? Frosty Gem of Enhanced Protection (Pure AC) Emblem of Adroitness (Heroics, focused on Hagl) Emblem of Finesse (Heroics, focused on Hdex) (While there are better slot 5 augs, the above are buyable with coins from the past expac, and could, I believe, be considered someone's 'worst' slot 5. (Meaning, having all the good ones from loot, and just needing to fill the last few open slots 5s with a bought aug.))
Frosty Gem of Enhanced Protection due to no AC softcap in shield. 34 Hagi or Hdex won't change much. Not that 35 AC is a game breaker too, but it remains the best option for shield.
So, you are of the opinion that 1 pt of AC is worth more than 1 pt of Hagl? (yes, I know it's 35 vs 34, but it's close enough.) (For that matter, it's 35 AC vs 34 Hagl +12 Hdex (or the reverse.))
I can't remember the exact figure, but I remember when I questioned whether drudging through that LDoN raid an unknown amount of times (worked out to 8 in my case), I found that shield AC was worth ~3.5x as much as other AC.
That's... very off. (For a tank's overcap figures.) To the others - then I ask - how much do you value heroics vs ac, when it's not on the shield?
No way. Even on the shield, there’s no way that 35 AC LDoN aug confers more survivability than the heroics aug, *especially* if you’re not main tanking a raid. It’s not any one stat in the heroics augs that are comparable - it’s all of them together. You’re giving up spell shielding, DoT shielding, mitigation, AND avoidance if you don’t use the heroics aug. If you’re regularly getting your face bashed in by raid bosses, *maybe* the AC aug is a better choice. Everyone else should be using the heroics aug.
I use some values to make it easier for me to know when I my replace type 7/8 and type 5 augs. 1 AC = 1 HSta = 2 HAgi = 6 HDex = 10 HP. This is just my own formula for me, not based on any parsing number or so. This allow me to obtain a number for each aug and rank them this way. And this is based on how I rank the heroic stats. I'm a raid geared warrior. If devs would make HAgi and HDex working back on raid mobs, then my order would change.
In other pieces you don't have the option of a nice AC aug in the type 5 slot. So obviously for all other pieces other than shield you are looking for best of everything. Highest AC, HP, perfect heroics for your class (depending on what you choose to stack)...then boost with your choice of heroic type 5. The shield is special, and I don't care what kind of tank you are raid or group ....you want the 35AC in type 5 slot on shield, period.
With the softcap on ac being as low as it is 600 or so. You adding in 35ac that is not counted in that cap, there isn’t a heroic value in the game on a single item that will provide that much benifit. Hell a raid tank with RoS shield and proper augs can almost double their AC softcap before AAs are used. That is not insignificant
Heroics versus Heroics or AC etc. not pertaining to shield slot is a preference thing nowadays. The differences are rather small so it's highly debateable. I'd look at how much time you spend raiding per week and in the group game on average. If you're one of those folks that mainly only ever just logins for raids once max on everything else then the answers become even more simple. As my guilds are progressing through raids I'm putting more of an emphasis on heroic sta. Once everything is on farm at a quick pace and I'm decked out in RoS gear emphasis will go back to heroic dex
I don't have a strong opinion but my values I use to score augs is: 1AC = 20HP = 1.11 hSTA = 0.5hDEX Obviously the big difference in our weighting is I value hDEX 12x as much as you do. This means I'll be bumping off my Emblem of the Combine aug for say, Sickly Distended Horseshoe. I focus on DPS more than most other tanks because I don't raid. Ex: As much pride I have in my sweet Frosty Gem of Enhanced Protection I froze my in Everfrost for, I don't even use my shield often in groups because I'd rather have the damage from dual wield. Like I said I don't feel strongly about it. It doesn't matter all that much but like the dex vs agi debate it's one of the few itemization decisions we can make.
If you don't want to trust my memory (I wouldn't!) please see this thread for a simple breakdown on what the impact of the AC cap is and how much value you should place on the 35ac aug. https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ok-non-visibles-worth-it.246361/#post-3616777
Not that i missed LoDN, I did that crap when current, but on a monk, and I’ve forgotten enough from that time frame. Can I get a quick refresher on that aug. Do Everfrost missions to unlock it, keep doing a crap ton of missions all over to get currency to buy? Or was that one of the drops? Id look it up on zam, but that site and my phone hate each other!
Do everfrost missions a few times to unlock, do the raid: LDoN Raid: Miragul's Menagerie: Frozen Nightmare http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4198 to get the Frosty Gem of Enhanced Protection: https://eq.magelo.com/item/68107 It has a 14% chance to drop, so expect to do it 7 times on average, but prepared to do it many more times than that. The raid itself is fairly quick. Only annoying thing is to kill the chromatic skeletons, which you have to make them all red and kill them at once.
As always, you are more or less lucky. From my memory I recall having to do it 15 + times before getting it. The joy of RNG.