AC caps on TLPs

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Nugarbok, Aug 8, 2020.

  1. Nugarbok New Member

    I've tried researching this on my own and have failed to come to an understanding with my primitive google-fu and uncertainty on which sources apply to TLPs, and I have been told wildly different things by people I play with.

    I'm a noob who has geared out his warrior over classic on Aradune and my question is:

    How exactly does AC work in regards to a soft cap, or whatever it is into the next few expansions on official TLPs? I'm interested in how this applies to specifically warriors. Since we only have a week of classic left, I'm primarily concerned with what is the AC soft cap for warriors at level 60 in Kunark , and what returns are on AC past this softcap.

    I know a shield ignores any type of cap. A rule of thumb for evaluating stats like agility and stamina under the statcap, or HP vs AC would be awesome as well.

    Thanks in advance for any help.
  2. AtabishiWoW Second best guild leader you'll ever have

    There is a file somewhere in your EQ folder that shows all the soft caps for every class at every level if someone is able to find it. For warriors iirc its 33% return after soft cap, knights are 30%. You can reach the lvl 60 AC soft cap in classic at lvl 50 if that tells you anything. As far as HP vs AC there are 3 schools of thought, 1ac=5hp, 1ac=10hp, 1ac=15hp. I tend to go with the the 1ac=10hp just because it's in the middle lol.
  3. Nugarbok New Member

    Ok thank you for that reply, after messing around with my gear I have a follow up question I am confused about:

    My gear gives me more ac than listed on the item, and I've been told that's normal under softcap. So there is an AC bonus for gear under softcap.

    My 20 AC indicolite arms put me from 379 AC to 406 AC in my standard gear set. According to a text file I have seen from a guildy, that AC softcap for level 50 for warriors is 410.

    If I use all AC jewlery, I can get to 411 ac on my sheet.
    With no AC rings on, im at 399 ac.
    Adding a single 5 AC ring brings me to 406, and then the second 5 AC ring brings me to 411 AC, which makes sense if the softcap is 410 and AC rounds up.

    I'm not able to mess around with gear over softcap myself since I can barely get to 411 ac at the moment.

    How does this affect gearing when you take AC buffs you receive in raid into account?

    I don't even know what I'm asking at this point. EQitems.com is hard to trust with the lists it gives me. I know I'm not gonna get BiS list per expansion in this game but I'm pretty confused at how to min max my warrior's gear at this point.

    edit: this is without a shield, using a dagas
  4. Protagonist Tank

    AC from buffs is the same as AC from gear - it is subject to softcap returns.

    The only mitigation AC that is not subject to softcaps is AC on an item flagged as a shield held in the secondary slot.

    Softcap does not effect gear choices at all. You should still be stacking all the AC you can get post softcap, too.
    Skuz likes this.
  5. WaitingforMoreEQ WaitingforTBC

    Short answer
    Stack AC then stack more AC

    Longer answer.
    Every Class has an AC softcap. After you hit the AC softcap you'll get less AC then listed on the items except for your shield. Shield AC ignores the normal rules. Warriors get the best post softcap AC around .45% AC after softcap. Which means a 100 AC item will give 45 actually AC. You can view how much an item is giving you in terms of actual AC by just looking at your stat sheet when equipping it. AC is the EQ god stat for tanks. Ignore the HP listed on items you pretty much always want the item with the highest AC. Once Heroics come out with PoP you'll want to focus on getting the highest AC items that still allow you to cap your important Mod 2s
    Skuz and Protagonist like this.
  6. Jaime Lannister Augur

    If you are a Tank..


    AC is Bae.
    Protagonist and Skuz like this.
  7. Truetotheblue Augur

    The file in the EQ Directory is ACMitigation.txt, it's in the Resources folder. It lists in the following format...

    Class#^Level^Softcap^Multiplier after soft cap. Warrior is class 1. So 1^50^410^.33 in that file for example means a level 50 warrior has a soft cap of 410. Past 410 each point of AC is worth .33 of an AC point, so for every 3 ac you equip after the cap you will gain 1 AC.

    As another poster noted, shields are counted differently. So subtract that if you're using one. Past the soft cap is when you want to judge your AC=HP calculation. So while the item might be a 3ac boost at face value, it may only give 1ac. It's up to you to decide what you think the HP Value is worth in the trade off there. Personally I go with 10hp=1ac. I would view that 3ac = 10hp when determining what to equip, since the effective AC was only 1 point.

    Here is a list by class you can reference for that file.

    1=WAR
    2=CLR
    3=PAL
    4=RNG
    5=SHD
    6=DRU
    7=MNK
    8=BRD
    9=ROG
    10=SHM
    11=NEC
    12=WIZ
    13=MAG
    14=ENC
    15=BST
    16=BER
  8. Baldur Augur

    Like truetotheblue said the ac soft cap is in that text file, although his last number is wrong, it's .35, not .33 for warriors. The level 60 soft cap is 430 for a warrior and warriors always get 0.35 of each 1 ac after the soft cap. A level 60 knight by comparison has a 412 soft cap and .33 soft cap multiplier.

    If you want to know how the number on the character sheet is reached you can read Dzarn's post in this thread:
    https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/ac-vs-acv2.210028/
  9. Truetotheblue Augur

    Yep, sorry, it's 35 for warrior. It's 33 for the Knights and I usually use those as an example when explaining it to others because easy math.
  10. Xhartor Augur

    EQitems.com doesn't weight the value of AC for tanks correctly, but it will help know whats out there. raidloot.com is a better site, but doesn't really include classic gear.

    Gearing isn't that hard in Kunark if you are puting effort into going to camp the items you want.The only items can be difficult to get would the cobalt bp/legs and the 41% haste belt from sky. That's mostly because dealing with RNGesus and huge loot tables. The rest just depends on your willingness to go camp the items or buy them. If you have Dagas during classic, then your guild shouldn't have much trouble farming all of Kunark.
  11. Gremin Augur

    AC is king
  12. Triconix Augur

    AC return after softcap for warriors is .35 or 35%.
    Knights are .33 or 33%.
    Rangers are .315 or 31.5%
    Bards, Clerics, Monks are .3 or 30%
    Beastlords, Berserkers, Shamans, Rogues are .28 or 28%
    Druids are .265 or 26.5%
    Enchanters, Magicians, Necros, and Wizards are .25 or 25%

    What this means? In the most simple of terms, once you hit the soft cap, any AC you get from items is multipled by the above number. So a 100ac item would essentially have 35 ac for a warrior. If you want a super detailed breakdown of AC calculation you should look here
    menown likes this.