I am nearing the point where I am almost done maxing my 4 TBL items and finishing up the ToV Earring. So theoretically I have 10 Type 19 and 5 Type 18 slots available. Seems to me like these would be the best but I am curious other opinions: 1 x Ventral ToV 19 1 x Soothing ToV 19 4 x Defender (TBL 18/19, ToV 18/19) 4 x Enhancement (TBL 18/19, ToV 18/19) 2 x Fortification ToV 18/19 3 x Assaulting (TBL 19, ToV 18/19) Are some of these not as good or worthwhile as I imagine? Is there a better allocation of augs I should be considering for my Warrior?
Assaulting proc augs are junky. Even the "good" ToV ones are ~450 & 600 dps only, 18 & 19. The TBL "Fortifications" were called Dire, use both those. The Defenders are…okay, but they're not special. They're just another version of AC aug, at a substantial tradeoff of hp versus some other ac/hp 18/19s. An ethical sort of commitment to the highest AC stat possible would justify them, as they are higher real AC than "qua"/"baraea" model augments, but they're potentially trivially overtaken by the regular stats on regular items with regular augs in. I run Attackers on the Combatant Lore Group; ways to raise melee accuracy are very rare indeed.
As said, the Assaulting ones and the Defender ones are lacklustered. Replace these 7 augs by other stats augs : if Hdex is your stat choice , yeah the 2 dire said, then you could wear the Hstr ones 2 x ToV Assaults (they have lot of HP) and Hagi ones 2 x ToV Stealth ones, for last slot Secret Dawn Qua or Secret Dawn Barea which one you prefer.
I play an SK. I was all excited for the AC Softcap "Defender" augs and made both type 18 and 19 of them. Then I noticed that the AC Softcap is 100% negated when using a 2HS weapon due to the effect of the 2H weapon proficiency. The description for that proficiency says that it negates the effect of Combat Stability (ie: raise AC softcap), but it will actually negate *any* source for AC softcap raise, not just that stemming from the Combat Stability AA. This is trivially demonstrable just by swapping the Defender augs out for ones of the same stats but different effects, and seeing that with 1H weapon up the Mitigation AC stat changes, and with 2H up it doesn't. So I've made a type 19 Ventral Defense (1.1% dmg mitigation from the frontal arc) and used it to replace the type 19 Defender in my Rallos Zek earring. This mitigation will be effective whether I'm using 1H or 2H weapons. The only time I use 1H weapon and shield is when off-tanking raid adds or doing the CoV group missions for the achievements that require long-term tanking (ie: Maximum Echo or the Skin Care one for Zlandicar). 99.9% of the time otherwise I'm using my 2HS (CoV raid crafted claymore). So the $64 question is this: does the 1.1% dmg mitigation from the Ventral Defense aug mitigate more or less damage than the +46 or so Mitigation AC increase I see using 1H weapon/shield and the Defender aug? I haven't yet thought of a good way to actually measure this and compare. I'm also not sure that it matters. Whatever the dmg is that's mitigated by that +46 Mitigation AC boost from the Defender aug, I'd only be looking at the difference between that and the 1.1% I get from the Ventral Defender, and that difference is likely to be small either way. Given the utility of the Ventral Defense that works even when I'm using my 2HS weapon, and the fact that I'm using 2HS the overwhelming majority of my playtime, I'm inclined to keep using it. I'm only still thinking about this to make sure I'm doing right by the guild when doing my off-tanking jobs during raids.
Both will do a minor impact, but I think that the 1,1 % reduction will still do more than the + 46 softcap AC, AC impact has been underwhelming in current EQ.
Thanks for your reply! I'm going to make a type 18 Ventral Defense to replace the current type 18 Defender that's still there. Another advantage of doing this would be that I could have type 18 and type 19 Attacker augs (+Accuracy) in my bag for those times (which is most of the time) when I'm either soloing or doing group content and just don't need the maximum dmg mitigation, because against group content I long since have crossed the threshold of good enough tanking and can afford to go for max melee dps. I can't have Attacker augs right now because they share the same lore group as the Defender augs, but do not share a lore group with the Ventral Defense augs.
Only two possible scenarios for trying to aug swap: -The swap matters ... but you'll forget to swap back to a tank set when you need to REALLY tank something and go splat ... or ... -The swap doesn't matter I'd recommend finding a place with your augs that you are content and just go with that.
Ventrals are "best one works", so if you have (as you should) the Devotee's Ventral, then the Acolyte's Ventral will just be a poor +stats aug.
Wow, ok, so Devotee's it is. I didn't know that the Ventral Defenses were "best one works." I wish this type of info were easier to find. Do you happen to know if the Soother augs are also "best one works", or if they even work on lifetaps? I just swapped out my type 18 Defender for an Attacker to try it out. Put the Defender in my Dragon's Hoard, so if I ever want to get it back out I'll have to destroy the Attacker, but oh well.
I'm a strong believer in the idea that small things add up to large things. but, pretty much every aug excluding the artisans prize, do very little for mitigation compared to ventral defense. in the best possible scenario where the mob hitting you has an equal attack power to your ac, 46 real ac is about 0.2% mitigation, if that. some group mobs might have that low of attack power but raid mobs don't. obviously that percentage would only apply if you are in the range of ac of a live server tank and even then it's not at all intended to be precise, but it's a general area.
Thanks for that comment. So it definitely looks like I'll get more benefit from Ventral Defense than from the Defender aug. Right now I have zero TBL chase loot, and only the Rallos Zek earring with type 18 and 19 slots. I'm on the 2nd to last earring at the moment. I've got the raids and the raid piece that's need, just need about 39% more bloodying and I'll make the final one. Right now I'm going with an Acolyte's Attacker (+6% accuracy), Devotee's Ventral Defense, and Devotee's Soother. Like you said, little things add up to big things, and that 1.1% mitigation plus 4% bonus to incoming heals puts another nice brick into the wall of my tankability.
