How to further reduce incoming damage? Current Raid Content Offtanking Paladin...

I'm not sure I understand how hDEX on a PAL/WAR is the best option defensively. I have talked to a number of players, any while there are some deviations, the general response I have found is...

SHD goes hDEX. hDEX increases SHD passive healing due to increased lifetap procs. It benefits them when dealing with mobs that have raid strikethrough. hAGI can benefit group geared SHD but OP is raid geared.

WAR does hSTA. This is because raid bosses have strikethrough that negates the benefits of hAGI. hDEX increases their DPS but not their survivability like it would for SHD.

PAL goes hAGI. PAL (and the OP) are raid offtanks. The raid trash does not have the strikethrough that raid bosses have, so PAL benefits from hAGI in the raid setting in the same way they do in the group setting. How would hDEX be the best defensive option for a PAL?

I only play SHD in the group game so I don't understand these things like other players who raid do. However, one thing I am good at is being willing to talk to people, ask them what they are doing and hear them out on why. There is a chance a whole bunch of people have the wrong idea, but I don't think that is the case.

You have 6 outdated raid slots and 4 group slots. It's worth noting that there are 23 slots. Almost half you gear is not current raid level. I didn't see you mention the Evolving cloak and those stats, which also makes me wonder if you have the matching type 18 augs, which have significant benefits. Also things like the artisan prize, etc.

It sounds like you are doing a great job. It may simply be that you need to keep grinding out more upgrades. My SHD is almost completely T1 NoS raid geared with the best stuff I have been able to obtain and I have like 200k HP and 2000 AC less than our top raid knights. There are a lot of little things that add up to some really huge benefits. It's really amazing how much gap their can be between 2 raid knights with seemingly similar gear.

Here is my updated Type 5 list for Paladins for LS. Obviously as people have said, if you hit 4K raid hAGI then stop using T1 hAGI augs.

PAL

----Mythic Charm (LS Vanquisher)
----Divine Medallion (NoS Vanquisher)
----Master's Curio (ToL Vanquisher)
----Nathsar Diamond (EOK Vanquisher)

----Harmonious Stone of Perpetual Reverie (T3 hHARMONY)
----Harmonious Stone of Perpetual Reverie (T3 hAGI)
----Proficient Stone of Perpetual Reverie (T3 hDEX)
----Resilient Stone of Perpetual Reverie (T3 hSTA)
----Septagonal Sapphire (T2 hHARMONY)
----Ransomed Collection (T2 hAGI)
----Pieces of Shredded Wings (T2 hDEX)
----Terracotta Torc (T2 hSTA)
----Phantasmal Luclinite Stone of Harmony (T3 NOS hHARMONY)

Fill remaining slots with
----Stately Seal of Takish`Hiz (T1 hAGI)

I can't find my original post about type 5 augs. Here is a copy of it....

If TLDR, in short, there is little concrete evidence that 1 stat is significantly better than another stat, so the best aug is the 1 that gives the most total combined stats. Since the 3 hDEX/AGI/STA augs per tier have the same average stats, it's best to use the highest net stats regardless of your stat choice. This reduces the number of T1 augs to use to about 7. This is even more true now that people are hitting 4k in their primary stat and are moving to secondary and tertiary stats.

I think the problem with all this, is that you seem to be conflating what is best defensively with what is best overall.
There is no bandolier for your type 5 augs that when you want to dps you can use dex and when you are tanking you can use agi and when an AE DD is going to hit you can swap to sta. Its just not a thing. So you have to choose. I think 80% of tanks are going dex at this point.
However you could totally buck the trend and go heroic intelligence and it would make very little difference in how well you tank. It would dramatically effect your dps, but not significantly effect how hard you are being hit.
Stat inflation is just so extreme. In fact hell you could just not use type 5s at all and I bet it wouldnt make that big a difference about how hard or often you're being hit.
The comment you made about raid trash not having strikethrough is flat wrong.

Wrong, all tanks goes hDEX, because the rest doesn't matter. You can try hAGI vs hDEX, you'll get the same result defensive wise, I've tested it myself, people made some post with comparison results, it's the same.
And the tiny bit of HP you get from hSTA doesn't matter.

I'm certainly not going to disagree. I don't have the knowledge or experience to disagree. I tank with a SHD and hDEX being the best for them is pretty undisputed so there is nothing for me to test.

One of the biggest arguments for going HDex as a pally is sk epic. we get it too, when an sk casts their epic, whip out your two-hander and burn.

Just a slight correction here, but the addition you are talking about is Knight's Sedulity which is a Paladin and Shadow Knight AA that reduces incoming melee damage by 4%, it does not heal the player.

You may be confusing the ability with the other AA, Dark Absorption - which is an Shadow Knight only AA that heals the player for 1% of melee damage inflicted by the player on their current target.

no, Alanus refers there to Spirit Drinker's Coating

Spirit Drinker's Coating Misc — 86647
MAGIC LORE NO TRADE PRESTIGE
Slot: None
Click Effect: Spectral Aura Casting Time: 0.5s Recast Delay: 10m Recast Type: 54
1: Return 4% of Melee Damage as HP
Required level of 120.
Class: All


Knight's Sedulity is an Underfoot AA, retroactively added to knight classes in CotF when warriors were thoroughly revamped to kybosh the shield meta.

Well, a quick upgrade with my progress. I have found out that when I use Glyph, my Tanking essentially becomes comparable to those of the other Tanks, especially with regards to damage taken per hit average. So when I need to, I pop Glyph and it has been going fairly well.

I am down to 4 Slots of ToL T2 Raid gear. I do not use group gear aside from LS weapons, as I have not gotten better yet. I have 6 Slots of LS T1 Raid gear now.

I have started working on Artisans Prize, but it is slow going. I need 2 more Trophies to get where I need to be. Do not have the Slots or the Trophies yet, but I have 6 out of the Trophy I plan to use even when I can pick from everything, so getting there.

I am beginning to expect I am never going to get the S5 Augment rewards for completing all raids with all achieves in NoS and before. So I guess I will need to see how that works out. I think once I got everything else sorted, it should be good enough.

1) The answer is none of the heroics really matter defensively, so you go for the one that substantially increases dps.

2) You are not stacking hdex for lifetap procs/combat effects. You are stacking it for melee crit (which increases your dps and % of dmg lifetap)

3) the only melee stopping at 4k or below hDex are war/ber. Again, you are not stacking hdex for accuracy/ce.

Keep up the good work. You'll be there in no time.