Id like to better understand what ac does for me. IIUC there is a soft cap and any added over that is less effective. Is that right? What is the soft cap at 110? Is it a sliding scale above that or just less value? How much less? Should I ignore ac altogether after some point or is it still worth something?
http://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Armor_Class ^Fanra provided a handy copy/paste on his Wiki, with information from a post Dzarn made on AC a while back. May not answer your questions as presented here, but is a good starting point to understanding AC.
There's also a file named "ACMitigation.txt" in the Resources folder of your EQ directory with softcap values for each class at every level from 1-110.
As far as decision making goes? If you've been in current gear, you've been operating and making decisions 100% over the soft cap since Luclin. Nothing objective has changed as levels have advanced in that regard. The subjective value of AC is context-dependent. Versus raid bosses, for instance, or in "challenge zones" like PoWar or the Gates missions in their days, AC is considerably less likely to help you survive since the enemies' attack values are so very high.
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/ac-vs-acv2.210028/#post-3078126 Dzarn's actual post. AC is still good, you still want it. It's a matter of how much you weight AC vs other stats, which can be discussed endlessly.
