So 40ac is better than 9 more dodge skill? And how much mitigation does 40ac give and how much does 9 dodge skill give? I was under the impression that a melee hit that is dodged is 100% damage mitigation and 40ac out of several thousands ac would be what % of mitigation?
If that was a slot 3, tanks would be all over it. Sadly though, as a 7,8 it's not worth losing 35 or 40 AC and heroic agility/dex.
If you have 8k ac how is 40ac even with some h agi and dex going to be better than 9 more dodge skill? If you are going to get shot at would you rather get body armor with a plate over your heart, or use normal kevlar and put on a ghillie suit sp* to have a better chance of never geting shot if you arent seen? That plate over your heart will not stop a bullet in the jaw. Just like a little more ac will not stop a mob hitting you and procing something on you.
Your silly metaphors aren't going to change anyone's mind. If you want people to consider what you're proposing, you'll need to back it up with hours and hours of very specific and controlled parsing. Personally, I have no idea if 9 dodge skill is better than a 35ac aug with 7 hagi.
Remember, this is a game we play to have fun. Run your character the way you choose, equipping him the way you want. That said, for folks interested in building their character to be as strong as possible, there are definite ways to do this.
9 to the skill of dodge is only a fraction of a % of occurrence of dodge, 35ac lowers the amount you get hit for when you do get hit, and you will always get hit a certain % of the time. heroics further increase your avoidance skills via hagi(for those with block) and hdex (for all others) and if your aug also puts you over a 25factor for hdex you'd be losing the 35ac as well as a combined 2% increase to parry and riposte OCCURENCE (not skill), which, like dodge, decrease the rate at which you get hit at all, and in riposte's case, especially as an sk, you gain the ability to kill faster AND self-heal. Thus, especially for an sk with our hit-to-heal abilities and procs, 9 more to dodge skill will never be better than a 35ac aug that *should* also have hdex or hagi which further increase your survivability. Even if the given aug is only 1hdex, if that 1 hdex puts you over a hurdle of 25, you've increased your rate of avoidance by 2% (not 2% of your current rate, but 2% on top of that rate), all the time
I feel I should point out your confusing offense with defense. The only time an SK should care about their dps or want to get hit is when they are swarming. If your actually tanking, you don't want to take more hits, because the life gained from any one tap will be less than the average hit. You are also significantly downplaying the strength of +dodge skill vs ac. Ac is on literally everything, +dodge skill is on what, 3 augments in the entire game? Makes you wonder why it's so rare
Hey, a single person who appears to agree with my theory of dodge > little more ac. Anyone else want to jump off the cliff with us and be branded as heretics?
it's more about jumping off the cliff and being branded as idiots for having jumped off a cliff. there are several factors at play here that dictate why using a type 7/8 dodge mod aug is a bad idea: 1. dodge is the last of the 'avoidance' skills checked in the order, making gains in Dodge the least effective of the avoidance abilities, and in certain instances gaining more Dodge actually does nothing for your total attacks avoided in a given period, even if you're dodging more. this very much depends on the mob's accuracy vs. your Avoidance (the mod2 and the CA AA) but there are break points at which adding a small amount of dodge will make you dodge more, but you're just replacing what would have otherwise been a 'miss' with a 'dodge', so in a given number of attacks you're not being hit less times, you've just shifted why it didn't hit you. 2. over the course of a play session and with the way EQ's combat system works, the amount of damage reduction you'd get due to the AC gains would in most instances end up being as much if not more than the amount of damage you avoided if using the dodge mod. 3. a single hdex/hagi breakpoint gain gives you more of a chance to parry/dodge an attack than 9 points of dodge skill would give. 4. it's important to remember that just because your stupid idea isn't mainstream and goes against the conventional wisdom doesn't necessarily make it any less stupid.
On a different note - some good news. There doesn't seem to be a time limit before you can request new ldon missions now.
