Finally confirmed by Moorgard: http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=7&message.id=2839#M2839 Correct. The grey armor does give you whatever AC it displays. If a level 50 player wears level 10 armor, whatever AC is displayed will still count. But that amount of AC would be so meaningless against level 50 mobs that it would be worthless. If I said some time in the past that the AC value on grey armor was some kind of visual bug, then I was incorrect. In most cases you'll want to upgrade your armor when you enter a new level range because you'll gain mitigation benefits by doing so. There may be some cases, however, where a lower-level armor will provide greater benefit than a higher-level one, which is what I stated in my last post. If you are a level 40 player and are still wearing level 30 gear, it's not as if you will gain no benefit from it; you just may not be maximizing your potential. Keep in mind that any parsing done will be skewed if you aren't taking into account a reasonable level of equipment. If someone comes along and says "Bruisers can't tank!" but they are basing this on fighting level 50 mobs with level 30 gear, their data is not very sound. =========================== Moorgard EverQuest II Community Guy [/QUOTE] Although you shouldn't really be wearing grey armour, as the AC benefit it provides is probably going to be ineffective against the level of mobs you are fighting, if a piece of level 30 armour (grey) is shown as having higher AC than a piece of level 40 armour (white-orange) then wear the grey until you find something better. Confirmed at last, and at least it breaks the myth that the AC displayed by grey armour did not count to total AC despite the numbers adding. Still, upgrading to a better 'con' colour of armour is usually going to provide a better AC, and is a good rule of thumb to follow. -Jherad
Wow.... scary.... Because in a post before Moor said it would NOT give you AC..... Whhooooopppppsssss ..... and this has been repeated a number of times on the boards.... many that I have read... Why ... oh why.... after months of this Myth is it finally being rectified??? Do these people actually know.... or play.... this game????
Um .. I have never checked, but can't you just remove your grey armor, look at your AC, put in on, look at your AC and see if it changes? This is the first time I have read anything about this. I just assumed if it was grey, just meant it was low level for you. Not that the stats no longer effected you from the item.
Then old line was that though grey armour did add to your AC total in the UI, it did not in practice when it came to mitigation. Thankfully this blows that myth out of the water.
Well, moorgard posted recently that the mitigation value of armor is less as it goes gray, that would be its absorbtion ability rather than its AC.
Yeah, and he said that in the same thread I think... However if you read through the thread completely, he says the only figure to take into account is the AC number - As it goes from Orange to White to Grey, the number does not actually change, just that as a 'guideline', grey armour mitigation is less than effective in comparison with the level of mobs you are fighting. The numbers (mitigation, AC, whatever) don't actually decrease as a piece of equipment goes grey. Level 10 (grey) chestplate with 200AC will still provide exactly the same mitigation/AC as a level 20 (orange) chestplate with 200AC.
