What is better? Extra armor or life?

Let me give an example.


Let's say you are fighting an enemy that does lightning damage to you ONLY.
And you are a warrior.

You have a choice between a shield with 9 armor vs. lightning, or a shield that has +30 life always. Which would help you more to survive?

It depends on how much damage you'll be taking.
I think 9 armor is taking about 14% less damage.
If you took 215 lightning damage, you'd break even, since 30 damage would have been prevented due to armor.
If you took more than 215 lightning damage, armor is superior.

There are several factors to consider. Let's start with a simple mathematical approach.

You're hit 4 times. 9 * 4 = 36. So you have saved yourself 36 health via the 9dmg reduction. Therefore you have outpaced the +30 health bonus. So if you are going to be hit repeatedly armor wins.

Now let's say you are facing a spike heavy time. Here you are going to recieve ~490 dmg in about a split second. Your current health is ~470. Here having the plus 30 helth will save your life. Meanwhile the dmg reduction wouldn't unless of course it was an air ele spike.

I usually opt for dmg reduction armor over health mods. But as I said it depends on the scenario.

9 armor vs. lightning doesnt mean 9 dmg reduction..

On-topic again: I think TGgold is right

Against warrior pressure: armor, against nearly everything else: health. However warriors pressure is one of the biggest threats so most ussually armor. If i come up against a spike, i switch to health. As a warrior, health as armor ignoring damage and degen are the most common ways to bring down a high armor foe.

+30 health is really just a temporary measure that keeps you alive a bit longer, once you've taken the 30 damage it does nothing. The +AL will continue working even when you are almost dead, helping you take less damage.

+Health lets you sustain a fixed amount of damage, while +Armor will have saved you more and more health as the battle goes on; you can think about armor as both increasing your health and increasing the amount of healing you get (unless the damage ignores armor, of course). Your healer won't need to heal as often if you have +armor.

However, +health also gives the healers more play room. There's a certain window in which the healer needs to cast his spell so that you don't die, but he doesn't waste energy overhealing. Getting +health will increase the size of that range, making his timing easier.

So I suppose you could say that +armor will allow you to win harder fights (if everything goes according to plan), while +health will reduce the chances that you die when something goes wrong. Or: +armor is best vs. pressure, +health is best vs. spike.