+5 AR or +30?

ZeRG!

ZeRG!

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2007

Las Vegas

Arcana Knights [AK]

which do you think is more efficient?

magi of the light

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2007

Virginia

NINE

R/E

well it depends

if your a caster and your staying out of the line of fire then i would say health

ZeRG!

ZeRG!

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2007

Las Vegas

Arcana Knights [AK]

oh im a warrior, so i spose that means +5 armor?

Bowstring Badass

Bowstring Badass

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Character selection screen figuring what I want to play...

Purple Lingerie - :D

Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeRG!
oh im a warrior, so i spose that means +5 armor?
Not necessarily you could run up vs degen which the +30 would be better (for an extra 2 seconds to live lol).

magi of the light

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2007

Virginia

NINE

R/E

ok well elt me reprase my last post....it all depends on what you like and what you think is better

Redfeather1975

Redfeather1975

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2006

Apartment#306

Rhedd Asylum

Me/

In PvP health is preferred.
In PvE if you don't have many monks, or their e-management is not so good, then AL can be better.
Either way, it's best to min/max if you are going for one or the other. Stack your upgrades! They mean very little on their own.

ZeRG!

ZeRG!

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2007

Las Vegas

Arcana Knights [AK]

ahhh yah, well i put brawlers on with glads on chest and pants so ill go armor. thx guys!

Avarre

Avarre

Bubblegum Patrol

Join Date: Dec 2005

Singapore Armed Forces

Depends largely what kind of damage you're going to face - reducing damage is better than having health (since it reduces the total pressure on your team), but in many cases there is armor-ignoring damage (some casters, attack skills) that makes it less beneficial to have +armor.

chowmein69

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2007

i always use +30 hp and i never you +5 armor

Dr Strangelove

Dr Strangelove

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Dec 2005

Wasting away again in Margaritaville

[HOTR]

+5 armor is generally better the less armor you have to start with. On a caster with 60AL, +5 armor is worth 8.3% damage reduction. On a warrior with 96 base AL, +5 AL is worth around 4.5% damage reduction. The more armor you have, the less it does.

By contrast, +30 health has the same effect for everyone, roughly a 6% increase in longevity for a character with 500 health. It's also effective vs. DP and armor-ignoring stuff, which is nice.

Moral of the story, if you're a squishy, +5 AL is probably better. If you're a big tough warrior, +30 health is probably better.

zwei2stein

zwei2stein

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Jun 2006

Europe

The German Order [GER]

N/

Or, you can use some magic... called swaps.

Have +HP on default, since it will save you much more realibly against suprise spikes.

When you become center of mobs attention, switch to +armor.

However, +AL from skills is much more easy to get /and much more thatn just +5 armor.../ so you can have just +HP and leave rest on wammo with WYS. Also, imho, it is much more eficitent to leave on high hp and just have monk cast on you... SoA under focused fire is much better and makes your armor irilevant.

Morale of story: important prot/damage sources bypass armor. some even benefit from lesser armor /reversal, spirit bond .../

---

btw, armor benefit is not declining, same about of armor gives you same aditional benefit regardless of existing armor.

caster given +40 armor will receive half damage they would take without it, just like warrior buffed by aditional +40 armor. in both cases damage is reduced by 1/2

Muspellsheimr

Muspellsheimr

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2007

I would recommend getting a weapon of each, and practicing weapon swapping. However, if you must choose, it varies on what you expect to face. +30 health is superior if you are expecting heavy spikes or armor-ignoring damage (including degen). +5 armor is superior if you are expecting pressure.

Quote:
Originally Posted by zwei2stein
btw, armor benefit is not declining, same about of armor gives you same aditional benefit regardless of existing armor.

caster given +40 armor will receive half damage they would take without it, just like warrior buffed by aditional +40 armor. in both cases damage is reduced by 1/2
Not exactly - half damage on a 60AL (caster) from a 40 armor boost is going to be twice the damage reduction of a +40 armor boost on an 100AL (warrior), given that the warrior is already recieving 1/2 the damage as the caster base.

In other words, for every 40 points of physcal damage a caster takes, a warrior would take 20 from the same source. So 20 (40/2 - +40AL to caster) is a greater reduction than 10 (20/2 - +40AL to warrior). As such, armor bonus' DO give diminishing returns.
+40AL = 50% damage
+80AL = 25% damage
+120AL = 12.5% damage
+160AL = 6.25% damage
+200AL = 3.125% damage. You see the pattern?

EPO Bot

EPO Bot

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2006

Mo/N

My smite monk uses the rinblade (req3, +5 AR vs Charr) with a +5 ar mod. Ad 16 in smite, 12 in tactics, an exalted eagis and some norn skills and you melee Hells percipice with your eyes closed.

Muspellsheimr

Muspellsheimr

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by EPO Bot
My smite monk uses the rinblade (req3, +5 AR vs Charr) with a +5 ar mod. Ad 16 in smite, 12 in tactics, an exalted eagis and some norn skills and you melee Hells percipice with your eyes closed.
How does +5AL vs. Charr help against titans?

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

In PvE, the general answer is that +health is better when you're DPed and +armor is better when you are not. If you can afford to bring both mods, definitely do and switch between them; if you cannot, I would suggest sticking with +health, as you need it that much more when suffering from DP.

EPO Bot

EPO Bot

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2006

Mo/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Muspellsheimr
How does +5AL vs. Charr help against titans?
Nothing. I added that just to be complete. The rinblade is great because it does the most damage for a req of 3 swordsmanship. I love swinging the cheap thing with lots of smite enchantments and 12 points in tactics to boot.

NeHoMaR

NeHoMaR

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

Sometimes armor is useless, HP is always useful.

aapo

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Strangelove
+5 armor is generally better the less armor you have to start with. On a caster with 60AL, +5 armor is worth 8.3% damage reduction. On a warrior with 96 base AL, +5 AL is worth around 4.5% damage reduction. The more armor you have, the less it does.
- Did you consider that with higher damage reduction to begin with, additional increase will be even more beneficial? In extreme example getting your 98% damage reduction to 99% effectively halves the damage you receive over 98% reduction.

wu is me

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2007

A lot of skills are more effective with higher health, eg: infuse health, flesh of my flesh, chilling victory... etc..
If you are using such skills then you take +30
If you are sacrificing health as a necro, then you would consider a weapon swap to a weapon with less hp.
In PvP higher Hp is generally desired to counter spikes, since some spikes will ignore armour. However higher armour does relieve pressure against damage heavy pressure builds.

It really depends on what you expect to come across, and your build, maybe you could consider bringing both weapon cores just in case?

Sword

Sword

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2006

Mo/

30 hp always
no arguement

Ben-A-BoO

Ben-A-BoO

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

Europe

This little Article on Game Amp helped me to decide which mod to prefer:
Fortitude + 30 HP vs. Armor + 5 Mods

And yeah Ensign is right ... DP sucks

Cheers,
Timebandit

kooomar

kooomar

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2006

Pow Pow Pow [myau]

Mo/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sword
30 hp always
no arguement
Mmmmm, I have one, like "+30 always is silly"
+30 is the norm and works best most of the time, but there are DEFINATELY times for +5 to be better. In GvG/HA I normally run the HP, but hero battles (i run monk) I run the +5 armor or +7 vs physical, depending on a quick test of what kind of daggers the sin is using. The +5 is MUCH better where constant pressure is being applied to you.

To sum it up, and hopefully justify swapping, if your increased armor causes you to lose less health that adds up to more than 30, in a fairly short amount of time, you made a wise choice.

dont feel no pain

dont feel no pain

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2005

Uk,Wales

Farming: Armor.

PvP: Health.

Normal Pve: Either.

Neither is right for pvp because of the variations of situations you can get into.

Diddy bow

Diddy bow

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2006

Jawsome!!!!!!!!!!!

looking for one :p

A/D

Swapping is pretty good but in pvp where spikes are so common swapping will be the least of your troubles so id go with a +30 myself.

Viruzzz

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

that article on gameamp isn't really complete, there's much more than total hp to it.

the longer a battle takes (the more healing required) the better +armor is.
the 30 extra health only works once, your monk still has to heal that 30hp back, while with an armor mod, the monk spends more energy to heal the damage thats being done to you. it might not seem like a lot, but it adds up.

in a spike situation(pvp), +hp is most likely the best option for a consistent weapon (if you don't have both available to swap)

in a pressure situation you are likely to lose your health bar more than once, so armor would be the best choice, as long as the damage done isn't purely degen or armor-ignoring

a lot of things change this though, for example physical skills, they add an extra bunch of armor ignoring damage, and +armor would only decrease the amount that came from the base attack.

at the end of the day, you can never go completely wrong with +30 HP.
you should always stack as much as you can though, if you add another 100 hp you're much better off against spikes. and if you add +15 armor your pressure defense is considerably better.

Onarik Amrak

Onarik Amrak

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2007

Astral Revenants

P/W

Get both, although +5 is much cheaper to get.

Antheus

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

In wurms, +AL is better, especially double +5, or +5 and shield.

On casters, I prefer +30, since +AL is hard to get, without sacrificing much of the build.

+AL is also much easier to obtain through skills, than +hp, at least in general builds (WY, SyG, and similar).

Unlucky

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Sep 2007

Unforgiven Outlaws [swag]

E/Mo

Personally I've always run the +30 health mod, never really gave the +5 armour any thought as I've generally had something that's been guarding my arse of a self heal which compensates for the small amount of extra damage I'd take without the +5 armour mod.

Spazzer

Spazzer

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2006

USA

Team Asshat [Hat]

Mo/E

If you get death penalty while you've got that +5 AL mod on you, you're going to regret not taking the +30 HP.

Aera Lure

Aera Lure

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

In Baltar's head

Bring Out Your Dead [BOYD], former officer [LBS]

Mo/

Health mod > armor mod in most cases.

Dante the Warlord

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2006

W/R

Yea health mod is better than armor mods in most cases since most spellcasters stay far enough back to avoid damage from melee fighters. Melee fighters don't need it either since they usually have high enough AL anyways and it makes little sense since AL has diminishing effects at high levels.

Plus armor can be avoided with armor penetration attacks. HP on the other hand will help with degen, giving you an extra 2 seconds to whip out a spell to gain back health.

M1h4iL

M1h4iL

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2005

Perth, Australia

This has been debated so many times. It depends really and having both is ideal. Running around with +5ar throughout a round will reduce a lot of damage in the end while the 30hp mod will just sit there. On the other side, if you don't have much hp, due to damage or dp, or your against a spike group then sure the 30hp is better.

Gigashadow

Gigashadow

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

Bellevue, WA

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Strangelove
+5 armor is generally better the less armor you have to start with. On a caster with 60AL, +5 armor is worth 8.3% damage reduction. On a warrior with 96 base AL, +5 AL is worth around 4.5% damage reduction. The more armor you have, the less it does.
True, your actual mitigation % number goes up more slowly the more armor you have, but in terms of longevity they both increase it by the same factor. For example, regardless of what your armor value is, if you add +40 to it, you take half the amount of damage you were taking before, so you live twice as long. Adding +5 works the same way, the result is just smaller.

Edit to add some numbers:

Let's say with ar60, it took 1000 hp worth of damage to kill you (this includes your base hp and the amount of healing that monks have available to dish out)
Adding +5ar, making ar65, it would take 1090 damage to kill you (1000 / .917)

For a warrior with around ar95, it would take 1834 damage to kill him (1000 / .545)
Adding +5ar, making ar100, it would take 2000 damage to kill him (1000 / .500)

The percentage increase in survivability is the same in both cases (an additional 9%). The warrior has gained an effective 166 life points worth of damage mitigation, while the 60ar caster has gained 90.

Gigashadow

Gigashadow

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

Bellevue, WA

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Antheus
In wurms, +AL is better, especially double +5, or +5 and shield.

On casters, I prefer +30, since +AL is hard to get, without sacrificing much of the build.

+AL is also much easier to obtain through skills, than +hp, at least in general builds (WY, SyG, and similar).
They aren't quite interchangeable though; the problem with +AR through skills is that it is capped at +24. So all it takes someone bringing a Watch Yourself! or similar type of skill, and you've probably already hit the cap.

Armor that comes from your weapon/offhand and runes does not count towards that cap.

That said I generally prefer +30hp, because when I take a few deaths, it's easier to get my henchmen out of the hole if they don't die in one hit. My minion master uses dark bond, which is an alternate form of mitigation, although my N/Rt healer does use Protective Was Kaolai + Herald's Insignia (+10ar while holding an item).

Omniclasm

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jan 2007

Guild Hall

A/

The way I look at it is this....if I have 400 health, and am taking 40 damage a hit, I am easier to heal than if I had 800 health taking 80 damage a hit. So, my opinion is that armor is always better.

BohemianKeith

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2006

This is like the 3 millionth time this has been brought up. I suggest the OP does some searching because i am certain you'll find alot of comparisons on the web. But personally i always take the 30hp, like someone said earlier armor isn't always the most usefull but health is.

SotiCoto

SotiCoto

Banned

Join Date: Jan 2007

Drazach Thicket

Temple of Zhen Xianren [Sifu]

+7 Elemental Armor.


The rest can go fvck themselves.
If it does physical damage, I can block it. Health I can get back easily. The nukers are the real nasty ones.

Antheus

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by SotiCoto
+7 Elemental Armor.


The rest can go fvck themselves.
If it does physical damage, I can block it. Health I can get back easily. The nukers are the real nasty ones.
Go go prot spirit.

It's mesmers that are the nasty ones.

Zeek Aran

Zeek Aran

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2006

Earth, sadly

BORK

A/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Antheus
Go go prot spirit.

It's mesmers that are the nasty ones.
Because prot can be on every character and makes armor useless?

Lagg

Lagg

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

W/

Health and full Survivor.