Undertaker's Insignias

Hi guys

First of all, i apologize for my bad english. I'll try my best (feel free to correct my grammar though )

I searched for this topic, but i didn't find anything interesting, so i decided to post here my question.

When it comes to choose the best insignias for PvP (it seems to me that in PvE almost everything works well more or less) i try to follow this simple logic: it's not important if my armor has got AR+10 or some other armor bonuses when i'm running around with nobody attacking me, it's important that my armor works well when i'm under heavy pressure.

For this reason i usually run Disciple's Insignia on my monk, because when somebody wants me to die, he will likely put some condition on me.

So i thought that for necromancers in PvP the Undertaker's Insignias would work in this same way: the more a character is at risk, the more defence he will receive. When i'm at full health, i don't need the armor bonus.

What do you guys think about this? Is this only rubbish or does it make some sense?

I'd like to stick to the armor bonus for casters, since AR+10 works better than HP+40 (for a character with 60AR) when the total damage (physical or elemental) received is greater than ~250 (according to my calculations, at least), which is a warrior hitting me roughly 12 times.

As far as armor-ignoring damage is concerned, if there's even one warrior hitting you more than 12 times, the health loss prevented by your AR+10 will be greater than 40, no matter how much necros and mesmers are hitting you with armor ignoring damage.

So i beg you not to say simply "use Survivor's", but to discuss about my previous question.

Thank you so much for the attention.

Actually that is exactly the reasoning I used on why I put undertakers on my pve necro hero's aswell.

I have used other insignias on them before and my personnal feeling towards using them, tends to say imo my necro's are better at surviving with the undertakers insignia.

But all that could just be my perception too.

I don't really like undertaker because it seems you would be putting more pressure on the monk. You don't get the standard +10AL until you're <60% health, so until you're halfway down, you're getting no bonus or +5.
Most monks wouldn't let you go lower if they could help it.
Granted, you're getting +20 when you're near-death, which could save you from a spike, but I wonder which protects more, +10 all the time or the Undertaker system?

Options: Blessed if you run enchantments. And I don't use it myself, but if you want a big bonus when you are targeted, why not try Blighter's? (Edit: although in PvP, monks probably would try to remove your hexes.)
I used to love Tormentors, but it kinda died when Nightfall came out and is even worse now with smiting seeing some play.

Dark Bond belongs on your discordway heroes, despite it not being part of the meta. If you do that, it makes Blessed Insignias quite beneficial in HM... +10 armor essentially all the time, with 75% damage reduction.

The same logic would apply to humans, though it really depends on the build.

Its to my understanding that you only get +10ar if you are hit in that armour peice. so if its only on your leg you will only get the damage reduction if it hits your leg.. not sure exactly on this tho..

That's true, but he would put the insignia on each piece of armor.

EDIT: since we're answering armour questions, is there any truth that bow attacks are more likely to deal damage to the headpiece? I often use the +15 vs. piercing on my headpiece because of this...

i dont think so, the chest has a 3/8 chance to get hit by physical attacks, lets 2/8 and the rest 1/8 (iirc)

Actually, this is a tremendously interesting question. I would like to do some calculation, but i guess i would need some model of the damage over time received, to make some kind of integration.

Also, i didn't thought about the energy problem. I know that a great advantage of the armor bonus is to releive pressure on the monk, because less damage received equals to less energy spent to heal. From this point of view, i read a lot about the fact that a good monk in PvP starts to worry about a teammate's health only when he's down 50% (with proper pre-protting, battlefield watching etc.). So, if we suppose to be in this situation, that the monk doesn't waste energy to redbar unnecessarily, and that he starts to heal the target under 50%, don't you think that in this case Undertaker's Insignia will help the monk better than the standard +10? (yes, this is a very hypothetical situation)

In fact, i usually put Tormentor's Insignias on my necro (character) and heroes (a part from the Minion Bomber, which uses MM's Insignias), for the AR+10 "unconditional", because it seems to me that holy damage (in PvE and PvP) isn't so dangerous.

For my monk in PvE (and also elementalist and mesmer) i use blessed mainly for two reasons: the first is that with Aegis, Dwayna's Sorrow etc. there are a lot of enchantments active all the time. The second is that if someone is hit by a fairly dangerous damage, he will likely receive some enchantment (monk heroes and bots are more than happy to spam enchantments like crazy).