ToE versus AC? Opinions? (in General)

Now, on a good day the combination of the ToE and high AC gives very good value for money in the damage reduction stakes. But how do they compare against each other?

Is it worth putting heavy AC on a mage? I know plenty of people have looked at the idea of a 'heavy' mage but is it worth it?

Just this morning a test run with about 200 AC lost me the top half of my fightlist. Strangely though it wasn't down to the reduction in damage output from armour penalties.

My 850k level ToE did a far better job of reducing damage received than the AC, and obviously had the bonus of reducing AMF backlash as well.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't 200 AC equate to around a 40% reduction of physical damage?

Naked - ie no AC, no tattoo, against Kaeptn saw damage received in the 100k area per hit. With 200 AC I saw damage received in about the 50k area per hit. With the ToE damage received dropped right down to around 15k per hit. Taking into account the randomness of damage that's still approx 80% difference between naked and tattooed.

Ok , I know that I'm better off with a ToE on a mage. I'm just being a bit stupid here.

But where does AC start to out perform the ToE?

That damage reduction of 40% is the same regardless of the size of the attack right? And the ToE is capped at a certain point. But where?

I'm just on a ramble here. But opinions are very welcome.

The difference is *how* they both reduce damage. AC reduces by a percentage, ToE a fixed amount. With a large enough ToE you will see greater reduction versus small damage than the percentage reduction from your AC.

Unless your AC reduces 75% and your ToE is large enough to hit the 75% reduction cap. :)

But at any point do you think it is worth chucking loads of ac onto a mage? Not the MCM type but the adam and hod variety?

That kinda armor is not intended for mages. I have a fairly high (for a mage) AC on both my mages combined with a ToE for its damage reducing aura and I really like the results. :8^)

Yeah, the combination of the two is great. But what I'm wondering is if it's worth taking the penalties to your spells from the heavy AC in return for serious damage reduction at higher levels. Would a character like 'Cosmos' be more or less effective with massive amounts of heavy AC?

I guess what I'm really weighing up is offense or defense....

I'm not convinced by the heavy AC mage because it increases the effectiveness of AMF against you but gives no reduction of AMF damage.

If you have large AG's and CoI you could make a heavy mage that had little DD reduction.

But AG and CoI defeat the purpose of a Heavy Mage. You'd want Tulks and SC.

That focus on AC owuld be all or nothing. I think it would reduce your damage too much, to be more effective than a large ToE.

It wouldn't work on a single mage, but I'm thinking about multi teams with maybe two mages and two walls.....

It would work nicely on a four minion team, with two walls, a heavy mage and the last mage having PL. One minion is taking massively reduced damage from everything. Stick a ToE on the light PL Mage.

Although, your main damage dealer would be the first to die...

MgS TSA walls at the front and back. Heavy AC Mage second.

Front Wall also trains Evasion.

Front wall stops Melee. Back Wall MM. Heavy Mage plus two walls to neuter FB/CoC.

Just pump HPs on the PL Mage.

Here is the problem with that. You really don't have any big damage dealer. So you basically will end up dead, just later in the battle. Any AMF on a 2 minion team or even 3 minion team for that matter would kill your biggest DD spell because of the low amount of exp that each minion would have. I just don't see how having that much of defense is going to help you out.

From what I see. Instead of losing in 10 rounds you would lose in 20, because it would take them 10 more round to take you out. Just my thoughts. Oh and it's 8:30 am here and I work nights so I'm tired. If any of this doesn't make sense that's my excuse. LOL

Could always abuse GA?

On a multiple minion team, I think that next to AGs & a CoI, an MCM and DBs are a "Mage's best friend". But if you're going single mage team, like you said, stick with the TOE...

I really like the combination of both. My biggest damage-dealer has the big TOE, and my Decay Magenchanter has both higher (and climbing) AC than "normal", as well as DBs to help "keep her alive" as long as possible.

But then, I developed this character emphasizing defense first, offense second, which is completely opposite of the "CB norm", so maybe I "just ain't right"...

:)