Monk AC & Weight

[Nerrp]

Is there some "behind the scenes" magic happening with AC and weight? Or is the "weight penalty" as simple as exactly what it shows you as your new AC?

Specifically, if you equip a heavy item with AC, but the NET Armor Class shown is positive - is it "worth" putting on the extra armor class from the item?

Is armor class "what you see is what you get" on the stats in terms of weight penalty?

[Andyman1022]

AC softcap is low, so a lot of folks hit it from regular entry level raid gear etc. Personally, I am a HP > all guy, in that, if you are at 0 hp ac does nothing. Some folks swear by ac, but im fairly sure its been shown to have negligible effect on incoming damage.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

AC is best for solo/group content. It does indeed reduce incoming damage. For raiding AC is less useful, due to monsters hitting harder, faster, and having higher minimum damages.

As for how detrimental the AC penalty is at lower levels, I am currently leveling a monk. From 10-30 I didn't see a huge difference, but I do have a Fungi hehe. It may be a bit different for Monks without fungis, or higher level monks soloing harder content. My monk from 20-30 usually had 25-40 stones worth of weight from coin and fine steel weapons, and I didn't have a problem.

The client AC values I am pretty sure are wrong, and the Server is the one doing the calculations. But I believe the client is correct in terms of when it starts showing your AC being reduced due to weight. According to the wiki my level 30 can hold 16.9 weight before my AC is reduced, and this seems to be reflected in the client.

[Toxigen]

tldr: stay under weight cap, get moar gud AC and HP

this is the way of the monk

[Crede]

Some velious dev must have had a serious hard on for monks to give them 60 ac pants when their mitigation was already broke af in kunark.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Some velious dev must have had a serious hard on for monks to give them 60 ac pants when their mitigation was already broke af in kunark.

In all fairness I don't think the dev's really expected AoW to be killed with frequency lol. On live that was a much harder fight, and people had to figure it out. The loot was probably designed around the idea that only a handful of people per server would ever have any.

The AoW loot makes sense lore-wise. He should only be dropping stuff that is for melee classes. You have 2 Warrior drops, a Rogue Drop, a Monk Drop, and 2 drops that can be used more generically. It's very "war" focused hehe.

[Crede]

In all fairness I don't think the dev's really expected AoW to be killed with frequency lol. On live that was a much harder fight, and people had to figure it out. The loot was probably designed around the idea that only a handful of people per server would ever have any.

The AoW loot makes sense lore-wise. He should only be dropping stuff that is for melee classes. You have 2 Warrior drops, a Rogue Drop, a Monk Drop, and 2 drops that can be used more generically. It's very "war" focused hehe.

I understand that point, but they easily could have made the pants like 30 ac and they still would have been good for a leather class who already was mitigating like a boss lol

[DeathsSilkyMist]

I understand that point, but they easily could have made the pants like 30 ac and they still would have been good for a leather class who already was mitigating like a boss lol

Lol yeah 60 is a lot. But the Monks aren't complaining:D

[Tewaz]

I would trade AoW legs getting lowered for all other leg items getting more AC. SS legs have 6 AC.

6!

[Encroaching Death]

Lol yeah 60 is a lot. But the Monks aren't complaining :D

They're also 900k.

It's not like every single Monk has them.

[Danth]

Some velious dev must have had a serious hard on for monks to give them 60 ac pants when their mitigation was already broke af in kunark.

Yes, this was in fact the case. The people in charge of class design/balance were NOT remotely impartial and very much played favorites. This is now well-known.

[ithaqua]

Lol, sure fbsl was an amazing item but there was also a pretty low ceiling for ac back then that was reachable for all classes with high ac all/all gear. Sure, monk had better avoidance then other classes but monks got beaten hard with the nerfbat in the luclin melee revamp...
1 in 30+ ac return post softcap and low ac itemisation from pop to oow (when soe finally made ac mean something to monks again, still low ac itemisation though).
At least they were humourus about it and added the nerfbat from vulak, not really a coincidence that it’s tagged with mnk/nec heh

[Crede]

Lol, sure fbsl was an amazing item but there was also a pretty low ceiling for ac back then that was reachable for all classes with high ac all/all gear. Sure, monk had better avoidance then other classes but monks got beaten hard with the nerfbat in the luclin melee revamp...
1 in 30+ ac return post softcap and low ac itemisation from pop to oow (when soe finally made ac mean something to monks again, still low ac itemisation though).
At least they were humourus about it and added the nerfbat from vulak, not really a coincidence that it’s tagged with mnk/nec heh

Not really sure what you said there. But broke ass kunark monks didn’t need a 60 ac leg item in velious. Not to mention how disgustingly good the tstaff is for being a trash drop.

[jolanar]

IMO unless you are getting complete healed, then AC over HP (within reason).

As for weight, once you are 50+ prioritize getting a Large Soiled Bag and at least a couple tinkerers bags. Until then, just avoid looting anything that has weight unless there is a vendor nearby.

Unless it's resist gear, it really isn't worth equipping anything heavy, except your weapon and a fungi. For example: 10 tink bags, tstaff, and a fungi is already 20 stones.

[Toxigen]

less weight moar good

[DeathsSilkyMist]

I've leveled from 10-46 so far in the past 2-3 months. If you have a Fungi, Seahorse Belt, and IFS, the AC penalty doesn't seem to matter. That's my setup right now, with black pantherskin filling the other slots mostly. I am doing just fine at 40 or 50 stones (I just loot everything). I can go down to 16 stones if I want, but I don't really notice the difference between 16 stones and 50 stones. Might matter more 50+, will let you guys know. This is all soloing.

[Encroaching Death]

From what I remember, it matters most levels 50+.

I remember testing it on my Monk, going 1 stone over weight and I lost like 90 AC.

That's huge.

But keep in mind - the AC indicator on the inventory is bugged and not exactly accurate.