Back slot question for lvl 56 Ranger

[ScottBerta]

Hello, I have a well geared 56 ranger. I’m currently soloing in KC. I currently use Lodi Shield for my back for the AC, STR and Resists… my question….

For back should I continue to use Lodi Shield or should I switch for Hierophant’s Cloak? And why?

Thanks.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Hello, I have a well geared 56 ranger. I’m currently soloing in KC. I currently use Lodi Shield for my back for the AC, STR and Resists… my question….

For back should I continue to use Lodi Shield or should I switch for Hierophant’s Cloak? And why?

Thanks.

I prefer Lodi Shield over Heiro Cloak on my Shaman. I find that the large boost to resists save me more often than the extra ~100 HP the Heiro Cloak has. Unless you are over 200 WIS, the mana difference is minimal. You are getting like ~120 mana on Heiro Cloak vs. ~115 mana on Lodi Shield (at level 60). If you're over 200 WIS your getting like ~95 mana on Heiro Cloak vs. ~55 mana on Lodi Shield.

The automatic enduring breath is also a nice QoL feature. You never have to worry about EB again, and you can sell/transfer your cheaper EB item like Fishbone Earring to save a space in your bags.

If you wanted to min/max you would have both and switch between them based on the content. Most people (including myself) are not rich enough to casually bag a bunch of 15-20k items on a single character lol.

Both are good items, so you can't really go wrong either way. In my opinion just keep the Lodi Shield. Buy a Heiro Cloak to swap out for non-casters if you want your Ranger to be as awesome as possible. It's not required though, you'll do fine with just a Lodi Shield if you don't want to spend the money.

[Ripqozko]

Neither buy a Pom cloak

Edit: blue thrones cheap asf now

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Neither buy a Pom cloak

Edit: blue thrones cheap asf now

Personally I don't like PoM Cloak for any class that can use a Lodi Shield. You pay like 35k for a slightly better Heiro Cloak you are going to switch over to a Lodi Shield anyway when you need Fire/Cold resists. It's pretty hard to beat an item that gives +20FR, +20CR, and +10 MR in a single slot. This means you are fairly likely to switch out your PoM Cloak anyway when fighting casters, so you aren't benefiting from it.

PoM Cloak is much better on a Monk, because they can't use Lodi Shield. On a Monk you're getting more HP than Heiro Cloak when not STA capped, decent resists, and more AC.

EDIT: Blue Thrones are 30k according to the wiki, and Blue Crowns are like 5k. 35k is the price of Lodi Shield + Heiro Cloak, but you can sell those back later, unlike PoM Cloak. So if you have 35k to spend, I would just use Heiro Cloak and Lodi Shield, instead of spending it on a no-drop item that is in-between the two stat-wise.

[sammoHung]

Hello, I have a well geared 56 ranger. I’m currently soloing in KC. I currently use Lodi Shield for my back for the AC, STR and Resists… my question….

For back should I continue to use Lodi Shield or should I switch for Hierophant’s Cloak? And why?

Thanks.

The sky cloak?

[Jimjam]

Sky cloak works from inventory. but yea, its a must :D

[Ripqozko]

Personally I don't like PoM Cloak for any class that can use a Lodi Shield. You pay like 35k for a slightly better Heiro Cloak you are going to switch over to a Lodi Shield anyway when you need Fire/Cold resists. It's pretty hard to beat an item that gives +20FR, +20CR, and +10 MR in a single slot. This means you are fairly likely to switch out your PoM Cloak anyway when fighting casters, so you aren't benefiting from it.

PoM Cloak is much better on a Monk, because they can't use Lodi Shield. On a Monk you're getting more HP than Heiro Cloak when not STA capped, decent resists, and more AC.

EDIT: Blue Thrones are 30k according to the wiki, and Blue Crowns are like 5k. 35k is the price of Lodi Shield + Heiro Cloak, but you can sell those back later, unlike PoM Cloak. So if you have 35k to spend, I would just use Heiro Cloak and Lodi Shield, instead of spending it on a no-drop item that is in-between the two stat-wise.

It’s much better because of the 15 stam +hp, Lodi has none of that. It’s over 100hp with the stam. Rangers aren’t large races so it’s harder to cap.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

It’s much better because of the 15 stam +hp, Lodi has none of that. It’s over 100hp with the stam. Rangers aren’t large races so it’s harder to cap.

When you swap out to Lodi Shield for resists you are getting +0 HP from PoM cloak.

A slot that swaps out to a resist piece often shouldn't be worried about as much.

If you can afford PoM Cloak and Lodi then go for it. If you have to choose due to money issues PoM Cloak isn't worth it. You can buy lodi and heiro for the same price as PoM cloak and get the best od both worlds. Plus they aren't no drop.

[Ripqozko]

When you swap out to Lodi Shield for resists you are getting +0 HP from PoM cloak.

A slot that swaps out to a resist piece often shouldn't be worried about as much.

If you can afford PoM Cloak and Lodi then go for it. If you have to choose due to money issues PoM Cloak isn't worth it.

Why would you swap, you do you. Ain’t no one swapping if ya have Pom. The resists are still good on pom. You always stay with your choices tho so to prevent a 30 page thing I’ll just concede and say do whatever dms says. Good luck

[Crede]

Hello, I have a well geared 56 ranger. I’m currently soloing in KC. I currently use Lodi Shield for my back for the AC, STR and Resists… my question….

For back should I continue to use Lodi Shield or should I switch for Hierophant’s Cloak? And why?

Thanks.

Hard to answer that without knowing your budget and overall goals but I’d probably keep Lodi and prioritize money on other game changing items like Earthcaller, sky cloak mq, ring 9, etc.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Why would you swap, you do you. Ain’t no one swapping if ya have Pom. The resists are still good on pom. You always stay with your choices tho so to prevent a 30 page thing I’ll just concede and say do whatever dms says. Good luck

Lodi Shield has +15 FR and +15 CR over PoM cloak. PoM Cloak resists are decent, but they don't compare to Lodi Shield. Lodi Shield has +50 total important resists across MR, FR,and CR. Vindi BP has +45. You're getting more than a Vindi BP's worth of important resists with Lodi Shield. PoM cloak only has +20 total important resists.

The more resists you can put in a single slot, the less pieces you have to swap out elsewhere, or the easier it is to cap a resistance with buffs. Remember that you may end up keeping the same HP or more as PoM cloak if you don't have to swap out another HP piece elsewhere. You have to look at your item stats whollistically. If you lose 200 HP from resist swaps to keep PoM cloak on, that may end up being worse than just using Lodi Shield and not swapping the 200 HP worth of items.

[Ripqozko]

Lodi Shield has +15 FR and +15 CR over PoM cloak. PoM Cloak resists are decent, but they don't compare to Lodi Shield. Lodi Shield has +50 total important resists across MR, FR,and CR. Vindi BP has +45. You're getting more than a Vindi BP's worth of important resists with Lodi Shield. PoM cloak only has +20 total important resists.

The more resists you can put in a single slot, the less pieces you have to swap out elsewhere, or the easier it is to cap a resistance with buffs. Remember that you may end up keeping the same HP or more as PoM cloak if you don't have to swap out another HP piece elsewhere. You have to look at your item stats whollistically. If you lose 200 HP from resist swaps to keep PoM cloak on, that may end up being worse than just using Lodi Shield and not swapping the 200 HP worth of items.

Ya I'm not gonna keep going do whatever dsm says on any thread he's always right

[Snaggles]

I'm a SV fanatic for my ranger. IMHO, they are very helpful when you have a pretty meager hp pool and hp recovery system.

For me it's Loddy Shield all the way until you replace with raid gear. If you insist on having a hp set pack a maelstrom cloak too, those are cheap as heck.

Note: Philosophically I'm in the minority and should my ranger pick up like 600hps my tune might change. I'm mostly focused on MR and FR/CR if they come for free. Being able to easily hit 200-220 fire/cold in HoT feels like it helps survivability much more than an extra 100 hps. At least if you dont have your pick of the best raid slot fills.

[Keebz]

If OP is really just soloing in KC, I don't know what CR/FR buys them. Rangers don't want to be soloing casters. That being said, Rangers also don't have any mechanics that double dip on having a higher HP pool—e.g. good bind wound, mend, etc—so you're just getting a little extra runway for face tanking. If your main healing is regen and shitty ranger heals, you might get some mileage out of the higher AC on the shield while grinding low blues, as well.

Hiero and PoM cloak are probably better, but not really worth the upgrade unless you have nothing else to spend money on, imho. If you raid I'd be more inclined to pick up a cheap ToV back slot like Cloak of the Silver Eyes or Net of the Deep Sea.

[Crede]

If OP is really just soloing in KC, I don't know what CR/FR buys them. Rangers don't want to be soloing casters. That being said, Rangers also don't have any mechanics that double dip on having a higher HP pool—e.g. good bind wound, mend, etc—so you're just getting a little extra runway for face tanking. If your main healing is regen and shitty ranger heals, you might get some mileage out of the higher AC on the shield while grinding low blues, as well.

Hiero and PoM cloak are probably better, but not really worth the upgrade unless you have nothing else to spend money on, imho. If you raid I'd be more inclined to pick up a cheap ToV back slot like Cloak of the Silver Eyes or Net of the Deep Sea.

Ranger gearing gets expensive quickly. I’d agree cheap raid gear is your best bet. If you don’t plan on raiding ever then sky cloak should be the priority.

[Snaggles]

Any ranger soloing should have an earthshaker, tolan bracer, fleeting quiver, budget haste item (like SCHW's), and a bow that's 30dmg+.

Even with a kit like that, rotting a 6k hp npc is horrible. It's just *possible* and you will want that stuff anyways eventually.

[Gozuk]

I've always liked the Lodi shield for my ranger and rogue

[Toxigen]

Yeah prob just keep using Lodi. Its fine.

This is Velious in (almost) 2024. It doesn't matter.

Focus on getting epic / sky cloak if you don't got.

[7thGate]

I would go with the Lodi over Hierophant. I like the AC and resists.

I went with PoM cloak on Jayya, but that is in large part because its much easier for me to get than a Lodi shield within the ALS rule set. I think I like PoM cloak a little better than Lodi Shield as well, but not that much since the resists and AC is so nice.

[Cecily]

I use a PD cloak on my ranger because one day I decided I didn't have enough mana, but I really really like Lodi shield for any class that can wear.