My understanding is that the whole shield ac thing came later during the Great Monk Nerf, and no int casters will get close to the raw AC cap (its like 400 or something; after the Great Monk Nerf it plummeted to ~120). The real problem is the retarded itemization of Velious with 40AC 100hp/mana all/all items which really unbalanced supposedly fragile classes relative to supposedly tanky classes.
According to this, if I managed to pick up 6-7 of those 30AC NToV items (not likely) and a Sal'Varae's Robe, Orb of the Infinite Void etc. I might actually reach that cap. 300 worn ac would be 350 raw AC which would put me at about 1000
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] According to this math I'd have effectively 25% more HP, combined with +750 raw HP making me about 50% tougher. Which is pretty nice as an enchanter.
The really nutty thing about this test is that I could MT for any group in sebilis with Qelen healing me with that Donals BP and using the RoA/Tash for aggro. I never came close to dying.