1. There is no point where AC stops helping. Yes there are softcaps, but even beyond that regardless of class it still helps.
2. AGI is fairly minimal as long as you're above the minimum value where the drop off occurs. It isn't worthless, mind you ... it's just minimal
3. I did a lot of this testing on Live where people had a ton more flexibility in gearing (specifically augment choices). On live where lots of flexibility existed, pursuing AC worked out better than simply pursuing raw HP. This was true for both the raid level and the group level.
Regardless of how much of a fanboy for AC I was on live, during this time-line it's really not worth doing hours and hours of parsing for a couple of reasons:
1) Most of the time your choice will be obvious. The best items have meaningful AC and HP on them (exception being the groupable chardok hp earrings). If the item doesn't have both, it's still fairly obvious. For the non end-game character ... you'll still be focusing on the important stats/resists for your class type.
2) Until you get to such a point that complete heals always hit you for maximum, it's kind of irrelevant. Even then, having the extra hp to survive the big burst quad (+/- flurry) beyond that is still of more value. For such encounters, you should have a tightly controlled CH chain rolling factoring in both mob average dps and the relative risk of tank-killing spikes. By the time you GET to that level of hp, you're already going to have BiS everywhere or everywhere ... and refer back to point 1 above. The best items are generally very obvious.
How does AC work?
When the mob lands a hit on you there is an equation that kicks in. This factors in your level, the mob's level, your ac, and the mobs attack. This hit is DB + DI (1-20). The minimum hit is DB + 1(DI). The maximum hit is DB + 20(DI).
DB= Damage base
DI= Damage interval
The higher your ac, the more it skews the hits received to the lower damage interval levels. The lower your ac, the more it skews to the high. AC's impact at the very high end is a lot more potent than simply how much it reduces your average DPS intake ... it's how it has an exponential effect on lowering your chances of one of those tank killer rounds where everything lands for DI15 or higher ... or one of those wipeout rounds where you take a full quad (+/- flurry) where it's all DI20.
For the nastiest of mobs like AoW, a full max quad + a max flurry where all hits land can take (I think) out a BIS raid geared warrior outside of defensive. I'd have to go back and double check though ... I am not sure where the best tanks on this server are buffing out to these days. A max quad/flurry on AoW is 6924dmg. If people can buff out over 7k and are at full health when it hits, surviving is technically possible. Aegolism is 1100hp. Focus is 450ish? DS is 200.
Realistically ... most people can just disregard this theorycrafting and acknowledge that as long as you have gear within the realm of intended for the content you'll be fine. Beyond that it's the job of the cleric team to keep the chain rolling with as few hiccups as possible.
All other things considered equal (HP, weapons, resists, threat generation), the tank with higher ac will perform notably better than the tank with lower ac.
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