AC or HP?

[rikustrength]

So I'm playing a Paladin, it's my first time playing a tank (actually first time playing a melee at all!). I was wondering in general which is more useful, AC or HP, and to what extent?

Current situation: I'm a high elf (so I can get that sweet sweet pog sword later), and im in mostly crustacean armor for visible slots for the massive stamina. Some of my friends have suggested going for the cultural armor to replace it. Thoughts?

This means I have the following bonuses from crustacean armor (I have omitted the gauntlets as I have schw and the shield since im using a 2hs:

81 ac, 33 str, 73 sta, -10 dex, -36 cha

as compared to what I could get from cultural:

107 ac, 14 str, 0 sta, 33 dex, 32 cha, 27 wis, 12 agi

The crustacean armor gives me a bonus of 158 extra hp at my lvl (31). would an extra 26 ac be worth giving that up? I'd also lose 19 str, which isn't the biggest deal but high elves aren't very strong to begin with so I take it where I can get it. The dex is nice but my current 2 hander doesn't proc, so I'm not really worried til 49 when I get the proc buff. Other than that the extra cha would be nice for not getting soothe resists, and the wis is handy for extra mana although being a high elf I already have more of that, and the agi is just a tiny bit of extra ac.

The crustacean armor seemed like a good idea at the time for all the stamina, but more and more I'm hearing AC is what I want, and by the time I'd get enough of a return on the stamina for it to be more worthwhile I'll have access to better gear anyway I think...

Any input would be well appreciated. Sorry for the wall of numbers and text!