AC/HP/STA

[Taminy]

Originally Posted by Kerrik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As I understand it, the conventional wisdom amongst Shadowknights is AC>HP>STA>INT. If you are not near the Stamina cap, you may swap HPs and STA until you get up to the cap.

AC - On gear this does not affect how often you are hit or missed. Only your Defense skill, some defensive AAs and AGI affect a mob's chances to hit. Worn AC affects your mitigation score, which means that when you are hit, on average you get hit for less. Basically a high AC means the mob is more likely to hit for it's minimum value than it's max. Taking less damage means your healer casts less and your party is more likely to win.

HPs - Self-evident. Having a lot of HPs but low AC means you'll survive, but your healer may be OOM fairly quickly since they'll have to cast more heals.

STA - Until you get 200 this is a great stat. More STA = more HPs. After 200 you get some increase, but it isn't as much point for point as STA below 200. I believe the hard cap is 255 (256+ STA = 255 STA effectively).

INT - useful for mana pool, but I understand that SK spells to generate aggro are fairly cheap.

If you are not having problems running OOM, I'd go with the PFWR.

Note this is the accepted wisdom on Live. I can't say if the formulas here are the same, so your mileage may vary.

Generally speaking the formula has been 6hp = 1ac. Or 5hp = 1ac.

One shouldn't think of AC > HP or HP > AC. Both keep a tank alive which is the most important thing. So you want both - you shouldn't sacrifice all your AC for high HP but low AC gear because like you said it is inefficient mana wise (other than complete heal).

Likewise you shouldn't stack tons of AC at the expense of HP - mainly because AC won't help keep you alive at all if you get nuked (but HP will). You definitely want a good balance, which is why the 6 (or 5) hp = 1ac is good to look at. At lower levels, AC is a bit more important than at high levels when you are often getting complete healed.

The rest of the quoted post is 100% sound original poster. I play a warrior, not a shadowknight, but make sure you have enough mana to keep aggro on you (otherwise you're just a warrior with crappier dps and hp/ac) and after that buff both your hp and ac. Are you sure you can't get int elsewhere? 55hp is a lot give up.

As for other stats, str/dex/agi aren't very useful at all. They're nice to have but don't sacrifice much (if any) of your hp/ac for them.