AC working properly?

[Extunarian]

I use 3 sets of gear: resist, wis, and ac.

I can tell you that whenever I'm getting hit without the AC stuff, I see waaay more hits for max. Not that this means it is working the same as it was on live, but I think it is much better than when your AC value was basically ignored.

[Dantes]

You'll notice a huge difference between naked AC and "twinked all to hell" AC, but the difference between 700 and 1000 AC might not be so evident. Beyond the softcap, only a percentage of your AC is effective. And for some classes it's almost completely useless.

Soft Caps
Cloth..........= ~75 worn AC
Leather......= ~100 worn AC
Monk..........= ~120 worn AC
Chain.........= ~200 worn AC
Plate .........= ~300 worn AC

AC returns after the soft cap has been reached
45%: Warrior
33%: Knight, Monk
23%: Cleric, Bard
17%: Ranger
6%: Druid, Enc, Mag, Nec, Wiz

NOTE: these are numbers from live, posted on forums based on quotes from devs or parsing efforts... Not 100% set in stone but given that they try to emulate this as much as possible I would assume they strive to have it work the same way here on P99.

[Duma]

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

You'll notice a huge difference between naked AC and "twinked all to hell" AC, but the difference between 700 and 1000 AC might not be so evident. Beyond the softcap, only a percentage of your AC is effective. And for some classes it's almost completely useless.

Soft Caps
Cloth..........= ~75 worn AC
Leather......= ~100 worn AC
Monk..........= ~120 worn AC
Chain.........= ~200 worn AC
Plate .........= ~300 worn AC

AC returns after the soft cap has been reached
45%: Warrior
33%: Knight, Monk
23%: Cleric, Bard
17%: Ranger
6%: Druid, Enc, Mag, Nec, Wiz

NOTE: these are numbers from live, posted on forums based on quotes from devs or parsing efforts... Not 100% set in stone but given that they try to emulate this as much as possible I would assume they strive to have it work the same way here on P99.

Soft caps went in right before PoP. They are not classic and should not be active here now or ever unless this server goes beyond Velious.

[Dantes]

Oh yeah that's right, I just read further in the old threads about AC and found this:

The cap on AC in the Velious era wasn't a soft cap; it was a hard cap that had been there from day 1. After a certain point, which differed for each class, the benefit of more AC didn't just diminish - it dropped to nothing.

The change I referred to, just before PoP, changed that from a hard cap to a soft cap. You get a percentage of the amount over that soft cap. Shields increase both your total and your soft cap, making them more effective than any other item with equal AC. Your mitigation AAs, level, and class also affect the cap and the percentage return for AC over it.

Separate from this, there are diminishing returns if your AC is much greater than the NPC's attack. This is due to the nature of the formulas that produce the probability distributions that have been well documented on this board.

Does that help?

- Kavhok, SOE

So given this info, beyond a certain point AC is basically useless. Does anybody know what those hard caps actually are?

[Extunarian]

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

Oh yeah that's right, I just read further in the old threads about AC and found this:

So given this info, beyond a certain point AC is basically useless. Does anybody know what those hard caps actually are?

Anyone?

[Nytewind TP]

I would assume AC is better than it was. I remember at/around server launch Monks were getting the $hit stomped out of them due to bad AC. Don't hear that problem anymore.

[Extunarian]

I bumped this because of this question posed by Dantes:

So given this info, beyond a certain point AC is basically useless. Does anybody know what those hard caps actually are?

Anyone know the answer? I can make a new thread if people get confused and keep re-answering the OP's question...

[Nirgon]

AC isn't quite as game breaking in EQ as it is in other games. It does make a big enough difference to matter.

[Doors]

Can't say I've got any hard evidence to support anything, but my casters in cloth get absolutely crushed by mobs for max hit nearly every swing where as my plate wearing toons rarely get hit for max hit when fighting appropriate level mobs.

[Slave]

I'm getting absolutely owned on my Shaman with tons of AC at level 24 right now against normal mobs. I have to believe that AC doesn't matter here nearly as much as it did on Live, where AC was the absolute #1 most important thing on many if not most classes.