Armour Class Bonus

Darfuria · Post by **Darfuria** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:33 pm

What items can you have with an armour class bonus that actually increace your armour class, instead of the game saying that items with the same abilities will not stack or whatever.

For instance, cloak, armour, boots, ring or something. Just wondering because I have lots of items of protection for my wizard, and obviously he can't use armour so I need to wear a combination of items that give bonuses to his armour class to make it as high as possible.

Fiberfar · Post by **Fiberfar** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 1:45 am

Dodge armor from boots ect. stack with itself, so you can have over 20 dodge armor if I remember correct.

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 4:42 am

Dodge stacks, but only to a cap of 20. No other types stack. I find myself exceeding this limit frequently (especially from the Paladin's Divine Shield etc.). To maximise AC simply put on the highest AC items you can find for each Ac type, then pump dexterity.

IIRC the types are: Armour (which can be granted by +to AC bonuses on wizard robes), Shield (Shields, though this may result in Arcane Spell Failure (chance of miscasting)), Natural (Amulet of Natural Armour), Defection (Ring of Protection, Cloak of Protection), and Dodge(Tumble?? (quite uncommon on items, only boots can provide a dodge bonus, generally derived from abilities).

Darfuria · Post by **Darfuria** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:03 am

So I could have
Wizard Robes
Cloak
Boots
Ring
Amulet

All with an AC Bonus, and they would all benefit me?

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:24 am

[QUOTE=Darfuria]So I could have
Wizard Robes
Cloak
Boots
Ring
Amulet

All with an AC Bonus, and they would all benefit me?[/QUOTE]

Unless the AC bonus is of the same type.
If both the robe and the cloak have Armor AC bonus they will not stack.
If the robe have Armor AC and the cloak have Deflection AC bonus - they will stack.

However - Dodge AC bonus seems to stack as said by the people above.

Darfuria · Post by **Darfuria** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:27 am

Ok, thanks.

Are there any particular items you recommend a Wizard to use/have?

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 9:10 am

Items are a very subjective matter.
The only items I generally always use are the Greater Belt of Swordsman/Brawler/Archer.
Other then these 3 belts, my equipment varries a lot, but thoese belts are mostly always findable on my characters.

Darfuria · Post by **Darfuria** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:22 am

So an AC of 101 is good, right?

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:59 pm

[QUOTE=Darfuria]
So I could have
Wizard Robes
Cloak
Boots
Ring
Amulet
[/QUOTE]

The Cloak and Ring are both deflection, so they do NOT stack.

AC of 101 with +20 items is average

. I believe you need an AC of 109 to be completely unhittable by all characters bar a natural 20.

Darfuria · Post by **Darfuria** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:55 pm

How is it possible to get 109?

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 9:37 pm

20 from armour, 20 from ring, 20 from dodge, 20 from amulet of natural armour, 20 from a shield gives 100. Then you have a base 10 AC giving 110 AC. Simple

. Of course you can get even more AC by increasing dexterity (both naturally and with spells like Cat's Grace). Of course, no reasonablely balanced server would allow +20 items anyway

.

Fiberfar · Post by **Fiberfar** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 2:06 am

[QUOTE=Noober]20 from armour, 20 from ring, 20 from dodge, 20 from amulet of natural armour, 20 from a shield gives 100. Then you have a base 10 AC giving 110 AC. Simple

. Of course you can get even more AC by increasing dexterity (both naturally and with spells like Cat's Grace). Of course, no reasonablely balanced server would allow +20 items anyway

.[/QUOTE]

You forgot 40 ranks in tumble

That would result in 118 AC

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 5:47 am

*hangs head in shame*

Ningengirai · Post by **Ningengirai** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:52 pm

AC of over 100? *blinks* The most I ever got my wizard up to was 64, and that was with items like Rings of Protection +10, Bracers of Armour +10, etc etc. I think the wizard class ultimately suffers from Arcane spell failure too often ( to the point where even a padded leather armour will result in a failure of 5%-40%, which I think is... ridiculous ) and is seriously underrepresented when it comes to armour. Even stuff like White/Grey/Black Robes of the Archmagi, Robes of Vecna and Greater Battle Robes did nothing to raise my AC more than maybe 1 or two points.

Did anyone ever manage to raise a wizard to AC 100+? What items did you use?

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 1:51 am

Does sorceress count?

If so using only 'generic' equipment (i.e. no stuff like boots which give AC bonuses):

Sorc 36/Pally 3/Monk 1 (variation on the best pvp build in the game)
Est Base Dex = 16 (mod +3)
+ Maxed Cat's Grace = 21 (mod +5)
Est Base Charisma 38?? (mod +14)
+ Maxed Eagle's Splendour = 43 (mod +16)

10 Base
+16 Dodge from Divine Shield (third level pally feat)
+8 from maxed tumble (taken on last level with Monk)
+4 Dodge from Haste boots (dodge is now maxed)
+18 Armour from Full Plate + 10 (Auto-Still spell means no arcane spell failure)
+13 AC from Tower Shield +10 (auto-still)
+10 AC from Ring of Protection +10
+10 AC from Amulet of Natural Armour +10
+10 AC from Bracer's of Dexterity +10 and normal DEX
+10 AC from Improved Expertise
= 109 AC total (using ONLY +10 equipment)

This isn't all! You have +50/+20 damage reduction from Epic Warding. You have 50% concealment meaning half your opponents attacks miss! And you have excellent saves and evasion. And finally you have access to all Arcane spells including Bigby's Crushing Hand which pretty much ensures a fighter can not touch you.

And this is the most powerful offensive build in the game too (notice that I have not put on an +CHA item for more spells)!

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:33 am

[QUOTE=Noober]<snip>
10 Base
+16 Dodge from Divine Shield (third level pally feat)
+8 from maxed tumble (taken on last level with Monk)
+4 Dodge from Haste boots (dodge is now maxed)
+18 Armour from Full Plate + 10 (Auto-Still spell means no arcane spell failure)
+13 AC from Tower Shield +10 (auto-still)
+10 AC from Ring of Protection +10
+10 AC from Amulet of Natural Armour +10
+10 AC from Bracer's of Dexterity +10 and normal DEX
+10 AC from Improved Expertise
= 109 AC total (using ONLY +10 equipment)

<snip>
[/QUOTE]

Well - amongst other things - If wearing Full Plate armour - you will not get that dexterity bonus to AC. (unless they have changed the rules lately)

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:56 am

Whoops my mistake, then you AC is just 100, and you have bracers free. What else is wrong, looks ok

.

Fiberfar · Post by **Fiberfar** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:58 am

[QUOTE=Noober]Whoops my mistake, then you AC is just 100, and you have bracers free. What else is wrong, looks ok

.[/QUOTE]

The monk gets AC from his wisdom and +1 to Ac every 5 lvl I think

What if you do Wizard/palemaster, for the purpose of getting AC?

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:59 am

Doesn't apply with armour unfortunately

(though admittedly I did forget that

).

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 5:28 am

[QUOTE=Noober]Whoops my mistake, then you AC is just 100, and you have bracers free. What else is wrong, looks ok

.[/QUOTE]

Well - I wouldn't personally count expertise AC bonus into such equations, because it requiers the feat to be activated, and thus dosen't apply when spellcasting (And then what is the point of a high level spell caster

), other types of fightning etc.