Quote (mikeyjd @ Dec 7 2013 04:26pm)
I agree that the regular maxered breast plate slightly edges out the rare armor in most situations. I do think that the rare armor has a place though, and that the math is a little closer to and may even favor the rare armor if you can find one with 2mdr/resistances (resistance is somewhat equal to some amount of mana)
40 life vs 1 socket on armor revisited:
20 damage is 3.3 grand charms
3.3 grand charms is 66 life (+40) vs 135 life
135-106=29 life (I'd never take the life loss, but rather the damage loss and I'll show you why. Instead of a 29life loss I'd be taking a 40 life gain at a slight dmg loss.)
This is not factoring in what can be gained from the 2 magic damage reduction mod (and the possible avoidance of hits from the enhanced defense mod that most rare armor have, but we won't try to factor that in for now) It may not seem like 2mdr can do much. But this mod is incredibly effective for these low damage lvl18 duels that have a high rep life to potential damage ratio.
Example: lvl18 zon vs zon duel
bowa 1 has your ga damage (161-566 guided) with 0mdr and max resistance to both fire and lightning (very important and underrated at lvl18). Let's give her 25-35 fire dmg from cow kings and let's say she's using 3 15life/1-11lightning dmg charms (very common source of dmg at lvl18). Her physical dmg is going to be 133- 498 (25-35fire 3-33lightning) which is 22-83 (0-5lightning 4-6fire dmg) after the pvp penalty. with 75% resistance to fire and lightning from her opponent her elemental damage is reduced to 0-1 lightning 1-2 fire dmg. If her opponent has 2mdr her physical dmg is lowered by 1-3 dmg per hit.
bowa 2: has the same dmg as your zon minus 20max which will be more considering ed% lets just say 60 for now (161-506) she also has 25-35 fire damage from cow kings and the 3 15life/1-11lightning dmg charms. her physical dmg is going to be 133-438 (28-68 elemental) which is 22-73 (0-5lightning 4-6fire dmg). With her opponents resistances at 75% her elemental dmg is 0-1 lightning 1-2 fire dmg. for an additional 1-3 elemental dmg per hit. The 2mdr would be a swing of 2-6 dmg per hit making comparative potential dmg's from bowa 1 = 21-80 vs bowa 2 = 23-76
You can see where magic damage reduction could have huge consequences here, especially with the rep life/life to damage potential so low. I made it an effort to have as close to 10mdr on all my lvl18's as possible. I view mdr as being nearly as important as rep life at this level. You could make a case that mdr should be capped at this level for how much it handicaps certain builds and lower damage characters.
The 63 mana that you listed can be met offset up to 30 (7mana on a charm being swapped by a 7% single res sc) by a single resistance or up to 60 (dreaming i know) by a perfect dual resistance armor.
(I apologize if any of my math is off)
I excuse this little off-topic here, but i highly want to agree with mikey on his statement.
A 3socked Maxer Breast Plate is in my opinion the best armor choice for a lvl18 Zon, UNTIL you can find a rare armor which is worth using. Mikey gave examples why.
I got mine ~ 2 years ago , i never switch it out anymore. It is not only the 40Life (which is debatable if better in contrast to dmg) , but especially the 2 Mdr
Sick items on the last pages by the way