Seen a couple other guys switch to EE robes on the last rung to help tank a little
Are padded or non padded preferred

Padded are much better since most monsters deal physical DMG.

Don’t use EE robes.

All about preference. I use EE padd robes. Means i tank better in group climbs too and healers dont seem to mind.

Ee padded are better than normal robes as padded robes have double melee def in comparison

Simply look at this Link about armor types and defense and you will see the difference between all armor types excluding Stat points and Character Class. Note that character classes have restrictions to items been worn.

https://ladderslasher.d2jsp.org/index.php?g=10

You will see that Padded armor has more Physical Defense, and EE affects both.

i personally dont value ee robes, on monk/ninja just go 100-130 vitality with dex or strength robes depending on your weapon choice.

in general ee non padded robes are near worthless, ee padded robes don't have a great deal of value either though, so on the plus side they won't cost much

yeah but double of very low is still low

If you're doing a run with others, you might aswell just faketank tbh, stat more vita instead.

EE on robes is doing more if u have high INT and not VITA.
But there's more monsters dealing physical damage than there is casting dmg. Therefore robes are the worst thing u could tank with.

I use ee padded robes from lvl 35 and up on monk ninja warlock. I feel that it works better for me than use a stat robe.

If you have a decent MQ heal charm an Int robe will be better in most cases for Warlock. You can just stat a few points into salvation and it's a much smoother climb all together. You may get hit a little bit harder, but those stats also give you kill speed which mitigates the incoming damage.