Alright, so last night I was leveling up my Pally Caster, and was using the following armor at level 10-15 or so (yes I could get better, but it works)

Rare hard leather armor
Level Req: 10
Defense: 7 to 22

+19 Strength
+12% Heal Mastery


At about level 16 or so, I found this:

Angelic iron plate mail
Level Req: 5
Defense: 18 to 54

+51% Enhanced Effect
+2 Mana Regen
+1 to 3 Mana per Attack
+1 to 3 Mana per Kill


I figure, it's probably not worth much, but grabbed it anyway. Once I leveled, I thought, heck....why don't I equip it just to see what happens. Know what happens? My damage dropped about 20, but my MCC increased due to the increased defense, and + Mana per's. I didn't realize that it would have that much effect!



I also noticed this on my last climb as Sammy Caster:
I was have a choice of two armors that I own for level 25:

Mythical embossed leather armor
Level Req: 25
Defense: 11 to 35

+20 Strength
+1 Mana Regen
+1 to 1 Mana per Kill
+1% Damage Return
+19% Heal Mastery


Angelic elvan padded robe
Level Req: 25
Defense: 0 to 23

+15 Strength
+23 Dexterity
+1 Critical Strike
+2% Magical Damage Reduction


The results I noticed were that I took less damage with the Robe, and dealt about the same damage with both. I had expected to take less damage with the Leather though. I am guessing this is the +dex and MDR working. Perhaps it was all luck lol. Once I hit level 25 again, I'll have to compare the new found Plate with the Robe here.

Just thought I would share some personal observations...hopefully it helps someone.

with the 1st switch at 16 did it take longer to kill?

not really. The -20 damage was only about 9% of the over all damage I was doing and I didn't notice any lost killing speed.

Well, I have hit level 25 and then some. I am surprised to say that the level 5 plate gives me better MCC with not much lost kill speed than that str/dex robe. Went through my chars and put on a higher def plate, and I get more than double the MCC with a simple plate, than with the dual stat robe.

I can tell now that Monk will be fun

yeah defence helps alot

That's the toss up that you have to make - do you want to tank more but take longer to kill, or kill faster and tank less?

that's the difference you're seeing on the top comparison

I have always believed in ee over str in an armor. The gains in damage from str on an armor dont mean much if you can only tank a few mobs before having to regen. Unless you've got some insane unspawnable I dont think its worth throwing away ee for str.