I did a google search but I would appreciate a confirmation that when you upgrade an armor type, the original armor defense doesn't affect the new upgraded armor defense? I'm assuming the upgrade re-rolls the defense randomly?

Thanks for your time!

why wouldn't it affect?

So the original base defense has an impact on the upgraded base roll? Should I buy the highest defense armor and then upgrade it to increase my chances of the highest def roll? Or does it not matter at all?

yeap, that is my understanding.

for example:

Shaftstop
Mesh Armor
Defense: 599-684

if you have a shaftstop with 599, no way in hell can you make it elite and get the max for that.

you need to find a perf 684 one and then try to make it elite for a potential max.

For others that have fixed def, like Skin of the Viper Magi, you can try with any found. For this to be worth, the skin would have to have max res and max mdr.

Skullder's Ire
Russet Armor
Defense: 634-732

Another example of how much the def differs. And for shaftstop and this one, you can also add people usually want them eth.

the roll stays the same. so don't up a bad roll.

Thanks everyone! Good thing I got the clarification

source? never heard of that, also this site says otherwise (and is trustworthy in most cases):
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Upgrading

Base def is rolled randomly while upgrading, so the base def before upping does not matter at all

that's how I understood it, might be wrong.

Base roll is random when upping even if the armour has ed (which normally would give the maximum defence possible)

E.g. why a 200ed hoz always has 507 def but it can change when upped (169x3 - 193x3 = 507-579)

This post was edited by Bradymuck on Oct 20 2022 03:55am

Yeah thats what I read too but wanted to confirm just incase. I thought the people here who would comment would only comment if they are certain they are right....... geeze

thank you!