Shoulder and Hat armor mechanics

Vosital

Let's say I was really trying to min max my stats on a heavy armor, 5/1/1 build. Let's say I've got a Selene's light hat and a Selene's medium shoulder. Would this be the same exact stats as a Selene's medium hat and Selene's light shoulder?

It seems people usually put the "heavier" of the options on the head if they can, but is there a point? What about if we add traits like Reinforced into the mix?

paulsimonps

Shoulder and Head pieces have the same armor value, it does not matter which one is on which. But depending on which armor pieces you are using you should try and put medium on gloves and light on belt to maximize resistance but obviously if you go with a heavy armor set that you have to use as armor pieces then doing medium and light on shoulders and head is of course the way to go. But again, it does not matter which is which and don't do reinforced if you are using this in PvE, not necessary, but in PvP of course it has its uses.

Shivvies

If you are not using heavy sets, you usually cannot really use a heavy on best armour slots. Say, if you are using 5 piece Burning Spell Weave, that comes only in light, you are stuck with 5 light pieces and except for very specific things, in PVE you usually look for medium for tam dps, light for mag dps and heals, heavy for tanking.

Reinforced doesn't change it - head and shoulder for the same type have the same armour value. As long as you have the best in slot traits, it should be fine either way - that is heavy on head, medium on shoulder or vice versa for a mag build, as an example. I use heavy headpiece divines on my magsorc with medium shoulder divines and my magdk has medium headpiece and heavy shoulder piece.

Cheers...