Armor Master vs. Histbark

KraidenDove · March 2016

Ok, I know this has been discussed in the past, but I wanted to know what the current opinion is on these sets.

I am a stamina build, sword and board tank with approx. 24k resistance unbuffed. I usually perform the role of tank in pvp and pve in that I take a ton of punishment while using DK abilities to heal myself. I have all but lost hope for any illusion that I will ever be able to take on 2-3 top tier DK staff users, but I wanted to know which suit would be best for all around pvp/pve.

Is the resource and slot drain on Armor master just not worth it, or is the additional resistance offered by the slot more beneficial than the evasion chance histbark gives you? Please keep in mind that I get hit A LOT and am expected to live without a zerg behind me in pvp. I'm not talking invincible here, but what gives me a few precious seconds to cut down the mage before I fall, or hold the boss while the healer recharges?

Opinions appreciated.

NOTE: Please do not tell me about the benefits of magic dk tanks that switch from destruct staff/sword board with light armor, although truly creative and effective builds, I'm one of those folks that say they should be glass cannons not invincible jugs. Thank you.

Dread_Guy · March 2016

why not run armor master and slot shuffle so you get the armor bonus from armor master and the dodge chance?

Justice31st · March 2016

Physical and spell resistance hard cap is 32,000. So if you are over that with Armor Master then it is not worth the extra resource management cost; unless you get debuffed from PvP and go under.

KraidenDove · March 2016

@Dread_Knight_N7 Didn't spec medium armor. Heavy armor spec with unstoppable. With the abilities popped it gives me 35k resistance for physical and spell if I go with armor master. Its that or go with hist and get the dodge chance with a reduced resistance.

@Justice31st so is that a bid for the evasion for hist? Never tried it before so I don't know how effective evasion is compared to raw resistance.

Justice31st · March 2016

KraidenDove wrote: »

Didn't spec medium armor. Heavy armor spec with unstoppable. With the abilities popped it gives me 35k resistance for physical and spell if I go with armor master. Its that or go with hist and get the dodge chance with a reduced resistance.

If it is strictly PvE any physical/spell resistance over 32k makes no difference. The hard cap is 32k. However if you get debuffed in PvP and go under 32k then more than 32k would be beneficial, so then armor master.

KraidenDove · March 2016

Justice31st wrote: »

KraidenDove wrote: »

Didn't spec medium armor. Heavy armor spec with unstoppable. With the abilities popped it gives me 35k resistance for physical and spell if I go with armor master. Its that or go with hist and get the dodge chance with a reduced resistance.

If it is strictly PvE any physical/spell resistance over 32k makes no difference. The hard cap is 32k. However if you get debuffed in PvP and go under 32k then more than 32k would be beneficial, so then armor master.

Ok, that is kinda what I was thinking as well. I know the optimal situation is to have two suits, but I just don't have the time or money to build two purple/leg suits. I'll miss the evasion but raw on debuff seems to be more beneficial as a pvp a little bit more anyway.

Thanks.

Waffennacht · March 2016

Hrm you're gonna want the higher resist than than the dodge chance imo. It's burst builds that kill, so it's not like evading 1 out of 5 moves is gonna save you as much as preventing damage from everything.

Go master armor for sure over hist. I would also go with immovable.

If not now, soon you can get vigor too. You should run 2h for WB and Rally, I can't imagine, even a tank, not using those. The utility alone makes em playable let alone the dmg (wb)

Dragon leap and flappy wins. Great for pwnin your average sorc.

KraidenDove · March 2016

Waffennacht wrote: »

Hrm you're gonna want the higher resist than than the dodge chance imo. It's burst builds that kill, so it's not like evading 1 out of 5 moves is gonna save you as much as preventing damage from everything.

Go master armor for sure over hist. I would also go with immovable.

If not now, soon you can get vigor too. You should run 2h for WB and Rally, I can't imagine, even a tank, not using those. The utility alone makes em playable let alone the dmg (wb)

Dragon leap and flappy wins. Great for pwnin your average sorc.

Thanks, solid advice. I do in fact run 2H for those situations, but in PvP I have found that a traditional heavy with sword and board is vastly under used per the damage limitations. However, on bridges and keep entrances, with a good healer behind you, the burst builds are garbage and will use up their whole pool using AOE. I don't even care if I kill em per se, I just want them to use their energy on me and then be plowed by the DPS behind me. Further, it is hilarious to catch them out of their zerg group as they are totally unequipped to deal any physical based damage. I stack spell resist with high physical and with a few punctures, stone fists, and whip/ember shots and they are dead. Truly glorious.

Septimus_Magna · March 2016

For DK stam tank I would personally go with the following setup:

5x Tava's Favor (9 Ult every 3 seconds)
2x Blood Spawn (6% chance to get 15 Ult when getting hit)
3x Blessing of the Potentials (10% reduced ult cost)
2x Endurance/Agility (extra health/stam)

Using Shuffle will make ult regen extremely fast, allowing you to cast Magma Shell (=immortality) very often. Especially if you have Combat Frenzy II and tag the enemies who die.

KraidenDove · March 2016

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

For DK stam tank I would personally go with the following setup:

5x Tava's Favor (9 Ult every 3 seconds)
2x Blood Spawn (6% chance to get 15 Ult when getting hit)
3x Blessing of the Potentials (10% reduced ult cost)
2x Endurance/Agility (extra health/stam)

Using Shuffle will make ult regen extremely fast, allowing you to cast Magma Shell (=immortality) very often. Especially if you have Combat Frenzy II and tag the enemies who die.

I would do something like that, but I am only interested in crafted sets as all of those require a group to run with to grind out, and significant time to either purchase or gain AP for. I am in the last years of a 7 year program at school and can barely commit 4-6 a week. And I didn't specialize in medium armor. If I ever have time for serious pvp though, I will try it out.

Flaminir · March 2016

On my tank I tried both... and settled on armor master.

Love it.

All yellow, all tri-stat glyphs

I swap my undaunted set around... but usually go with engine guardian.... and as I'm already at cap for all resistances by using Armor Master I then run willpower jewellery and have a block cost reduction, a magicka r4ecovery, and a spell power glyph.

I have about 20k stam and close to 30k magicka, and close to 2.5k spell power (Buffed) at the same time.

Armor Master rocks!

TheM0rganism · March 2016

Imperium

Septimus_Magna · March 2016

KraidenDove wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

For DK stam tank I would personally go with the following setup:

5x Tava's Favor (9 Ult every 3 seconds)
2x Blood Spawn (6% chance to get 15 Ult when getting hit)
3x Blessing of the Potentials (10% reduced ult cost)
2x Endurance/Agility (extra health/stam)

Using Shuffle will make ult regen extremely fast, allowing you to cast Magma Shell (=immortality) very often. Especially if you have Combat Frenzy II and tag the enemies who die.

I would do something like that, but I am only interested in crafted sets as all of those require a group to run with to grind out, and significant time to either purchase or gain AP for. I am in the last years of a 7 year program at school and can barely commit 4-6 a week. And I didn't specialize in medium armor. If I ever have time for serious pvp though, I will try it out.

Tava's Favor = crafted (Hews Bane) BoE
Blood Spawn = vet Spindleclutch + undaunted chest BoP
Blessing of Potentials = pvp BoE
Endurance/Agility = IC chest or dungeon bosses BoE

You can get most gear without a group

KraidenDove · March 2016

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

KraidenDove wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

For DK stam tank I would personally go with the following setup:

5x Tava's Favor (9 Ult every 3 seconds)
2x Blood Spawn (6% chance to get 15 Ult when getting hit)
3x Blessing of the Potentials (10% reduced ult cost)
2x Endurance/Agility (extra health/stam)

Using Shuffle will make ult regen extremely fast, allowing you to cast Magma Shell (=immortality) very often. Especially if you have Combat Frenzy II and tag the enemies who die.

I would do something like that, but I am only interested in crafted sets as all of those require a group to run with to grind out, and significant time to either purchase or gain AP for. I am in the last years of a 7 year program at school and can barely commit 4-6 a week. And I didn't specialize in medium armor. If I ever have time for serious pvp though, I will try it out.

Tava's Favor = crafted (Hews Bane) BoE
Blood Spawn = vet Spindleclutch + undaunted chest BoP
Blessing of Potentials = pvp BoE
Endurance/Agility = IC chest or dungeon bosses BoE

You can get most gear without a group

Tempting then. Only matter left is the "seasonal armor" they plan on releasing with DB dlc. I'm banking on crafted sets carrying over each season with a higher champion point requirement. I have a feeling the dropped sets will be the ones they leave behind on a level basis. Or who knows, could be both types of armor.

Flaminir wrote: »

On my tank I tried both... and settled on armor master.

Love it.

All yellow, all tri-stat glyphs

I swap my undaunted set around... but usually go with engine guardian.... and as I'm already at cap for all resistances by using Armor Master I then run willpower jewellery and have a block cost reduction, a magicka r4ecovery, and a spell power glyph.

I have about 20k stam and close to 30k magicka, and close to 2.5k spell power (Buffed) at the same time.

Armor Master rocks!

I'd love to get my hands on the materials for the prismatic glyphs, but there is no way I'll be able to grind them out in IC, and current price is around 60k+ if you can find them. All told we are talking around a 1M gold suit even if I craft it all from scratch. At that point and I can't invest that much sadly.