03-17-2005, 11:49 PM
Well the discussion is still pretty abstract. Some tradeoffs are worse than others (hence my feeling that swapping in rings never hurts).
The thorium armor plate pieces are pretty horrible for instance. I still carry a couple around with me, but almost never bother putting them on. The hit in stats, armor, and defense is huge over typical high end gear in those slots.
Other tradeoffs are less extreme. You can lose 15 skill defence and 10 fire resist from Draconian Deflector and use a Darrowshire Strongguard, gaining 1 more stamina and 10 nature and 10 frost resistance. Armor and block are exactly the same. Against spellcaster mobs with nature/frost damage and minimal melee, there is no reason not to swap in the other shield.
As for whether the effect is negligible or not, a duel versus a caster in full thorium armor goes quite differently than without, in the levels where you first get the gear (late 40s).
The thorium armor plate pieces are pretty horrible for instance. I still carry a couple around with me, but almost never bother putting them on. The hit in stats, armor, and defense is huge over typical high end gear in those slots.
Other tradeoffs are less extreme. You can lose 15 skill defence and 10 fire resist from Draconian Deflector and use a Darrowshire Strongguard, gaining 1 more stamina and 10 nature and 10 frost resistance. Armor and block are exactly the same. Against spellcaster mobs with nature/frost damage and minimal melee, there is no reason not to swap in the other shield.
As for whether the effect is negligible or not, a duel versus a caster in full thorium armor goes quite differently than without, in the levels where you first get the gear (late 40s).