AC vs Armor Type: Which takes precedence?

[gd2]

Hi all,
am just wondering about the differences between plain AC and types of armor eg Minimal, Light, Medium, and Heavy. For example, which of the following tow armors would be better: Studded Hauberk with an AC of 8 and listed as "Light" Armor, or a Bronze Cuirass with an AC of 6 and listed as a "Heavy" Armor? The Bronze Cuirass costs notably more than does the Studded Hauberk at stores, and since the rule rather than the exception in Wiz8 seems to be that the better an item the more expensive it'll be then it'd seem that for whatever reason the Bronze C is somehow the better armor. But OTOH how could an armor with AC6 beat one with AC8?

Any insights would be much appreciated...

[vesselle]

i dunno if this will be any help to you or not.
but... i have noticed that the AC isn't cumulative. it's averaged out based on the number of pieces and the AC on each piece. (so with one nasty peice, the whole average goes WAAAY down).
then, on top of that, you have to consider your class. some classes cannot and never will be able to wear anything heavier than light. however, some classes can wear heavy armor, fill up their packs and swim from here to HongKong and not lose a point of stamina! LOL.

my exp has been, esp since i am still in the early game, why bother? LOL. the bronze is expensive, it doesn't raise my AC rating and it makes some of my chars tired. i don't know if there's a formula used, based on class, but just based on what i have seen with my party, i will wait till later on that stuff.

i try to keep the variance very small, to keep the average up. but early game, that's kinda hard.

i hope one of the smart guys here has a formula or something to help you out. ::looks around for sazerac, analander and xignal::


V***V

[Nydlari]

There are 2 parts to your overall armor, AC and Damage resist. In the demo I don't seem to see a stat for damage resist on any armor, but could that be the difference here? It seems like bronze would absorb a blow better than studded?

[vesselle]

~~nydlari~~

you CAN check each char's damage absorption. very easily and neatly.

go into your char's inventory
in the upper right is a box titled "Experience Points"
click the shield in the upper left, under the head
now go to the "arrow" in the lower left and click that
you should be seeing "Armor Class Modifiers"

and there at the bottom on the right is your Damage Absorption.

those 3 little screens give you tons of info on each char, without going thru much trouble at all.

::smiles::

and of course, you can check everyone's damage absorption very quickly by clicking their faces in the far upper left of the inventory screen window.


enjoy!

V***V

[gd2]

Hi Vesselle,
thanks lots for the info. Y'know, you pretty much hinted spot on at what the armor weight class is actually about; turns out that the weight of armors is nothing more than a classification for what type of chars can wear it, one of the designers was nice enough to tell us. http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?...1574&replies=4 (Perko's post)