[Ghraa]

I have an aug slot free with nothing in it and have been waiting till some anguish aug catches my eye. However, while charm soloing in Icefall, I've had several icefall diamond augs drop (+2 shielding).

As I understand shielding its a straight percentage less damage taken per hit (for instance if I get hit for 100 points with 10% shielding then I only take 90 points of it). If thats true then if I have 10000 HP a shielding aug of 2% would save me 200 HP of damage before I die right?

So if my line of thought is correct so far then a 2% shielding aug is equivalent to a 200 HP aug (in my case anyway) right?

I'd still rather an anguish aug of course but I do have several other 35HP/35 mana augs I am considering trading for it.

[Endiment]

It's more complicated than that. It's 2% of the mobs base damage. for example if the mobs has a base damage of 100, you'll save 2 dmg off of whatever he hits you for, whether it's 100 or 600.
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[Culdahl]

Nope....and this is complicated......shielding reduces the incoming *DB* portion of melee by the percentage of shielding you have (IE - 10% shielding = DB - 10%).

DB is the mob's "damage base" or, to put it simply, a mob's minimum hit minus DI (DI is even more difficult to explain:-) Basically, you can calculate DB by taking the maximum hit and subtracting the minimum hit and dividing the remainder by 19...this gives you Di which you can then subtract from your min hit to get your DB(max hit = 2500, min hit = 600....2500-600=1900/19=100{your DI}, which leaves you with a DB of 500 on a 2500 hitting mob in this scenario).

In laymen's terms, shielding = a relatively small reduction in incoming melee (DB's tend to be fairly low on *most* mobs).

So, in your case, you may want to focus more on DoT shielding or spell shielding being that the value of regular shielding is measured cumulatively over a long period while tanking (taking 200 less damage/hit over the course of a fight adds up to a LOT of HPs saved).

Hope that helps....

[Ghraa]

Well, I tend not to die to spells or DoTs. I tend to die when the mob decides to rip off my left arm and then open my chest to see what I had for dinner.

So, for a chanter with approximately 12,000 HP raid buffed, at what point would a HP aug become more valuable than a 2% shielding aug? 50HP? 100 HP? More? Less?

Just trying to get a general rule of thumb.

[Suegar]

Almost never imo, maybe when you have everything else maxed but the gains from it are so infintesimal it's not worth it. Maybe 7 shielding for a 30 hit point aug avoidance caps at 100 so go for that, especially with low ac (in my own subjective opinion anyway) shielding is basically worthless anyway. just my two cents though

[Gravidon]

I haven't done the research on avoidance augs nor their availablity. If there are any available, I would think a chanter would benefit from them more than the shielding or hp augs.

DOH! Suegar beat me to the post... kinda

[Culdahl]

Yeah sueg, but you're looking at it from a tanking standpoint. Ghraa only needs to survive a short time because he shouldn't be getting hit in the first place, which means AC, HP and avoid would be more valuable than shielding. In his case, I would go with an avoid/AC/HP aug over shielding (or DoT/spell shielding).

For tanks, though, I agree 100%.

BTW, moer HP's also = more room to take AoE's which is primarily what a caster will face. With that said, chanters get hit more often than most casters, so AC may be a good idea also.

[Ghraa]

Okies, sticking with pure Stun Resist, HP and AC then. My Avoidance is already maxed 108/100. Even got my stun resist up to around 30 something. Mana and HP regen capped too.