User:MystiLefemEle/Templates/Armor v HP

ARMOR vs. HP (Health Point)

The most important rule of thumb in equipping your character for PvP (can also be useful for PvE too) is to run as much reliable armor rating as possible. This isn't to say that exceptions don't exist, but for most situations, stacking armor is the best way to go.

1. Armor increases survivability better than HP

Think in terms of effective HP - the amount of damage it takes to kill a character, after damage reduction from armor is applied. +HP increases eHP by adding to it directly, while +armor increases eHP multiplicatively. An extra 5 armor from a Defense mod will -always- be an 8.3% reduction in damage taken, which is about an additional 9% eHP. Unless your HP is in the 300 range, which will probably not happen in GvG, the armor will always be better than the flat 30 that a Fortitude mod confers. Survivor’s Insignias fare even worse compared to armor insignias.

And no, armor penetration still favors armor over HP. If you need more detailed examples, check the math section.

2. HP doesn't do anything, while armor mitigates damage throughout a match

Extra HP has no effect until your HP gets that low. If you spend the entire match above 40 HP while wearing full Survivor's Insignias, they were completely useless that whole time. Since full spikes aren’t exactly common these days, this is unlikely to be a situation you’ll run into where . On the other hand, having additional armor provides a constant reduction on incoming damage, which improves the efficiency of healing/prot on you (100 damage on 60 AL and 100 damage on 100 AL are both handled by a Patient Spirit, but on the latter target, that was actually 200 incoming damage that it healed).

There are situations where running HP might sound attractive because of armor-ignoring damage and degen (having to fight necromancers and rangers on split), but even then, there’d be enough damage that’s affected by armor to make stacking it better than a bit of HP that won’t do anything until you’re two seconds from degening out. (If you really want, keep a Fortitude weapon and possibly +45 HP while enchanted/+60 HP while hexed shields in inventory in case of emergencies.)

The Math: See: [1]; for depth of math from op
The cases being looked at here (using Elementalists for simplicity's sake):

   HP armor in 40/40 set: 60 AL, 580 HP (480 base + 50 Superior Vigor + 40 Survivor's Insignias + 10 Vitae)
   HP armor in shield set w/ Fortitude weapon: 68 AL (8 armor from shield), 640 HP - 
    (additional 30 HP from shield and 30 HP from Fortitude mod)
   HP armor in shield set w/ Defense weapon: 73 AL, 610 HP
   Blessed armor in 40/40 set: 70 AL (additional 10 AL from Blessed Insignias with an enchantment up), 540 HP
   Blessed armor in shield set w/ Fortitude weapon: 78 AL (8 armor from shield), 600 HP
   Blessed armor in shield set w/ Defense weapon: 83 AL (additional 5 armor from weapon), 570 HP
   Blessed armor in appropriate elemental shield set w/ Defense weapon: 93 AL, 570 HP

A few things should be taken from these results:

   Being in a shield set makes an enormous difference in terms of damage taken.
   Switching from +HP to +armor on a slot is always objectively better for both reducing damage taken and 
    increasing the amount of unmitigated damage required before dying.
   Having the right shield on helps.