Deepwater Breastplate  

 

I have to agree with Mastikor.

I'm currently wearing a full set of DW after being hit by the "pretty gold armour" bug way back in my early 20's.

Number of points to make about DW:

1) Other than the bp and greaves no slot has stat plusses or saves. This is a real waste of slots.

2) Most of the spell effects are low level spells that are superceded a few levels after this gear starts to proc. Cancel Magic and Soothe... why bother? Endure Magic is useful as is Spirit Strength. To be fair though, unless you have no friends or aren't in a guild, at the level this stuff procs you'll be with people who can buff you far better than this stuff can.

3) The right-click effects take an eternity to cast. Stun is useless in combat due to its casting time. Symbol and Daring are painfully slow.

4) Although the AC on this stuff is high, there is better. And for the sake of losing a few points of AC you can gain much needed stat plusses and saves.

5) Unless I am wrong, spells cast by mobs ignore AC anyway. A point evidenced by a duel I had with a friend in the Arena the other night. His druid rooted me and blew seven shades out of me. I survived due to my remaining slots being taken up with hp plus items but to be fair, my saves are diabolical due to the lack of open slots for any resist gear.

6) As for soloing, at 50+ most of the mobs that appear dark blue to you can pretty much tear you a new one at least 50% of the time. You really notice the lack of Str, Sta, HP, and Save bonuses at this level when you go toe to toe with a mob. Yes, you have a high AC, however, the mobs at this level have no problem hitting you and it's usually in the 100's. While you're chipping away at them due to a crappy strength you're watching your feeble hp's drain as they blast you with spells you can't resist.

Ultimately, this gear looks good and impresses the noobs but functionally you are far better off with cultural armour or piecemeal gear in my opinion. Replace the guantlets with crystal chitin ones. Instant +4 to AC, +10 Str and 35 mana. Lose the DW vambs and replace again with crystal chitin gear for -3 AC (negated by gauntlets plus), Str/Sta +5 and hp's +10. So for the sake two duff spell effects, you've gained 1AC, +15 Str, +5 Sta, 35 mana and 10 hp's.

Okay, so you don't look like a gleaming golden hero anymore but I don't think you have to be a brain surgeon to work out the advantages of losing this gear. Or at least using the best bits for piecemeal armour.

Edited, Tue Sep 3 09:13:49 2002