The Spirit Realm

SK in my guild was giving me a hard time today because I have a 30 AC aug in my Third Eye Shield instead of a 35 AC aug in it. I'm more or less familiar with all the discussion about shields and AC soft cap, etc., so I just decided to do an experiment. I wanted to see exactly what kind of impact on my total AC there would be by adding another 5 AC to my shield.

AC with 30AC aug in shield: 6598
AC with 35AC aug in shield: 6598

I remember at lower levels you always put your highest AC aug in your shield because of the soft cap. But clearly here the additional 5 AC in the shield added nothing to my total AC. Does anyone know at what point it stops making a difference?

It always makes a difference, the reason you dont see a difference in displayed is displayed doesnt reduce ac when it hits softcap, so AC on your regular gear hitting softcap does the same displayed = itemac * ~1.57, the difference comes in, in the effective ac value of your toon(your "real" AC value, post softcap) that you simply can't see (I wish they would let you, I tried to bum em for the Stats page : /), that extra 5 ac in your shield is 5 ac, where in a piece of gear it's only ~2 ac

I use the 35AC shield only aug. from Crystallos, which you can get easily solo.

With a 3ac difference I don't think you'll notice any difference, especially at ~6600AC.

If you want to mini max stuff, sure, best ac aug in the shield, 5 ac isn't really make that much difference anymore in today's game even if it is in the shield. May I am just too laid back now days.