Damage or Crit padding?

[macgyver]

Friend of mine who has amassed some premie points and is going to treat me to some padding for my 5x robes as a welcome back gift. Note, I am a halfling monk, stat'd for growth and standard brawling 2x CM/2x PF/.33 spells.

I have a couple of questions; first, is crit padding really better then damage padding? Second, should I forego both in order to T5 ensorcell my robes?

[Maerit]

If you're still F2P, bear in mind you could have masterfully crit or damage padded equipment, but will only experience the benefit of SOMEWHAT padding. In this case, crit padding is substantially better than damage padding because somewhat damage padding will only remove about 5-6 points of damage from any hit, while somewhat crit padding has a chance to reduce a crit rank by 1 rank when hit.

If you're still playing a Monk, crit padding is always going to be better than damage padding. Monks don't die to attrition, they die to being critically hit and dying immediately. With all the physical mitigation skills of a monk, the crit padding is really there to help you with reducing the severity of creature maneuvers. Monks can meditate to make themselves resistant to damage types (know your foe), and that will help as well if you're familiar with the most common damage types of any given hunting area.

[macgyver]

If you're still F2P, bear in mind you could have masterfully crit or damage padded equipment, but will only experience the benefit of SOMEWHAT padding. In this case, crit padding is substantially better than damage padding because somewhat damage padding will only remove about 5-6 points of damage from any hit, while somewhat crit padding has a chance to reduce a crit rank by 1 rank when hit.

If you're still playing a Monk, crit padding is always going to be better than damage padding. Monks don't die to attrition, they die to being critically hit and dying immediately. With all the physical mitigation skills of a monk, the crit padding is really there to help you with reducing the severity of creature maneuvers. Monks can meditate to make themselves resistant to damage types (know your foe), and that will help as well if you're familiar with the most common damage types of any given hunting area.

Very critical piece of information. I was afraid that me being a halfling and with a low hp pool will be a problem later on getting chipped away. Bad news on the crit padding for F2P, although a pass exists to alleviate that problem, I believe.

[Versin]

I would take a T5 ensorcell over padding

[gilchristr]

Macguver - you ought to put the padding on a 4x set of fusion robes, instead of a 5x suit of regular robes if it is not an extra PP cost (there is a surcharge for fusion, but the lower enchant will be cheaper). There are probably a suit or two on player shops for 500k

The two fusion slots will easily allow you to make up the DS, and then some. You will thank me later...