Years back when I first started researching a ranger, the consensus seemed to be that if you were going to hang out in the open that you should work toward hauberk with brig being a risky compromise for heavy spell casters to reduce hinderance. Lately, on lnet chat, I’ve been seeing a lot of “doubles for life” commentary and that brig is overkill and a waste.

Has something changed - perhaps dreavenings/invoker? - or is there just a more vocal minority? I certainly would appreciate the TP reduction and the spell hinderance reduction since I am casting more and more. Is it fairly safe to drop to doubles while staying in the open if I have liberal use of setup spells?

On another note, it does appear to be far easier to come across decent starter brig (like 5x SWCP) vs doubles.