In general, do you prefer armors with more attack, more defense, or balanced

[Daenerys]

if the elements and combined stats are roughly the same?

Thanks!

[drygores]

I can't tell the difference myself. I've herd people say defence cause the chance you might get an extra hit it. But I've also herd attack cause you do more damage every hit. I personally just decide by element and not att/def.

[Unresolved]

I prefer defense if elements are identical. I can't stand when my armors get two-shot(or one-shot).

[Wolfgangs246]

I prefer attack. But at the same time, I'll admit that I probably wouldn't level nor wear an armor that looked fugly.

That last slime-monster armor is a good example of fugly.

[Zrednic]

I haven't had the option to choose what armor I am using yet,
But if I did, I am pretty sure i would prefer defense.
It seems like most of the time, the damage you deal is around 40% of the enemy's life, so a 10% increase in your damage does nothing (44% per hit still takes 3 turns). A similar increase in your defense puts you at 36%: still not quite enough to survive a 3rd hit, but much closer:

It would take a 25% increase in your atk to two shot but only a 20% in def to be a 4 shot.
Obviously this is based on a relatively baseless 40% starting figure, but that's what I observe in the arena.

In PvM, you always want def because you one-shot everything except EB.
In EB you still want def because you only survive a very few hits at the high end, and going from 2-3 is a huge damage increase.

Tldr: defense

[gnolaum]

For farming (which I'm doing a lot less of post 100) I prefer defence.

For everything else I prefer attack.

[leale]

I like to start my arena lineup with a tank to mitigate their first attack advantage and to last long enough for the first special attack then swoop in with my heavy hitters; I haven't overly analysed the strategy it may not actually make much off a difference but meh

[Starbuck*]

I used to focus on defense since I'm a sentinel, but now that anyone can kill a sentinel during guild wars with 6 failed attempts, I focus more on elements and how strong the armor is overall (combined attack and defense).

[Paladineguru]

I lean toward balance, particularly, fire water combo is my fav for no reason.
I'm actually afraid of when that combo comes out in epic as ill probably spend w/e it takes for it.

[gnolaum]

I haven't had the option to choose what armor I am using yet,
But if I did, I am pretty sure i would prefer defense.
It seems like most of the time, the damage you deal is around 40% of the enemy's life, so a 10% increase in your damage does nothing (44% per hit still takes 3 turns). A similar increase in your defense puts you at 36%: still not quite enough to survive a 3rd hit, but much closer:

It would take a 25% increase in your atk to two shot but only a 20% in def to be a 4 shot.
Obviously this is based on a relatively baseless 40% starting figure, but that's what I observe in the arena.

In PvM, you always want def because you one-shot everything except EB.
In EB you still want def because you only survive a very few hits at the high end, and going from 2-3 is a huge damage increase.

Tldr: defense

Do your calculations take into account the bonuses for elemental advantage?

[Zrednic]

My calculations were off the cuff, there's nothing about them that is complete, still, elemental advantages affect both offense and defense equally and should be irrelevant to the conclusion except inasmuch as they might change the average number of hits dealt/taken.

I just got through a fight where I dealt 50 more damage per hit than my opponent did, on every hit through the entire fight, and still lost because I went second. As significant as 50/hit seems (it is 25%!), it rarely matters when the hp pools are so low compared to the damage dealt. Whatever though, it's just a dumb game that I have been taking far too seriously because I enjoy theorycraft.