Black Hades vs Guardian Angel?

[MatthyasL]

Hello Paladins. Recently, my zealot/fant/holyshield Paladin met a really nice person who gave me a ton of stuff, including a Guardian Angel breastplate. Although, I am very grateful for his generous gifts, I am not sure if I want to use the guardian angel. Currently, my Black Hades and already been cubed upgraded with 1415 defense. I'm thinking since it has 3 sockets, it would be in my best interest to use 3 pul runes which would increase the defense of it to over 2,000, which would in turn help my holy shield. I can't ignore the stats on the guardian angel though with increased blocking. What do you all think?

[Evrae Altana]

I'd go with Guardian Angel for the skill, blocking, and + to max resists. If you want defense, go with a Stone.

[MalVeauX]

Personally, I look at it like this:

Up'ed Black Hades = 230 str? 1400 defense?
G. Angel = 118 str :: 800ish defense?

Seems clear to me. Granted it's half the defense, but it's also half the strength requirement. Which means a lot more points spare for vitality and all that jazz which you need to live. Blocking 75% reduces the need for massive 20K+ defense. You can get by with G.Angel and Holy Shield with a comfy 8k defense and 75% block and still be pretty untouchable in hell. The res's also play a major role since defense doesn't stop lighting for example.

I would use the Angel. Even though it seems too "in line" it's just great armor.
Hades is cool armor mind you; but I'd probably have plugged it with massive -req jewels in order to make it easy to use after upping it. I prefer to have much more life when possible.

Something to consider though, if you have access, is a Prudence armor. Just look into the runeword... Mal rune is all you need. The hard part, is finding an Ethereal 2 socket elite armor of your choice that you want to use. An Eth 2 socket Haubrek or Archon plate would look divine... but Eth 2 Socket WireFleece would be my personal choice (looks the best!). The defene would be insane, and the overall stats would be insane. Plus, no one's using it with things like Fort out there... so it has cool factor :)

Cheers!

[MegaFlame]

I wouldn't use the up'd hades because it's str requirement takes away a lot of attributes that can be invested into vitality instead.

[soul killer]

i agree,for a pally G.Angel is always on top of Hades.

[marcello]

if you're going to use a upd black, consider templars might, it seems to be very cheap, and it has better mods, and only takes 2 more in str. anyways, I find Leviathan a very good choice to.

[MatthyasL]

Well, thanks for the advice all, although I'm still unsure of which one to chose. I already have 230 str unmodified, but I might consider upgrading the guardian angel from the cube and then comparing the two. If I go with the guardian angel, at least I won't have to invest the three puls runes I was thinking. That appeals to me.

[psych]

Don't use the puls in a black hades. If def is all you want cube 2 puls into um and make a stone as evrae suggested.

Black can be usefull for putting jewels in with mods you can't get on charms such as IAS. But like the rest I would recommend GA for pally.

[MatthyasL]

Don't use the puls in a black hades. If def is all you want cube 2 puls into um and make a stone as evrae suggested.

Black can be usefull for putting jewels in with mods you can't get on charms such as IAS. But like the rest I would recommend GA for pally.

Well, I thought with 3 pul runes in Black Hades would be a good idea since with my max holy shield my defense would explode. The guardian angel's blocking abilities though and +1 Paladin skills might make it better to have that instead of the original plan. I plan to upgrade the guardian angel and compare. Thanks for info all.

[Arutha]

sometimes I think of useing a eth up'd "zod ber cham" black hades just to be different

[harley98]

upped guardian angel for your pally (to many nice mods for your pally to pass up) and upped black hades for your merc (socketed with some nice jewels) sounds like a winner to me.