Should I upgrade my Gore Riders?

[VegaDark]

I got my hands on some "Perfect" Gore Riders (200% ED, 162 defense) and with this item being the best item for the boot slot in many character builds I was wondering if anyone had some advice on if I should upgrade them or not.

I was told by someone to use the upgrade recipe on it but I'm concerned with the str required to wear it if I do that. I'd like to put as few points into STR as poissible (read:Base).

Does "upping" an item re-roll base def or ED% ? I don't want to risk upping perfect gores if I might end up with non-perfect up'd gores, that would ruin my quest to have the "absolute best" boots in the game. Second, how much str will be required to wear them if I up it? -Edit- Ok, I think I figured out it will take 156 str to wear if I up it, correct me if I am wrong.

Being used on a hammer/smite paladin btw.

[Evrae Altana]

When you upgrade an item, the base defense gets rerolled, but the ED% itself remains the same.

[VegaDark]

Thanks for the reply...I was glancing at other items with +ED% and it looked as if the defense only varies if the ED% varies and base defense didn't effect it at all (Such as Guillaime’s face always being 217 def despite varying base def). Does this mean if I up Gores its base def won't matter at all and all 200% ED Gores being up'd will end up the same def? That's what it looks like to me.

[Evrae Altana]

The reason all Guillaume's Faces have 217 defense is because any ED% of a piece of armor will set the base defense of that armor to max+1. In the case of Guillaume's Face, the winged helm has a base defense 85-98, but due to the helm having an ED mod, the base defense is now 98(max) + 1, to become a base defense of 99, which is then multiplied by the 120% ED to get a 217 defense.
In the case of your Gore Riders, when it is upgraded, the base defense is rerolled, so one pair of upgraded 200%ED Gore Riders might not necessarily attain the same defense as another pair of upgraded Gore Riders with the exact same % ED.

[VegaDark]

Ah, thanks.