OK, I'm going to state the following, and you guys can show me where our disconnect is:Plate is comparable to Hide with a starting 20. Scale is comparable to Hide with a starting 18, or Leather with a starting 20. Arguing about these starting conditions is nit-picking for the sake of argumentation. I started with even AC. I could have done this with any number of configurations (such as Chain vs. Hide + starting 16 or Leather + starting 18). I then demonstrated that these characters had unequal scaling as they progressed in levels, and that the masterwork armors presented in AV evened out the scaling. Since the problem is with the scaling, the starting conditions don't actually matter; what matters is the relative change.
And yes, I got level 12 and 14 confused. The core of the argument remains sound.
Without MW armor, there's an eventual and gradual increase in AC for light armor wearers that gets severe in the epic levels.
With PHB MW armor, there's an eventual and abrupt and severe increase in AC for everyone that more-or-less keeps everyone on a level playing field.
With stealth-errata MW armor, there's a gradual increase in AC for heavy armor wearers that starts at mid-heroic and doesn't smooth out until mid-paragon, where it's more of a slight bias to the heavy armor wearers.
Does that all seem to be the gist of the matter?
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