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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Exocist" data-source="post: 9266649" data-attributes="member: 7044810"><h3>Arms</h3><h3>Heroic:</h3>Sky Blue[SPOILER]Phylactery of Action (3, Uncommon): A default pick if you can’t use any of the damage bracers or the couters (implement users without a great RBA). Daze, stun and petrify are all nasty. Immobilize and restrain less so for ranged characters but still bad. The less time you spend under these conditions, the better. Also very cheap and doesn’t need upgrades.Quickhit Braces (5+, Uncommon): Twin Strike users love this, as does anyone who makes a lot of attacks with both their main and off-hand against the same target. The bonus is not an item bonus, just extra damage, meaning it stacks with other item bonuses unlike the Iron Armbands. Also applies twice to Twin Strike because it only has one hit line, so it becomes 1[w]+1d6 per attack, meaning it does more damage than the armbands provided both attacks hit.Iron Armbands of Power (6+, Uncommon): Default pick for nearly all melee strikers. E-classes that do a lot of MBAs may prefer to save money and buy the bracers of mighty striking instead, though these classes will still tend to have non MBA attacks. These are strictly better, just more expensive. If you have another item bonus to damage, such as an Ioun Stone later, you can replace this.Bracers of Archery (6+,Uncommon): Default pick for weapon based ranged attackers. Not a strict upgrade over the Bracers of the Perfect Shot - there are quite a number of RBA powers, especially implement ones, that don’t use a bow or crossbow.[/SPOILER]Blue[SPOILER][/SPOILER][SPOILER]Bracers of Mighty Striking (2+, Common): If you want to save money vs the Iron Armbands and use a lot of MBAs, pick these. There’s really nothing else to them, Iron Armbands tend to be better but are more than triple the cost.Bracers of the Perfect Shot (3+, Common): Default pick for those that use a lot of RBAs - this is usually Elementalists and other E-classes, though most implement users have RBA powers that they still use on occasion - especially if your leader grants RBAs. The competition isn’t fierce in this slot for these classes, and if you prefer a bit of damage to your RBA instead of a bit of defense, it’s a decent pickup.Couters of Second Chances (5+, Uncommon): Melee warlords and other classes that care more about the on-hit effects of their powers rather than the damage may prefer this over the armbands. It is a daily power, but when that daily power is what causes your daily power to hit and let 3 allies make a charge attack, instead of missing and doing nothing, it can be worth it. The level 15 and 25 versions upgrade it slightly, but are probably not worth the cost until much later than their printed level. Can also be golfbagged to make it effectively an encounter power.Counterstrike Guards (4+, Uncommon): The question is: How much is a single MBA from a dedicated MBA class worth? Is it worth more per day than +2 damage to every melee attack? What about per encounter? The valuation of this vs iron armbands or mighty striking depends on a bit of math regarding hitrate and expected damage, but there’s also the fact that the counterstrike guards giving you another attack can turn a difficult encounter much easier than the flat +2 might. You also have to consider the value of your immediate, and whether you’ll remember to use these things. The level 14 verison is significantly better but you’ll also have more immediates competing with this then. The flat damage is usually a safer pick.Bracers of Escape (7+, Uncommon): Due to being an interrupt this can effectively negate any melee attack on you - unfortunately the timing happens before you see whether you got hit or not, but removing an enemy’s action is still good. Due to lack of competition in this slot, characters looking for something other than damage really only have this and the phylactery to choose from. Becomes worse as you get more immediate competition, can be golfbagged to turn it into an encounter power.[/SPOILER]<h3>Paragon:</h3>Purple[SPOILER]Frost Charger Bracers (13, Uncommon): This is not generally an upgrade to Mighty Striking or Iron Armbands for regular dedicated chargers, however if you use AoE powers on your charge this can be significantly better. 3 enemies right next to each other will each take 2x (your str) cold damage on your charge when you use your AoE attack, which is better than what the other items can do. If you don’t use AoE powers on your charge, it’s probably best not to pick this.[/SPOILER]<h3>Epic:</h3>NA</blockquote>

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