I've been looking at some UVs on knights that are geared for T3 / SL & am finding variances between targeting damage UVs ( normal, piercing, etc) & status UVs (sleep, curse, etc).
I'm seeing if one is more suitable or beneficial than the other in certain circumstances. Do you generally take more direct damage (eg: elemental) in this tier than say status damage (eg: fire)?
Based on feedback I can start keeping / obtaining gear more applicable for T3.
Status resists make a much bigger difference than defense. Fire, Shock, and Freeze are crippling statuses that will cause you to lose large amounts of your health. If you get caught on Fire in FSC without any Fire resistance, say bye to half your health every time you take damage. If you get Shocked or Frozen while standing beside a large group of mobs, you're pretty much dead. Poison is the odd duck and you can usually just run around until it wears off.
Extra Elemental, Piercing, or Shadow defense only reduces damage by a small amount, but they do have the advantage of being more versatile. I'd say UVs for those stats are a nice bonus if you're just starting to put together your first set of gear.
FSC is all about fire. Fire fire fire. Since FSC is the main area of T3 that gets run, that's why fire UVs are so desirable.
Damage UVs are going to be more versatile than status UVs since there are fewer types of damage. But in an area where a status is prevalent, a status resist will benefit you a great deal, depending on what the status is. People tend to have more trouble with shock than poison, for example. Status UVs are going to be a lot more noticeable than defense UVs, too, with a couple Max Fires making you able to laugh off fire, whereas a couple Max Piercings just makes you somewhat defensible vs Piercing.
The same is true of Shadow Lairs. In Shadow Snarby, you face a lot of Piercing and Shadow damage, so you'll want UVs in those, and possible Poison, although I would put Poison at a lower priority simply because it's not that big a deal.
It's really all about what you're going to face and how many varied sets of armor you can afford.