More complex than that. I believe that PsiArmour also gives some defense against wounds (off the AB).

In a nutshell, are you trying to build a tank that can handle mobs? Or are you aiming for pure speed that can inflict in combat? Without knowing your particular guild (i.e. harmony or stealth), choice of trade, low/high magic, and choice of race, I would be giving you blind advice... but here you go.

Acrobats lack the defensive DMP for hunting and such. This can be mediated by taking up tattooing, since tattoo armour is better than splendors and the defensive tattoos are double the defensive DMP. Quite worthwhile! Acrobats are considered a bit better in evasive capabilities for combat (mostly due to contort and dodge). Stealth provides some overlap with acrobatics, and can fix the shortcomings in that skillset. Most of all, you can gain a fair amount of return with very little lesson investment. Most combatants take up acro for a small handful of useful skills... that's why you will here a general chorus of go acro.

On the other hand Psymet is all about DMP; as such, you will be the tanky type. The harmony+psymet health regen is outlandish, especially for a high health/regen race like lobo. Tailoring may have more to offer than tattooing, mostly due to the fact that the additional DMP won't matter much unless you strategically stack (tailoring might be a good second choice). Psymet requires some planning to pick the appropriate defenses, and there is little flexibility in changing up strategies. Be prepared to move through the mostly-irrelevant psionic skillset before obtaining any useful psymet skills, and trans'ing is somewhat important. Also ask about the highmagic perma GreatPentagram thanks to celladjustment+bodyfuel.

Both are viable, but there are better builds depending on your character's goals with hunting and combat and selection of race & skills.

In the same line of questioning, does defensive cutting & blunt DMP working against physical PVP -=and=- PVE damage?

I think you quoted the wrong person. But having used both skillsets for quite a while (though it was a really long-ass time ago), I have to disagree. The best use I found for psymet was bashing (which I never did) while Acrobatics was just far superior for combat (and mildly useful for hunting).

The character in question'll be a Shofangi, so Harmony; coupled with Lowmagic + Tailoring (for splendours). I'm looking for a good balance between PvE/PvP, so I don't want to be gimped in either respect - but keep in mind my definition of "gimped" for PvE will probably differ greatly from the average, since I'm used to hunting as a Nihilist (which are one of the worst PvE classes). From what you've said, PsyMet sounds almost totally tailored towards PvE, so I'm leaning towards Acrobatics now and trusting to splendours/utility to augment my tankiness (keeping in mind I'ma be playing a Kephera).

Unless I am wrong, tattoos will offer better stats than a splendor robe... and also the double DMP will bring you to near psymet defense against elemental protection. Otherwise sounds like you have a solid choice!

I'm a bit fuzzy on tattoos as well, actually. Do tats/robes not stack? And do you need the skill to have tattoos, can other people not do 'em for you?

Regular tattoo dmp from the "proof" clones stack with robes. Tattooarmour does not.

You don't need the skill to get tattoos. You DO need the skill to get master tattooarmour stats, which are only available to monks. They seem to cap out at 78/78.

All the kata specs get basic tatooarmour available for all monks, but I've yet to hear anyone peg a number on what their cutting/blunt armour taps out at.

You can only have other people tattoo you. They recently completely removed the self-targetting functionality of anatine due to people being able to use it to tattoo themselves. Which, apparently was easier than creating an exception to tattooing.

I think I'll just stick with Tailoring for the splendours and get someone else to tattoo me with the basics, then. It seems like less hassle for equivocal benefit. Cheers for the help, guys!

78/78 is significantly better than splendours, where a PVP set is expected to be around 140 aggregate (70/70).

Splendours = improved proofs, though. Which (I'm assuming?) stack with the equivalent proofing tattoos, so it's basically an average of 8 less cutting/blunt for better elemental resists.

Splendour/greatrobes do get improved proofs over coat/cloak/etc, yes.

DMP tattoo values double with tattooarmour, actually. This is especially notable since you can get DMP tattoos that proofs will not cover. You can also still wear a proofed coat/cloak and get tattooarmour benefits, you just can't wear anything with an armour stat (which means not even unenchanted robes, since those are 12/12 base).

Quit muddying the waaaaters!

Let me make this easy. Everyone is telling you to take up tattoos because the benefits outweigh tailoring... especially for an acrobat.

Get tattoos. You get better armor and can get 20 dmp to the same four types as tailoring in addition to rarer damage sources like poison. The most important thing about tattoos is the damage buff in my opinion. You get to be tankier than splendors with a 10% damage increase.

Also I enjoy psymet. Pheromones is possibly the most over powered thing ever (which is why I'll probably be envoying it next report. Bone density which I don't use often can make you much more resistant to certain green locks and make a nihilist's life difficult if they are going for sac. Forced symmetry when used properly can shut down warriors possibly even more than an acrobat can.

That being said Ixion did yell at me for not having scissorkick the other day.

You have opened my outdated eyes. Tats it is!

Doubt this. It is an upgraded love potion.

EDIT: Also, what green lock is caused by broken bones (which BoneDensity has a % chance to protects against)?

Is there a way to see all curio pieces belonging to a set? Could have sworn there was, but CURIO STATUS only says which set a piece belongs to.

Slit-throat, senso, prone with a broken leg. (or maybe just broken arms?)

Upgraded love potion totally devastates list-based timing classes, just sayin. It's only a marginal upgrade on the broken love, but on normal love (20 seconds, 50% chance of hitting you/doing nothing, 50% chance of hitting enemy) its pretty great.

Nothing IG (use Xiel's site), status will show you if you have a partial.