that works thanks. Just seems silly that you can build a character that ends up with lower AC when he is using better armor. Yeah you have to build that way but there just seems no way to build a character to utilize heavy armor.
For classes that don't by default get heavy armor/shields, the stat and feat investment to buy up to plate and heavy shields (15 STR, 15 CON, 5 feats) is monumental and almost never worthwhile. There's only ~5 builds in the whole game that are designed to wear light armor that don't either use INT or DEX for a primary or secondary or get to substitute a different stat that they do care about for them for AC progression. And whenever anyone on Char Op builds any of those builds, they use DEX secondary instead of whatever the designers implied was that build's secondary stat, because AC and Init are superior to power riders.
For classes that get heavy armor and shields for free, just equipping platemail and a shield at level 1 nets you 20 AC, which is absolutely using it very well.