Reducing hits by 30 or 50 may not sound like much, but as a high level conj you shouldn't be in danger anyway if it's just one player targetting you.
It's those cases where 3-4-5-6 or more gang up on you (which should be the usual case in a group fight, once you put your nose out in the open), where you start getting into trouble. And then even -30 on each hit means a great deal less incoming DPS.
And I used to feel the same way as Tamui about my dragon armour, it was not easy to stop using something I worked so hard for back then to get. But play around with Kitsuni's armour calculator abit and you'll have to face some tough truths.
Compared to that Great Healer hat, with VG resist vs slash/pierce and armour bonus. If I used the Alasthor hat instead, I would need
Force Armour(5) to get back the same damage reduction for those types.
It would be more economical then to use that manaless hat, and put 2 powerpoints in Mana Pool instead of 5 into FA. Better still just get used to playing without those 175 mana, which is less than most lvl5 spells cost anyway.