Incite,
I'm sorry that you're not happy with the outcome of the 'upgrade' from the Hauberk. There are a pieces where the higher ilvl piece is debated as to whether or not it's "better" relative to the lower ilvl piece that has our beloved avoidance/mastery itemization to fill the combat table. I think the two most noticeable in this regard are the
Icebone Hauberk vs [346]
Chestplate of the Steadfast as you've observed, and also the
Ironstar Amulet vs the lower-but-better-itemized
The Lustrous Eye (from Justice Points) or
Carrier Wave Pendant (drop).
As you observed, the Icebone Hauberk gives you slightly lower combat table coverage, in return for about a 2k health upgrade (depending on exactly how you're gemming and what you're doing with going for socket bonuses). There are some who will make the case that while bigger combat table coverage is nice, having a fraction of a point more in coverage may not make the difference; 2k health on a progression boss (whatever is progression to you) may save a wipe. And of course, not all hard-hitting content cares about your combat table (e.g., 75k magic breath attacks and 100k "crackle" damage hits from Nefarian as your most notable regular-mode example). Other fights only care about your avoidance and trivialize your mastery (e.g, Chimaeron). In those fights, pieces like
Icebone Hauberk feel more relevant again, albeit for different reasons (its stamina in one case, its non-mastery raw avoidance in the other).
So I will certainly grant that there's some room for debate here, and a lot of people are pushing for raw combat table coverage (including me for many fights, especially now that we're working on heroic Halfus - yowie, WTB more mastery!!). But stamina isn't totally dead (nor is armor, and there is a modest but not irrelevant armor different on the chest pieces as well), and there is still what I consider healthy debate on which of these pieces is "better" (or at least, which is better on which fights). This is why, for the time being, I've left the list uniformly still sorted by ilvl first, and only sorted for itemization within each item level grouping.
