In Ac 1 AC 16 HA is available very early, at lvl 3, then lvl 5 unlocks AC 17 at all Good Merchants, two AC 18 in the Mountain Pass map ...
That's not too bad. I may have been remembering early access when AC 16 was not available at all in the earlier patches. Full dex to medium still makes it fairly easy to surpass heavy armor if you are so inclined. With dex gloves you can do it while still dumping dex.
