I feel the defencive equipment is most useful . Attack stats will grow threw ally trade , I like defence on equipment . Plus I don't need to look at a bunch of downgraded SH builds , to get them.
I equip only the hooves and crabby helmet to lure in other players. I equip the treasure dragon plate when I'm hitting, and then swap it for the Exo armour when Im on regen or defending. That's the limit of versatility for me.
It all depends on what you call "best". BMan made an excellent comment, and I totally agree with him. The highest spydef and/or def gear available is dropped in ebs, except for very few exceptions which aren't obtainable anymore (the summer 2012 ASW gear and one or two promo pieces). For every piece of EE gear you can find a higher defense/spydef stat counterpart dropped by an eb. For example, the highest spydef equip that you may still obtain nowadays (so no EE, ASW or promo gear, but it could include alchemist purchasable gear) is the following: Hands - Claw Gauntlets - Glacial Squall Arms - Aureate Bracers - Terrain Trevails Shoulders - Desert Cloak - The Viper's Den Head - Bloodless Helm - Smoke Signals Weapon - Dragon Minion - The Summoner Off-Hand - Skorpion Shield - The Sleeping Giant Feet - Stabilizer Boots - Smoke Signals Legs - Arachnidian Greaves - The Sleeping Giant Body - Exoskeleton Armor - A Cold Calling Ring 1 - Mesmeric Ring - The Summoner Ring 2 - Ring of Illusion - Storming the Palace Trinket - Crown of Virtue - The Gilded Lord Fully enchanted, this will add up to 109,5m spydef NB: I haven't taken into account %age gear like the Pinioned Boots, nor the Taragon Gloves (missing the data...)