i may be a ranger but i believe this is still valid to your comment. I have it the other way around. My prot brace is permanant and my cruel barbs brace is swapped. The stat points on prot brace help a lot with the skills but also the attack from it stays permanant, not affecting the auto whilst/after casting a skill. If you have attack like tp said in his post, 11k then this isnt such an issue.Well summed-up toothpick. I like that. OFC, you would swap skill rings, skill cd bracers and/or mord skill bracers as DPS as well for a high damage boost. I would put ingenuity into permanent slot so that when you swap you don't lose the damage from it.
This could also be dependant on the type of prot brace however. Both tp and I have a godly attack brace with vit. So if we were to swap that brace then our health would constantly be dropping and need to be healed or use unwanted restos to regen that back