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I was going through history in forums and looking at Wiki; i have not really found much in the way of Pro's and Con's of the various types of armor currently available in game.
If anyone can point me in the right direction or give a fast Pro/Con of armor types, that would be fantastic.
Thanx.
~Z
Cloth armor has the least defense, and usually has a combat refresh benefit of gaining Power, Health, and Armor. The power regeneration benefit adds a big bonus. Cloth can also have "pockets" added, which gives you additional storage slots on your person. Cloth armor also has 120 enchantment points, where other armors have 100. Enchantment points can be used to add additional augments, pockets, or other benefits (elemental damage). Cloth armor tends to look the best. It is also craft-able, and capable of being "max enchanted" which gives it an additional combat mod.
Leather armor has more defense than Cloth, but less than Metal. Cloth armor tends to give armor and Health combat refresh benefits. 100 enchantment points. Leather armor is craft-able, and capable of being "max enchanted"
Metal armor has the most defense, sometimes by a wide margin. Usually only armor combat refresh is given, and it's typically given at a much bigger rate than the other armors. Currently metal armor is only craft-able for cows and wolves, so most pieces need to be found, which also means they are not able to be "max enchanted"
There are also unlisted armor types, which can't be dyed. They range all over the place. Snail armor (craftable and max enchanted) falls into this category. So do Spider Harneses.
In my personal oppinion, Armor is the most important of the 3 stats, as how much armor you currently have (remaining, not max) determines your universal damage mitigation. every 25 point of armor give you 1 point of mitigation. Health and power regeneration can be obtained by expensive food. It's hard to find proper armor regeneration, especially at higher levels.
There's plenty more theory, and insight that goes into it. Ultimately, experiment around, dont be afraid to switch up your build.
Learning the mechanics of the game will be a better asset than any set of armor.
High end when it comes to armor there is more to think about.
Plate offers more defense but has much less mana regen. You can get +14 regen in combat from shaman infusion and +8 on off/mainhand. Note the SI pant infusion is messed up and will eventually be +9 per piece meaning you can have +34 combat power regen from weapons/armor.
But you can make armor via tailoring that has -taunt built into it so you don't get smacked around in the first place.
You can buy white armor from Joeh quite often that people have sold and end up with like 600 armor as a lvl 1 noob. This is amusing but soon you will discover that wearing lower armor pieces with good skill modifiers will help you level much faster.
Also to clarify on what PC said... crafted armor has 120 enchantment points and dropped armor has 100 enchantment points.
Written from a leve 70 view point.
I take a different approach in that I place the number of mods (i.e. 7) I can apply on a piece as the highest consideration. This means max-crafted gear, which currently rules out metal armour.
My next consideration is how to survive the environment in Gazluk & the first-strike from ranged mobs. This results in my using a mix of winter & evasion leather gear.
Fortunately, leather is the 'balanced' option between metal & cloth, so it works well.
For all mobs: the damage output of a stunned /feared /rooted mob is very low & my survival rate is much higher. This approach usually requires mods, so hence the importance of point one.
Using the above criteria I do not focus on health, armor or power. Thankfully, health and power can be addressed by food and snacks, whilst the combat refresh abilities of crafted leather offset any lack of armor.
Using the above approach I can reliably solo single patrols in Gazluk Keep & in groups provide high-levels of damage, healing & crowd control from the same set of gear.
There's no set bonuses (Aside from GK armor letting you use a special ability) so don't worry about wearing a full set of matching armor. It's more important to judge pieces individually.
Generally, metal armor is the best for combat because more armor lets you survive longer, especially at low levels. What's more important though are the base properties of the armor, which is to say other bonuses they give other than armor value and combat refresh values. For example, evasion leather gear is helpful because it gives you evasion, not because it's leather. Don't worry too much about the type of armor you're wearing and more about individual bonuses they can give.
The one really notable exception to this is cloth since you can enhance elemental damage on cloth chests and pants, but currently these bonuses are extremely weak and not worth using because of the last patch. The devs have mentioned they are planning on rebalancing them to be stronger, but you should wait until they do so before planning on going with cloth armor.
tl;dr - metal can't be crafted, leather is king, cloth is cute, but on the whole until late game just pick item by item what's best for the right now.
It's really build to build and needs to be more specific than cloth/leather/metal.
As mentioned they each have different stats given from combat refresh so unless you have a mix you're going to need to take that into consideration. In an all cloth set if you get no armor from combat refresh do you have other skills that can help?
Cloth can get marginal increases to dps through +1% dmg to dmg type (nature/electricity/psychic/fire/darkness) on any cloth armor.
But more than that I like to think about how my build will engage in combat. Priests have mods that give them power regen if they haven't been hit in combat so evasion (especially burst) is key. Windstep shoes give a bonus to speed so at level 50 I would prefer those to crafted. Certain end game dropped gear gives + mele dmg, bard armor gives + sonic dmg. You'll often end up doing a mix and match for your combat armor so I always keep a travel suit for town.
The note about 120 vs 100 enhancement points matters on chest and legs and max enchanting is nice for all crafted armor.
Another unmentioned thing is that leatherworking can make winter gear which is basically necessary to have an enjoyable time in the outdoor cold zones. I like leather for my main combat gear b/c it's decent for solo-ing content since it's more armor than cloth, but gives you power in combat refresh.
You also have to consider TC armor for crafting which has dmg mitigation (snail armor) or nature/elect dmg boos (fairy armor), but can be harder to learn.
I have personally been using Max enchanted Leather winter gear, the reasoning is I like to play in Kur and Gazluk, mostly for the foraging in Kur though lol. But right now I am looking at possibly making myself a mixed set 3 pieces of winter gear and then chest and legs as cloth.. the reasoning is cloth gives more pockets. I want to be able to stay out longer and forage Spruce wood in Gazluk and be able to kill and skin everything without having to come back in and empty as often.
Maybe you could look at your gear SassySusie and see what treasure you have added to you shirt and pants, could maybe undo those and add +10 pockets to each.
My leather gear already has 10 pockets each... but I kind of want the 20 pockets each lol