What type of Armor for a mage

arcvas · March 2015

I've seen various things on the forums in regards to Armor stats between heavy light and medium and it's been confusing to say the least. My question is simple, For a mage (My second class I am starting) What is better, Medium or heavy Armor?

tiamak · March 2015

You should take a look at the passive skills in each skill line. Disregard the active skills for now. If you want to rely on magicka, you should wear some pieces of light armor. However, some heavy pieces might be a good option for protection. I would consider medium armor to be the worst choice for a mage-like char.

During the leveling phase, I'd strongly recommend to wear 3 pieces of the type that you want to focus on later and 2 pieces of the other types each. That way, you level all armor skill lines and can choose freely at later points.

catpower · April 2015

I like to wear heavy in the chest and legs slot so you get the most armor and then med in head and boots (same reason, more armor), light in the rest.

This is if you are following the above advice from tiamak, which is good advice for leveling.

You maximize armor, level all types, and still get 3 pieces in your primary line, light in this case.

Mos-De-Atmo · April 2015

Armor Passives

There is no "mage" class in ESO but if you refer to a character which primarily uses Magicka (Class Skills, Staffs, etc) to deal damage or heal then as others have said Light Armor offers passives for Magicka sustainability. You can chop and change as others have also said and use a combination of all the armor types.

Septimus_Magna · April 2015

If you're starting with a sorc you could begin with 2 HA, 1 MA, 4 LA.

Some things to consider:
-chest gives the most armor so always use heavy armor here.
-gloves and belt give the least armor so always use light armor here.

After you get the 5 piece passive in light armor you want to use 1 HA / 1 MA / 5 LA.
And when you reach level 50 in all armor types you could use 2 HA / 5 LA.
Once you get the Undaunted Mettle passive switch back to 1 HA / 1 MA / 5 LA to increase health, magicka and stamina by 6%.

As for skills, try to get Conjure Ward (Deadric Summoning tree and morph it to Hardened Ward) and Annulent (light armor and morph it to Harness Magicka) as soon as possible, this will increase your survivability greatly.

Elara_Northwind · April 2015

If you are going to be using magic, then you would be much better off wearing at least 5 pieces of light armour, in my personal opinion... Presuming that you will be using a staff, you will have little need to be that close to anything too difficult that would require a full set of heavy, and medium has passives for stamina, meaning that you would be losing out on magic buffs from the light armour passives by wearing it...

Septimus_Magna · April 2015

SadieJoan wrote: »

If you are going to be using magic, then you would be much better off wearing at least 5 pieces of light armour, in my personal opinion... Presuming that you will be using a staff, you will have little need to be that close to anything too difficult that would require a full set of heavy, and medium has passives for stamina, meaning that you would be losing out on magic buffs from the light armour passives by wearing it...

With only a few passives in the beginning this is hardly noticeable and with the recent light armor nerfs its useful to have some armor and spell resistance.

Panda244 · April 2015

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

If you're starting with a sorc you could begin with 2 HA, 1 MA, 4 LA.

Some things to consider:
-chest gives the most armor so always use heavy armor here.
-gloves and belt give the least armor so always use light armor here.

After you get the 5 piece passive in light armor you want to use 1 HA / 1 MA / 5 LA.
And when you reach level 50 in all armor types you could use 2 HA / 5 LA.
Once you get the Undaunted Mettle passive switch back to 1 HA / 1 MA / 5 LA to increase health, magicka and stamina by 6%.

As for skills, try to get Conjure Ward (Deadric Summoning tree and morph it to Hardened Ward) and Annulent (light armor and morph it to Harness Magicka) as soon as possible, this will increase your survivability greatly.

This.

Elara_Northwind · April 2015

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

SadieJoan wrote: »

If you are going to be using magic, then you would be much better off wearing at least 5 pieces of light armour, in my personal opinion... Presuming that you will be using a staff, you will have little need to be that close to anything too difficult that would require a full set of heavy, and medium has passives for stamina, meaning that you would be losing out on magic buffs from the light armour passives by wearing it...

With only a few passives in the beginning this is hardly noticeable and with the recent light armor nerfs its useful to have some armor and spell resistance.

Well, I have always done fine with 7/7 light

Septimus_Magna · April 2015

SadieJoan wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

SadieJoan wrote: »

If you are going to be using magic, then you would be much better off wearing at least 5 pieces of light armour, in my personal opinion... Presuming that you will be using a staff, you will have little need to be that close to anything too difficult that would require a full set of heavy, and medium has passives for stamina, meaning that you would be losing out on magic buffs from the light armour passives by wearing it...

With only a few passives in the beginning this is hardly noticeable and with the recent light armor nerfs its useful to have some armor and spell resistance.

Well, I have always done fine with 7/7 light

Before 1.6 LA used to put you near the softcap for spell resist and gave oke armor, especially with an armor glyph. Also crit surge gave awesome healing while doing damage and you could hold block quite long.

After 1.6 LA offers little to no armor and spell resist, crit/power surge doesnt heal for much anymore and blocking drains more stamina. Therefor you'll need more resistance to avoid getting one-shot by bosses etc.

Elara_Northwind · April 2015

I am a Templar, so as long as I keep blazing shield on and block effectively, light armour rarely causes me any issues during boss fights. I am not sure how my sorcerer would fare, as not tried her out in any dungeons since the update.

arcvas · April 2015

Thanks for the tips

wrathofrraath · April 2015

SadieJoan wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

SadieJoan wrote: »

If you are going to be using magic, then you would be much better off wearing at least 5 pieces of light armour, in my personal opinion... Presuming that you will be using a staff, you will have little need to be that close to anything too difficult that would require a full set of heavy, and medium has passives for stamina, meaning that you would be losing out on magic buffs from the light armour passives by wearing it...

With only a few passives in the beginning this is hardly noticeable and with the recent light armor nerfs its useful to have some armor and spell resistance.

Well, I have always done fine with 7/7 light

I second this, for PVE 7/7 light gives you great cost reduction and recovery. Add in 2 or 3 mages guild abilities for more recovery and the CS for even more cost reduction and recovery. With the Atro mundas I have 1050 magicka recovery with no set bonuses that add recovery and my Eruption spell only costs me 3k with no enchants that add to cost reduction. You will be a glass cannon though, and there is nothing wrong with that if your good at it.

bellanca6561n · April 2015

Good advice of course but, when I'm a healer, I hate to see folks in those robes who never got the memo regarding version 6 and don't understand how much healing they require.

The healer's job is to heal...that's why they're there. Problem is you can't really target your healing in this game. Thus you cannot elect to let them die in order to keep the rest of the group up when things get really bad. Your healing requirements are set by the weakest player. And being squishy can jeopardize the group if you don't make game play allowances for it.

It's a matter of play style more than it is gear actually.

Some folks got it into their heads (because it was effective) that their job was to run into the middle of mobs and mindlessly pump their boom sticks in the air. Problem is some are still doing that, blithely ignoring the state of their health as if unaware they're being kept alive by another player. Or they expect to be and getting miffed when they die, as they had no role in that outcome.

Short version: go light, light, light, but learn how to move like a martial artist. ABM: Always Be Moving. Roll, dodge, keep enough stamina on hand to block. Accept that going all light comes with a responsibility to work harder to survive. And some of the best players I've seen in this game do exactly that though clad in that near oxymoron: light armor.

Septimus_Magna · April 2015

bellanca6561n wrote: »

Good advice of course but, when I'm a healer, I hate to see folks in those robes who never got the memo regarding version 6 and don't understand how much healing they require.

The healer's job is to heal...that's why they're there. Problem is you can't really target your healing in this game. Thus you cannot elect to let them die in order to keep the rest of the group up when things get really bad. Your healing requirements are set by the weakest player. And being squishy can jeopardize the group if you don't make game play allowances for it.

It's a matter of play style more than it is gear actually.

Some folks got it into their heads (because it was effective) that their job was to run into the middle of mobs and mindlessly pump their boom sticks in the air. Problem is some are still doing that, blithely ignoring the state of their health as if unaware they're being kept alive by another player. Or they expect to be and getting miffed when they die, as they had no role in that outcome.

Short version: go light, light, light, but learn how to move like a martial artist. ABM: Always Be Moving. Roll, dodge, keep enough stamina on hand to block. Accept that going all light comes with a responsibility to work harder to survive. And some of the best players I've seen in this game do exactly that though clad in that near oxymoron: light armor.

I agree with you but I think the LA robe is not necessary, HA chest gives a lot of armor rating (about 1/3 of the total amount if you wear 1 HA/6 LA) and you get +2% health/magicka/stamina with the Undaunted Mettle passive. The robe would give some spell penetration, cost reduction and magicka regen which wont make a big difference in damage or sustain. In almost all cases I would use a HA chest, for pvp I even use 1HA/1MA/5LA and I never run out of magicka and still hit pretty hard.

Some people seem to forget whatever class or role you play, you cant do your task once your dead. And other people cant do theirs if they need to res you. Therefor survival is critical and shouldnt be waved away as something just for tanks. In pvp survival and sustain is even more important because you'll die even more quickly if you make a mistake.