There's nothing wrong with heavy armor being used mainly by tanks. That's what PLATE is, it's damage mitigation.

It doesn't make sense for plate armor to compete offensively with light or medium armor, because then no one would use anything but heavy! You trade offense for defense when you put on more armor, this is true both in real life and in every properly designed game ever.

In ESO specific terms, it's not "easy" to reach the armor softcap with medium. Is it possible? Yes, certainly. But by doing that you MUST give up other options in your stats and skills. That's called a tradeoff, and it means that heavy can pick up ground on medium by NOT needing to gear or skill for armor.

Armor types are fine.

In my personal experience, players begin with the familiar and then start branching out and tweaking as the game progresses. At lower levels you don't have enough skill points to spend in two armor types, so you stick to one. Once you get to veteran ranks mixing heavy with medium, etc. will become more viable.
I think you are overestimating the impact overcharge has. It's less bad than you think and you will find adding heavy armor pieces would still increase your defensive capabilities past the overcharge threshold.

Being a heavy armor dps should be about trade offs. It's simply unfair to want the protection of heavy armor and still be a dps powerhouse. You need to look deeper into mechanics to understand what you are winning. As a heavy armor dps in ESO you'd probably win time on target by not having to run out of some AoEs. Simply stay in and block (heavy armor passives help you do this) now you have more time on target to swing your sword. This should make up for less stamina regen.
Yes, the most obvious reason to be a heavy armor dps is PvP. In PvE its usefulness it less clear and this is what you are finding frustrating.

Bottom line is that you are free to play however you want but if you want to be competitive you need to understand what your strengths and your weaknesses are.

My characters are relatively low level, but I've tentatively planned two Heavy Armor wearers (at least partially).

One, a templar, will mainly use his sword-and-shield attacks and only maybe one sun-light attack and one heal sparingly... so the extra health regen and defense from heavy armor should keep him alive long enough that his meager magicka (supplemented by a few pieces of Light Armor, probably, like belt and shoulders maybe) will power the few heal spells he'll need.

The other is a Sorcerer who's planning on using Bound Armor and two Pets ---that's already eating a big chunk of available magicka; I was leaning Resto staff (to heal pets and me, if things get through my defenses) but since the Resto uses magicka TOO, I might have to back off the Heavy Armor and put more Light in than I originally intended.

On the other side of the fence, I have a Dragonknight that I intend to burn through magicka like a fat man at a hot-dog eating contest, so I'll be mainly Light Armor but I will have Heavy Chest and Legs (or Boots maybe) just for the LOOK of it ---- no robes, thanks.

blasimirvillab16_ESO wrote: »

Contrary to your experience, I've seen quite a few players experimenting with heavily armored healers, medium armor tanks and so on. Most of them are in PvP but even in PvE I've seen quite a few interesting combinations that work as well.

It's all about knowing what you get and how to use it.

I'm a healer who uses heavy armor. I like it so far - so long as I stick to using a restoration staff.

Hint: If you crit 100% of the time with chosen attacks, you may wish to consider another armor type. That and if you want another way to abuse/use shield bash. Etc etc.

I use only Heavy Armor (Templar with sword and shield), but I've maxed out my Armor, Stamina Regen and Magicka Regen.

Maybe I'd be better with medium, but I like the look of heavy.