what is the advantage of light armor for a mage over heavy armor

leatherman_chuckb14a_ESO

have a 34th level mage that has been wearing heavy armor ever since creation, is there an advantage to wearing light armor

paulsimonps

spell penetration, spelll critical, lower magica cost, magica regen and spell resistance. And most of the set bonus you want to use as a mage comes only in light armor form.

Desommettor

Passives in light armor tree are centered around magicka, while heavy are around health and damage mitigation.

leatherman_chuckb14a_ESO

do not understand most of what you said, but will take your word for it, have heavy armor rating up to 44, but from what I understand i will not lose that, so will go to shrine in big tree and pay my 1600 to respeck, hope I get this right and don't screw it up, have been dual weld , swords, and heavy armor since I started her

OmniDevil

If you're soloing, questing, farming, etc, wearing fully heavy is fine as it's only affecting you and not a group, however. For most Vet Dungeons, Trials, DSA, you'll want to stick with at least 5 Light, 1 Medium, 1 Heavy (for undaunted passives) or 5 Light, 2 Heavy (for extra toughness and health). ZOS, unfortunately, never fully intended a "play your way" playstyle and threw in metas that cause a detriment the "play your way" builds.

A simpler way to look at this is:

Heavy Armor: Sturdy, heavy, can take a beating, slow. Sounds like a Tank
Medium Armor: Agile, flexbile, medium weight, provides protection without sacrificing movement. Sounds like a Melee Fighter
Light Armor: Light weight, very little (if any) protection, great movement, resembles wizards/mages robes. Sounds like a Magic Caster

Of course, simply looking over the passives of all three will quickly help you decide how Light Armor benefits a magicka user more than Heavy Armor does:

http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Armor+Skills

Jumper45

I suggest you look at the skills in your skill line to understand the route you want to take.

Pirhana7_ESO

leatherman_chuckb14a_ESO wrote: »

have a 34th level mage that has been wearing heavy armor ever since creation, is there an advantage to wearing light armor

Go to your skills tab, then go to Armor, now look at Light Armor.
All the passives abilities in the light armor skill line are centered around be a mage or using magika. Level up lighta rmor an use skill points to get the passives. They allow you to use less magika for spells, your magika to regain faster, you also get spell pentetration which allows your spells to do more damage to your targets. you also get Spell critical so can critically ht your targets more often.

Heavy armor is more for suvival and health. light Armor is more offensive for damage. generally most mages prefer to be offensive.

Jitterbug

leatherman_chuckb14a_ESO wrote: »

do not understand most of what you said, but will take your word for it, have heavy armor rating up to 44, but from what I understand i will not lose that, so will go to shrine in big tree and pay my 1600 to respeck, hope I get this right and don't screw it up, have been dual weld , swords, and heavy armor since I started her

you will keep your progress, and can get all armor passives to max in time so dont worry, and play around.

simply put:

light armor helps magicka (magic dps and heals)
medium helps stamina (weapon dps)
heavy helps health (tanking)

Leandor

Dual wield heavy armor sounds suspiciously like a stamina sorc. In that case, light armor doesn't do anything for you, medium armor is the way to go. Just saying.

To clarify: which abilities do you use on your bar and where do your attribute points go?

Ezareth

Heavy armor as a sorc is generally not a good idea with the exception of using the chest piece for the undaunted passive and the maximum mitigation on those times you are hit without shields.

Shields do not gain a benefit from your armor/SR mitigation and as a Sorc you're going to be relying on these for defenses which mean's you'll want as much magicka regen, magicka cost reduction and spell pen as you can get.

Long story short, Heavy Armor chest, Medium Armor Leg/Boot/Helm, and 5 Pc light or 7 pc light altogether.

SaltyWorley

It's all about what you want your character to do.

The reason most mages wear light armor is that it allows you to do the most damage with spells. If you wear all light armor, you get huge bonuses to max magicka, magicka cost reduction, spell penetration, etc. All things being equal, a spellcaster with light armor will do more damage via spells than a spellcaster with medium or heavy armor. That's what most magic users are after: to kill things so fast they don't have to worry about being brittle, hence why they mostly use light armor. Most players want to max out in one direction rather than being a hybrid.

If you wear heavy armor, you're taking a step toward a hybrid jack of all trades, master of none character. You're sort of a tank, because heavy armor will take a ton of damage, but you're also sort of a magic user, since your class skills are all spell-oriented. That's OK for solo play - a balanced character isn't necessarily a bad thing - but it's not really ideal for grouping. In a group, you want to have clearly defined roles. You want your tank to be a pure tank and max out on soaking damage and keeping the enemies attacking him. He doesn't need to cast attack spells. He has spellcasters behind him doing that. If you're a magic user playing a tank, you aren't really getting much use out of your class skills since they're mostly designed to attack from range. Likewise, you want your spellcasters to be doing as much damage as possible. They don't need to worry much about being attacked - the tank ideally makes sure enemies go for him - so wearing heavy armor doesn't really benefit them. And you have your healer making sure everyone survives.

That's why most people don't go for a hybrid. A group of hybrids isn't ideal because you end up having everyone trying to heal/attack/tank at the same time and not really doing any of them well. Focusing on just one thing allows you to forget about the other two and just do one thing really well.

Jade1986

SaltyWorley wrote: »

It's all about what you want your character to do.

The reason most mages wear light armor is that it allows you to do the most damage with spells. If you wear all light armor, you get huge bonuses to max magicka, magicka cost reduction, spell penetration, etc. All things being equal, a spellcaster with light armor will do more damage via spells than a spellcaster with medium or heavy armor. That's what most magic users are after: to kill things so fast they don't have to worry about being brittle, hence why they mostly use light armor. Most players want to max out in one direction rather than being a hybrid.

If you wear heavy armor, you're taking a step toward a hybrid jack of all trades, master of none character. You're sort of a tank, because heavy armor will take a ton of damage, but you're also sort of a magic user, since your class skills are all spell-oriented. That's OK for solo play - a balanced character isn't necessarily a bad thing - but it's not really ideal for grouping. In a group, you want to have clearly defined roles. You want your tank to be a pure tank and max out on soaking damage and keeping the enemies attacking him. He doesn't need to cast attack spells. He has spellcasters behind him doing that. If you're a magic user playing a tank, you aren't really getting much use out of your class skills since they're mostly designed to attack from range. Likewise, you want your spellcasters to be doing as much damage as possible. They don't need to worry much about being attacked - the tank ideally makes sure enemies go for him - so wearing heavy armor doesn't really benefit them. And you have your healer making sure everyone survives.

That's why most people don't go for a hybrid. A group of hybrids isn't ideal because you end up having everyone trying to heal/attack/tank at the same time and not really doing any of them well. Focusing on just one thing allows you to forget about the other two and just do one thing really well.

A medium armor sorcerer with melee weapons and a bow actually works, you just don't see it too often because there is a strict set of abilities you -have- to use otherwise you are completely useless. And you are generally useless in pvp until you get dark deal and your conjuration ward.

newtinmpls

paulsimonps wrote: »

spell penetration, spelll critical, lower magica cost, magica regen and spell resistance. And most of the set bonus you want to use as a mage comes only in light armor form.

Crafted sets can be in any form (light, heavy, medium), and I've had orders for seducer items (a relatively easy to craft set) even for vet 9-14 characters.

leatherman_chuckb14a_ESO

just wanted to thank all that answered my question, very informative and really good advice, thank you again.
Especially liked this advice, Heavy Armor chest, Medium Armor Leg/Boot/Helm, and 5 Pc light or 7 pc light altogether. From Ezareth, now all I need to do is figure out where to get a light armor set or am I high enough in crafting (blacksmith and wood ) to make a set my self, guess I will find out, maybe put some extra points in crafting when I respeck, again thank all

Waffennacht

Mind you that this is just standard things.

A mage can run heavy armor and be a tank, of course it's build will focus on buffs, wards, heals, CCs, and AoEs.

In PvP, there is absolutely no reason to run heavy armor pre Vet 14. The only real reason you would want to run heavy is if you are tanking PvE (solo or not).

Im personally a sorc tank. I wear heavy armor. My playstyle is inherently defense thus even with the added dps from light armor I was more of a jack of all trades, with my heavy Im more focused on my tanking.

Im a fine tank able to hold aggro on ash titan and his adds without needing help

newtinmpls

I run a couple sorc/DPS's with very different approaches. One is a magikca oriented DPS who does her damage with her spells. Another is an orc/battlemage who uses medium, and does most of his damage from weapons - has a maxed out crit. Just depends on how you want to go.