Is Heavy Armor Viable for Vet Maelstrom Arena?

EQBallzz · February 2016

Adonikam wrote: »

Smitch_59 wrote: »

dlepi24 wrote: »

No benefit to running heavy at all in this game. If you want to feel tanky just add impen to your medium armor and a few CP's as well.

This makes me sad. I've worn heavy since I started playing, largely because I like the look of it. But I'm seriously considering changing to medium.

5 Medium / 1 Heavy / 1 Light - Make your chest heavy which gives you the look of heavy armor.

I have done something similar since release with my Templar. I wear 5 light with 2 heavy (chest, legs). The chest and legs are two of the highest AC pieces you can wear so it's good bang for the buck and 2 pieces of heavy actually make the heavy passives at least somewhat worthwhile. This gives you the 5 piece bonuses for light armor and the mixture of light/heavy in this way actually has a pretty good look with many of the armor sets. The gloves and boots blend well with the heavy pieces and give a nice heavy armor look.

Side benefit for me is that there are some sets with light armor shoulders that lie flat so I don't get that hideous hovering shoulder effect. I originally had this reversed (5 heavy and 2 light) but I don't think it was nearly as effective.

*edit*
Just wanted to add that I also did max magicka enchants and I'm magicka heavy on abilities to synergize better with the light armor. Add in Blazing shield and puncturing sweep to this and I can sustain pretty serious dmg with decent dmg output. It's not fantastic DPS but good enough considering how survivable I am. I also use reduced magicka cost items so I rarely have issues with running out of magicka. Interested to see how it does in Maelstrom but haven't tried that yet.

dlepi24 · February 2016

timidobserver wrote: »

dlepi24 wrote: »

No benefit to running heavy at all in this game. If you want to feel tanky just add impen to your medium armor and a few CP's as well.

Why would you suggest that someone run impen in maelstrom? That would be even worse than wearing heavy.

Oh, you weren't told? They do crit now. Go stand and take some arrows to the face and notice they do crit. However, since this games PvE is so atrocious I actually forget people still play that awful side of the game so I'll admit my first thought was PvP where it actually takes a cognitive person with a heartbeat to complete it. Either way, heavy armor is a joke PvE or PvP. When you can tank the Axes in medium armor you know your game has an issue.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · February 2016

dlepi24 wrote: »

timidobserver wrote: »

dlepi24 wrote: »

No benefit to running heavy at all in this game. If you want to feel tanky just add impen to your medium armor and a few CP's as well.

Why would you suggest that someone run impen in maelstrom? That would be even worse than wearing heavy.

Oh, you weren't told? They do crit now. Go stand and take some arrows to the face and notice they do crit. However, since this games PvE is so atrocious I actually forget people still play that awful side of the game so I'll admit my first thought was PvP where it actually takes a cognitive person with a heartbeat to complete it. Either way, heavy armor is a joke PvE or PvP. When you can tank the Axes in medium armor you know your game has an issue.

Pretty sure that is not true. Also, please post your shot of a No-Death VMA. That would be great. SMH...

Oreyn_Bearclaw · February 2016

In other news (sorry for double post), if you are serious about clearing VMA, take the advice listed above and craft a DPS set. Tanking the arena is just not viable because there are too many DPS checks. A pretty solid bench mark is the stage one boss. If you are getting more than 2-3 adds spawning, you are going to run into a wall at some point. I do have a buddy that runs it on his templar with like 26K health, but that is not the norm. He is on a mission for a no-death, and doesnt mind his runs taking 2 hours. Nothing wrong with being a little "tanky" while learning the place, but the more you run it, the more you will realize that DPS is the answer.

It's really hard to argue the 5/1/1 approach when it comes to PVE for most DPS builds. If you are a stam user, make the chest heavy and belt light if possible with the rest medium. If you are a magic user, make chest heavy and either the legs or helm in medium (doesnt matter) with the rest light. That will both give the general appearance of heavy and max your armor rating. If you are spec'ed straight tank with CP and Attributes, you might want to re-spec as DPS for a while. Probably a good idea to practice DPSing some vet dungeons first to get the feel of it. The nice thing is that most classes run a very simplified DPS rotation for VMA, so it shouldn't be too bad to learn.

RatedChaotic · February 2016

dlepi24 wrote: »

timidobserver wrote: »

dlepi24 wrote: »

No benefit to running heavy at all in this game. If you want to feel tanky just add impen to your medium armor and a few CP's as well.

Why would you suggest that someone run impen in maelstrom? That would be even worse than wearing heavy.

Oh, you weren't told? They do crit now. Go stand and take some arrows to the face and notice they do crit. However, since this games PvE is so atrocious I actually forget people still play that awful side of the game so I'll admit my first thought was PvP where it actually takes a cognitive person with a heartbeat to complete it. Either way, heavy armor is a joke PvE or PvP. When you can tank the Axes in medium armor you know your game has an issue.

Agree with the bold.

When I think of tank I think of a full heavy armor wearer sword and board taking lots of damage while doing low damage. Not a tank in medium or light armor.

Heavy armor is way under powered. A sorc in light armor with shields active still should not tank better than a heavy armor wearing tank. This game is so unbalanced. I regret buying it. Hurry up March. Want my stuff?