No more heavy-light-medium armor mixed builds?

cal50

Hi,

Returned to the game after a break and I realized with new mag builds, they suggesting all light armors. Back in times, we used to mix sets like heavy helmet, medium arm cops and rest light armor.

Why it's changed and mixed sets for undaunted passive no more meta?

Syrpynt

cal50 wrote: »

Hi,

Returned to the game after a break and I realized with new mag builds, they suggesting all light armors. Back in times, we used to mix sets like heavy helmet, medium arm cops and rest light armor.

Why it's changed and mixed sets for undaunted passive no more meta?

Look under each armor skill, there are now buffs and debuffs for wearing certain armor types.

I also have a feeling that max magicka is going to become a "healing only" stat with the way changes have been going (which I totally agree with), you have more sources for "power" than resource pools, so it will make more sense from a dps to pursue armor weight based on their build type.

cal50

Syrpynt wrote: »

cal50 wrote: »

Hi,

Returned to the game after a break and I realized with new mag builds, they suggesting all light armors. Back in times, we used to mix sets like heavy helmet, medium arm cops and rest light armor.

Why it's changed and mixed sets for undaunted passive no more meta?

Look under each armor skill, there are now buffs and debuffs for wearing certain armor types.

I also have a feeling that max magicka is going to become a "healing only" stat with the way changes have been going (which I totally agree with), you have more sources for "power" than resource pools, so it will make more sense from a dps to pursue armor weight based on their build type.

Oh I see now but for example light armor bonuses not seem very precious. Should I change my heavy-medium pieces to light?

Vevvev

Mixed builds are still a thing but you mostly see them in the PvP and solo PvE scenes where you're trying to wear many different shoes. It depends on the type of build you're going for, and if it's PvE magicka DPS all that light armor is going to be buffing your critical chance, giving penetration, and better sustain. Medium armor for magicka users won't boost sustain, but it is a source of critical damage and spell damage boosting. Just be careful because there's a soft cap of 125% critical damage, and 50% critical damage is base.

Syrpynt

cal50 wrote: »

Oh I see now but for example light armor bonuses not seem very precious. Should I change my heavy-medium pieces to light?

It depends on what you seek.

• Blocking reduction, Health/Armor bonus, at the cost of reduced sustain (unless you're getting damaged)? Heavy.
• Roll dodge, stamina regen, weapon damage/critical, and sneak important to you? Medium.
• Full on Magicka character still with little threat of actually taking damage? Light.

The best part about patches this year, is that each piece of each armor type gives you bonuses, and the minimum number of pieces is now 2, instead of 5, for bonuses!

2 Heavy, 5 light.
5 Heavy, 2 Medium. Etc.

Ippokrates

Yeah, in the past people mixed weights to get Undaunted passive.

But now armours of each weight got more important bonuses: light for crit chance & pen, medium for crit dmg & weapon/spell power, heavy... well, heavy is good as a counterbalance to light penalties, but mainly in solo or pvp.

Plus thanks to hybridization many sets are universal, providing crit, dmg and pen bonuses to both: weapon & spell.

And with crit dmg cap, more balanced builds: crit & dmg will probably become OP.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

In past, we often went 5/1/1 for armor due to both undaunted passives that gave extra stats and the need to wear 5 of one armor type for specific armor passives. That changed a few patches back when they begin overhauling armor passives. It got even wonkier recently when they starting combining stats, like weapon damage is now weapon and spell damage or spell crit is now just crit.

For straight damage, there is almost no reason to wear any heavy armor at this point. In fact, a lot of magic classes are now wearing several pieces of medium armor. Assuming you dont need the sustain and spell pen, medium is actually more raw damage. For example, in VHOF when doing a fight like the spider boss (basically a 10 second burst), you have mag DPS in upwards of 5 medium.

You are certainly safe in 5/1/1, but you are probably better off in 5/2 or 6/1 (light/medium) as a mag DPS. As a mag DPS, my go to has become 5 light, 2 medium for most trial fights. A little unclear how this will all shake out with the new crit caps introduced on Mondays patch.

In PVP, its a little different. I still think 5/1/1 is very strong if wearing light armor for the raw stats, but that is mostly mag sorcs these days.

master_vanargand

I'm thinking of making it 5M2L in PvE stamina DPS.
Because the actual Trials doesn't use Alkosh set. (Because Magicka DPS is king)
For PvP, it is advantageous to use 5H1M1L / 3H1M3L / 1H1M5L / 1H5M1L.

RandomKodiak

Don't forget sustain is still a thing for armor weight as well. 1L/6M for stam and 1M/6L for mag still a great PvE set up, just adjust for specific build from there.

AcadianPaladin

I used to run 5/1/1 on all until a few patches ago, then went to 7/0/0 on all except my Magblade. She runs 5L/2H for the extra 3 seconds of Major Resolve (The Shadow Barrier passive gives you 6 seconds of major resolve whenever you cast a Shadow ability, plus 25% extra duration for each piece of heavy armor. This gives her a comfy 9 seconds.)

Finedaible

I've been experimenting with 5 medium, 2 light (stam build) simply because my character needed slightly more critical and penetration. Seems ok so far but sustain is not entirely comfortable. Sustain is the only major hurdle I see so far when mixing armor types; abilities are just too expensive in some encounters.