Sell Me On Cloth Armor Please?

venkelos · July 2015

So, I am still rather new to this game (poking around Grahtwood at lvl 13), having played a lot of Skyrim, and trying to draw parallels here. One thing I want, as a Sorcerer, is to be able to wear robes, the light armor my Clothing skill lets me make, but I don't see how. Either armor value doesn't really matter, and then I don't know why the fighter-types wear plate, or it really DOES, and the Cloth stuff I could make for when I'm at the far end of flax, which I'm nowhere near leveled for, is still worse than the under-leveled rewards I'm wearing right now. How do I justify wearing robes, like a mage would, if I'm already being killed, occasionally, wearing assorted Medium armor? It sort of feels like Skyrim, where the 0 Armor robes could be a death sentence. I'm liking my spells plenty, even without any fire spells, or ice, and getting decent with my staves, but this armor issue is, well, an issue for me. I don't have any Champion points, or whatever, as this is still my first toon, so I'm sort of on my own for figuring my gear up. I'm also not entirely looking to play a battlemage, wearing plate, and sort of understand that that is better for stamina-gain, where cloth is supposed to be good for mana gain. Thing is, other than summoning, I don't run out of man much, but health, so I'm hoping someone more in the know than I am can please assist me? Thanks much, and have a great one.

predkill29 · July 2015

the point of light armor is the skills, go to skills and look at light armor its good for mages. A good setup is 5 light 2 heavy, the 5 light so you get the skill bonus and the heavy for extra survivability.

Akavir_Sentinel · July 2015

Light armor is the weakest armor in the game, as it should be. You aren't going to be able to take as much damage wearing a bath robe as you can if you are wearing full plate armor.

Waffennacht · July 2015

Well I do 4 heavy 3 light (im defense minded so the 5 armor perks for both are not attractive to me)

Light armor passives are extremely good! Thats why I wear 3, thats still good magicka regen and reduced costs. (I replaced the lower armor rating heavies, I think one peice of heavy has a really small armor rating difference, it could be the gloves?)

Also if you're pure magicka mage those light armor abilities are gonna make your shields excellent (just dont get hit without one on!)

Im more of a hybrid (I hear a lot of smack talk about hybrids but Im really enjoying mine) i dont like having a whole bar dedicated to shields so I put (so far) 10 points in stamina 18 points in magicka and 4 in health.

Im using shield, lightning form (with the morph that makes it last longer), and crystal shard (the maybe instant one) and the three summoning spells.

The light armor is so helpful for my build, (I really like my tankish build)

venkelos · July 2015

Akavir_Sentinel wrote: »

Light armor is the weakest armor in the game, as it should be. You aren't going to be able to take as much damage wearing a bath robe as you can if you are wearing full plate armor.

Oh, I certainly don't argue that; it's just that my friends are all XBox supporters, or VERY involved in another game, as well, so I run solo, most of the time (I haven't taken to following strangers along, as of yet; a weakness from the SWTOR days). Offensively, I can see myself soloing as a Sorcerer, just fine, especially with the summons, but defensively, I wanted to make sure I was on a good track; no Templar or Dragon Knight to pull them off of my "under-armored" tail, or heal said tail, afterwards.

Well okay. I am doing a bit of smithing, too, since this is my main character, and he's doing that little bit of everything. Not sure how much I'll want to invest, what with level cap, and only so many Skyshards, but I think I can get something working for it. Thanks much for the intel, and have a good one.

Bacon · July 2015

I'm mostly using summoning wearing almost all light armor. been adding a few points into my health because I really cannot take much damage before I die. Been thinking about adding a shield to my bar but not sure the best route to take. Might try adding a few pieces of Heavy Armor.

I don't have much trouble in PVE but really worried summoning won't be of much help in PVP when I give that a try.

OzJohnD · July 2015

Akavir_Sentinel wrote: »

Light armor is the weakest armor in the game, as it should be. You aren't going to be able to take as much damage wearing a bath robe as you can if you are wearing full plate armor.

from another perspective its the strongest in the game .. just not protective

Ranique · July 2015

I'll try to explain it,but it is hard.
The first thing is that ESO is NOT!! skyrim.'
ESO is a mmo with a PvP part. That means that, where in skyrim, you pick an armor cause you like it, in ESO it has to be in balance with everything else. This balance issue in traditional mmo's is solved by balancing (which is a fine art). In ESO, to comfort the single player RPG-base they made the balance more complicated by adding a lot of variables. They did succeed in a decent balance by making the variables count but not too much. although the numbers for heavy armor look huge, they are not that big.

but they do make a difference. so why not go heavy??
the reason is that it is a competitive mmo. Either in PvP, but also in effectiveness in PvE there is a golden rule.

Two factors matter. DPS and how well you can survive. there is no such thing as too much DPS. but you survive if you win the battle alive.

As others stated...light armor for a magicka user, gives a lot of extra dps. The only issue is if you can survive. This ability has to come from other sources.
so lets review a few situations.

1: dungeons. In dungeons you got roles. You got tanks and healers to make sure everyone survives. so assuming they know their jobs, you will. It is all bout packing as much dps as possible and trust your teammates for the rest.
2: open world solo pve. unlike in dungeons you dont have a player tanking for you. But the unstable clannfear can take that over. As the best weapon for a light armor magicka sorcerer is a destruction staff, you can also kite your enemy's. Last off all your dps is there to strike them down.
3: so the only issue is pvp. Other players are too smart to fall for tanks, let alone tanking clannfears. So in there it is needed to bring a bit more protection.

All in all. The balance in most situations go to light armor. only in PvP it ,ight not be the best option. but it is not off the board. Having the extra dps kills faster and that is also good for surviving.

aco5712 · July 2015

light armour as a sorc allows you spam your shields. Your shields are extremely strong. thats why you should be using light armour. Light armour basically relies on shields as its defense as opposed to the actual stats.

OzJohnD · July 2015

and if you are endowed with CP's you can use them to buff your cast shields effects

Umad_BrO · July 2015

Akavir_Sentinel wrote: »

Light armor is the weakest armor in the game, as it should be. You aren't going to be able to take as much damage wearing a bath robe as you can if you are wearing full plate armor.

Agreed, but if you are a skilled sorcerer you never get touched

venkelos · August 2015

Well, my ahead-planning wasn't quite thorough enough, unfortunately; focused on other magics and some of the crafting stuff. When I level again, I'll have to grab shield. My other conundrum there will be, I suppose, buttons. Since I'm not lvl 15 yet, I don't have the dual weapons switch, or whatever, and Wrath, two summons, lightning form, and curse, all of which have been very efficient, for the most part, fill the "limited" 5 buttons I have to allocate. Sort of a shame, though I understand why, that the summons require the buttons to stay slotted to them, while present. Oh well, if planning wasn't required, it wouldn't be a game, and if it weren't a game, it wouldn't be fun.

Thanks for the suggestions. Any more would still be appreciated, as well. Have a good one.

JasonSilverSpring · August 2015

venkelos wrote: »

Well, my ahead-planning wasn't quite thorough enough, unfortunately; focused on other magics and some of the crafting stuff. When I level again, I'll have to grab shield. My other conundrum there will be, I suppose, buttons. Since I'm not lvl 15 yet, I don't have the dual weapons switch, or whatever, and Wrath, two summons, lightning form, and curse, all of which have been very efficient, for the most part, fill the "limited" 5 buttons I have to allocate. Sort of a shame, though I understand why, that the summons require the buttons to stay slotted to them, while present. Oh well, if planning wasn't required, it wouldn't be a game, and if it weren't a game, it wouldn't be fun.

Thanks for the suggestions. Any more would still be appreciated, as well. Have a good one.

@venkelos, I don't think the advice here is to use a the physical shield, but rather to use various magic abilities to provide a shield. For example, fairly early on you can use Lightning Form which increases your armor and spell resistance for a period of time. Later in leveling you can use Bound Armor and/or Conjured Ward to further build up your resistance.

In fact, since a staff is a 2 handed weapon you cannot actually equip a shield with it. At low level I would at least look into Lightning Form and also building up Daedric Summoning to open up Bound Armor and Conjured Ward later on.

EDIT: I see that you already are using Lightning Form. I would also look into Encase as I find it helpful to freeze your enemies to allow you to get some space. Also, look into Crystal Shard as once you can morph it Crystal Fragments is very handy for a chance for a very powerful instant cast.

venkelos · August 2015

I assumed Wall of Elements, so I will be covered. Lightning Form is good, if I remember to activate the silly thing.