Heavy/medium armor question.

SevenKingdoms · January 2016

Is there any way for a stamina user to benefit enough from heavy armor to justify using it over medium? I'd prefer to wear heavy, because I really don't like the look of medium.

I haven't created the character yet, so which class is still up in the air, but it'll be melee, either 2H or DW, and either a DK or NB. My curiosity is about PvP, by the way.

Dread_Guy · January 2016

The problem with heavy armor over medium is that you are trading in a significant amount of recovery, reduction, and damage gained from medium armor for not that much protection in heavy. There are a lot of ways to shred someone's armor or outright ignore it in PvP so its really hard to justify heavy armor. I'm with you though, I think the majority of heavy armors look much better than their medium armor brethren

SevenKingdoms · January 2016

Dread_Knight_N7 wrote: »

The problem with heavy armor over medium is that you are trading in a significant amount of recovery, reduction, and damage gained from medium armor for not that much protection in heavy. There are a lot of ways to shred someone's armor or outright ignore it in PvP so its really hard to justify heavy armor. I'm with you though, I think the majority of heavy armors look much better than their medium armor brethren

Yeah, I really figured this would be the case. Thank you for the information.

SnuggleMePlease · January 2016

Well, I think the beauty of ESO is that you have a lot of options in terms of combining different passives from various racial, armor, and class skill lines. With that being said, it depends a lot on which class you were going with. For NBs, the natural choice would be medium armor, especially if you plan on pursuing a stamina-based build. There is just way too much stamina regen, mobility, and unique passives that are beneficial to the playstyle of most NBs.

I don't know as much about DKs, but I usually see all DKs wearing heavy armor. But, don't be afraid to experiment and try something that suits your individual playstyle. It will probably take some research into all of the various skill lines, but it is possible to map out a really effective build that all hinges on your ability to execute it while playing.

Cheers,
Snuggle

MaxwellC · January 2016

@SevenKingdoms
I'm a Stam DK and I get exactly where you're coming from, aesthetically Heavy armor looks better than medium armor (IMO) what I did was use the heavy helmet/chest (Mercenary style) and everything else medium mercenary aside from the shoulders which are molag kena.

If they fixed the scaled armor passive for DKs which should provide physical resistance instead of just spell resistance then you'll be in an even better position but for now you can only rely on CP passives e.g. wearing 5 or more medium armor increase physical resistance by x%.

If you're doing PvP you'll wanna invest a lot into resistant for those high crit builds but also some into your medium armor CP passive if you plan on using 5 medium armor for the weapon damage passive. I'll also focus more on quick recovery too as those benefit from your heals taken (Vigor you initiate and rally alongside receiving heals).

I really wish they'd introduce a system like neverwinter where you're able to overwrite a particular armors appearance with the one you want as long as you have the item/gold or paid currency like crowns. That would make everything awesome because I'd pursue molag kena helmet then.

xAPxZeez · January 2016

The heavy armor passive should be this:
Reduce physical damage taken by 2% per piece of heavy armor worn.

A 7 piece heavy set reduces physical by 14%.

A 20000 hit reduced by 14% becomes 17200 then halved by armor makes it 8600

Or

Reduce physical damage taken by 3% per piece of heavy armor worn.

A 7 piece heavy armor set reduces physical by 21%

A 20000 hit reduced by 21%is 15800 then halved by armor makes it 7900.

Blocking will reduce this even further but it's substantial gain even if just wearing a 5 pc. This would encourage a more diverse tanking setup.