Cloth passives or heavier armor for leveling

kevin9027 · July 2016

Bit of a noob Level 28 Destruction Staff Sorcerer here. I'm currently wearing a patchwork of found and some crafted gear. I'm at a point where i could craft a set of 3 trait cloth gear. I'd do that for fun since I know I'll out level it soon. My real question is, as a general rule, are the cloth passives worth giving up the extra damage sponge of heavier armor for leveling? I run around alone a bit, so I'm the one taking the hits if my clanfear doesn't keep them off me.
Any tips and advice are greatly appreciated.

Khenarthi · July 2016

When I'm levelling a character, I use 3 heavy, 2 medium, 2 light. This way you level the skills for all armour types, since you may decide to change what your character does later... or even just to get more benefit from the Undaunted passives.

Robbmrp · July 2016

As @Khenarthi mentioned, try to use all armor types so those skills go up around the same time. Then invest your skill points in the areas you need help with. If you need more bonuses to magicka then go with light armor skills.

Azoryl · July 2016

Depends...

I usually go 5/1/1 leveling depending if I am magicka or stamina... or if I need more survivability.

If I am stamina or magicka... Chest is always heavy

If i am going survivability ... belt is always light, and gloves always medium

kevin9027 · July 2016

Thanks for the replies.
I always have at least one of each. I keep crafting a cloth helm as I level just to make sure i have a cloth item on. If the traits and enchants are the same, the heavy seems like a no brainer. The passives appear to me to be more end game focused, but thought I might be overlooking something.

Nestor · July 2016

kevin9027 wrote: »

The passives appear to me to be more end game focused, but thought I might be overlooking something.

Yep, that is it exactly. Leveling 1 to 50 content is pretty easy, so gear does not matter, at all during that phase. Taking advantage of that by mixing up the armors to level all 3 is more important than getting the most out of the gear. I even make leveling sets of armor from crafted sets in all 3 weights.

That being said, of all the passives to ignore during leveling, Armor passives are probably the ones to ignore. This is not to say that you should not invest in the passives if you have the extra skill points, but it is more important to invest in actives, other passives and morphs to develop those while leveling too. So, you got one or two skill points, look at other skills or passives, you got 5 or 6 extra skill points, spend a couple or three on some armor passives.

Then, once you get all the armor skills to 50, or real close to it, then go 5 in your main weight and either two in a complimentary one (5 Light/2 Heavy for example) or 5/1/1 and then invest in the armor passives for your main weight first. Also, until you can or want to wear 5 pieces, don't waste the points on the 5 piece passives. Wait until your wearing 5 pieces.