Undaunted Mettle Question

Fherrit · August 2017

Last night after a discussion with a co-worker who was ESO vet (but hasn't played since last summer) I'm left wondering if my interpretation of Undaunted Mettle is correct or not. The tooltip says "Increase your Max Health, Stamina and Magicka by 2% per type of Armor (Heavy, Medium, Light) that you have equipped."

Perhaps I'm being too literal (or ZOS is too vague in their tooltips which is more often than not something that's gotten me) but my take on it said that for each armor slot, of which all 3 types of armor are valid choices, i get extra Health/Stam/Mag. So if I'm wearing all Medium armor, I get the same bonus as if I had 3 different types of armor equipped. Its only if I have a naked slot that I lose the bonus.

He contends that in order to get the buff, I have to wear different types of armor, 5 of one, and 1 each of the other two and if I don't wear specifically wear all 3 different types, I get no bonus at all.

So could someone clarify this?

Duragon_Darko · August 2017

@Fherrit

The tool tip is correct and to the point. Your interpretation is off. You get 2% per TYPE of armor equipped. Doesn't say armor slot, or piece of armor. Just says TYPE. So.... if you have all heavy armor, the bonus is only 2%. If you have heavy armor and one or more pieces of medium armor, the bonus is 4%. Doesn't matter how many pieces of medium you have equipped, the only thing that matters is that you have 2 TYPES of armor on, heavy and medium. So, using that, if you have all heavy, one or more of medium, and one of more of light, your bonus would be 6%.

An effective way to check, would be to wear all heavy and go back to the tool tip in skills. It actually says "current bonus 2%". If you equip just one medium with the heavy, it will then read "current bonus 4%". And then one light, one medium and the rest heavy, it will read "current bonus 6%.

Goes either way too. For my DK dps, I use all light armor, one medium one heavy and I get the 6%.

Fherrit · August 2017

@Duragon_Darko
Thanks for the reply, guess I'll have to slot something besides medium which, TBH is annoying. I rather like the affects Med has on stealth and athletics, but better to know and decide accordingly.

AcadianPaladin · August 2017

My magicka character reluctantly went from 7 light to 5/1/1. The top Undaunted bonus meant +6% to all three resources. I took advantage of the extra health to drop my last health enchantments in favor of all magicka enchantments. The net result of working with it was the same health as before I changed but a gain of 2000 magicka and a loss of 50 to my mag regen. Overall, I'm pleased with the results and will stay with 5/1/1.

Fherrit · August 2017

@AcadianPaladin Thanks for the hard numbers example, that helps me see the benefit more clearly. My initial reasons for staying with 7 pieces Medium was since I enjoy being a thief, my sneaking and sprint speed benefited from going all Medium as well as the crafting pursuit I had done early on to where now I'm homing in on 8 traits across the board. Though from what I'm seeing lately, crafting is still 3rd rate compared to drops, guess ESO on that end is like all the other MMOs and wants you to chase lottery drops (or buy them) rather than make them.

AcadianPaladin · August 2017

@Fherrit I hear ya. My magicka elf loves the light armor bonuses and, while the heavy bonuses are not bad, the medium ones are a real waste for her. So it was a big decision to embrace 5/1/1 but I think it has worked out as the right decision in my case.

Regarding armor and sets, I simply refuse to farm dungeon dropped bind-on-pickup sets that you can't even buy from guild traders. I just avoid that hamster wheel. I like the certainty of crafting and overland sets. In the case of overland sets, it is easy to go to the right zone and, over time, assemble 3x jewelry for you set, then buy (guild trader) a couple of armor pieces with your desired traits.

That said, my elf does quite well. I think the difference between well-chosen 'good' gear vs 'BiS' gear is likely overstated.

Fherrit · August 2017

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

@Fherrit I hear ya. My magicka elf loves the light armor bonuses and, while the heavy bonuses are not bad, the medium ones are a real waste for her. So it was a big decision to embrace 5/1/1 but I think it has worked out as the right decision in my case.

Regarding armor and sets, I simply refuse to farm dungeon dropped bind-on-pickup sets that you can't even buy from guild traders. I just avoid that hamster wheel. I like the certainty of crafting and overland sets. In the case of overland sets, it is easy to go to the right zone and, over time, assemble 3x jewelry for you set, then buy (guild trader) a couple of armor pieces with your desired traits.

That said, my elf does quite well. I think the difference between well-chosen 'good' gear vs 'BiS' gear is likely overstated.

Thanks for that @AcadianPaladin as I'm leaning towards that conclusion myself, really glad to hear someone else mirror my thoughts on gearing and such. As a scarred veteran of WoW/Wildstar raid play, I got better things to do with my time than chasing gear lotteries. Just disheartened by the power creep I see with all the proc sets after they had stated crafted sets would be competitive. Ah well, good info was gotten from you both, appreciate the time you took to respond