People tend to overestimate the significance of Malacath. Not nearly as many people as everyone likes to claim use Malacath.

Many proc sets require you to crit and some classes rely on crit or synergize with crit too much to comfortably use Malacath.
I have switched from Malacath back to crit because most people do not use impenetrable anymore, since it does not protect againt procsets or they use very few pieces.

My average attacks are a bit weaker, which is compensated by me freeing a slot that was occupied by Malacath, so I can use a complete monster piece. But my burstspikes are drastically increased due to the crit.

So really, Malacath has never been as crazy as people make it out to be. Especially since it does not nearly grant 25% damage. In CP, it is roughly 16% and in no CP 20%.

Good points @Dracane, when healing was at its highest it seemed like everyone in CP Cyro was wearing NMA + Balorgh in 5 medium or 5 light, circa 1 year ago. Granted these sets boosted many healing skills as well, which I believe is why Balorgh was given Penetration. This was the only era in this game I personally preferred 5 medium on StamDK.

Urzigurumash wrote: »

Good points @Dracane, when healing was at its highest it seemed like everyone in CP Cyro was wearing NMA + Balorgh in 5 medium or 5 light, circa 1 year ago. Granted these sets boosted many healing skills as well, which I believe is why Balorgh was given Penetration. This was the only era in this game I personally preferred 5 medium on StamDK.

@Urzigurumash I honestly miss the days of everyone running NMA lol

You're definitely not alone in preferring heavy these days though, seems like every day I hear that little tin clattering sound of my sword hitting someones plate armor more than I did the day before. I understand it though, especially after the original 20% healing nerf, the proliferation of procs, and the addition of malacath, why wear anything else? This meta is as close to perfect for heavy armor as you could ever get.

If you have health based heals heavy buffs that, if you have healing percent modifiers heavy synergizes well with that, and the extra bit of mitigation helps to avoid getting blown up by procs and snipe gankers. Thanks to constitution sustain is never an issue so long as you throw in heavies here and there. You can wear heavy and not have to worry about your damage because you can throw on procs and let them do the damage for you, or you can throw on malacath and still do great damage, or malacath + proc your way to flawless victory. Additionally the nerf to crit % reduced the appeal of medium even further, since now even in medium at base it sits at some pitiful number like 24% -- yet another reason to go Malacath.

I like to rage against the machine and be all contrarian though so I still run medium on my StamDK, but it's a whole lot different than it was not even a year ago. I remember when I used to run NMA in medium + Titanborn, and even as a CP 400-600 I could usually get by on healing alone, but when I recently came back to my sDK and tried to do the same thing, as a real grown up 810 this time, it was a very rude awakening. I just couldn't find a medium build with two damage sets that was sturdy enough to hold up when outnumbered to the pressure people can put down in this meta, so I finally caved and threw a defensive set on my weapon and jewelry.

It's actually kind of funny that my weapon damage using medium is actually lower than most heavy armor builds due to needing a defensive set, where with heavy I can stack two sets with weapon damage and more easily clear the magic 5k number, while also having 8% higher base healing received. But still, even in its current unfortunate state I still prefer my medium.

BTW, I think we may have run into each other at Bruma yesterday? If so, hi! I was that annoying little bosmer with a bow sDK

Blanket buffs and nerfs like this is why pendelum keeps switching between 2 same points over and over - tanky builds doing damage or damage builds being tanky. Nerf to healing, armor or like here suggested crit resist are all blanket nerfs affecting everyone. Even addition of malacath was just blanket buff, not like before it existed there was any huge difference in crit damage/chance (stats) between damage builds and tanky builds.

Until they start treating balance like precise surgery it will all be same. Right now they are just measuring body temperature and decide what value they should put thermostat on...