Why everyone 5 one armor 2 the other?

claudius_Dark · May 2014

I see a lot of builders doing that. Why wouldn't you focus on one armor type and take 7 of that?

VlVEC · May 2014

Armor gives certain bonus' besides just what you see. For example Light Armor gives better mana/stam regeneration, so you might wear light armor for that and Heavy Armor for its perks.

The other logical point is that people just equip whatever they loot that's better than the previous.

Raistin1 · May 2014

I have a full guide about picking different armor types and why many people choose to combine them for certain bonuses. Check it out here http://www.ElderScrollsOnlineGuideCentral.com/armor-types-for-archetypes/

Bhakura · May 2014

Firs i was full light, but then i got syphoning strikes and mana managment from light armor became overkill, so switched to full heavy for more defence. But then missed the penetration from light and mana even with siphon became an issue again and took on 2 lights.
Now its better then having a full set of either.

ElSlayer · May 2014

Raistin1 wrote: »

I have a full guide about picking different armor types and how many people choose to combine them for certain bonuses. Check it out here http://www.elderscrollsonlineguidecentral.com/armor-types-for-archetypes/

Very bad guide.
Obvious things are pointed out like "if you use magika wear 7 light armor, but if you feel that you need more stamina, use 2 medium armor pieces", but almost nothing said about how armor affects reaching soft caps at top level and which of them most important for each role.

eaglestormub17_ESO · May 2014

And sometimes you do what you gotta do to look sexy.

Raistin1 · May 2014

ElSlayer wrote: »

Raistin1 wrote: »

I have a full guide about picking different armor types and how many people choose to combine them for certain bonuses. Check it out here http://www.elderscrollsonlineguidecentral.com/armor-types-for-archetypes/

Very bad guide.
Obvious things are pointed out like "if you use magika wear 7 light armor, but if you feel that you need more stamina, use 2 medium armor pieces", but almost nothing said about how armor affects reaching soft caps at top level and which of them most important for each role.

What specifically did you not like about that section? It covers that light armor bonuses are important to magicka users, the spell penetration, spell crit, and reduce spell cost are priorities. Then the article suggests options if you feel that your character needs for different stats. It's impossible to predict how every character will be built, and it's not an end-all discussion on soft caps either. I will however, try to include more information on soft caps when I have more data on how they effect players in end game. Thanks for the feedback!

BrassRazoo · May 2014

I am doing 3 and 3 at present and the 5 piece bonus on the sets give little and 2 x 3 bonus is ok.
This does interrupt my 5 piece bonus on my skills but I can live with if for now.

ElSlayer · May 2014

@Raistin1, I did not mean to offend you, but I just find that info useless FOR ME. That is my personal opinion, but it still might be usefull for a novice player.

Raistin1 wrote: »

What specifically did you not like about that section? It covers that light armor bonuses are important to magicka users, the spell penetration, spell crit, and reduce spell cost are priorities.

That is called "Overview".
I can see Light armor bonuses just by reading skill description in the game or in online calculator.

What I would like to see is results of some kind of research, numbers that you won't find in game or calculator - only find them out by yourself.

An abstract example:
"Soft cap of armor is 32%, hard cap is 50%.
At VR10 32% is X armor while 50% is Y armor.
7 pieces of purple crafted VR10 armor gives you N armor.
With passives it is N*1.14 that is >X so you have overcap. It means you can trade 2 pieces of heavy armor for 2 medium to use bonuses more effectively."

Same for regens taking into account racial bonuses.
Example:
"Soft cap of Stamina regen is X
Full set of MA gives Y
Purple jewelery enchants with ST regen can give you...
Vigor gives 9%, so if you play Redguard or Bosmer you need(not need) to have jewelery with sta regen... blah-blah-blah...
But if you use Legendary enchants, then... blah-blah-blah"

Well... you got it.
Hope that will help to improve your guide.

Gisgo · May 2014

7/7 medium + Night Mother's Gaze and im superhappy with it.

rawne1980b16_ESO · May 2014

I use 5 heavy and 2 light on my Templar.

I get a bonus from wearing 5 pieces of heavy armour (and you get one for 5 light or 5 medium) but no bonus for 7.

So I use 2 light for a bit of magic regen.

Creepsley · May 2014

simply cause you need atleast 5 pieces to get the bonuses from passives, and some extra armor is always nice. thats my reason atleast.

Falmer · May 2014

If the game didn't have soft caps then maybe I might go all of one armor type.

My 'all-heavy' armor character is always "overcharged" on her armor value. So I am not getting the full benefit of wearing all heavy armor anyway. Adding in a few light pieces makes me lose very little armor value and greatly increases my magicka regen.

Same goes for my light armor wearers. They end up "overcharging" their mana regen value, so might as well replace a few pieces with heavy armor so you take less melee damage.

SexyVette07 · May 2014

I will always wear 7 light because I maximize spell cost reduction. IMO that is far more important than anything else and you get the most of it from your armor passives and it scales to how many pieces you wear.

To go 5/2 would increase my spell cost by 6%.

imperial · May 2014

Cause it looks good. Makes me look like a war mage and for regeneration on magical stuff. But mainly cause it looks good on my templar and for leveling I used heavy as I started tanking and got my heavy to 45 by lvl 30 also it I hope will give me options later Ln wearing light or heavy.

claudius_Dark · May 2014

So trying to absorb information it seems that passives are capped at 5 pieces? Is that right? I will have to take another look at the soft caps thing. But say I have a light armor passive bonus... Is the passive bonus capped at 5 and thus take 2 of another armor?

vyndral13preub18_ESO · May 2014

Basically what everyone else said. Im not ve yet and my armor changes pretty often as i level trying to keep the stats i feel are important near overcharged but not clipped.

manyrabidrats · May 2014

am i the only one that ignores the soft caps altogether? with 5 light and 2 heavy, i still break the soft cap when using bound armor and lightning form. those two add so much i wonder if i would hit soft cap without any heavy. though if i use all heavy, i end up about 800 armor above soft(1250 soft cap) sooo just use what you need for regen, get the passives that add armor/spell resist/etc, and tweak your gear till you get what you want

Pyatra · May 2014

claudius_Dark wrote: »

So trying to absorb information it seems that passives are capped at 5 pieces? Is that right? I will have to take another look at the soft caps thing. But say I have a light armor passive bonus... Is the passive bonus capped at 5 and thus take 2 of another armor?

No, there is one passive for each armor type that requires 5 of that type. Bonus gives you nothing. But only for THAT passive. Mouse over them in game and you will see it.

cliveklgb14_ESO · May 2014

claudius_Dark wrote: »

I see a lot of builders doing that. Why wouldn't you focus on one armor type and take 7 of that?

Diversify stats.

For example a tank in 5 heavy, 2 medium. The medium armor bonus to crit, even with just 2 pieces is pretty nice. You aren't losing much and gaining a lot.

Also appearance. I like the heavy armor look for my Templar. But light stats are far better for caster focus, healing, etc. So I put 5 light and 2 heavy (chest and boots) to get a heavy armor look, while still focusing on light. The 2 pieces aren't going to gimp my casting builds.

MercyKilling · May 2014

There's only one passive in each armor type that requires you to wear five of that type...and none I've seen are that great, so I use a 3/2/2 and cherry pick bonuses from all three armor lines.

alexj4596b14_ESO · May 2014

VlVEC wrote: »

Armor gives certain bonus' besides just what you see. For example Light Armor gives better mana/stam regeneration, so you might wear light armor for that and Heavy Armor for its perks.

The other logical point is that people just equip whatever they loot that's better than the previous.

I am currently running 4 heavy 3 light for mana regin, spell crit, spell cost reduction, spell resit and it looks cool

Capjack01 · May 2014

I wear whatever Ive received/can make that beats whatever I had, then wear a disguise over it anyway because I like how it looks vs my many varying and mismatched pieces. never been much of a number cruncher anyway.

SDZald · May 2014

While leveling if you have at least one of each type equipped then all armor types will level. I think that would give you a bit more flexibility long term in how you want to play your character.

reggielee · May 2014

i like wearing diff armor types to keep the lvling up on all, so if i want to switch out later im set to go