Reinforced vs. Fortified Nirncrux... Why is reinforced better if Nirn is so rare?

Vaughndaunted · March 2024

Help me understand this? Why is reinforced stronger than nirn? They're basically the same thing... Should reinforced or nirncrue be reworked to have substantial differences?

LunaFlora · March 2024

Reinforced increases armor value with a percentage and Nirnhoned increases Physical/Spell Resistance with a specific number.

here's an old post that talked about the traits.
not sure how much the stats have changed, but a difference is that Reinforced is better on Heavy Armor than Nirnhoned.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/381927/armor-nirnhoned-vs-reinforced

ClowdyAllDay · March 2024

the real issue is that nirnhoned is expensive because it used to be meta for all situations and even though it isnt anymore it remains expensive because it has a perception of being expensive. kinda like how some celebs are famous for being famous. there seems to be no way back from it.

Avran_Sylt · March 2024

ClowdyAllDay wrote: »

the real issue is that nirnhoned is expensive because it used to be meta for all situations and even though it isnt anymore it remains expensive because it has a perception of being expensive. kinda like how some celebs are famous for being famous. there seems to be no way back from it.

Far as I'm aware isn't the trait material only obtained through nodes in Craglorn too?

It's not like most everything else where you can simply decon armor/weapon drops.

ssewallb14_ESO · March 2024

Reinforced isn't stronger on all pieces. It's expensive due to rarity compared with other armor trait materials.

ForumSavant · March 2024

Rarity just has nothing to do with viability and strength. There's no reason it's done this way, but nothing in game has it's rarity tied to how strong it is.

merpins · March 2024

Things gets stronger or weaker with time in games like this. Power creep. Nirn used to be good, BiS even, but it got power crept by periodic updates and balance changes with the other traits. Eventually, other traits might be balanced, or Nirn might be buffed, or other variables will make nirn more desirable.

For example, before U40, BiS traits for dual daggers as a pve dps are Nirn and Charged. But people say starting on U41, it'll be Charged Charged, making Nirn a good, albeit less powerful, option. Variables added to the game are making a similarly rare trait less powerful.

Danikat · March 2024

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

ClowdyAllDay wrote: »

the real issue is that nirnhoned is expensive because it used to be meta for all situations and even though it isnt anymore it remains expensive because it has a perception of being expensive. kinda like how some celebs are famous for being famous. there seems to be no way back from it.

Far as I'm aware isn't the trait material only obtained through nodes in Craglorn too?

It's not like most everything else where you can simply decon armor/weapon drops.

That's my understanding too. It's not expensive and rare because it's in such high demand but because the supply is very limited.

Nirncrux is a rare drop only from nodes in Craglorn, and items with the nirnhoned trait only come from 1 quest in Craglorn, trials and arenas or purchased from players who already researched the trait, so a lot of nirncrux goes into making nirnhoned items for crafting (this is why you can often find batches of level 1 nirnhoned items at guild traders for a few thousand gold each).

Even if the nirnhoned trait was completely useless in builds there would still be demand for it because so many sets require 9 traits researched to craft.

Vulkunne · March 2024

Fort Nirn vs Re-enforced.

Simply put you should check the numbers. Generally speaking re-enforced is better for most pieces of Heavy Armor (but not for all). Same is mostly true for medium but I think Fort Nirn may be better for Light Armor.

At any rate this specific case is about the numbers and I would check the armor values, for any type of armor crafted (check thoroughly) before Crafting in order to make sure you got it right. Because there can be differences between what these two traits provide.

Fort Nirn was BIS, then it was junk and now with changes from recent times its worth something again. I held on to my Fort Nirn surplus for awhile and had a pretty good sale not too long ago for a couple mill.

old_scopie1945 · March 2024

I hardly ever use Nirn, there are better alternatives.

Necrotech_Master · March 2024

merpins wrote: »

Things gets stronger or weaker with time in games like this. Power creep. Nirn used to be good, BiS even, but it got power crept by periodic updates and balance changes with the other traits. Eventually, other traits might be balanced, or Nirn might be buffed, or other variables will make nirn more desirable.

For example, before U40, BiS traits for dual daggers as a pve dps are Nirn and Charged. But people say starting on U41, it'll be Charged Charged, making Nirn a good, albeit less powerful, option. Variables added to the game are making a similarly rare trait less powerful.

the thread is mainly talking about nirn trait for armor, not weapons

and for the OP as others noted, nirn for armor is OK on "small" armor pieces and on light armor as you will get more value than reinforced, but for heavy, its almost always better to go to reinforced because the base value is so much higher a % increase is stronger than a flat value increase

i usually prefer divines on armor anyway because you could just get a resistance mundus stone if thats what you needed to fill out your build, but you could change that without changing armor traits

virtus753 · March 2024

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

ClowdyAllDay wrote: »

the real issue is that nirnhoned is expensive because it used to be meta for all situations and even though it isnt anymore it remains expensive because it has a perception of being expensive. kinda like how some celebs are famous for being famous. there seems to be no way back from it.

Far as I'm aware isn't the trait material only obtained through nodes in Craglorn too?

It's not like most everything else where you can simply decon armor/weapon drops.

No, there are a couple other ways:

You can get nirnhoned weapons and armor in perfected gear. So if you’re doing trials like vSS, vKA, etc., you will get some nirn gear to decon along with gear of other traits.

Once you know the nirn trait on weapons and armor, you can transmute a piece of gear to nirn and decon it for a chance at the trait mat. (Reconstruction does not work for this, as it doesn’t provide the trait mat on decon. It must be transmuted to nirn.)