Why other than weight wear anything other than heavy armors?

[Mynno]

First let me say my highest level character is level 20 so this is coming from a slow levelers perspective and it is quite possible this is not an issue later on in the game.

We really need to have a bigger difference or usefulness for the different types of armor. As it is now almost everyone tries to put on the heaviest armor pieces they can use without going over their weight limit. And that is fine if your a defender you need all the armor you can get! But why should supporters and strikers be wearing the same heavy armors? There is not enough differences in the bonuses for someone to choose for example full leather armor over full metal armor other than your weight limit. You give up too much protection for the few benefits you get wearing lighter armors.

I know that Embers wants to have their own style but in some cases they need to stay closer to what works well in other games. I believe this is one of them. The lightest armors should give you attack bonuses to damage abilities, the heavier armors should give you defense bonuses to defense abilities. Any armors that fall within the middle should be fairly balanced between both attack and defense. Of course the players are still able to mix and match as they do now but for those who want to go all in on defense or attack, they could by selecting appropriate armor pieces.

While we are on the subject could we get some harvesting bonuses added to some of the cloth pieces that are being worn under the armor or on the jewelry pieces?

Just the ramblings of an old geezer so take it for how it was intended, not as we need to change this asap but as a why is it done this way and could it possibly be expanded on to help the players?

 

[Shadowrunner70]

Positional stats on leather armors is a pretty big offensive bonus to chase. Being able to mix in heavier armor gives some flexibility. There is also some penetration on a few leather armor pieces that is much more valuable now. A striker could lose quite a bit of damage at the cost of wearing all the heavy armor pieces that they can fit.

 

[Shadowrunner70]

At 20 I think Ashbourne leather gives +3 pos, Level 25 mole bear is +5 pos. That stacks up fast and provides a lot of extra bang.

 

[Shadewe]

It matters a lot for strikers between zerkers (+45) and wardens/brigands (+30). For example, for my brigand it's a constant nightmare trying to find gear pieces that don't weigh too much, and headgear is like a holy grail for me. You have to be mindful of shoulders/greaves vs chest/pants vs head armour and weights, which is a constant juggling game.

For tanks it might matter more but I think there it's more philosophical. For example, Knights (+70) get whatever they want. Marshals (+60) gear almost everything they want minus "something", like slightly lighter shoulders and/or greaves for instance. Jugg's (+50) are where things get interesting; they're in the roughly same weight tier as Zerkers (+45) but want to attract aggro whereas the Zerker wants to avoid it. Plus, the weight different between a knight and a jugg is tremendous (-20) and you have to think completely differently on how you're going about tanking. For example, a Knight likes to load up on a lot of heavy gear that gets +phys resistance benefits or really high natural AC, but for a Jugg they have some problems there due to weight (trust me, this is a thing). When I talk to/hear knights talk about their resistances my Jugg's pail in comparison, which is expected due to the weight, but my Jugg can do a fair number of things that a Knight just can't do and I love them for it. It's all a matter of how you want to play your char.

 

[csthao]

It matters a lot for strikers between zerkers (+45) and wardens/brigands (+30). For example, for my brigand it's a constant nightmare trying to find gear pieces that don't weigh too much, and headgear is like a holy grail for me. You have to be mindful of shoulders/greaves vs chest/pants vs head armour and weights, which is a constant juggling game.

For tanks it might matter more but I think there it's more philosophical. For example, Knights (+70) get whatever they want. Marshals (+60) gear almost everything they want minus "something", like slightly lighter shoulders and/or greaves for instance. Jugg's (+50) are where things get interesting; they're in the roughly same weight tier as Zerkers (+45) but want to attract aggro whereas the Zerker wants to avoid it. Plus, the weight different between a knight and a jugg is tremendous (-20) and you have to think completely differently on how you're going about tanking. For example, a Knight likes to load up on a lot of heavy gear that gets +phys resistance benefits or really high natural AC, but for a Jugg they have some problems there due to weight (trust me, this is a thing). When I talk to/hear knights talk about their resistances my Jugg's pail in comparison, which is expected due to the weight, but my Jugg can do a fair number of things that a Knight just can't do and I love them for it. It's all a matter of how you want to play your char.

This is where I feel like the HP to AC ratio could be better. 10-20 armor weight difference is huge, but the hp separation between the 3 makes no impact at all. For a Juggernaut that's suppose to hold better aggro on multiple targets that 7-18 hp difference has such a small impact especially when they have the lowest armor. It would be nice boost the HP overall to balance this.

But like what all the other guys are saying, you have to choose wisely especially for a defense class. Juggernauts benefits the most to stack physical damage resist given their armor weight and in the long run its the better stat to focus on since AC drops when you die a lot, it's the one constant that will help take less damage.

I'm biased, Juggernauts are the funner class to play out of the 3 defense class.