Solo melee - light, medium or Heavy armor?

[caleinia]

I'm attempting to be completely self-sufficient, though I need to buy weapons from players, and so I craft my own armor.

I can craft Q20 armor currently, and I'm wearing heavy sleeves, heavy gloves, medium vest and pants, and light boots. I'm doing alright for being 34 melee, though I intend to upgrade to heavy armor as soon as I can make it.

[ayne31]

i experimented lately with heavy too but I doubt that heavy boots or gloves are a must as I never seemed to get hit there.

I mean I never got a message like "Nasty Mob" hits your hands for 35 (39)". the same goes with feet so in my opinion I'd rather upgrade boots and gloves last from light to medium or medium to heavy.

Any experiences with hits on hands/feet appreciated btw.

[thanakar]

I'm level 63 in melee and I can solo a dangerous gingo in light armor. The key is what mats are used to make your weapon and armor. All my light armor is made with mats that have a very high dodge modifiers. The downside is, that those few times I do get hit, it hurts. The only problem I mainly have is running out of stamina, and that is due mainly to the fact of poor stanza buying since I really wasn't bent on being a melee fighter.

[korin77]

Different mobs hit you in different places. It is always a good idea to be prepared to protect those areas. Cloppers for example love to hit your feet.

Most of us in Tryker make our armor with max Dodge. It still isn't enough against the higher level mobs using just light armor. I do dodge more in light armor. However when I do get hit, its for over 250+ dmg. You simply cannot compare low level experiences with higher. Mobs just seem to hit much harder at higher levels. Sometimes no matter what you do, armor will not help you. The zerx by resting waters crit for 1100 dmg a hit. It won't matter if you are wearing light/medium/heavy armor in that instance. It will not save you.

[anicolai]

I have actually been under the impression that it is complete and utter suicide for a melee fighter (especially solo of course) to wear light and possibly even medium armor. My own melee experiences only goes to level 45 - and wearing heavy armor, but this is the general impression I have gotten from people in-game and reading these boards.

Is it actually possible to survive and even do well (also after level 50 of course) with the roughly 10 and 25 percent protection you can get from light and medium, versus the ~50 percent from heavy?
Insane dogde modifiers?

I have levelled melee up to level 40 solo without any armor at all. I fight naked and use a Choice Q40 Pike. I don't have any problems. I typically fight moderate Kipee, which net 3000xp per kill. I dodge at least 7 out of every 10 attack attempts. I don't know if this is a bug or if I just used mats with great dodge modifiers to make my weapon.

I previously levelled a fighter to level 30 using all heavy armor all the time. I honestly cannot tell much difference between wearing and not wearing armor, other than the increased stamina usage of course. I definitely dodge a whole lot more when I am naked.

Glimmung

[kamagi]

Why all the emphasis on dodge - I read in another thread that if you have a good quality weapon then its probably better to use parry in melee and get the armor with good parry mods.