Need some armor information..

[sluggo0]

I'm realizing this game is a little more in-depth then I first thought.

You are on the right track if you realise this already . Everyone else probably answered it best.

A hint to tell what's wrong with wearing heavy while casting, is if you have enough to wear a suit watch how long your toon takes to cast in heavy. Then switch to your refugee suit, then notice how much less time it takes.

Another whole level of complexity in casting comes from the way the spell components are put together, if you are using the 'default' spells, then there's a time credit applied (it takes longer to cast but uses less sap to do it), in heavy armor the costs (all costs) are increased so in heavy it takes a long time to cast your spells.

Anyhow, the general rule of heavy for melee light for casting/crafting/digging is good to know at this stage, and you will learn more about it in time .

[nesrem]

You are on the right track if you realise this already . Everyone else probably answered it best.

A hint to tell what's wrong with wearing heavy while casting, is if you have enough to wear a suit watch how long your toon takes to cast in heavy. Then switch to your refugee suit, then notice how much less time it takes.

Another whole level of complexity in casting comes from the way the spell components are put together, if you are using the 'default' spells, then there's a time credit applied (it takes longer to cast but uses less sap to do it), in heavy armor the costs (all costs) are increased so in heavy it takes a long time to cast your spells.

Anyhow, the general rule of heavy for melee light for casting/crafting/digging is good to know at this stage, and you will learn more about it in time .

Well, I've been learning a lot of things about this game and one of them is the helpfulness of the community. You lot *are* really as helpful as the reviews of this game say!

We newbies thank you for that because there is a steep learning curve when you first drop into the game. I've quit about twice within the first 10 minutes just because the game was a little different then I'm used to.

I'm given it a little more effort this time around and its really paying off!

Thank you all for the help. It really does make a difference to someone who is new and in this case, it answered my questions and I believe I understand what I need to know now... for now anyway!

[ghyselsj]

The reason that magic users usually wear light armour is the Action Malus stat. For light armour it's 0, for medium 5 and heavy 10. The Action Malus adds a percentage to the energy cost of any action, whether that action is a spell or an increased damage attack or a foraging extraction. Melee fighters can always use default attack without penalty because it has no action cost, and an ability to absorb damage is crucial to their survival, so the costs of wearing heavy armour can pay off. A spell caster may be interrupted when hit so they're very interested in not letting attackers get close enough for damage absorption to be important.

The action malus for heavy is 20, not 10. So with a full set of heavy, you use more than twice the amount of sap/stam/hp/focus you use in light. A full set of medium adds around 25%, which is sometimes worth looking into, especially because of the enhanced protection you will have.

The average stats for armors are as follows (differs from set to set but this is a general guideline):

(definitions)
PF = Protection factor.
MV = Max versus, the 3 different melee types.
Q = Quality of the armor.
IB = Inherent Boost. Amount of HP hp boost always present on armor no matter what other boost the crafter has added. Not a guideline but a set stat.

LA
PF: 10%
MV: Q*0.8
IB: 0

MA
PF: 30%
MV: Q*1.5
IB: Q*0.5

HA
PF: 50%
MV: Q*2
IB: Q

Of course there are also other things to consider, like parry mod and dodge mod, but by the time you start caring about those you will know what to look for in an armor anyway.

Hope this helped.