something that's been bugging me

[zarozina]

What is MA actually for? HA has more HP for melee, and you need LA for everything else or you get a malus. So apart from looking better than the others, what is MA for?

[akicks]

What is MA actually for? HA has more HP for melee, and you need LA for everything else or you get a malus. So apart from looking better than the others, what is MA for?

more protection than la, less malus than ha. so for any combat where less protection than ha is offset by having less malus (range, affliction are good targets, imo)

[mehanson]

Actually, I use MA for 1H melee and for duels because it has more hit points than LA and less malus than HA. Also use it for magic if I'm in an area where I need the extra protection but don't want the full malus that HA adds to magic.

I'd think it would also work well for ranged fighting, but I haven't started working that tree yet, so I don't have any practical experience.

[aardnebb]

Yeah, I always use MA for ranged. Its also great when you are duoing with a nuker/healer combo. The nuker is likely to get one or two nasty hits which the extra HP is good for.

Also in PvP it shocks some people when 2-3 good nukes still dont put a caster down

Finally for treking. If I'm treking a newbie or 3, I'll want to tank, but I'll also probably end up healing them a few times too. Its quicker than carrying HA and LA and keep changing back and forth. Other uses too. If you are a high level working some lower skills then you dont need full HA to tank or LA to cast, so you can just carry medium and swap spots as needed to keep the team running.

HA and LA are better at what they do, but MA is good for flexibility

[katriell]

I find it's much more efficient to mix HA and MA instead of wearing full HA, unless I really need all the HP I can get.

[cloudy97]

What would the difference be between wearing full MA and wearing combination of LA and HA?

[tylarth]

MA is good if in a team you have a fairly reliable aggro in HA, the the MA act as support melee, thus less drain on healers.

In PvP its nice, as if your a melee it sufficient for the few melee vs melee encounters, but again to too draining for heals, also provoke a problem for pierce users a bit (ignore armour or not). And when you drop, you get rezzed a bit quicker (as the -hp is based on current max).

The malus of full MA makes it prohibitive for pure casting tbh, but a few pieces (1 or 2) is fairly negligable, and allows for far greater fashion choices.

lastly from personal experience being a main aggro tank in MA lvl 200+ is not too efficient.

if i were to create a perfect melee team the main tank would be in HA + shield, other melees in MA with 2-handed, sheild user holds aggro mainly with taunt, the rest do most of the killing.

[sehracii]

What would the difference be between wearing full MA and wearing combination of LA and HA?

Full MA is more efficient then mixed HA and LA.

Example:
Two pieces of Q250 MA:
Average Protection 30%, +500 HP, total malus of 10
vs
One piece 250 LA and one piece 250 HA
Average protection 32%, +500 HP, total malus of 20

Merely goes up 2 percent protection for double the action malus.

And, for MA in general: It's practically all I wear for magic. Generally I'm afflicting though, no very expensive double missiles to worry about so the action malus isn't even noticeable. If I'm in a dangerous position and healing with double I'll still use it- the extra HP and protection makes up the difference of the malus. If I'm in a safe position and using doubles, I'll merely drop a few pieces off like sleeves and gloves to lower the penalty. If I'm safe and not getting hit, doesn't matter what armor I have on, if any.

[tylarth]

What would the difference be between wearing full MA and wearing combination of LA and HA?

HA = 20 penalty per piece

MA = 5 penalty per piece

so a full MA = 25, 2 parts HA is 40 so difference is quite noticable

[zarozina]

Thank you all for the plethora of answers! I shall start using it more - it is the best looking armour after all. In all races.

Ffi-ffi