Some Balance Feedback around Armor Types.

[Blaze]

So I've tried a number of builds, to get a feel for the balance of the game (As it stands now).

I know that bug fixing and feature development probably take priority over balance adjustment right now, nonetheless I felt compelled to leave my thoughts.

Heavy Armor... As it stands now, I don't see any reason to NOT use Heavy Armor. I put Heavy Armor on everyone. My Mage, my fighter, my rogue... Everyone.

I feel like there's really no incentivization to use lighter armors.

There's the Encumbrance mechanic, obviously. Yet I find it rarely becomes an issue for any of my characters unless I equip them in FULL Heavy Armor.

An example of an experiment I ran involved a fast, fleet footed, Elven Archer. The build was IDENTICAL with only one exception.

In one I ran Light Armor and in the other I ran Heavy.

The Heavy Armored version ALWAYS outperformed the Light Armored version.

I used this build specifically because it is the build that one would imagine light armor is tailor made to appeal to, and yet it still thrived far better using Heavy Armor.

Conclusion: There needs to be a greater division of roles within the Armor categories.

Right now Heavy Armor is just the clear winner, there's never a reason to NOT use it.

Presumably the roles would be...

Heavy Armor = Maximum Protection, Compromised DPS and/or Mobility.
Medium Armor = Balanced Protection and DPS and/or Mobility.
Light Armor = Compromised Protection, Maximum DPS and/or Mobility.

With "No Armor" primarily geared towards Mages or crazy Berserker builds (Which in my tests were always pretty terrible relatively speaking.)

Yet right now these Armor categories are mechanically very similar with nothing except their encumbrance weight and Protection values (and for rare and epic, their Special stats).

Personally I feel this NEEDS to change.

Heavy Armor needs some kind of Movement speed and Attack Speed Debuff BAKED IN. which can be reduced (albeit not completely eliminated) through the Heavy Armor perks in the Defender Tree.

The same should be true albeit to a lesser degree with Medium and Light Armors.

Full Heavy with no Training should see a pretty stern penalization in movement speed, dodge and attack speed. While being fully trained in Heavy Armor (Rank 3) should see only a minor penalty to attack speed and movement speed.

Full Medium with no Training should see a somewhat more manageable penalization to the same stats with a comparable easing at Rank 3 for Medium.

Full Light should be the easiest for a non-trained adventurer to pick up and use effectively, but should still see a minor penalty that can be fully eliminated with training.

ALL Armors should also incur a penalty to Magic Regeneration that is also relaxed via training.

Currently "Battle Mage" Robes are useless because there's no reason to prefer them over the much more universally useful standard Armor sets for a Martial Wizard. (And indeed, my strongest character through all of my testing has been a Greatsword wielding Battlemage in full Heavy Armor)

One of the benefits of Battlemage Robes as an Armor Set could be the removal of any kind of Magic Regeneration penalty. (Thus making such robes much more inviting to Martial Wizards)

Increasing the cost of using spells in Standard armors is another alternative idea.

Anyway, I'm going to wrap this up before I get too long winded, but I definitely think that the roles that different armor types should play need to be more dramatically represented.

As it stands I find Heavy Armor to be so preferable to the alternatives that I just can't justify their use.

[Takichi]

Did you play the Previous Game, the Blackthorne Arena? Because its a Core Principle that you can Combine Anything. Why do people believe on certain Armor Typ is reserver for specific Classes anyway...... They just get a "better" use out of it most of the Time, represented by the Way how the Classes work, for Example Defender, who boostet Stats which easylie to come by if you use Heavy Armor. However using Heavy Armor means, espacialy early on, sacrificing Stamina and Stamina Regeneration and for most Clases this is even true in the Late Game.
Basicly sacraficing Stamina for Crit/Dodge Character was your Doom in Arena, and i am sure it will here to.
And This Game uses the Same Mechanic, however, it seems that it isnt Balanced yet, since Magic for Example triples or quadruples the Damage of any other Build so far with ease, without even using any Kind of Equipment.

So the Numbers arent there yet, however another Part of Arena, and i hope they keep it here aswell was, that basicly every Class, Armor Typ and Stat could be combined how you saw Fit.
OFC some Classes got Stuff more suited/fine tuned for a specifc Build like a Crit Rouge but, except for a few very specific single skills you could combine anything and maybe instead of building a Dedicated High Crit Rouge do other Combination Stuff which is equaly powerfull.

And i hope they Keep that, because this Game is a Single Player Sandbox RPG, while some Balancing is needed, there is no need to take the Fun from Player who like to experiment and get Rewarded for Doing Stuff outside the Box. Thats this Games, like its predecassors, biggest Selling Point. That and that its basicly an Asian Grinding Game, which is near unfair Hardness in terms of Difficulty, which i hope they do here aswell.


Oh yeah and if you want Balance Armor Stuff so others become more reasonable to use... Instead of Nerf/Buff Armor itself, give Ideas for Enemys.
For Example there could be Beasts later on in the Game, who just Rip throug Heavy Armor and Ignor its Defensive at all, while this isnt true for other Lower Typs, for Example.
Or you could implement Differences in Material and Give Enemys Skill who interact with that. Since Heavy Armor is mostly from Metal, they do Extra Dmg against Metal Armor but Leather and Cloth they dont. And so on.