Anyone else find it odd and annoying how insanely good the starting armors are?

[Vahnkiljoy]

It took a loooong time until I was finally able to replace even one piece of the vagabond set and about as long if not longer for my friend and his astrologer gear, it's supposed to be starter armor but that stuff can last a loooooong time with a lot of other gear not even being upgrades but more sidegrade bordering on not worth it.

[ImHelping]

"I picked the only class with real armor and was surprised it was, in fact, higher defense than all these cloth soldier pants I was stealing in the early game."

Meanwhile, off in the other corner. People screaming and crying that starting with a 100% shield is meaningless because their samurai can just find one later.

It would be less laughable if the faux hardcore posturing was consistent.

... More seriously though. It isn't vagabond's fault there is a lack of satisfying new armor early on. And that is not helped by not "Vagabond armor too good" but rather "Vagabond is weaker than this Nth set of fantasy knight or soldier armor I found... but it weighs slightly less so I can wear it without fat rolling" nonstop early on.

When I picked vagabond, THAT was the usual reason I settled for some vagabond parts over new armor. Because the vagabond armor was still weaker than my new stuff, but hey it was marginally less heavy than my latest helmet or full plate pants. (see also: Traditional knight set for sale in the hub that on paper is better, but still will not stop you from flinching from basically everything at 40 poise)

Never, EVER blame QoL for bad design. That is how games just double down on bad design.

I have no joke seen people cry and moan about fruit that makes you vomit blood until it was nerfed "because it grows on trees! so op!"... in a game that your starting food option is a self recharging replicator that can also juice animals into sports bottles of pure water.

If something even LOOKS convenient, regardless of the actual efficiency, people will piss themselves and clutch their pearls screaming "Is this casual? I don't want anyone to think I am a casual! better demand they ruin everything to be sure."

[Janthis]

Maybe I just haven't found them, but there seem to be far fewer armor sets overall than in DS2 or DS3, and I'm at the Altus plateau already.