Armor Importance

[🦆iSheyn🦆]

So I've been playing for a bit over 9 hours now and killed 2(?) Story bosses I think.
Now Im still rocking the default class clothes from the start and was wondering how important it is to change armor in this game?
Should I already have "better" Armor at this point or is armor not really something that I should worry about?

[Vermilion Knight]

Armor does not matter and hasn't since DS3 unfortunately.
90% of the armors in the game wont effect your stats unless you use an extremely heavy and robust armor. Majority of your "armor" comes from your Vigor points (HP).

I miss the days when you could upgrade armor but I don't think they are bringing it back. Just put points into your HP and call it a day.

[Anzaman]

I typically just focus on how the armour look and try to reach poise break-points, mostly go for 51 poise to be able to endure good chunk of enemy attacks without being staggered.

After that it's matter of equipping potential special items that boost stats and/or give special effects when say you poison something. But quite often they aren't that nice looking pieces visually.

If I need more say, Fire Resistance, I just slap on Talisman that provides more of it, without altering my armour.

[Sc0rpiTr0n]

Originally posted by 🦆iSheyn🦆:

armor not really something that I should worry about?

This.

It gives you some resistance to damage, status effects,
some passive bonuses and effects but It is mostly for fashion.

You can improve your resistance against physical,
elemental and status effect attacks with talismans.

[Shard of Manus]

Armour DOES matter, but only if you're struggling. It can make a big difference.

Some armours have unique effects, so keep an eye on those. Mostly though, you wear what looks good.

[Fineous🔥]

You can finish the game (even the DLC...) with the starter armor but is that the "way"? Hell, no!

Inspect every single piece of armor you loot. Some have extremly useful pasive bonus (helms mainly) that increase stats in some case for a price like reducing other (like the burger king glinstone crowns). One of the DLC helms used by actually common enemies (fire knights) boost your HP, stamina and grants more equip load.....no penalty at all so here you have the perfect example about why you should read the armor descriptions.

At the end of the day just make sure you look good (functional fashion!) while having decent mitigation, bonus and negative status resistance.

There, a example of what it used to be my favorite helm during my first blind base game clear after relase and how they tend to tell that you are trading one stat by another.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3283943888

[tmg]

Enjoy playing 51 poise fashion souls, the real end game.

[C1REX]

OMG - so much wrong info.
Armour is super important.
It may not feel like it early on but when you start combining buffs it can trivialise the game.

I had this argument a while ago with my friends and made this video showing how massive difference armour and damage negation in general can make.

https://youtu.be/iI_p36hZLLk?si=-CPY_YX11PzD9coC

[Not Rawr]

People in this thread will claim armour is worthless while also using every buff in the game that gives less dr than armour would.
Tired of hearing this for every souls game as if 20% or so DR isn't a massive difference.

[Holneer]

Originally posted by Vermilion Knight:

Armor does not matter and hasn't since DS3 unfortunately.
90% of the armors in the game wont effect your stats unless you use an extremely heavy and robust armor. Majority of your "armor" comes from your Vigor points (HP).

I miss the days when you could upgrade armor but I don't think they are bringing it back. Just put points into your HP and call it a day.

You're straight up wrong. Having poise below 51 in PvE sucks ass as a stray cough may stagger you. You're also talking about the up to 40% difference in damage taken from armor alone.

[Sc0rpiTr0n]

Originally posted by C1REX:

OMG - so much wrong info.
Armour is super important.

Good thing we have expert like you around.

[Fineous🔥]

Hell i forgot about this before.

In the expansion you have 3 items granting you a new form empowering certain spells/skills with global damage reduction bonus. Are they viable? Yes and you need to be naked to use them.

The price of the transformations? No poise at all and you have to remove all your armor.

[Archdeacon Monseigneur]

armor normally matters.
just not in the DLC because the numbers of anything that hits you are wack.

[C1REX]

Originally posted by Archdeacon Monseigneur:

armor normally matters.
just not in the DLC because the numbers of anything that hits you are wack.

https://youtu.be/nX26vwGJKkg?si=XspR472_yHj8iVJZ

[cybercybercybercyber4]

the higher your level is compared to the enemy level the higher is the benefit of armor.
which means if you play with an overleveled character you should totally max out on armor, the effect bcomes very noticable. If you are just on avarage area level, it gets harder to decide wether or not fast roll isnt more important than defense.

a while ago I fought the tree avatar in dragonbarrow on ng+1 fully goated with ng+1 end game level and it was kinda funny how little damage he did.

[toughnails]

Originally posted by 🦆iSheyn🦆:

So I've been playing for a bit over 9 hours now and killed 2(?) Story bosses I think.
Now Im still rocking the default class clothes from the start and was wondering how important it is to change armor in this game?
Should I already have "better" Armor at this point or is armor not really something that I should worry about?

See, the main difference between the Souls games and other RPG's, is that most of the gear is sidegrades, there are very few direct upgrades, which means that almost everything is viable and thus the build diversity is massive.

So e.g. if you started as Vagabond, that set is pretty good and solid for a good chunk of the game, you can even stick with it for the whole game if you choose to focus on other stats over Endurance.

I'd recommend buying the Knight set at the round table though. 51 poise, good damage negation, still pretty light.