what are the stats on armor that I should look for?

[a person]

I just got the carian knight set but the samurai set is better than it in every way except like poise and I have the cat imp head and have no idea what most of the immunity stats are for or anything. what stats should I be looking for in an armor set?

[Clockwork]

Depends on what you want.

Some pieces of armour are overall better in everything but weight a lot more.

Some will focus more on magic/fire/holy/lightning whereas some others protect more for physical damages.

Poise can help to avoid staggering for some attacks when you have enough (at least 51 I think to resist staggering from a single sword slash?)

Early on, when I got the Godrick Knight set, I kept using it for a very long time after increasing my Endurance to avoid having Heavy Load (to still have decent dodge capability) because there weren't a lot of things which gave as much protection.

[Tisiphone Edge]

Immunity, Robustness, Focus, and Vitality respectively describe resistance to Poison/Rot, Bleed/Frostbite, Sleep/Madness, and Death Blight. You should care about them when you're facing an enemy that deals these kinds of damage, which isn't most of the time.

The objective advice would be to use the heaviest armor that you can such that you still have a medium equip load so your ability to roll does not suffer.

Alternatively, you can just wear whatever armor you like since armor typically doesn't matter as much as you think it does.

[Detective Costeau]

Fashion, obviously. Looking good trumps all.

To be more serious, depends on what you're doing.

Poise is useful, but for PvE there are only two breakpoints that matter- 51 lets you take one light hit without staggering, 101 is two light hits or one heavy. I think it's a bit more complex in PvP but I don't play PvP, so I can't really speak to that.

Absorption is just a flat percentage decrease in incoming damage, so you want absorption as high as you can get it for the damage types you're dealing with. Lower values don't feel all that significant to me, but once you start getting 40-60% absorption you've effectively doubled your HP.

The resistances just make it harder to cause status effects on you. Personally I've never found this is worth worrying about that much on your armor, I just use talismans for whatever status effects are a problem in the area I'm in.

[Clockwork]

Originally posted by Detective Costeau:

The resistances just make it harder to cause status effects on you. Personally I've never found this is worth worrying about that much on your armor, I just use talismans for whatever status effects are a problem in the area I'm in.

More specifically, increasing a resistance means increasing the threshold at which you can get affected. A higher value means it will take longer to fill. But it won't decrease any faster. It's akin to increasing your health to endure more damage but you'll need more potion to heal back up.

But yeah, what they mentioned is also very relevant.

[Climhazzard]

Poise is about the only thing I look at, if I can get to 51 while still looking good then I'm happy.

[Meewec]

51 total poise is important so you can attack through a lighter hit. other than that some armor has extra effects like the briar set does that might help whatever your build is.

[toughnails]

You want 51 poise to not get stunlocked by trash enemies, the rest is whatever gives the highest negation while still keeping you at 'medium' weight.

Early on, the Knight set sold at the Roundtable Hold is one of the best sets.

Carian Knight is very bad, looks cool but trash stats, Samurai is only worth it if you're light rolling ('light' equipment weight), otherwise trash it.

[cybercybercybercyber4]

having done a low level challenge run (with further restrictions) opting for the best equipment for each boss, i can say that i used the perceptor set the most.

youll also have light roll using it without investing a lot into endurance.
a lot of the aoe attacks are elemental split damage, so it gets quite noticeable negation where it matters the most.

[a person]

Originally posted by Detective Costeau:

Fashion, obviously. Looking good trumps all.

To be more serious, depends on what you're doing.

Poise is useful, but for PvE there are only two breakpoints that matter- 51 lets you take one light hit without staggering, 101 is two light hits or one heavy. I think it's a bit more complex in PvP but I don't play PvP, so I can't really speak to that.

Absorption is just a flat percentage decrease in incoming damage, so you want absorption as high as you can get it for the damage types you're dealing with. Lower values don't feel all that significant to me, but once you start getting 40-60% absorption you've effectively doubled your HP.

The resistances just make it harder to cause status effects on you. Personally I've never found this is worth worrying about that much on your armor, I just use talismans for whatever status effects are a problem in the area I'm in.

Is there like anything u would recommend for my level rn? I’m around level 54 rn (and I basically only go for close range with no spell usage)

[Vinnolo]

looks, your negations should be purely based on the area and boss you are about to fight, and using specific talismans should be all you need

[Ironwu]

#1 Rule of Armor (and Weapons) : Never equip so much that you go over Medium weight. Period.

#2 Rule of Armor : Don't depend on your Armor to protect you. It is there for when you make a mistake and maybe keep you from getting one-shot killed.

#3 Rule of Armor : Mix and match to get the best Mitigation and Resistances. There is no 'Set Bonus' for wearing all pieces from the same set.

#4 Rule of Armor : Learn how to Dodge, Block, Parry, and Guard so that your Armor stats don't even come into play.

Good Luck
Have Fun!