Armor Bag - Is it a useful or efficient deployable?

[Eddieboy]

While I know the armor bag has been highly requested for quite some time now, is the armor bag in fact a useful or efficient deployable? At the moment in its current state I personally don’t find it useful in any situation. It’s more than obvious the core idea of this deployable is to prepare for loud once the team failed the stealth phase, and while in itself is a good idea, the current state of how this deployable works comes off too gimmicky and far too situational. Here’s a few reason I personally find the armor bag pointless.

-The armor bag deployable is only for you, this means you’re using a deployable that’s only useful to you and you only. Sure it’s debatable that having a player with armor is helpful to the team, but if said playing was bringing an armor bag just incase the team would fail stealth, said player should’ve just bought armor in the first place.

-Now that you can easily put on armor whenever, if you were in full stealth gear, then your weapons are still probably too weak for you to be any use in the first place. (Unless you bought loud low concealment weapons, but you get the idea.)

-It’s a deployable, simple. That’s bad for either stealth or loud phase. Because you sacrificed a deployable to allow yourself to take a few more hits, your team is now short of a medic bag and ammo bag for loud, or short of a ecm and sensor mode tripmines for stealth.

-You cannot pick your armor, the lack of customization matters. (I was wrong, kornflakes89 explained why in the comments.)

-Not really the games fault entirely, more of a community thing but everyone who prefers stealth would rather restart then to continue the mission loud in stealth gear, even if they can put on armor whenever.

Again that's just my personal opinion, do you find the armor bag useful or not? And Why?

[Sandman]

I think a couple of people find it useful in situations where one guy fits for stealth and tries to get as far as he can until it goes loud. Examples would be Framing Frame or Firestarter Day 2, etc. I can take almost any item in the game and craft a hypothetical situation where a different item would have been better.

The point is it's another option for more versatility. You personally may not find it useful and there's nothing wrong with that. But understand that I've had a LOT of games where 3 guys fit for loud and 1 fits for stealth and the team crosses their fingers.

[Bindal]

It's not a deployable to begin with so... no, it's not.

[Obiwun]

Hotline miami day 2 - speed run with suit, then change to ictv = profit.
In any other case it's useless for me.

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Obiwun:

Hotline miami day 2 - speed run with suit, then change to ictv = profit.
In any other case it's useless for me.

Same idea can be used on Firestarter - run in with suit, saw open, switch to armor, tank for the rest (it would require the saw to be secondary, tho, as trying to tank with an SMG, Pistol or Loco isn't going to work on that map)

[Twitch]

Useless. You pretty much covered it for me OP.

[kornflakes89]

Originally posted by SpookyMikeComics:

While I know the armor bag has been highly requested for quite some time now, is the armor bag in fact a useful or efficient deployable? At the moment in its current state I personally don’t find it useful in any situation. It’s more than obvious the core idea of this deployable is to prepare for loud once the team failed the stealth phase, and while in itself is a good idea, the current state of how this deployable works comes off too gimmicky and far too situational. Here’s a few reason I personally find the armor bag pointless.

-The armor bag deployable is only for you, this means you’re using a deployable that’s only useful to you and you only. Sure it’s debatable that having a player with armor is helpful to the team, but if said playing was bringing an armor bag just incase the team would fail stealth, said player should’ve just bought armor in the first place.

-Now that you can easily put on armor whenever, if you were in full stealth gear, then your weapons are still probably too weak for you to be any use in the first place. (Unless you bought loud low concealment weapons, but you get the idea.)

-It’s a deployable, simple. That’s bad for either stealth or loud phase. Because you sacrificed a deployable to allow yourself to take a few more hits, your team is now short of a medic bag and ammo bag for loud, or short of a ecm and sensor mode tripmines for stealth.

-You cannot pick your armor, the lack of customization matters.

-Not really the games fault entirely, more of a community thing but everyone who prefers stealth would rather restart then to continue the mission loud in stealth gear, even if they can put on armor whenever.

Again that's just my personal opinion, do you find the armor bag useful or not? And Why?

1, While true, this is actually useful with the way me and my crew play, when we do Firestarter day 2, we have one guy go in, hack the computer and cut the wires, then we all go in and raid the loot room and get the server and we're usually gone before the first responders arrive, since he can't wear armor while sneaking around in there, the armor bag helps in case we're not able to get back to the van before an assault starts.

2, Again, true, but that really depends on how powerful your stealth weapons are, this is quite useful if you've got Silent Killer aced so your suppressed weapons do more damaged than if they didn't have a suppressor attached. And, using Firestarter day 2 again, the guy who goes in to cut the wires never uses his deployables anyway since his ECM's are pretty much useless (I'm the guy who drops them when it's needed) and the other two have the ammo and health bags. And being able to take a few more hits is useful when we're running all the loot from the loot room to the van.

3, Yes you actually can pick your armor, what you gotta do is equip the armor bag then equip the armor you want to use, you'll start the heist in a suit and when you use the armor bag, you'll have the armor you equipped on.

4, While true, this isn't possible on a Pro job, it's a one way trip and (yet again) on Firestarter day 2, if we messed stealth up and have to drill open the security gate for the server, the guy who went in to sneak it would need armor or he wouldn't live long enough to escape.

A good counteraction for putting your armor on but having stealth gear would be to carry a stealth secondary and a loud primary with decent concealment, that way you can stealth and go loud if you need to.

This can also apply to Go Bank if the police captain calls and you don't get out before an alarm is tripped and the van leaves, if at least one player has an armor bag, they'd be more likely to make it to the escape van than the other three who are in suits, giving a higher chance of completing the job instead of having to restart. And on Go Bank, you really only need two ECM's, one for the initial entry and the second to make sure all the cameras are down, if someone brought a saw, they'd need to bring ammo bags, the other two could bring loud weapons and armor bags so that if stealth fails but they get the sewer escape, they can get that done without having to go in suits.

Sure, it's not useful for every heist, but it's got its uses for some of them.

[CoryStar]

Big Oil Day 2.
Firestarter Day 2.
Hotline Miami Day 2.
Election Day Day 2.
The Big Bank.

They are heists that find a use for the Armor Bag. Especially, Big Oil Day 2.

It does need something to make it better though.

EDIT: Framing Frame Day 1 and Day 3.

[SCamp]

Originally posted by CoryStarkiller:

Big Oil Day 2.
Firestarter Day 2.
Hotline Miami Day 2.
Election Day Day 2.
The Big Bank.

They are heists that find a use for the Armor Bag. Especially, Big Oil Day 2.

It does need something to make it better though.

You forget Framing Frame Day 1 and Day 3 (you can get the gold in loud now).

[CoryStar]

Originally posted by SCamp:

Originally posted by CoryStarkiller:

Big Oil Day 2.
Firestarter Day 2.
Hotline Miami Day 2.
Election Day Day 2.
The Big Bank.

They are heists that find a use for the Armor Bag. Especially, Big Oil Day 2.

It does need something to make it better though.

You forget Framing Frame Day 1 and Day 3 (you can get the gold in loud now).

I did forget Framing Frame. Thanks.

[Jej]

If playing solo, I'd rather bring medic bags. If I have at least one more player with me, I'll gladly bring the armour bag with me. It's quite useful on Big Oil Day 1.

[Vincent Vega]

i havent unlocked the armor bag yet but the way im reading it works with my playstyle bing 90% solo stealthing the only purpose i see for it would be to change it so i can carry an ecm with it or make it so one player can supply heavy armor for all 4 players. but new content is always good no matter if i chose to use it or not and making it free thats even better

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Vincent Vega:

i havent unlocked the armor bag yet but the way im reading it works with my playstyle bing 90% solo stealthing the only purpose i see for it would be to change it so i can carry an ecm with it or make it so one player can supply heavy armor for all 4 players. but new content is always good no matter if i chose to use it or not and making it free thats even better

No, that's not how it works.
You drop your ECM for the ability to put on your armor later. You do not get to share it with anyone.

[Unplanned_Organism]

Yeah I can't really seem to get it too. It's good because well it's a new thing. But..
People on the forums asked for that. And probably didn't thought that through.

Small example: to almost every map you'll need at least 2 players to do the stealth.
Even Firestarter. If you bring the full team you get higher chances to be spotted.
(not counting the parts where 4 players can answer four pagers in a major mess: yeah that's helpful then, but c'mon the team's failing too hard already).
So that's why at least 2 players can keep good weapons and armor (even a flak or lighter can be enough). Then those guys with 20/35 concealment can defend a drill on the bank roof, keep a door safe and so on.
The two other can do what they please.

Then what's the point to the armor case ? None.

There is also the point of shooting ennemies down. With a silenced judge or loco and a 45 damage (accurate and stable) FAMAS you can reach 15 to 20 concealment with a Lightweight ballistic vest. Then why dropping your double ammo bag or double medbag for a little more armor ?
If you brought the worst weapons to be as much stealthiest as possible you'll have no need for more armor. Ennemies are just going to crush you down in the very same way, just longer.

Yeah I guess it could be a good thing on Big Oil day 1, but grenades can save the day too.
Or maybe when you're really confident and have backup plans it's okay.
Probably not groundbreaking stuff though.

[Eddieboy]

Originally posted by kornflakes89:

3, Yes you actually can pick your armor, what you gotta do is equip the armor bag then equip the armor you want to use, you'll start the heist in a suit and when you use the armor bag, you'll have the armor you equipped on.

Oh, I never knew this. An actual elaboration in the description of the armor bags would be appreciated though.

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Unplanned_Organism:

(not counting the parts where 4 players can answer four pagers in a major mess: yeah that's helpful then, but c'mon the team's failing too hard already)

You never ECM-rushed a Bank Heist, did you?