Light - Medium - Heavy armor. What are the differences?

[Nireg]

Seriously. I whant to know what are the differences.

When you wear heavy armor you produce more noise and your stamina come down more fast?
The light armor is better to dodge?
I dont know.

What are ALL the diferences?

Thanks.

[Vespertine]

I believe the only differences are weight, armor rating, and speed.

Weight- Obviously how heavy the armor weighs. Heavy is heaviest, light is lightest. Of course with different armor types, it may vary as each type of armor (iron, chitin, glass, steel) will of course have a different weight.

Armor Rating- Heavy Armor will have the highest armor values which will lower incoming damage the higher your armor rating is.

Speed- Light quick, Heavy slow.

I know in Oblivion and Skyrim armor weight determines how easy/hard it is to sneak, but I am unsure if that is correct for Morrowind as well. Hopefully someone else can answer that.

[Lobo de hielo]

Armour rating first from worst to best:
Medium armour (best 145 armour rating), Light armour (Best 168 armour rating), Heavy armour (Best 266 armour rating).

Then weight/ encumbrance of the armour. A full set of Daedric Armour would weigh 354, you would need a lot of Strength to wear it.
Then "health" of the armour, Light armour wears out quicker than medium and medium armour wears out quicker than heavy. You would need a decent armourer level if wearing light armour as it needs repairing a lot.
Finally you have enchant capacity. Most armour is quite poor in this regards but a few items have some extremely good enchant possibilities.
Telvanni cephalopod helm (an astonishing 100 points) Light Armour.
Daedric Masks 75 enchant capacity
Daedric Tower Shield 225 enchant capacity.

[Lobo de hielo]

p.s.
A quick fact if you ever go "unarmoured". The armour rating is poor until you get to Mournhold and if you get hold of a certain spell and enchant enough gear with "fortify unarmoured", then 200 unarmoured gives you the same armour rating as a full set of Daedric.
I do not know who would go through all that trouble but it is possible.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Vespertine:

I believe the only differences are weight, armor rating, and speed.

Weight- Obviously how heavy the armor weighs. Heavy is heaviest, light is lightest. Of course with different armor types, it may vary as each type of armor (iron, chitin, glass, steel) will of course have a different weight.

Armor Rating- Heavy Armor will have the highest armor values which will lower incoming damage the higher your armor rating is.

Speed- Light quick, Heavy slow.

I know in Oblivion and Skyrim armor weight determines how easy/hard it is to sneak, but I am unsure if that is correct for Morrowind as well. Hopefully someone else can answer that.

Morrowind doesn't account for armor when it comes to sneaking. According to UESP, the formulas for determining your success takes your Agility attribute and your Sneak skill are among the factors taken into account, but not the weight of your armor.

[Uriziel]

Originally posted by slayor3000:

Armour rating first from worst to best:
Medium armour (best 145 armour rating), Light armour (Best 168 armour rating), Heavy armour (Best 266 armour rating).

Then weight/ encumbrance of the armour. A full set of Daedric Armour would weigh 354, you would need a lot of Strength to wear it.
Then "health" of the armour, Light armour wears out quicker than medium and medium armour wears out quicker than heavy. You would need a decent armourer level if wearing light armour as it needs repairing a lot.
Finally you have enchant capacity. Most armour is quite poor in this regards but a few items have some extremely good enchant possibilities.
Telvanni cephalopod helm (an astonishing 100 points) Light Armour.
Daedric Masks 75 enchant capacity
Daedric Tower Shield 225 enchant capacity.

Is medium armor actually the worst one in terms of total possible armor rating? I thought Adamantium, Indoril and Royal Guard sets would easily beat best light armor like Glass (especially with something like Ebony Mail), am I missing something here?

[Lobo de hielo]

Ebony mail is the best piece of Medium armour from what I know.

Indoril armour would be great if you could wear the full set as it is the one of the best medium armour(although its enchant capacity is awful), you could always use mods to wear the cuirass and helm. Plus there are no greaves you would have to go for Orcish.

Yes much needed medium armour was added by the expansions.

Adamantium is a much later to gain armour (not as quite as good as Indoril and again enchant capacity still not great) and then again you have ice armour made from Stahlrim, this is another good medium armour with a base value of 50.

Another not so big drawback for medium armour is there is no master trainer.
So to get the best medium armour you need to get high enough level to get through Bloodmoon or Tribunal or of course add mods/plugins.

For heavy armour there is also Nordic Mail which is much better than Ebony and weighs less but not as durable.

Following is a list someone put together and I guess most people will agree Light is better than medium, especially due to weight to armour rating and how late in the game the best medium armour turns up. This includes the expansion armours.

Light Armor:
Helmet: Glass (50)
Cuirass: Cuirass of the Savior's Hide (80)
Greaves: Glass (50)
Boots: Boots of the Apostle (80)
Pauldrons: Glass (50)
Bracers: Glass (50)
Shield: Glass Tower Shield (55)
Total: 460 base armor rating (weight: 49)

Total with shield: 515 (weight: 58)

Medium Armor:
Helmet: Adamantium (70)
Cuirass: Ebony Mail (100) (+50 for the 50 shield enchantment)
Greaves: Ice (50)
Boots: Royal Guard (50) (While Ice is also 50, it has lower health and can't be enchanted as much)
Pauldrons: Royal Guard (55)
Bracers: Royal Guard (55)
Shield: Ice Shield (50)
Total: 540 base armor rating (weight: 80)

Total with shield: 590 (weight: 93)

Heavy Armor: (Note: A complete set of Her Hands armor has a lower armor rating, but many good constant effect enchantments. However, wearing the helmet or cuirass marks you for death)

Helmet: Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw (90)
Cuirass: Dragonbone OR Lord's Mail (100) Both have nice enchantments on them. Lord's Mail is the far easier one to get, though.
Greaves: Daedric (80)
Boots: Ten Pace Boots (80) (Deadric Boots have identical armor, health and weight, but don't have an enchantment. If you want to enchant boots, go with Daedric. If not, go with the already-enchanted Ten Pace Boots)
Pauldrons: Daedric (80)
Bracers: Fists of Randagulf (90) OR Wraithguard (80 + 10 shield)
Shield: Eleidon's Ward (100)
Total: 690 base armor rating (weight: 246, 266 if using Dragonbone Cuirass)

Total with shield: 790 (weight: 276, 296 if using Dragonbone Curiass)

[Uriziel]

Originally posted by slayor3000:

Ebony mail is the best piece of Medium armour from what I know.

Indoril armour would be great if you could wear the full set as it is the one of the best medium armour(although its enchant capacity is awful), you could always use mods to wear the cuirass and helm. Plus there are no greaves you would have to go for Orcish.

Yes much needed medium armour was added by the expansions.

Adamantium is a much later to gain armour (not as quite as good as Indoril and again enchant capacity still not great) and then again you have ice armour made from Stahlrim, this is another good medium armour with a base value of 50.

Another not so big drawback for medium armour is there is no master trainer.
So to get the best medium armour you need to get high enough level to get through Bloodmoon or Tribunal or of course add mods/plugins.

For heavy armour there is also Nordic Mail which is much better than Ebony and weighs less but not as durable.

Following is a list someone put together and I guess most people will agree Light is better than medium, especially due to weight to armour rating and how late in the game the best medium armour turns up. This includes the expansion armours.

Light Armor:
Helmet: Glass (50)
Cuirass: Cuirass of the Savior's Hide (80)
Greaves: Glass (50)
Boots: Boots of the Apostle (80)
Pauldrons: Glass (50)
Bracers: Glass (50)
Shield: Glass Tower Shield (55)
Total: 460 base armor rating (weight: 49)

Total with shield: 515 (weight: 58)

Medium Armor:
Helmet: Adamantium (70)
Cuirass: Ebony Mail (100) (+50 for the 50 shield enchantment)
Greaves: Ice (50)
Boots: Royal Guard (50) (While Ice is also 50, it has lower health and can't be enchanted as much)
Pauldrons: Royal Guard (55)
Bracers: Royal Guard (55)
Shield: Ice Shield (50)
Total: 540 base armor rating (weight: 80)

Total with shield: 590 (weight: 93)

Heavy Armor: (Note: A complete set of Her Hands armor has a lower armor rating, but many good constant effect enchantments. However, wearing the helmet or cuirass marks you for death)

Helmet: Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw (90)
Cuirass: Dragonbone OR Lord's Mail (100) Both have nice enchantments on them. Lord's Mail is the far easier one to get, though.
Greaves: Daedric (80)
Boots: Ten Pace Boots (80) (Deadric Boots have identical armor, health and weight, but don't have an enchantment. If you want to enchant boots, go with Daedric. If not, go with the already-enchanted Ten Pace Boots)
Pauldrons: Daedric (80)
Bracers: Fists of Randagulf (90) OR Wraithguard (80 + 10 shield)
Shield: Eleidon's Ward (100)
Total: 690 base armor rating (weight: 246, 266 if using Dragonbone Cuirass)

Total with shield: 790 (weight: 276, 296 if using Dragonbone Curiass)

Thank you for providing all the information and in such a cohesive way too, that was interesting to read.

Overall, I agree with what you've said about the Adamantium armor, but you can also easily steal it from one of the merchants who sell it pretty much at level 1. But of course, it probably wasn't intended to be this way, even though the armor is ridiculously overpriced for being a side-grade for Dreugh set with more pieces, in my opinion.

While obviously it doesn't have to do with the vanilla game, I'm currently playing with the Rebirth mod, where the author tried to balance out medium armor by adding missing pieces of armor for dreugh and indoril sets, along some other changes. I guess that's why it didn't seem so bad for me now when I decided to play with medium armor for once.

Also, the UESP wiki doesn't really specify this, but do Ordinators attack you on sight when you're wearing their helmets and chest pieces or only when you talk to them? Because for me it is the latter, but I'm not sure if it worked like this in the original game or it is another change in Rebirth to make it more viable.

[Lobo de hielo]

I have played mage builds for so long I almost forget about armour, but from what I remember just do not talk to any Ordinator and you should be okay.
Once you talk to one then you will be attacked by any Ordinator in any city. I still remember being attacked even though I had removed the armour.

Then worse than them are the High Ordinators and Her Hands.

[Valden21]

Sounds to me like you've got a low Medium Armor skill. The thing about the armor in this game is that like in Oblivion and Skyrim, how much protection you get from any given piece of armor is dependent on your level in the related skill. So if you have a low Medium Armor level, but a high level in one of the two other armor skills, you're gonna get a total lower armor rating with medium armor. Of course, this means that to improve that, the easiest way would be to improve your Medium Armor skill.

As for your question about Indoril armor (that's the armor the Ordinators wear) it depends on the timing. The first time you talk to an Ordinator while wearing either the helmet or the cuirass (the chest piece), they'll get furious with you and refuse to talk to you. From then on, they'll try to kill you on sight. They won't even try to talk to you; they'll just attack. The in-lore reason for this is because that armor's a symbol of their order; it's sacred to them, and seeing it worn by anyone who doesn't have the right to wear it is a major insult.

[Uriziel]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Sounds to me like you've got a low Medium Armor skill. The thing about the armor in this game is that like in Oblivion and Skyrim, how much protection you get from any given piece of armor is dependent on your level in the related skill. So if you have a low Medium Armor level, but a high level in one of the two other armor skills, you're gonna get a total lower armor rating with medium armor. Of course, this means that to improve that, the easiest way would be to improve your Medium Armor skill.

As for your question about Indoril armor (that's the armor the Ordinators wear) it depends on the timing. The first time you talk to an Ordinator while wearing either the helmet or the cuirass (the chest piece), they'll get furious with you and refuse to talk to you. From then on, they'll try to kill you on sight. They won't even try to talk to you; they'll just attack. The in-lore reason for this is because that armor's a symbol of their order; it's sacred to them, and seeing it worn by anyone who doesn't have the right to wear it is a major insult.

Sorry, I take it you're responding to my comments? If so, when I said that it was the worst out of three, I didn't mean that it was extremely weak or anything like that, but rather comparing it to light and heavy armor in terms of total possible armor rating which slayor3000 provided above. I know that the rating is depended on your respective armor skill and why/how Ordinators react to you wearing Indoril armor (just wanted to be sure how it works mechanically), but still, I appreciate the respond.

[DeadKenny]

weight and armor rating.

[󰀉tempeh󰀉]

Another thing to remember is that armor rating in Morrowind isn't a constant % like Oblivion and Skyrim, but diminishes when base damage increases. Incoming damage is divided by

(1 + Target's Armor Rating / Damage), maximum 4

Consequently, any armor rating more than 3x the base damage won't make any improvement beyond 75% protection. Even weak armors will provide strong protection from weak, mundane threats, and increases in armor rating have diminishing returns; for maximum protection from (uninfected) nix-hounds you'll only need 24 armor rating, but for the dreugh warlord you'll need 360. 120 armor rating is enough to cut the dreugh warlord's damage by half, and just 60 is enough to cut it by a third.

Or to put it another way, your armor rating equals the strength of an attack that will be reduced by half.

[Innocent]

A quick note about Unarmored: while it's true that your rating will generally be lower, you will be moving a lot faster due to low encumbrance. This can make some fights trivially easy (ex: dodging spells, kiting) and opens up cool strats. My favorite is finding a room with a door, training all the mobs in the level, and locking them in :) It's super effective at highest difficulty where the respawn rate is very high.

It's a good idea to supplement Unarmored with a bound armor spell (enchanted or not) and maybe some shield spells. They don't add any encumbrance and will significantly improve your rating.

[Lord Griswold]

Why does everyone recommend Dragonbone Cuirass or the Lord's Mail for best chest armor? The Ebony Mail has the same armor rating + a constant effect enchantment that gives you plus 50 armor rating, making it undeniably the best chest piece in the game.

[Lord Griswold]

Ebony mail has an effective armor rating of 150 instead of 100 like the Dragonbone Cuirass and the Lord's Mail. Also, instead of plain daedric greaves, you can do a quest in house telvanni that gives you daedric greaves that weigh almost nothing thanks to a powerful constant effect enchantmant that's impossible for the player to create due to the limited enchanting points of normal daedric greaves. But everything else that the guys above mentioned is solid.