Is mercenary armour actually much better than black plate or not?

[Poop King]

Rubbish stomach coverage and -4 attack.

[bunny de fluff]

All armour are good if your toughness is above 70.

[SmallGespenst]

-4 attack is nothing for anyone that's not completely new.

[Poop King]

Originally posted by awhurley:

-4 attack is nothing for anyone that's not completely new.

But what about the poor coverage?

My main squad all have 40+ str and 25+ melee attack now so I want to know if I should swap their black plate to mercenary armour.

[bunny de fluff]

I think mercenary armor is better, and samurai armor is the best.

[Poop King]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

I think mercenary armor is better, and samurai armor is the best.

How much melee attack should I have before bothering with Samurai armour though? -8 attack is a lot.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

above 40 is a good start.

[Poop King]

Originally posted by HaTsUnE_NeKo:

above 40 is a good start.

Ok, I'll use mercenary until around then.

[Raymond]

you want armors that give full protection to stomach and chest.
Any hit you take in the stomach and chest reduce your dex and str. Getting hits in those 2 areas is worse that getting knockout cold. You can have entire body armorless, even your head, losing limbs isnt even that bad, but the stomach and chest must be protected at all cost. Unlike getting knockout, losing dex/str is equivalent to eliminated from battle.
I would highly recommend that you avoid using mercenary plate

[Poop King]

Originally posted by YariMurai:

you want armors that give full protection to stomach and chest.
Any hit you take in the stomach and chest reduce your dex and str. Getting hits in those 2 areas is worse that getting knockout cold. You can have entire body armorless, even your head, losing limbs isnt even that bad, but the stomach and chest must be protected at all cost. Unlike getting knockout, losing dex/str is equivalent to eliminated from battle.
I would highly recommend that you avoid using mercenary plate

And thats exactly why I still dont know if MErcenary armour is any better than Black plate because it has less chest and stomach cover, put I also have Samurai Legplates.

[bunny de fluff]

sure the mercenary plate has slightly lower coverage on stomach than black plate jacket, but it has higher protection overall.

[Raymond]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

sure the mercenary plate has slightly lower coverage on stomach than black plate jacket, but it has higher protection overall.

Protecting the stomach and the chest is the only reason heavy armors worth for all their debuffs, otherwise it is better to just block all hits with you 70 dex blocking speed or dodge every thing. With only 70% stomach coverage, merc plate failed the only reason you would ever want to wear armor. Doesnt matter you are taking less damage overall, losing dex and str and you are pretty much a standing meatbag and getting stun locked by even the weaker mobs til death.

The whole point of wearing armor is to allow your body to take hits and stay in combat with highest dex and str possible in extended period, without relying on block/dodge rng, and the time you saved from not dodging/blocking attacks can be use to swing your giant falling sun and cleave all the enemies before they inflict further damage. That's mean you gonna get hit a lot, and that's mean that 30% coverage lost is anything but "slightly lower".

[Bike Knight]

Merc plate is just bad, unfortunately.
It has poor coverage for the stomach, subpar resistances compared to other heavy armors and penalties to both combat speed and dexterity which are the only penalties that you should care about at all if your fighters are properly trained. Black plate is far better at least until you can find and effectively wear higher grade Samurai plate for most fighters, and Crab armor for your Plank or Fragment Axe users.

[Poop King]

Originally posted by Bike Knight:

Merc plate is just bad, unfortunately.
It has poor coverage for the stomach, subpar resistances compared to other heavy armors and penalties to both combat speed and dexterity which are the only penalties that you should care about at all if your fighters are properly trained. Black plate is far better at least until you can find and effectively wear higher grade Samurai plate for most fighters, and Crab armor for your Plank or Fragment Axe users.

This is exactly what I was wondering and needed to know thanks. I'll swap back to black plate then, it not only has 100% coverage of the chest, stomach and arms but also no sneak or combat penalties and some acid protection.

[SnugSnug]

Depends how you look at it, due to cut efficiency -

Merc plate 30% of the time coverage will fail and all damage will move onto the next layer Or 20% of received cut damage will bypass 2nd layer due to cut efficiency conversion.
Blackplate 30% of all received cut damage (100% coverage) will bypass the 2nd layer due to cut efficiency conversion.

Merc plate has much better harpoon resistance against turrets and crossbows this may factor against certain enemy types.