Correct Armor Choice

[Jide Aurelius]

I have really no idea what armor is decent. My char has high dodge and martial arts but if I put heavier armor on him it drops them. Where is the good trade off?

[biochimera]

If you're going dodge + MA then probably going light is best. Dustcoat, drifter's leather pants, fog mask/iron hat (depending on enviromental hazards), drifter's boots and dark leather shirt/martial artist's bindings would be a good setup. In Kenshi outside of the armor king the best armor is crafted by you.

[Jide Aurelius]

Armor king? I've been feeling like martial arts has been trash lately. I picked up a heavy sword and am crushing fog men (wish I could profit off them lol). I'm kind of trying to make a decent solo char for a while.

[Blue Mouse]

Originally posted by Jide Aurelius:

Armor king? I've been feeling like martial arts has been trash lately. I picked up a heavy sword and am crushing fog men (wish I could profit off them lol). I'm kind of trying to make a decent solo char for a while.

You might wanna consider using Katanas/Wazikashis instead, they will raise your DEX and this will also help your MA skill.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

don't go for the sleeveless versions of the Dust/Longcoats, the Long versions have much better armor coverage, the extra attack damage means nothing if you take a hit and all of a sudden you lost like 10 points of damage from STR debuff

Early on, don't bother with martial Artists bindings, get Leather Turtleneck.

Chainmail too isn't an altogether horrible option. Debuffs dodge by 10% though. Good if you're training toughness, otherwise stick with Turtleneck.

[Null]

People will tell you DEX for Martial Arts is important. It's not. Strength and Toughness are important, and the influence of Dex is nominal. I will also go contrary to a lot of peoples opinion not to use heavy armor. I say go for it because the debuffs to dodge and martial arts will make it easier to train those skills. That's important later on down the line. I also recommend maybe consider bringing along a weapon that can sweep for sizable squads for the sweeping effect.

[sf]

To save trouble, I usually just go by 3 main patterns and adjust individually when I feel the need.

1. The best parts that does not penalize stats. This naturally results in light/leather armor sets (possible to have some iron headgear like hats/mask tho), for crossbowmen or people who want to train by getting bashed up (without going naked)

2. The best protection regardless of penalty to stats. This naturally results in heavy armor for tanks, with nerfed offensive abilities

3. Better protection than light, but with only limited penalty (up to a certain threshold fraction f). e.g. f=0.8 means we try to get best armor that penalises important stats up to at most 0.8. depending on the value for f, you can end up with different "sets". e.g. 0.8 will usually end up with regular chain armor as main.

When I need to outfit a guy, I just pick 1 of the above patterns to save trouble, and possibly adjust individual pieces if I feel the need (usually can't be bothered as I like to play with a lot of recruits)


EDIT: for pattern 2 and 3, it varies (depending on race, intent, or just want squads to look different).

for pattern 1, I mass produce the following as "standard"

- samurai cloth pants
- drifter boots
- dustcoat
- leather turtleneck
- iron hat/fog mask

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by Jide Aurelius:

Armor king? I've been feeling like martial arts has been trash lately. I picked up a heavy sword and am crushing fog men (wish I could profit off them lol). I'm kind of trying to make a decent solo char for a while.

You can profit nicely off fog men if you collect the fog prince heads.

[Germania516]

Just join the shinobi ninjas and they sell everything you need in a beginner set. Need the drifter set ? They have it. Need ninja/ assassin rags ? They have it ! Need ninja mask,armour hood or fog mask ? They have it ! Plus they have an assortment of weapons,and sometimes you might even find a high grade one. Need blackened chainmail ? They have it ! Last, they even sell recipes !

[KellyR]

Originally posted by Null:

People will tell you DEX for Martial Arts is important. It's not. Strength and Toughness are important, and the influence of Dex is nominal. I will also go contrary to a lot of peoples opinion not to use heavy armor. I say go for it because the debuffs to dodge and martial arts will make it easier to train those skills. That's important later on down the line. I also recommend maybe consider bringing along a weapon that can sweep for sizable squads for the sweeping effect.

Dex controls the speed of your dodge animation, so it's pretty dang important.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by KellyR:

Originally posted by Null:

People will tell you DEX for Martial Arts is important. It's not. Strength and Toughness are important, and the influence of Dex is nominal. I will also go contrary to a lot of peoples opinion not to use heavy armor. I say go for it because the debuffs to dodge and martial arts will make it easier to train those skills. That's important later on down the line. I also recommend maybe consider bringing along a weapon that can sweep for sizable squads for the sweeping effect.

Dex controls the speed of your dodge animation, so it's pretty dang important.

Yeah, but not that important, just don't keep it at like 10 or something low.


Also worth mentioning (Not in response to KellyR, just general) Heavy armor is never worth using unless you have at least High Quality, the loss to offense superscedes the increase to defense, in quite literally the "A good offense is the best defense" logic. You take more damage because you are engaged longer

[Konsai]

Crab Helmet is far too good to use Iron Hat or anything else, really. Even a Martial Artists doesn't get any penalties from wearing it.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by Konsai:

Crab Helmet is far too good to use Iron Hat or anything else, really. Even a Martial Artists doesn't get any penalties from wearing it.

It's ugly though, reason enough.

[Endgunner]

I generally solo as a crossbow Worker Hive or a Heavy Shek myself, Tho i will say, if you need good armor coverage early/mid game go leather. Also playing as a speedy X-bow man you don`t need to wear anything as you will not even be hit when you reach 50 dex and if they get close, you can move back a bit and reload.

[Jacks]

Masterwork Crab Helmet
Masterwork Dustcoat
Masterwork Dark Leather Shirt
Masterwork Samurai Clothpants
Wooden Sandals

[Endgunner]

Originally posted by McVader's:

Masterwork Crab Helmet
Masterwork Dustcoat
Masterwork Dark Leather Shirt
Masterwork Samurai Clothpants
Wooden Sandals

Or regular samurai legging if you find yourself being crippled a lot.