Armor set with best defense?

[Squirting Elephant]

Is it the old knight set? I just need one so I don't get one-hit in NG+.

Also a set with a particular resistance like fire or lightning res or so would be nice to switch to for bosses.

Armor:
Physical: Havel
Dark: Dark set
Fire: Smelter (Should have known)
Lightning: ?
Magic: ?

Shields:
Magic: Magic shield + magic infuse = 100%
Fire: Gwyrm (100% physical and 100% fire no infuse req)
Poison: Blossom Kite Shield 90% @ +0
Lighting: Throne Watcher Shield 90% @ +0

[Angela™]

Thats a broad spectrum. Havels has the best physical in game but weighs a ton. Smelter demon armor has the highest fire resistance. Dark set obviously does well against dark and so forth.

What you want to do is piece together what you can wear and stay below 70%. People rarely wear a full armor set just for the stats.

My best reccomendation in that regard would be to infuse shields that can hit 100% in whatever required element you desire. If a hit goes through, you can take it but a shield which nullifies said element is a good thing to fall back on.

[Pewpewmoar]

Havel's shield has amazing (albeit not 100%) damage reduction in almost every damage type, but comes with a huge strength requirement and weight. In terms of armor, mix and match. Wearing a piece or 2 of light armor for the magic resistances can be useful.

[ZakisFluffy]

Pretty much what Cyriel said.
Blocking and dodging is much more reliable than relying on you armor for survivability.

Even back in DS1 you'd see a lot of people naked people either dodging or utilizing a greatshield to turtle.

That's why we have what is called "fashion souls" where people jus mix and match stuff that is appealing to their eyes rather than utilizing it for their stats and performance.

[Squirting Elephant]

Thanks that is really good to know.

So:
Physical: Havel
Dark: Dark set
Fire: Smelter (Should have known)
Lightning: ?
Magic: ?

Shield:
I use Gyrm for fire & physical def. I could probably infuse it to also give it 100% lightning def but I'm not sure if infusing shields will also cause it to lower it's fire res.
Vs the ancient dragon at the end I was planning on using 2 gyrm shields to kill him :P. Not sure if it will work because his attacks drain your stamina so hard.

Yes my alt is as good as naked with dual wielding and lots of adaptability. But this character is just pure strength and hp and can carry a lot of weight anyway.

[Pewpewmoar]

Can you powerstance 2 grym shields? The only greatshields I've properly tried are Reeve's and Orma's.

[Gerk]

Originally posted by Silver:

Thanks that is really good to know.

So:
Physical: Havel
Dark: Dark set
Fire: Smelter (Should have known)
Lightning: ?
Magic: ?

Shield:
I use Gyrm for fire & physical def. I could probably infuse it to also give it 100% lightning def but I'm not sure if infusing shields will also cause it to lower it's fire res.
Vs the ancient dragon at the end I was planning on using 2 gyrm shields to kill him :P. Not sure if it will work because his attacks drain your stamina so hard.

Yes my alt is as good as naked with dual wielding and lots of adaptability. But this character is just pure strength and hp and can carry a lot of weight anyway.

Yes infusing shields also drops the other stauts of the like how infusing a wepon works.

[Beel]

You can try to find the mathematical best

orrrrrrr

FASHION SOULS

the fabulous way to play

[Angela™]

Looking glass knight set for lightning

Not sure which is for magic.

Also about infusing shields: Only very specific shields can get 100% resists if you infuse them. Magic shield for example starts out with a 90% magic resist base which goes to 100% with an infusion in magic (magic magic shield)

A blossom kite shield will go 100% in poison. A throne watcher shield will go 100% in lightning. etc etc

However there are shields with 90% based that DO NOT go to 100% on infusion. They might hit 100% with upgrades but that's questionable.

For a full list, see: http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Upgrades

[Dammekos]

I spent a lot of time looking for the "best" armor, but then I realized that every armor set has its ups and downs and I'd rather wear matching clothes than get that 10 extra bonus defense or whatever.

[Squirting Elephant]

Originally posted by Pewpewmoar:

Can you powerstance 2 grym shields? The only greatshields I've properly tried are Reeve's and Orma's.

Should be possible but I can't for some reason. I have 48 strength and < 100% weight. What do I miss?

[Alfam312]

Actually, the smelter helmet +5 has more defence than Havel's helm +5
But every other piece of Havel is better

[7up Free]

Originally posted by Silver:

Originally posted by Pewpewmoar:

Can you powerstance 2 grym shields? The only greatshields I've properly tried are Reeve's and Orma's.

Should be possible but I can't for some reason. I have 48 strength and < 100% weight. What do I miss?

You need fifty strength to power stance reeve orma pair,i struggled with this for quite some time :p

[Testing]

Smelter's armor as a whole set is probably the most fire resistant set, however each piece save for maybe the gauntlets is beaten out by individual armor pieces from other sets. Black Witch Robe has higher fire defense than the smelter chest, and has high elemental resists in general. Hexer boots or Chaos boots beat out the smelter leggings. And the new headpiece, Pharros Mask, from the new DLC essentially has the highest fire resist for any armor piece in the game since it's special effect soaks you and adds 100 fire resist + it's normal defenses (however you become more susceptible to lightning damage from being soaked).

I don't really know about other resists, I only know about fire resists since I wanted fire immunity for NG+ ancient dragon. But, most likely mixing and matching different pieces from separate sets will net the highest defenses and resists for different damages.

[Mikoto]

naked definitly has the best armor stats

fashion souls ftw?

[Anebriate]

Xanthous head with nothing else. Kill them with sexual tension