Leather armor better than heavy ?

[Ragnaman]

So, this DLC brought a ton of interesting materials for tailors, but nothing for tin cans.
Judging by values in wiki you can achieve more tankiness with tailoring than mechanical skills.
True ?

[gallaghan2000]

depends. Seriously. use the Wiki for comparison, just keep in mind that to have serious acid resistance you need some specific leathers on hand. Kind of like having armor specifically for theme levels.

[ṣ̷h̵ệ̵p̷.̷ ̸😈]

Nope. Metal Armor (which allows reinforcement) and Tac Vest will always offer the highest defense for firearms because of the increased % of DT. Honestly though, you gain far better defense from a medium/medium or medium/low shield. Leather is just best for stat bonuses, or resistances to acid/bio, in which case efficient playing would be not to get hit.

[Ragnaman]

so this: https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sea_Wyrm_Scales (leather armour)

vs this: https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Super_Steel_Plates (metal armour)

Leather mogs the metal like nothing.

[Drokmon]

Within the DLC content, tankiness is relative. The expansion brought more crafting materials for leather armor, but it also brought enemies with less common damage types into the fray.

Some enemies deal heavily with direct bio damage, against which the new leather armors can be quite effective. Others dish out heavy energy damage, against which metal armor would fare better. "Dress for the occasion" has more meaning now. Fortunately, jet skis serve adequately as a form of mobile wardrobe, making it easier to play this way if desired.

If you're talking purely in terms of mechanical damage tanking, then some of the new leathers can mitigate a lot of it. However, keep in mind that metal armor can have extra plates added for extra protection. See below for reference. If the new leather armors can hit comparable values, let me know. I'm interested to see how well they measure up.

Underrail 1.1.2.4 - Quad Q150+ Super Steel Armor:
https://imgur.com/a/LirdUxQ

Edit: keep in mind that the tables in the wiki are generated based on assumed patterns. You'd have to actually test these things in game to see how the real values come up.

[Qiox]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

so this: https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sea_Wyrm_Scales (leather armour)

vs this: https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Super_Steel_Plates (metal armour)

Leather mogs the metal like nothing.

The metal armor chart you linked has all 3 optional extra steel plate slots left empty for the craft.

[frank_kretschmer]

As written above, yes unfortified metal armor, is not as good as tac vest, simple because of the loss with action points, there leather is the best to remains agile and you may have more shots at the emeny. But this changes by addind additional plates, they are more cumbersome, but against the normal damage, a can with extra plates is best. You may only have one shot / burst etc each turn but the emeny has problem hurting you. For special cases like acid or electric damage or sneaking you should have extra armor suits, no armor can effectiv against everything, theres always a catch. Therefore change your armor everytime you face certain emenys.

[Ragnaman]

So, leather is still the better investment than metal plates as far as skills/perks go ?

Because it sounds like tin cans are good against mechanical and thats about it (despite you being able to achieve good results with other means).
While leather has all kinds of options.

[ṣ̷h̵ệ̵p̷.̷ ̸😈]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

So, leather is still the better investment than metal plates as far as skills/perks go ?

Definitely, for defense you're better off with leather and nimble and a good medium/low shield. It's best to simply try to avoid damage anyway. Use corner, break line of sight after attacking, caltrops etc.

[Drokmon]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

So, leather is still the better investment than metal plates as far as skills/perks go ?

Because it sounds like tin cans are good against mechanical and thats about it (despite you being able to achieve good results with other means).
While leather has all kinds of options.

It's definitely the most versatile option now and more worthwhile, in the end.

Metal armor tends to work best with specialized builds that can further leverage its effects. Juggernaut feat and a sturdy vest give good health bonuses, which benefit the Super Slam feat. Heavyweight feat also helps sledgehammers due to the armor penalty. Ballistics feats can help with the mech threshold, but generally isn't worth it (better for tact vests, if that).

Another thing is availability. You can craft metal armor very early and Mercantile skill makes it easier to obtain high-quality plates. Infused armor isn't available until midgame, at which point the availability of plates increases as well. Infused armor also relies more on RNG, both for the fiber and leather quality.

[Thrax]

Not being hit is preferable, but sometimes I go metal armor just so I can put skill points into not dodge/evasion. It's not really optimal, but a different kind of convenience.

Metal armor is a ok catch all, and leather with dodge/evasion is a good catch all.
Certain scenarios it is worth switching if you know what you are facing. lots of bullets? An anti Rifle Vest is incredible.

A lot of armors inhibit certain builds, others actually emphasize them.

[ṣ̷h̵ệ̵p̷.̷ ̸😈]

Originally posted by Princess Soap:

Not being hit is preferable, but sometimes I go metal armor just so I can put skill points into not dodge/evasion. It's not really optimal, but a different kind of convenience.

It's all about bein a 3 con GOD in leather armor, with only 40 dodge for fancy footwork.

[Ragnaman]

well, you can still achieve high armour penalty with leather, so metal is not even the go-to gear for juggernaut.
I agree that metal is very easy to create early, but it requires 8 STR.

[Qiox]

Originally posted by Princess Soap:

Not being hit is preferable, but sometimes I go metal armor just so I can put skill points into not dodge/evasion. It's not really optimal, but a different kind of convenience.

Metal armor is a ok catch all, and leather with dodge/evasion is a good catch all.
Certain scenarios it is worth switching if you know what you are facing. lots of bullets? An anti Rifle Vest is incredible.

A lot of armors inhibit certain builds, others actually emphasize them.

Not getting hit has nothing to do with dodge/evasion. It is all about not giving your enemies line of sight and keeping them cc'd.