Is Heavy Armor over-rated?

[Exsilium Games]

Everything Ive read and watched suggest that Heavy Armor is the way to go, even if your a pure caster.

The penalty to spells is slight, and even with 50 heavy armor its like a -10% penalty. The idea is that the armor offsets this. Heavy armor is ... well... heavy. it makes looting a pita for a while but after about level 10 its not a big deal anymore.

Light armor looks better imho, but if your going to use armor ... then use heavy armor, or if your a pure caster then use the summon armor spells. Granted, early on, those armor summons only last for 20 seconds and considering you have to summon one piece at a time.. by the time you get the last piece summoned the first piece has to be re-summoned... so thats lame. Once you can craft spells though you could make a spell that summons all the pieces.

The point to all of this is I am thinking of starting over in the highest difficulty but I want to do pure caster... but without all the clunky armor.

Why.... because it feels.... wrong... to wear all of that when your a pure caster.

Just thought of something else... a robe replaces 3 armor pieces, so it limits the number of things you can enchant which could be a problem.

[Tommy Wiseau]

Light armor is going to break after literally every single dungeon so yes. Wear heavy armor it breaks fast too but not as fast, i just use the dark brotherhood gear as my light armor and i only use it with the bow and sneaking.

[troubles]

armor is overrated. 0 weight chameleon suit is the most optimized setup

[IvantheFormidable]

I play characters that tend toward skirmisher/thief, so can't say I've ever sat down and thought about the meta or the min/max. Ultimately, use whatever armor skill you want, but stick with it. Playing without armor is fine, especially if you want to go the alteration route or use conjured armor.

[Shotgun Merwin]

Light armor offers very little protection, except if you max out the skill which isn't easy to do and you're going to be forced to play the whole game with pretty inferior armor. If you expect to engage in melee combat at all, then you pretty much have to go with heavy.

[Scraps]

If we're being objective, reaching the armour cap simply with a heavy raiment is better than doing the same with light armour+alteration for speed, especially for Master difficulty.

I like the feel of Light Armour more personally but Heavy's reputation is fully warranted. If we're playing on the Master level difficulty, you have to sacrifice roleplay for optimisation if you don't want to die a lot.

[ShadowDark3]

IMO, min-maxing in Oblivion really limits the fun you can have with the game. The gear I use is dictated by the sort of character I'm playing as in the given playthrough.

I know that style isn't for everyone, but it means I've never worried about whether or not heavy armour is over rated.

[CidDaBird]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1551139088

Heavy armor is tight

[Xcorps]

Originally posted by Exsilium Games:

Everything Ive read and watched suggest that Heavy Armor is the way to go, even if your a pure caster.

The penalty to spells is slight, and even with 50 heavy armor its like a -10% penalty. The idea is that the armor offsets this. Heavy armor is ... well... heavy. it makes looting a pita for a while but after about level 10 its not a big deal anymore.

Light armor looks better imho, but if your going to use armor ... then use heavy armor, or if your a pure caster then use the summon armor spells. Granted, early on, those armor summons only last for 20 seconds and considering you have to summon one piece at a time.. by the time you get the last piece summoned the first piece has to be re-summoned... so thats lame. Once you can craft spells though you could make a spell that summons all the pieces.

The point to all of this is I am thinking of starting over in the highest difficulty but I want to do pure caster... but without all the clunky armor.

Why.... because it feels.... wrong... to wear all of that when your a pure caster.

Just thought of something else... a robe replaces 3 armor pieces, so it limits the number of things you can enchant which could be a problem.

A spell penalty of 10 is not slight, it's the difference between max effect, which can can glorious depending on the spell and kinda meh. For instance, 100 chameleon is more than 10 percent more effective than 90 chameleon. There are many other examples.

Armor damage reduction is capped at 85, shield is not. I'm level 15 and I've got 80+ going into every fight for 2 minutes. I take significantly less damage than someone in ebony armor, am significantly faster with a speed of 92 and can immediately stunlock anything that isn't magic resistant for 8 seconds, so I don't really need much anyway. I don't need to worry about durability, and it's a lot more carry room. i have more damage mitigation with a potion, 2 spells, and my clothing than heavy armor can provide. the only reason to wear any armor would be for an extra enhancement, or alternate set of enhancements for a specific type of fight. For instance, I carry guantlets of fortify strength +20 for the occasional pesky magic resistant critter to save the mana i usually spend on it before you get to the higher level daedra.

I have played heavy armor mages. It doesn't really make a differnce, I was just advocating the other way.

[Morgian]

I found that the chameleon set pretty much beats light and heavy armor - what doesn't attack cannot harm you. Of course, you need the soul gems and a set of clothes or armor you want to enchant. So it isn't beginner friendly, as you need to level up several skills to 50+ (sneak, mysticism, illusion), but I managed it at level 18.
It was mostly a 'let me see if that actually works' attempt, and it does. It bypasses some old bugs, too, which are still there.

[Exsilium Games]

Originally posted by Morgian:

I found that the chameleon set pretty much beats light and heavy armor - what doesn't attack cannot harm you. Of course, you need the soul gems and a set of clothes or armor you want to enchant. So it isn't beginner friendly, as you need to level up several skills to 50+ (sneak, mysticism, illusion), but I managed it at level 18.
It was mostly a 'let me see if that actually works' attempt, and it does. It bypasses some old bugs, too, which are still there.

but if you dont kill stuff your loosing out on loot, unless you attempt to pickpocket everything .....

[IvantheFormidable]

Originally posted by Exsilium Games:

but if you dont kill stuff your loosing out on loot, unless you attempt to pickpocket everything .....

At level 25 one run to a single specific cave nets me between 70 and 80k. At that point loot is optional, and I'd assume it's similar for someone going the 100% chameleon route.

[Morgian]

You misunderstand chameleon :)

It means I get to kill everything without a serious fight.

Edit: Yes, after a certain point loot is not that important anymore. Especially since the remastered merchants don't have a lump sum, but only a limit for the price of an individual item.

[Shaken_Widow]

Originally posted by Morgian:

You misunderstand chameleon :)

It means I get to kill everything without a serious fight.

Edit: Yes, after a certain point loot is not that important anymore. Especially since the remastered merchants don't have a lump sum, but only a limit for the price of an individual item.

it is SUPPOSED to be a lump sum, in fact it still has the same bug that after selling a bunch of things to a vendor and then coming back their amount of gold will be less, and then everything you try to sell will only be able to reach that max amount.

for instance the alchemy lady in the lustratoriom i sold her a bunch of alembics and such that i had early on, her gold was default at 1500 i think?

after coming back a day or so later all she had was 15 and would only buy things for a max price of 15

that is a bug from the original game, they are in fact supposed to have a lump sum of cash which is why when you invest it is supposed to go up.

that is not the "max amount an item can sell for" it just ends up being that way if you sell them things and then come back and the game rechecks their gold amount.

[Faptor]

Im a huge fan of wearing heavy armor while being a pure caster (it just looks cool) and ive never really had a problem. Hoof it to frostcraig spire, buy the candles for the spell making station and go nuts with whatever.

You get to look snazzy AND kill anything before it can look at you too sternly. Spellcrafting is the way to go

[Trvor]

i typically never wear armor in elder scrolls, this is just an age old habit from morrowind and daggerfall, only issue is unarmored never returned as a skill to the series after it's removal in oblivion.

nothing a shield enchant can't solve tho

robes are the drip