Light Armor vs Heavy Armor

[Viv91]

I've heard a lot of reference to Light and Heavy armor in BB, but nowhere in the game, nor it seems on the forums is there a diffinitive line drawn between what is considered light and heavy armor. Now, I obviously understand that platemail and the like are heavy due to the fatigue cost, but where precisely is that line drawn?

[deathmaster snikch]

I'm going to assume that anything above Leather Lamellar Armour is considered "heavy" including Mail T-shirt

[Barahur]

I consider anything with a Fatigue penalty of 10 or less light for body armour, and 5 or less for head armour. Combined Fatigue penalty of ~15ish or so. So a Closed Mail Coif or Nasal Helmet (90/110 armour, -4/-5 fatigue) and Worn Mail Shirt (110 armour, -10 fatigue) would be at the high end of "light" armour in my opinion.

This is excluding named stuff, of course. Direwolf Hide Armour is nice for a Nimble Duelist as it's 100 armour for -9 fatigue and gives a -5 Resolve modifier to anyone he is in base contact with making them more likely to break.

[StartedOffSolid]

Heavy armor is defined ingame through ambitions. There is an ambition to put your bros in heavy armor and it's 230+. So that's the line. Anything above 230 is consider heavy. The source is the wiki, under ambition.

[mrbunnyban]

Originally posted by StartedOffSolid:

Heavy armor is defined ingame through ambitions. There is an ambition to put your bros in heavy armor and it's 230+. So that's the line. Anything above 230 is consider heavy. The source is the wiki, under ambition.

That much? Huh. I've only needed as much as 210 from reinforced mail for my bros with 2H weapons for the first crisis.

[Wise Joe]

Sorry to necro, but I did not find any information on this in a more recent thread.

Per the ambition it is a combined durability of 230+. So, if per mrbunnyban we only need 210 durability why would I ever go with Battle Forged? Why would I not always go with Nimble?

Also, why does the game make the line between light vs heavy armor so obscure that one has to search the scrolls of all the ancient and cobwebbed libraries of the world to know which is which? Why not just label the gear as such, or use a different method of determining the classification of armor. I suppose this method is used as it will take into account a mix of armor. Meaning you could be wearing a "heavy" helmet like a full helm (durability 300) and a leather tunic (durability 30) resulting in you effectively being in "heavy armor" and qualify for Battle Forged. That would be my guess, but what a pain! I feel it could have been handled a different way. Like if you are wearing a mixture of "heavy" and "light" armor then you do not qualify for either Battle Forged or Nimble. Sorry for the ending complaint. :)

[A5G_Reaper]

Originally posted by Wise Joe:

Sorry to necro, but I did not find any information on this in a more recent thread.

Per the ambition it is a combined durability of 230+. So, if per mrbunnyban we only need 210 durability why would I ever go with Battle Forged? Why would I not always go with Nimble?

Also, why does the game make the line between light vs heavy armor so obscure that one has to search the scrolls of all the ancient and cobwebbed libraries of the world to know which is which? Why not just label the gear as such, or use a different method of determining the classification of armor. I suppose this method is used as it will take into account a mix of armor. Meaning you could be wearing a "heavy" helmet like a full helm (durability 300) and a leather tunic (durability 30) resulting in you effectively being in "heavy armor" and qualify for Battle Forged. That would be my guess, but what a pain! I feel it could have been handled a different way. Like if you are wearing a mixture of "heavy" and "light" armor then you do not qualify for either Battle Forged or Nimble. Sorry for the ending complaint. :)

Just make a new thread next time.

Anyway, there's no distinction because it's a slope rather than an instant delineation. For example, nimble (the light armor perk) provide maximum bonus at -15 total weight and it'll gradually decrease until it zeroes at -44. It's up to you to decide at which balance is the extra armor worth the reduced nimble bonus. The combination of this is massive, from the standard -5/-10 nasal hat and lamellar to some heavier variation with -11 southern mail shirt, or 0/-15 necrohat + noble mail with steel brow, and even exotic options like -20/0 ijirok helmet + kraken plate tunic.

On the other hand, battleforged (the heavy armor perk) gives 5% armor damage reduction for every 100 armor you have. So naturally it's crappy at lower total armor, and gets increasingly better the higher it goes.

210 durability armor was fine in 2017. Indom cycling had been removed since then, and now anyone with 210 BF will get mulched in 2 hits by a chosen.

[Wise Joe]

Thanks for the reply.

[Estieukua]

Originally posted by A5G_Reaper:

210 durability armor was fine in 2017. Indom cycling had been removed since then, and now anyone with 210 BF will get mulched in 2 hits by a chosen.

In April 2017, Indom cycling had only just become feasible.

It's also worth noting that the current form of the Nimble perk didn't exist until the end of 2018.

Now, anyone with 300/300-ish BF armours will get mulched in 3 hits by a chosen ...

[99Random]

Originally posted by Estieukua:

Now, anyone with 300/300-ish BF armours will get mulched in 3 hits by a chosen ...

Not if you know what you are doing as i run full front line BF 600-650 and have no issues with fighting chosen. With AFP and battleforged they are not even scary at all anymore.

[Estieukua]

In 300/300-ish standard armours and no attachment, anyone will be (at least) near-dead (with multiple injuries) after 3 hits from a chosen mace/hammer/axe.

In 325/325-ish rare armours with AFP or bone plates, anyone will be injured (possibly badly, depending on HPs) after 3 hits from a chosen mace/hammer/axe.

Battle-Forged makes barely any difference to injury-resistance against chosen.

Without Steel Brow, chosen mace/hammer/axe headshots through heavy armour will be devastating.

That's not to say that you can't regularly fight chosen in heavy armour (or even medium-heavy armour) without masses of injuries, but just that there will be masses of injuries if people get hit several times.

[99Random]

I did not make my point very clear. ANY bro will be in bad shape after 3 hits from a chosen.

BF will still have a good chuck of armor, but the high AID will let a lot of hp damage through. The Nimble will be much better off after the first blow, but that blow will vaporize their light armor and leave them vulnerable to the (reduced) full damage of the next two blows.

It really comes down to tactics and a little luck that one bro does not get hit too many times when fighting large numbers of chosen in one fight.

[Estieukua]

Originally posted by 99Random:

It really comes down to tactics and a little luck that one bro does not get hit too many times when fighting large numbers of chosen in one fight.

Yes. If you are able to prevent anyone getting spammed with attacks, large groups of chosen are no longer particularly daunting, and it doesn't really matter whether you're Nimble or in heavy armour.

Nimble (with high HPs) has better injury resistance against the first hit or two, and takes longer to die from chosen hammers/maces, but of course the second (and third) hit will probably be applied against naked flesh, and could come from a rusty warblade instead. Heavy armour (with decent/high HPs) isn't too troubled by warblades while most of it remains (although it's dead meat once it's gone).

[Wise Joe]

Thanks for the expanded discussion. I find it helpful.