How important is Bitterblack Isle armor?

[Renryuu]

Heya, so I'm playing as Assassin now and I've gotten a nice set of gear on him that increases his str and was just wondering if BBI armor was worth using over gear that increases Str or if it's more "use it if you like the effects" sort of deal?

[Doomvora]

BBI gear (specifically lvl 3 armor and lvl 3 weapons) are the best pieces of equipment in the game, so theres that.

[Renryuu]

I know they provide the highest defense, but would that defense be worth it if you are a climber and as such take little to no damage as you melt bosses with Gale Harness + Thousand Kisses? I mean, maybe I'm missing something, since I don't have any pieces so I can't make a first hand judgement. I'm just under the idea that more str = faster kills = less chance of being thrown off and stomped on by monsters. x_x

[Doomvora]

I mean i personally use oblivion gear with framae daggers/devilsbane with thousand kisses/dire gouge and don't really have any issues doing damage, i murder things faster than i care to admit, almost as bad as blast arrows against daimon.

[Renryuu]

Alrighty then, I'll continue to try to farm for a set. I looked on the wiki and did notice some potential effects that could benefit me very well. Thank you for the reponses. :)

[Dexter]

I found any kind of armor useless in this game, really. I am always going for full fashion.

Resistances-who cares? buy curatives
Defensive stats- buy curatives
Str/Mag bonuses- on lvl100(normal mode) and lvl150(hard mode) You should be able to melt 85% of the enemies in BBI so...

[Huggles the Cat]

Originally posted by Shurris Bondalek:

BBI gear (specifically lvl 3 armor and lvl 3 weapons) are the best pieces of equipment in the game, so theres that.

Define "best". I find some of it to look absolutly garish so I avoid wearing it, choosing to instead have a more fashionable arisen and pawn over equipment statitistics.

[Doomvora]

Originally posted by Mr.Huggles:

Define "best". I find some of it to look absolutly garish so I avoid wearing it, choosing to instead have a more fashionable arisen and pawn over equipment statitistics.

Don't think best needs to be defined, obviously im talking about stat-wise, what else would i be talking about.

[Huggles the Cat]

Originally posted by Shurris Bondalek:

Originally posted by Mr.Huggles:

Define "best". I find some of it to look absolutly garish so I avoid wearing it, choosing to instead have a more fashionable arisen and pawn over equipment statitistics.

Don't think best needs to be defined, obviously im talking about stat-wise, what else would i be talking about.

Raw defense; and attack or resistances over defenses. weight of equipment, heavy over light. Elemental or non-elemental. even on a statitical level you can still break things down since these armors aren't without their draw backs (so some degree). Besides, some people's idea of best isn't always stat based. Going onto the wiki you'll find that there are sujested armor's that aren't part of a set but are recomended because they are some of the "best" for matching apperance.

[ROFLpl0x]

Originally posted by Mr.Huggles:

Originally posted by Shurris Bondalek:

Don't think best needs to be defined, obviously im talking about stat-wise, what else would i be talking about.

Raw defense; and attack or resistances over defenses. weight of equipment, heavy over light. Elemental or non-elemental. even on a statitical level you can still break things down since these armors aren't without their draw backs (so some degree). Besides, some people's idea of best isn't always stat based. Going onto the wiki you'll find that there are sujested armor's that aren't part of a set but are recomended because they are some of the "best" for matching apperance.

Dude, seriously, "best" when it comes to gear is always based on some combination of stats that the gear provides. The best for one class isn't always the best for another, though. Like cloth armor on a fighter, even the "best" there is is the worst you can use but amongst cloth armor variants that piece will still be the best piece of cloth based on the stat boosts it has. This isn't always true in PvP games (good ones, anyway, that are stat-based and have actual character building and specializations) but in singpleplayer games it is 99.9% of the time.

Objectively speaking, the best pieces of level 3 BBI gear are the best piece of gear simply because they provides the highest and/or best combination of stat boosts. The weight of the stuff would only be a factor if it was inordinately heavy. It isn't, therefore whatever it's weight is a worthwhile trade off for the stat boosts it provides. Do you NEED level 3 BBI gear, or any BBI gear at all? No, but that's a whole different discussion.

"Best" for matching appearances" is a special case and never used to define a "best" piece of gear beyond exactly that - matching appearances. To you, the best looking piece might mean it's the best piece but that isn't how the overwhelming majority of people make that decision.

[Paradox]

Originally posted by renryuu:

Heya, so I'm playing as Assassin now and I've gotten a nice set of gear on him that increases his str and was just wondering if BBI armor was worth using over gear that increases Str or if it's more "use it if you like the effects" sort of deal?

Some of the Tier 3 BBI Armor have far better enhancements than paltry stat gains. Think inherent health regeneration, extended buff duration, increased carry-weight and dragon wingflap immunity to name a few.

[JtDarth]

Generally speaking, and I'm sure most the vets here agree with me, fashion is more important than the majority of stats on armor, especially at higher levels, since armor protection does not scale well with levelling/enemy attack damage too well.

The main reason to use the bbi lvl3s is the random additional effects they can have, stuff like what Paradox mentioned.

Overall, outside of early-game (which I'm defining as pre-everfall opening), having super heavy armor isn't going to do anywhere near enough to really justify wearing some of the high end stuff that looks like crap. The enemies will still be hitting hard enough to cause major damage even with the armor, and you are better served learning how not to get hit in the first place than trying to soak damage. Even warrior and fighter can't actually soak hits in post game without heavy curative use until they are very much overleveled, and with BBI, you will never reach a point where you can really tank hits against any of the bbi exclusive monsters.

[ROFLpl0x]

Originally posted by DarthNachoz:

Generally speaking, and I'm sure most the vets here agree with me, fashion is more important than the majority of stats on armor, especially at higher levels, since armor protection does not scale well with levelling/enemy attack damage too well.

The main reason to use the bbi lvl3s is the random additional effects they can have, stuff like what Paradox mentioned.

Overall, outside of early-game (which I'm defining as pre-everfall opening), having super heavy armor isn't going to do anywhere near enough to really justify wearing some of the high end stuff that looks like crap. The enemies will still be hitting hard enough to cause major damage even with the armor, and you are better served learning how not to get hit in the first place than trying to soak damage. Even warrior and fighter can't actually soak hits in post game without heavy curative use until they are very much overleveled, and with BBI, you will never reach a point where you can really tank hits against any of the bbi exclusive monsters.

Except this is all pointless because how good a piece of gear looks is purely a matter of opinion. You can't use fashion as a basis for what constitutes the best gear anymore than you can use the type of cheese as a basis for what constitutes the best cheeseburger. The semantics of "important" vs. "best" and fallacious appeals to the majority be damned.

What is a fact is the extent of protection or some other advantage the gear provides and Paradox's examples are still stats, just like any other stat. These things are not opinions, the effects are measurable, as is their difference from piece to piece, and everybody can agree on their inherent value. That means they provide an objective basis to determine which piece of gear is better than another, eventually arriving at the best gear based on the highest or the best combination of stats. Why do we do it this way? So people will know WTF you're talking about in a "best gear" discussion.

This is why in EVERY single game that has weapons and armor the higher-tiered, hard to find, more expensive and generally more desirable gear always has stat advantages over lesser pieces, regardless of how subjectively better it might look.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by Whack!:

Originally posted by DarthNachoz:

Generally speaking, and I'm sure most the vets here agree with me, fashion is more important than the majority of stats on armor, especially at higher levels, since armor protection does not scale well with levelling/enemy attack damage too well.

The main reason to use the bbi lvl3s is the random additional effects they can have, stuff like what Paradox mentioned.

Overall, outside of early-game (which I'm defining as pre-everfall opening), having super heavy armor isn't going to do anywhere near enough to really justify wearing some of the high end stuff that looks like crap. The enemies will still be hitting hard enough to cause major damage even with the armor, and you are better served learning how not to get hit in the first place than trying to soak damage. Even warrior and fighter can't actually soak hits in post game without heavy curative use until they are very much overleveled, and with BBI, you will never reach a point where you can really tank hits against any of the bbi exclusive monsters.

Except this is all pointless because how good a piece of gear looks is purely a matter of opinion. You can't use fashion as a basis for what constitutes the best gear anymore than you can use the type of cheese as a basis for what constitutes the best cheeseburger. The semantics of "important" vs. "best" and fallacious appeals to the majority be damned.

What is a fact is the extent of protection or some other advantage the gear provides and Paradox's examples are still stats, just like any other stat. These things are not opinions, the effects are measurable, as is their difference from piece to piece, and everybody can agree on their inherent value. That means they provide an objective basis to determine which piece of gear is better than another, eventually arriving at the best gear based on the highest or the best combination of stats. Why do we do it this way? So people will know WTF you're talking about in a "best gear" discussion.

This is why in EVERY single game that has weapons and armor the higher-tiered, hard to find, more expensive and generally more desirable gear always has stat advantages over lesser pieces, regardless of how subjectively better it might look.

Unfortunately, the OP was not asking if the gear was better, he was asking how 'important' it is.
I took that to mean he was asking if he needed to farm/use bbi armor to survive.
The whole purpose of bringing up fashion's dogma was to illustrate the fact that the majority of long term players don't actually worry about how protective the armor is, with more importance being placed on looks. Even the most protective gear isn't worth much in BBI.

This is in no way a best gear discussion. The op was not asking for best gear, he was asking if it is necessary to wear bbi gear over existing gear that has effects he likes.
You and a few others highjacked the thread trying to turn it into a best gear discussion.

You claim that looks are subjective? So is the importance of stats. You can kill everything in bbi nude and with rusted weapons if you wanted to. This means the stats of armors are of subjective value, based upon the player's opinions.

[deadoptimist]

But also the lvl 3 BBI gear when gold-gragonforged tends to offer 100% resistances to negative status effects like poison or sleep, it can be a nice bonus.

[ROFLpl0x]

Actually, what the OP asked is "if BBI armor was worth using over gear that increases Str or if it's more "use it if you like the effects" sort of deal?", not if it was actually necessary OR important. The immediate response was "BBI gear (specifically lvl 3 armor and lvl 3 weapons) are the best pieces of equipment in the game, so theres that." Isn't exactly a straightforward answer but it makes the point and apparently got the job done since the OP says he'll continue farming for it because he discovered some effects that could benefit him.

It then became a best gear discussion when huggles decided he wanted "best" defined, even though throughout the entire RPG genre "best" always has been, is currently, and forever will be defined by stats and Shurris was obviously using stats to make that determination.

As far as the subjectivity of stats goes, you're missing the point. Stats are used to define the quality (good, better, best) of gear because stats and the benefits they provide are something that everyone can agree on and understands, unlike fashion which is nothing but pure preference. Various opinions regarding the importance of those stats in a particular game doesn't make any difference, the criteria for determining what gear is the best gear remains the same else one could just as easily argue that the rags (literal rags in Dragon's Dogma) you start out with are the best gear in the game.

I will say this, though. I replied to your post before I'd gotten my caffeine ppm to the near toxic levels my body requires and in retrospect, it does seem mostly geared to answering the OP's original question, however, I think it's also a thinly-veiled defense of the notion that "best" or even "better" ever has anything to do with fashion or something other than stats. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Either is fine and I'm willing to not argue with you about it if you say it isn't.