High Vitality and Heavy armor?

[FullROMSimon]

Is it even worth it to level Vitality? I know it increases your flat resistance, and in theory should allow you to tank a lot more hits, than without it. Was thinking of going 45 str and at least 40 vit. The flat physical resistance goes up from 88 to 133, which is fairly significant. Also, with the extra absorbtion with heavy armor and maybe a Ring of Steel Protection, a tanky melee build might be possible.

I'd just love to laugh at the puny Estoc users, while they stab me with their toothpick.

[꧁༺tS.KIRIHARU༻꧂]

Short answer: Nope

[Metric Guard]

Poise doesn't exist in DS3 (they forgot to turn it on lol), so heavy armor is mostly a waste of levels.

[Hakurei No Miko]

i ran into people wearing full havels with a yhorm machete and shield that was mid rolling, tested how he did it and nearly required 99 vit, so unless your willing to go into 99 vit its not worth it

[DoTackle]

I did go up to 40 Vit just to be able to get myself a fast roll with a decent set.
Since poise wont work in PvP melee tanks are not really viable... the only thing you could go for is some sort of hyperpoise weapon but in that case you kinda depend on mindgames in battles.

[JustATextBox]

Not really. I'm not sure about at high levels, maybe if you have the points to spare it is. But at SL30, I had a character with a bunch of vit (and equip load rings) - Wearing the full Catarina set, I got hit for 150. Wearing some random lightweight armor, I got hit for 137.

13 damage difference at the cost of ring slots and stats. Might aswell just put those extra points into damage or vigor and wear light armor.

[Blue Thunder]

Being a tank won't work without poise working, unless you use weapons with Hyper Armor frames, and even so and use Havel's/Smough's/Winged Knight armor I dunno how much total damage will it cut for each Estoc thrust. 30? 40 at much?
If you really want to laugh at Estoc users, parry them to show how easy it actually is to counter that ♥♥♥♥.

[Sus]

Originally posted by DoTackle:

I did go up to 40 Vit just to be able to get myself a fast roll with a decent set.
Since poise wont work in PvP melee tanks are not really viable... the only thing you could go for is some sort of hyperpoise weapon but in that case you kinda depend on mindgames in battles.

*cough* cough* hyper armor

[Majishan]

aslong as u dont level that dex tho...

[killamoney]

eh the only reason why i would have semi descent amount of Vitality is for fashion but thats it since there is no really good reason to wear heavy armor,

[thebigkabooa]

Given that there are only a few major melee strategies right now ('God mode dodge counter reaction mind game', Parry, and Damage Trade), vitality and heavy armor isn't worthless. What people are doing is trying to use it -all-. Havels, Fumes, Great Shield, they're basically going for the 120+ weight set.

This is the wrong way to go about it, especially if we're talking 'pvp meta 120sl lololol'. Fact of the matter is that Vitality lets you pick one, maybe two, categories to go balls deep in, with varying benefits. Ultra weapons for hyper armor and damage trading, armor for tickle-me-elmo straight swords, and greatshields for lolololcounterplay, or even just 'I want fast roll in medium armor'.

Vitality grants an enormous amount of damage reduction by itself, while the armor is icing on the cake if you can wear it. Armor and vitality cover for mistakes / game latency issues. People who don't put more than a few points into vitality are the ones who die in a single weapon art, or a bad Ultraweapon read. This is because the flat defense formula was a little less straightforward than we assumed, and then absorption compounds onto that.

Ever wonder why that guy in dancer armor can take so many hits? Vitality. Ever wonder why you die in a single weapon art while yours tickles them? Vitality. Heavy armor is such a waste, how could anyone wear it? VI TAL I TY.

Vitality is what you invest in for the Parry / Damage Trade approaches to melee. Yes, you can go 'lol one shot parry' builds, but the moment you !@#% up, you die. You can still wtfrekt someone with a parry with a few less points in the Quality STR/DEX set up and more into vitality, while not being punished so hard when the other guy out mindgames you.

In damage trade scenarios (More popular in duels than invasions), you're essentially taking a hit to give one, and Vitality can greatly cut the amount you take, especially on light weapons, while armor is more noticeable on heavy.

Seriously. You may not be 'edgewalk into everything and take like 2% health every hit' tank anymore, but the game pace has changed and what it means to be a beefcake has also changed. Being able to afford taking 2-3 extra -ultra swings to the face- is what makes you a tank, not -ignore the other players input because your number is high enough-.

Vitality is a good stat. It's hampered more by the low SL meta than an ything else, because it really shines with high vigor, and in the 120 meta you can't really get both without being Vanilla WoW prot paladin threat level.

As a side note: Ever wonder why Darkmoon Blade hurts so much? Largely due to the low flat magic resist score. if you're a quality/divine buffer set up, odds are your intelligence is like, baseline, and unfortunately vitality -does not- help with that.

Also, because we all love our anecdotal evidence.

I know for a -fact- some of you out there have swung straight swords, or similar powered, weapons at a variety of people. You've hit anywhere from 220-350 on a damage range. Care to guess why?

VITALITY.

[wren]

Heavy armor sucks (you can get up to 50% dam absorb without rings with havelflesh, but alas, you cannot move) due to poise only really working for heavy weapons, and with them it will regen after it is broken instantly. Leveling vitality gives more effective HP after 40 vig, usually.

[Mr. Kitty Saves The World]

Vitality is a garbage stat. You can level a bit for the sake of fashion souls, but going for high vit to wear heavy armor is a really bad idea.
The difference between someone wearing full Havel's and someone wearing the Master's set won't be very big. The difference between someone bare-ass naked and someone wearing the Master's set would be incredible. Having any empty slot actually INCREASES the damage you take, but the actual defense given by the armor isn't what's making the difference.
Heavy armor barely gives any more damage reduction than light armor; it's just not worth it. Definitely have SOMETHING in every armor slot, but don't bother going for anything heavy.
Especially without poise, there's just no point to doing it.
If you want to be tanky, level a lot of Vigor and use something with hyperarmor, like an UGS.
There is no poise tanking; there is only hyperarmor during attacks with big weapons, and poise has literally zero effect on hyperarmor. Even in full Havel's, you'll be staggered by a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Dagger, unless your hyperarmor is active.

[Finn ™]

heavy armour absoption sucks.
there's no poise.
flat damage scales as you level up, no matter much which attribute you invest.

shortly, no!

[TrueArchery]

Just a curious question:
Fastroll and Iron Flesh. Possible or not?

[Majishan]

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

Just a curious question:
Fastroll and Iron Flesh. Possible or not?

no, cuz ironflesh doesnt put weight on you like in ds2