metal or leather or both?

[coolthingsbecool]

which one is objectively better? iirc, some tip said something about metal being for ballistic and leather for laser, yes?

[red255]

Combat armor can take BOS upgrade for 0 weight added like 10 or 15 radiation resistance.

I generally go with just a tier 1 set of fortified (+1 str and endurance) legendary combat armor.

if you want resistance you put on some underarmor and ballistic weave it, you can buy a baseball uniform from moe cronin to wear under your armor for +1 STR and +1 AGI (or millitary fatigues, dirty military fatigues from the gunners corpses) and various hats like a trilby hat or battered fedora which can take ballistic weave and makes armor moot.

which you get for doing some railroad quests.

[coolthingsbecool]

Originally posted by red255:

Combat armor can take BOS upgrade for 0 weight added like 10 or 15 radiation resistance.

I generally go with just a tier 1 set of fortified (+1 str and endurance) legendary combat armor.

if you want resistance you put on some underarmor and ballistic weave it, you can buy a baseball uniform from moe cronin to wear under your armor for +1 STR and +1 AGI (or millitary fatigues, dirty military fatigues from the gunners corpses) and various hats like a trilby hat or battered fedora which can take ballistic weave and makes armor moot.

which you get for doing some railroad quests.

so... metal?

[steventirey]

Leather armor provides more energy resistance. Metal armor is more for ballistic damage. Of the two, metal armor will be more use, as most enemies will use normal guns and not energy weapons.

Combat armor provides more all around protection.

[76561199433139579]

Metal leg wear, leather arm wear. Immaculate drip.

[Aegyssus]

Originally posted by coolthingsbecool:

which one is objectively better? iirc, some tip said something about metal being for ballistic and leather for laser, yes?

To be honest, by the time you will get the Ballistic Weave, Armor will be just cosmetic and/or to add Legendary attributes ...

I go for "cosmetic" darkened and ultra-light Sturdy Combat Armor all pieces with desired legendary effects.
I use console to add the Legendary effects I want and in turn, for fairness, I discard 3 similar pieces that I do not like for each item I create,..

[Ommamar]

Originally posted by krixpop:

Originally posted by coolthingsbecool:

which one is objectively better? iirc, some tip said something about metal being for ballistic and leather for laser, yes?

To be honest, by the time you will get the Ballistic Weave, Armor will be just cosmetic and/or to add Legendary attributes ...

I go for "cosmetic" darkened and ultra-light Sturdy Combat Armor all pieces with desired legendary effects.
I use console to add the Legendary effects I want and in turn, for fairness, I discard 3 similar pieces that I do not like for each item I create,..

One thing to consider is you can add legendary effects to armor pieces so they can add a lot to a build. Over all ballistic weave will provide most of your armor, still using the legendary effects for the separate pieces can be very useful.

As for the original question I find I get more mileage out of metal as steventirey mentioned most of the low and mid level enemies will be using ballistic so that will be the more important factor. Once you reach the point where you will be needing more energy resistance you should have reached the point where what the armor adds resistance wise is mute.

[Aegyssus]

Originally posted by Ommamar:

...
As for the original question I find I get more mileage out of metal as steventirey mentioned most of the low and mid level enemies will be using ballistic so that will be the more important factor. Once you reach the point where you will be needing more energy resistance you should have reached the point where what the armor adds resistance wise is mute.

I just NOW realized that indeed the metal armor offer more protection towards ballistics, at mid level as you and steventirey said !
After all this years and more than 1500 hours (and double that off-line)!
Ans I realized why I always struggled so much until I've got to the Railroad and got the Ballistic Weave ...

[Rabidnid]

Power armour or combat armour. I scrap everything else or sell it.

[Heimdall313]

Leather is lower weight, good for energy resist. Generally speaking, Brotherhood of Steel, Synths, and Gunners are the only energy weapons you'll be fighting. Good for sneaking, or just for low Strength characters.

Metal is good for ballistic damage; bullets and melee weapons. Its heavy, but Asbestos lining balances the Energy resist fairly well.

Combat Armor is the middle ground; medium weight, balanced protection, leaves nothing to be desired. I just like the way Leather looks.

[ImHelping]

The eternal cycle of lies about leather armor being "Super light weight" and "Best against energy"

Step 1: "Basic Leather armor is lighter than basic combat armor and the energy resist is still good! So that means (after I bust my ass unlocking ballistic weave) leather is better than combat armor!"

Step 2: "Hey what the ♥♥♥♥, heavy leather is only TWO POUNDS lighter than heavy combat armor if you don't include the helmet! (Nevermind that I am obsessed with the assault mask) AND it has less than ten more energy defense than heavy combat, in exchanged for much worse ballistic! I have been scammed!"

Step 3: Torn apart by rabid stealth players screaming that it still counts because they wear only the basic, pathetic defense value, entry level leather for armor mods reasons.

To be fair, it matters early on. More so when you get lucky and find sturdy leather armor parts while you are only just starting to collect basic combat armor. More so if you are not trying to bumrush the technically optional ballistic weave unlock, (And in fact, on the way to it as well, because you fight a pile of synths to do so. Even as weak as institute lasers are. 1 Random raider or super mutant with a basic laser rifle >>> five synths).

In my latest run I was spending a lot of time with combat armor limbs and sturdy leather chest armor because of this, in fact. Because basic combat armor chest is just outright weaker than sturdy leather chest.

But treating "Leather armor is much lighter/much better energy resist!" as a hard fact just leads to disappointment.

Of course, heavy leather and heavy combat are still literally less than half the weight of heavy DLC armors in most cases. Doesn't heavy operator armor weigh over a hundred pounds or some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥?

[Iron Knights]

Synth for both, heavy synth armor has high value in both.

[Iron Knights]

Heavy Army is second to synth, even numbers but somewhat limited.

[DouglasGrave]

Whether you prefer metal or leather depends on your personal fetishes.

[Iron Knights]

But Army has metal and leather padding.

[Nite69]

I use metal because you can transfer the polish upgrade to the next armor rank up without remaking it

also its easier to get the parts to upgrade the metal armor then it is for the combat armor