Feedback: The hex armor set - Underwhelming with room for improvements

[CaptainPOCK]

Greetings,

I have been playing for a while - Not long enough to give any in-depth feedback about late end-game progression - but far enough to see one potential balancing issue. I'm talking about the Hex armor and it's passive bonus to heal bleeding wounds automatically. While this sounds useful on paper, in practice, it falls short. Here’s why:

Having tried several armor sets, I’ve found most of them to have clear roles:

• Makeshift Armor: Useful for transporting items due to increased carry capacity.
  
• Maestro Armor: Enhances mobility and is ideal for agile playstyles.
  
• Crystalline Armor: Excels in stealth scenarios due to active cloak.
  
• Carapace Armor: Effective against melee units due to thorn ability.
  
• F.O.R.G.E. Armor: Strong against gun-wielding enemies due to bullet repelling ability.

As mentioned already, I have gotten my hands on the Hex armor, it's passive being the ability to automatically heal wounds. Upon testing this for two or three hours, I've come across those two observations:
- The passive bonus comes into play way too rarely to be noticeable.
- The passive bonus isn't unique unlike other armor set bonuses.

For example, the stealth-effect of the Crytalline armor is not a bonus you can obtain via consumables or other equipables, making it's passive unique - at least in the stage I'm currently in. The same counts for many other armor sets, such as the Carapace, FORGE or Makeshift armor. The Hex armor eliminates the need to carry lightweight bandages (stackable up to 16) by offering automatic wound healing, but this advantage is rarely significant due to the brevity of most combat encounters.

During further testing, I attempted to carry two armor pieces to swap and stop bleeding when needed. However, the passive does not retroactively apply to wounds inflicted before equipping the armor, rendering this strategy ineffective.

Proposed balancing suggestion for the Hex armor set:
[FIX] Make the wound healing mechanic work on all wounds, regardless of when the armor was put on.
[New Feature] Move the 4-set bonus (Hexed Soul) to a 2-set bonus. Introduce a new 4-set bonus called Hexed Body, which provides steady, passive health regeneration while wearing the full armor set.
[optional suggestion] Expand Hexed Soul to include healing for bone fractures and breaks, balanced with a lengthy cooldown or similar restriction to prevent it from being overpowered (like one fixed break every 5 minutes).

Why this change?
These changes aim to elevate the Hex armor’s utility without overshadowing other sets. By adding passive health regeneration, the armor would offer a mobile healing option, reducing reliance on stationary or consumable healing items like healing briefcases or stims. This would align the Hex armor with the philosophy of providing unique benefits, similar to other sets.

Right now, the armor underdelivers and the passive is highly situational. Unless someone really needs that last spot in their inventory, there is no need to wear this armor in many cases.

[Crochwhisle purple]

it also passively regenerates itself. Useful if your armor breaks before you do

[CaptainPOCK]

I must admit, I likely overlooked this feature. Or let's say, I haven't noticed it much. It's still not really major in my opinion. Certainly makes the armor unique, that's true. For longer journeys, I can see why this could come in useful, it reduces the need for tapes. Whether this makes the Armor on par with other options is a debatable.

[NaCl]

Personally. I have the hemophillia trait. I end up bleeding quite a lot from the most minor of encounters. So I normally end up carrying a bunch of bandages and tech bandages.

Wearing the hex armor, I don't have to worry about that anymore. Freeing up inventory slots. IMO it's worth it just for that.

[Doctor Darling]

I wear it simply because I love the cultist design of it. The fact it stops bleeding helps alot in the Hydroplant too, with all those damned snipers.

[Cally Emeraldaz]

i honestly expected the armor to give you more passive health regen when u had the full set on, shame that isnt the game
i do agree tho that the armor's passives are abit underwhelming compared to all the other options

plus ur missing out on medical exp by having the armor on too due to u not fixing the bleeding ur self

[Kairi ♡]

Honestly it's probably one of strongest armor sets in game - it removes even heavy bleeding snipers so love to apply, repairs itself, has relatively low weight, decent protection.

Surprised OP didn't mention Cascade armor - ability to track enemies through walls is quite handy.

[Teacyn]

This set is basically required to survive in hydroplant with Hemophillia (or just in general if you're on high difficulty) because snipers have such an incredibly high chance of causing severe bleeding.

That said, I do agree that outside of those conditions and/or if you're able to avoid the snipers consistently, it's a fairly mediocre set. I'm not sure HP regen is a good idea though, because HP regen is essentially just the same as increasing the amount of armor the set gives (arguably it's even better because it's more versatile). Perhaps it could also set broken bones? (not instantly cure them, just set them as if you'd splinted them)

[Cally Emeraldaz]

Publicado originalmente por Teacyn:

This set is basically required to survive in hydroplant with Hemophillia (or just in general if you're on high difficulty) because snipers have such an incredibly high chance of causing severe bleeding.

That said, I do agree that outside of those conditions and/or if you're able to avoid the snipers consistently, it's a fairly mediocre set. I'm not sure HP regen is a good idea though, because HP regen is essentially just the same as increasing the amount of armor the set gives (arguably it's even better because it's more versatile). Perhaps it could also set broken bones? (not instantly cure them, just set them as if you'd splinted them)

it could have the extra effect of making the sap of the wood increase the body's ability to regenerate, both health and bones, which as a given means the wounds too, so the armor more or less makes it self better the stronger your fortitude is, since the higher the fortitude, the more max hp u have
and due to the extra health regen from the armor, it would make it self a more versatile armor

hell they could even make it so that the armor's true potential cant be "sapped" into, unless you have a certain trinket, which could when worn, unlock the better health regen aswell as bone healing, if they want it to be even more balanced out

hek they could even increase its weight abit to counter this change abit


cuz yea sure, i agree.. the ability to self heal wounds almost instantly is nice on paper

however its kinda pointless if you can easily avoid getting heavy bleeding, plus the bandages to heal those arent even that expensive to maek anyway, plus ur missing out on medical exp by having the armor on

so the only good thing about the armor is its ability to self repair, however that one is abit of a downside too in a sense, since the armor prevents you from repairing it, so if its already on low af durability? welp sucks to suck, guess ya gotta wait

they could quite easily make this armor quite abit more useful, and would in a sense work well for aggressive melee playstyles

currently its just abit of a "yea i dont need to carry bandages now or worry about maintaining my armor as often"

even tho... u still have to maintain the durability of your melee weapons anyway, which means u could just repair your armor alongside your weapons when u go to do that :/

[Kairi ♡]

Armor basically has infiinite durability, as it repairs itself same moment something damages it.

[Scooter]

Been rocking the set ever since making it.
Between the nerf on how defense calculations work and how bleeding is so prevalent in the dams, this set has been my go-to. Medium armor classification (weight to def ratio) is a plus too.

[Iraneth The Goat]

I think Hex armor is good, the regen is really nice and the bleeding stop in great for hydro plant

[Jartym]

It's the lightest endgame armor set right now. With no hazmat on and just a plastic shield, you don't go above the 2nd armor encumbrance tier. A Cascade set would have to unequip a shield to be in that category. I enjoy the speed and shield, so I prefer this armor set.

Also, considering that you find it while you're close to the end of Security sector, curing bleeding is not useless:

• Snipers cause severe bleeding very frequently
  
• Defense Bot grenades can cause bleeding easily
  
• Rooks cause bleeding very frequently (stop getting hit by Rooks though lol)
  
• Mountaineer grunts can cause bleeding with their rifles
  
• Reaper causes severe bleeding if it's provoked into murder mode, which is a non-issue until you find out that stray vacuum suction counts towards triggering this mode.

Also you have +1 inventory slot from not carrying bandages.

[Crochwhisle purple]

Publicado originalmente por Jartym:

It's the lightest endgame armor set right now. With no hazmat on and just a plastic shield, you don't go above the 2nd armor encumbrance tier. A Cascade set would have to unequip a shield to be in that category. I enjoy the speed and shield, so I prefer this armor set.

Also, considering that you find it while you're close to the end of Security sector, curing bleeding is not useless:

• Snipers cause severe bleeding very frequently
  
• Defense Bot grenades can cause bleeding easily
  
• Rooks cause bleeding very frequently (stop getting hit by Rooks though lol)
  
• Mountaineer grunts can cause bleeding with their rifles
  
• Reaper causes severe bleeding if it's provoked into murder mode, which is a non-issue until you find out that stray vacuum suction counts towards triggering this mode.

Also you have +1 inventory slot from not carrying bandages.

Isn`t the maestro armor the most endgame armor set because of how much grinding you have to do and luck you have to have to get it? /j