Armor plating and weapons upgrades

[AunDrew]

So I've been playing around with upgrades and such for tools armor and weapons. It really.. doesn't seem worth it at all. A heavy set of armor goes from 810 durability to 600 in order to get 2 points of armor? or.. a starmetal sword goes from 1000 durabilty to 600 durability for 4 points extra of damage?
A steel pickaxe goes from 220 durability to 165.. for a tool upgrade, which doesn't seem to do much.
Seems rather worthless. Anyone else getting all this as well? Is this what's supposed to happen?

[BigBombz]

Yes, those are worthless. Don't know if they work as supposed or are they just another thing that's broken in this game.

[Enorats]

Wait. making your armor more sturdy makes it less durable?

Me thinks that's not how that should work.

[Tocolo]

Of course the principle is correct; you improve one stat, so another is decreased. It's a customisation option, for special purposes. This isn't supposed to make you weapon/armour/tool better (or at least equal) in every respect.

[Badmagic]

They are pretty awful, only one I've found worthwhile is the durability tool upgrades, they are also the only one I found to work on shields.

[Lord Dralisz]

Last update was made and pushed out for only one purpose to give you an update before xmas and Funcom's long winter holiday. It's rushed, full of bugs, breaking the game. Most upgrades are useless , and disappear after a logoff or while you using your stuffs. There is no real planning behind it , just give something to the kids to play with.

[Use Your Brain]

By far the most useful modification is the increased harvest rates to all your tools. Every tool should have the top mod you can put on it after you get the highest level tool you can have for your level. Unless you cannot manage to repair your tools on time or bring materials with you it is purely a bonus. Who cares about efficiency if you fail to do that simple task anyways. I did not test if increased durability increases the repair costs but I assume it would. Even if it keeps the cost the same it would be 10x less efficient then the extra harvesting. I could write 25 pages alone on how to raise your net profits of harvesting. The simple of it is that even on a 1 time server the costs to harvest are way less then the harvest you produce. My costs are less then 2% with bis tools, upgrades, and game experience. The best tool upgrade is +3 for say a black ice pick mining iron at 15 or 16. A 18% harvesting upgrade lowers time drastically.

I use 1 other weapon mod. My primary weapon is the black ice broadsword. It has slightly more range then the longsword and back ice is super cheap to repair. I can harvest black ice in the temple faster then stone. You could call black ice the cheapest material in the game atm. I use the 15% armor penetration mod which should add more damage for that weapon and other high level weapons against most targets. The 15% ap also reduces the durability less then the plus 6 damage one does. I almost always carry 2 black ice broadswords with me so repairing more often means nothing. They are super light so why not.

That last point leads me into the armor modification options and why I do not like them because they reduce the durability of the armor. Durability is many times more important for armor then weapons.

Point 1- A full set of armor ranges from moderately heavy to really heavy for a full set. It is punishing to carry around extras.

Point 2- You can only equip 1 set of armor at a time. I can have 8 weapons ready at once or more realistically at least 1-3.

Point 3- You cannot see the durability of your armor when fighting like weapons on my hot bar. Luckily the armor durability is built so that if your armor is fully repaired and you wear it all equally you only lose the gloves, boots, and head. The other 2 pieces have higher durability. That is still a lot of poise and armor to lose mid combat.

I do find 1 armor mod to be useful. That would be the reduced weight for the silent legion armor set. That set is super heavy for some reason and the mod drops weight by around 40%. It also has high enough durability even with the reduction to last till you get back to base from most trips.

In this game I have the saying you don't wear armor for the armor value it has but for the poise. Poise is much more important and stops you from being slowed down and inefficient. Armor is like I took slightly more damage which will heal up on its own or you pop another ambrosia which you have hundreds or thousands of. You could maybe use poise modifications situationally for benefits. Maybe you want to use Reptile armor to farm the pirate ship where you need more poise to avoid being knocked back by crossbow hits which is super annoying.