Need advice on medium armor/stats

[B1ackjack]

Lvl 76, sword+axe medium build
Body 29
Heart 27
Strength 26
Stamina and Spirit 10
other stats untouched

Wearing the highest available medium armor, as dictated by my stats.

Currently doing The Defiled Castle (Edo Castle), every yokai slightly bigger than human kills me in 2 hits, which feels a bit off. On top of that, my weight suddenly went over 70% by 0.1%, and now i have C movement speed, although i was always sticking to medium armor as i leveled up this way, and it kept me comfortably under 70% with B speed.

Almost all of my armor pieces are Samurai General right now, and i can't say they weight much more than anything i was wearing before, so that's strange. I haven't been playing for quite some time, maybe they mixed up some values in updates, idk.

Honestly, i didn't look much into every stat here like in Souls, just leveled up Body evenly with what my weapons demanded and used armor with passives unlocked by the same stats, which is medium.

So, am i supposed to feel this thin at this point? My damage output seems alright, but somewhere halfway through Tokay region i started dying way too quickly. Have i screwed up my stats or medium builds just supposed to rely on blocking more? In other words, what's the supposed difference between light and medium, weapons choice aside?

[Drybonz]

You will feel like that most of the game. Even with high level heavy armor with reforged defensive stats at higher levels of the game I can only take a few hits. You will definitely be more protected in heavy armor, etc... but the difference between that and light armor is like 1 hit vs. 3 hits... or something like that. Bascially, you want to learn the controls and not get hit, and also kill stuff before it can hit you.

[B1ackjack]

Ok, thanks.
I also just noticed i'm 11 levels below mission's requirement, maybe that's why it started feeling a bit less balanced. Probably should do a few sides after.

[RexEviL]

switch to light.

[Tiasmoon]

The level gap between your level and the missions level is only going to increase. Its not really a ''recommended level'' anyway, just a general indicator of mission difficulty.
Especially in late game those levels become meaningless.

As for getting 1-2 shot, that happens for most of the game unless your running heavy armor or invested heavily in HP.

Blocking is strong in this game. If you have C agility then you better be blocking because dodging
wont be great with agility that bad. Blocking effectiveness is based on the Toughness stats + Parry stats of your weapon.

As for armor sets, dont worry too much about wearing matching items. Its okay to wear a mix of armor types. It doesn't take that many stats points to gain access to most of the common armor requirements anyway.

[Kazu]

later in the game you can use builds... like mixing different sets together, investing amrita in certain main core stats, even which spirit guardian you choose can change things... for an example... raiken gives you toughness and dmg boost on warrior of the west 5 set bonus... stats on gear are important (which you can change at blacksmith) and of course the gear lvl
Depending on what build you use you are either a glass canon like those ninja builds who can only take one or 2 hits or you have some defensive high armor build with axe or odachi... but in general I'd say you can never take more than maximum 4 hits except you have lvl 300 gear and play on way of the samurai
you can also spend ninjitsu into a spell which lets you spawn at the same spot right after you die... like having a second life.. I dont know the name in english for that spell but make sure you get it as soon as you can
generally the game can get pretty cheesy with magic, ninjitsu and living weapon and makes the game a whole lot easier

[Drybonz]

They key to armor, since none of it keeps you from dying in more than a couple hits, is to get your Equipment Weight Damage bonus as well as Agility Damage bonus on your equipment, then stack some weight on, but also enough stamina to keep your Agility at B (green) so that you get decent bonuses from both weight and agility. You can put Agility Damage bonus on your active ranged weapon, then get Equipment Weight Damage bonus from your melee... or better yet, 2 piece Tatanashi, then Familiarity Damage bonus on your weapon... or you can also get Agility bonus A from Aya-Kamori (the bat). Probably some other ways to do it as well, but you get the idea.