Is armor rating worth anything?

[Xayte]

I just wanna know, and I don't really care about "meta", but I'm not sure I want to be donning the cool default armor if its not going to give me SOME benefit over other options that give me extra grenades or explosive resistance.

[A Phantom Pain]

Armor does matter kinda. It's just a matter of you taking one or two more hits than usual. Personally just pick something that fits your play style. Of course, you could go the route where drip matters above all.

[Roddman]

I'm not sure what you mean if it's worth anything. I mean it gives you more protection... it was bugged before but works as intended now. So if you want more armor, choose higher armor rating.

[Ludewich]

I have successfully played with heavy armor (one with explosion resistance) against the bots. It signficantly enhanced the survivability, including stray rocket hits.

Plus: since fighting bots is more about cover than running around, the downside of less speed and stamina is acceptable.

[CloversDrop]

The smallest bugs can 2 shot you wearing any of the armours.
I personally wear the light armour as I can run faster.
I tend to stick with the scout as it lets me see enemies on the map

[Slavbringer57]

Against bots? Yeah it helps a fair bit. Against bugs though? I find 99% of the time I am in any amount of danger, it's from things that ignore your armor anyway.

Also, fashion and armor perks.

[Xayte]

Originally posted by Roddman:

I'm not sure what you mean if it's worth anything. I mean it gives you more protection... it was bugged before but works as intended now. So if you want more armor, choose higher armor rating.

Was just wondering if it provided any tangible benefit. I heard it was bugged too, and wanted to know if the padding worked at all. I'm gonna use it more often now since I like the drip.

[StormhawkV]

Two thirds of the hits you take ignore your armor because they're headshots. Ranged units aim for your head and melee units are taller than you so their strikes come from above also hitting your head. As long as this isn't addressed more armor in exchange for mobility will never be a good trade.

[wirelessfetus]

It does technically, but the existence of head shots negates quite a bit of its value.

If you get hit normally, you'll be able to take more hits if you're wearing heavier armor. The problem is your armor rating doesn't effect head shots at all. You can die in 1-2 shots from a head shot wearing any kind of armor. And head shots happen quite frequently in the game.

As such light armor is the most popular choice still. Although there are a couple of medium armor sets that give you a 50% chance to not die when taking damage that would otherwise be lethal. And some people like to run those which seems like a good trade off for being slightly slower.

[Rilgar55]

Is more about the drip and the passives.

[Slayer Slayerson]

I live waaay longer with heavy armor vs bots. But i am always behind the team -_-
It's really good when you need to do the defense mission vs bots.

[Nokturnal]

On top of the Headshot issue, Heavy armor for instance offers no innate stagger resistance over light armor. The exact same attacks that stagger light, stagger heavy. So you might be able to take a few more hits while wearing Heavy, but that'll be negated by you being essentially Stunlocked during that time, making you unable to defend yourself while also having a harder time trying to escape due to slower movement speed. (As heavy armor permanently slows you)

The best defense in the game is not getting hit at all (so speed helps) and avoiding enemies is also OP (Hence the Stealth passive is good, making the Trailblazer Scout Armor most difficulty 9 players most used armor)

[shadain597]

Armor isn't terribly helpful. Against bugs, your best bet is not getting hit at all. Even the little ones jump and get in on the head-shot action, apparently. Hunters slow you down, so it's pretty much a death sentence. Spewers and titans will one-shot even with high armor rating. So, sadly, heavy armor is just weighing you down, and the only reason to wear medium vs bugs is if that's where your preferred armor perk is.

Against bots, armor does help a little bit. Lets you shrug off a few hits from energy weapons. Also, mobility isn't as important, but you can still end up in situations where you are too slow to get out of the way or run around an enemy to hit their weakspot. Also, wading through deep snow in heavy armor is miserable. But heavy armor with the 50% explosion damage resistance really does feel like you've got armor on. Alternatively, medium armor with Democracy Protects is a solid pick to balance mobility with survivability.

[Foxador]

It helps more than people let on. The problem is when people get headshot as this ignores armor and causes people to think that it's worthless. Or they're wearing light armor and don't realize just how few hits it takes to kill you while wearing it

It takes about 4 hits from a scavenger to kill you while with 50 armor rating, about 5 with 100 armor, about 7 with 150 armor and about 9 with 200 armor

If you put on vitality booster it's even more. It's about 5 hits with 50 armor rating, about 7 with 100 armor, about 9 with 150 armor rating and about 11 with 200

Very few people realize this gives you MORE health and lets you take an extra head shot hit most of the time as everyone gets obsessed over the stam booster

Even tho that's just the little guy, it still lets you survive a lot more than people give it credit for. It makes the default armor you get very strong as it's baseline stam and stam regen with armor rating of heavy (150)

[SoulHunterWirriam]

In theory yes but practically not so much. There is little reason to wear heavy armor even on bot missions. Medium and light are the way to go unless you like the heavy drip (I do).

Heavy armor would be so much better if it gave you headshot immunity and/or CC resistance(stagger, ragdoll etc). It doens't matter if you can tank 9 hits in a 200 armor suit if even the lowliest of critters can headshot you for 50%+ of your HP. For bugs it is better to be fast and kite. For bots you want to get to cover as fast as possible.

[Silverlight]

Yes it does.
Padded light armor is the best armor in the game because it has 100 armor rating with light recon speed stats.

You can get thrown against a wall and live. Neat stuff.
Pair it w/shield and you rarely die and its usually from a teammate when you do.