light vs. heavy

so I'm in a shop looking to purchase some new armor and I'm looking at all the different kinds and it dawns on me . . . do I go for heavy or light?

now I'm not asking which is better but other than armor mastery skills, what are the benefits of each type? Heavy obviously seems to have a higher pdef but is there any special attribute that makes light armor more valuable?

regardless of the protective qualities I personally prefer the look of light armor as I'm not keen on the "tin can" look. Mind you some look really cool . . . I've just never been much into the whole encased in metal look.

so which do you prefer?

.....What class are you.
Personally heavy has the best looks, and is the most practicul to me. But its all down to personal taste.

yup it really depends on what class and what lvl you are

i self normaly will see how the amor looks like then how much it cost then the ability :p

for dwarfs i like heavy the most ^^ (some robes)
avadon i think looks the best on a female dwarf :)

on light elfs female i think
nightmare heavy looks nice
:)
:p

I play a dwarven female (hence the avatar) and I just reached lvl 20. I know what I should be wearing and that even non-grade heavy is better than some D grade light.

is there some unknown property of light? Does wieght carried affect your movement or ability to evade or something like that?

As it sits in my mind right now, from a pure min/max standpoint I don't understand why they would even have light armor when the numbers clearly (IMO) indicate that heavy is better.

From a visual aspect however I do like the not so much metal look of light.

There are two class groups that wear light.

Mystics
When a mystic wears robes, he or she receives huge cast speed bonuses as well as some others, such as attack speed.

If they wear any other type of armour, in effect their casting and their physical attack is gimped - unless they have a mastery for it, which boosts them up to a bearable level again.

This mostly applies to summoners who wore Light Armour from Prelude through C3, but are now returning to robes slowly due to the big changes that C4 wrought on the class. It is also a viable alternative (to some degree) for bishops, elven elders and shillien elders, especially when they are soloing.

Evasion Classes and Hybrids
When a warrior earns Light Armour Mastery, he receives an evasion bonus when wearing the armour - in addition, the orc tyrant class gains movement speed and accuracy (or something like that).

Some light sets have exceptionally good damage-dealer bonuses, which is why you might see some dwarves wearing plated leather after level 40, or doom light after 52 (although blue wolf heavy is preferred due to being good both on offense and defense).

Among these classes, dwarves have very bad evasion, so it's not that great an idea to slap light armour on them - but if there's opportunity (for example if you usually fight low level mobs and/or group with an elven elder a lot), wearing LA isn't so bad.

I think her confusion is that Dwarves get a Light Armor mastery. She's wondering (and I think understandably) why she would get the Mastery if it's of no real use.

Unfortunately I don't have an answer to that.

Light armours generally improve damage output at the cost of defense, where as heavy armour have lesser attack options but greater defense. Eg doom heavy has -3 str, then DC light has 4% atk and atk speed. If you never take a hit in your whole life, then light armour'd dorfs are acceptable.

I found a reason for my spoiler dwarf to wear light armor. Mana Light armors often give extra mana bonus which is really handy for scavengers, allowing for longer hunts without resting for mana.
True, I take more damage, but I have heal pots and buffalo perfectly making up for it.

Why would a fighter ever rest for mana? You can still fight without mana, may aswell get more exp just lay off the spoils for a bit.

A dwarf is quite oaky with plated leather at lv 40 to 52 but at 52 I say go BW heavy it's more damage bonus then any light armor have, +3 STR is a LOT.

For PvP as a dwarf in light armor usualy not a good idea at all, it works if your 20 or so levels abow everything else as they wont hit you at all. But really go heavy all the time except maby 40-52 as Plated Leather really do give a so big damage boost.

because he is no mere fighter, hes spoiling other than leveling.

think how confused I'd be if dwarves also got robe masteries :confused:

I looked through the library listing of armors and I don't see any mention of adding or reducing STR or any other stat modifier. Are those only for sets or do individual peices also have bonus/penalties?

I'm just glad to hear that there are some advantages to wearing light. I'm not of a PvPer (unless forced to :D ) so light may suit me but I will keep the heavy stuff in mind.

I take it most wear heavy though.

No dwarfs have no robe mastery. Talk ot any dwarf trainer and you will see. However some dwarfs wear robes to increase thier mana pool. Mostly crafters do that while crafting.

I believe I explained that under the second part - dwarves are a hybrid DD class (officially ...), and they get more evasion in light armour than in heavy, and of course the set bonuses.

And no Spindle, only full sets, never single items, modify stats. :) There's a listing of the sets by grade.

SPS, not everyone has the same priority. Personally, I'll always level at a pace so I can afford any gear I want when I want it, meaning I might go slower if it means I will have more fun playing by being properly geared. ^_-

heavy are for dwarves who like to tank (spoil also seems to have some hate properties) and light is for just the spoilers. Also the STR bonuses are dramatic on dwarves because they DO have nice STR, in fact STR and CON is really all they excel in.

Nightmare light has at least one more nice bonus.

In addition to being resilient (not immune) to sleep, it also grants innate VR. Unless you have tried this set, you might not know how useful this is. Granted, it is only a small amount, but it is not dispellable and never fades.
It also seems to stack with VR cast by WC/SE.

My summoner loves nightmare light, I imagine a dorf would find even more use for it given the fact they cannot heal themselves.

Nightmare light is a beautiful set but those helmets are so FREAKIN expensive.... [WT PK a GM]. Hrm I think I'll make those my custom license plates WTPKGM

Yah.. the helm is a pain... but if yer a dorf, yer rich right?


I just have nice clannies... my own luck would never allow me the drops to get it.

I have gotten less than 4mil in full item drops since prelude...
(My luck is horrid)

Anything is possible with enough merchant work in Giran/Aden...

For a dwarf at 20, presumably you will not have a top D grade weapon waiting for you. Therefore, I believe you should go with Heavy Armor. I also suggest you try the Mithril Heavy set. It is much cheaper than the Brigandine set, and you still recieve an HP bonus. This will allow you to save money up for the all important weapon. If you went scavenger, I would suggest remaining in dwarf land, spoiling out at the NE coast. There is coal, bones(any server under 1k per bone right now?) and other materials to be farmed out that way that will push you towards your D grade improvements, or C grade gear.