Armorsmith Archive

Well done... I have been trying to catch up to the armor you create.I can honestly say you make some of the best armor on the server and are hard to match, but with every spawn I get a little closer

In regards to the various categories. How often are Cat 1's requested? I imagine the base would be in the mid 30's to low 40's for that low of HAM.

"Tank" Composite Armor (80%+ Base after effect slicing)

There are a large number of customers who are only concerned with getting the highest base resistances possible on their suit of armor. HAM is not a concern, because they plan to be buffed all the time. If you are looking for armor that has 90% base resistance potential, I offer these three suggestions:

*Note* - Your main problem with adding layers, is that any layered resistance becomes one of the "Special Protection" resistances, which cannot be sliced higher. The crafting "cap" is set at 80% (only effect slicing can raise a resistance higher than 80%), so if I use kinetic layers, for example, and get kinetic to 80%, ...that's it. Kinetic is "special" now. You will never get a higher kinetic score, no matter the slice result.

Option 1) Heavy base armor made with stun layers

Composite armor is normally vulnerable to stun damage. Triple-layering with stun is probably your best choice. It doesn't move a base resist to special, and it adds stun protection. The problem is that stun layer ingredients are very specific.It may not be possible to make quality stun layers, depending on what resources have spwaned in your galaxy. Also...stun ingredientsare "gated" so that achieving a low encumberance result is pretty much impossible (not a problem for you, of course).

#1 goal here...get the highest base possible, so you have a better chance of getting 90% base with your slice. Resist the temptation to max stun. You cannot max stun AND base resistances on your layers, so max the base first, and then put what you have left into stun. Hopefully, your stun resistance will be at least 25%.

My most recent attempt yielded: 80% Electricity, 27% Stun, 68% Base, 936 / 866 / 948 Total HAM. Sadly, it's very hard to get 68% base sliced to 90%, but high 80's is certainly possible. I believe that 69-71% base armors are being made on some of the other galaxies...it just depends on the materials availiable.

Option 2) Heavy base armor made with electricity layers

Since electricity is already a "special protection", you're not losing it from effect slice potential by using electricity layers. It was lost to begin with. The layer concept is pretty much the same. Make electricity layers with as high a base resistance as possible. This doesn't sound as good as using stun layers, since you're getting no stun protection, but depending on your galaxies' resources, it may be possible to get base 70% comp armor using electricity layers, where you wouldn't be able to with stun layers. Again...it just depends on the materials availiable.

Option 3) Heavy base armor made with other layer types

You can use the above tactic with other layer types, but whatever type you use, remember that that resistance will shift out of base and into special. Try this, perhaps, with cold or blast layers, since they are much less desirable resistance types anyway.

"Doc" Composite Armor (For all you low HAM lovers out there)

I must admit, I had a lot of fun making these sets. This is the only set of armor I have made that falls into "Cat 1." No layers were used (even 0/0/0 layers have decimal values you can't see, which add to the HAM). I simply made the lightest composite armor I possibly could.

Myattempt yielded: 46% Electricity,38% Base, 402 / 345 / 411 Total HAM. I know 38% doesn't raise many eyebrows, but imagine how low that HAM could go with some good slice results. Add in one of the new IMP Prototype PSG's, and you get a Doc with a fair amount of staying power. (BTW, I'm hitting 47% base on the Imp Prototypes)

Sadly, there has been very little interest in these sets. In my opinion there are too many tanks out there who care nothing for HAM. I made a run of 40 of these sets, and still have 25 left in the crates...thinking about getting them all sliced to see how low I can get them.

Unlayered Composite Armor (Getting back to our roots)

Now we're crossing into "Cat 2" armor. This is the same as "Doc" armor, but instead of maxing encumberance reduction and putting the rest into base; now we're maxing base and putting the rest into encumberance reduction. Just about every armorsmith starts out making this variant of composite. Mymost recent attempt yielded: 62% Electricity,54% Base, 482 / 408 / 490 Total HAM. Grab one of these sets, go get at least 3 or 4 pieces encumberance sliced, and you should be able to wear it easily without spice or buffs. It's good, solid, "accross the board" protection, but not "uber" in any category.

"PvP Augmentation" of Unlayered Composite Armor (Heavier, but still "Cat 2")

Ever say to yourself: "Gosh...I'm getting hit in the chest a lot with heat damage!" ...or: "Zowee...My legs keep getting hit by energy damage!"? Chances are you're starting to notice the trends you encounter in PvP.

The first customer-centered change I made to my armorcreations was to try to help out the PvP'ers. I must give full credit to Jaato Waals and his armor guide for this one. Fantastic work Jaato. The idea is to pick out some of the more common PvP attacks and attack locations, and layer those pieces of armor accordingly, leaving the other pieces unlayered to avoid adding too much encumberance to the full set. It's a very good armor strategy, and vaulted my popularity in Naritus 6 or 7 months ago...ahhhhhhh...the armorsmith who cares!

Back then, the idea was to layer the helm for acid (BH Eyeshots), the chest for heat (Pistoleer FWG5's), and the legs for energy (Carbineer Legshots). Keeping the HAM down meant using lightweight layers (2/2/2 or 3/3/3 layer encumberance), and usually resulted in a fair increase in the targetted resistance. My most recent attempt yielded Helms with 80% Acid, 80% Electricity, 63% Base; Chests with 80% Heat, 80% Electricity, 63% Base; Legs with 80% Energy, 80% Electricity, 63% Base; and all the other pieces with 62% Electricity and 54% Base (basic unlayered setup). Unsliced, the full suit weighs in at 517 / 434 / 520. They're really good suits, given a few good encumberance slices, that anyone should be able to wear without spices or buffs...but if you plan on using a lot of special attacks, these suits push the limit a bit too hard to fight without chemical or medical "assistance."

*Note* - I never figured out if the boots were hit in "Leg Shots". You might consider adding energy layers to the boots as well.

"Kinetic be gone" Composite Armor (Or any other targetted base resistance) - "Cat 3" Composite Armor

Boy do I sell a lot of "Kinetic" sets and "Energy" sets. They fly off of my vendor whenever I have any for sale.

The idea is simple. You use 3 "encumberance layers" targetted for the resistance you want to max.(example...kinetic) There will be a significant increase in the total suit HAM, but hopefully you'll get 80% resistance on your targetted "special."

*Note* - Remember that kinetic now is now a "special protection,"and is longer affected by effect slices. 80% is as high as it will EVER get.

My most recent attempt yielded: 80% Kinetic, 80% Electricity,64% Base, 577 / 539 / 592 Total HAM. Making it the same way using Energy layers instead, I came up with: 80% Energy, 80% Electricity, 63% Base, 611 / 497 / 589 Total HAM. Here we can see the difference in material qualities for specific layers. Notice the 1-point drop in base for the energy set, as well as the difference in HAM results. I'm not sure why Health went up and Action went down...any takers out there?

Now...here's the point I have to keep reminding customers of. If you have a kinetic-layered piece of composite sliced, the kinetic score will not change since it is now a "special protection." Sadly...that bears saying again. If you have a kinetic-layered piece of composite sliced, the kinetic score will not change since it is now a "special protection." Obviously, if kinetic is your only concern, and you intend to use one of these sets...it would probably be best to go for encumberance slices. You might luck out and get a set you can wear without spices or buffs. However, it is interesting to note that a very high effect slice might actually raise the base resists to more than 80%. In that case, kinetic would not be the dominant protection, and you might find yourself wishing you had purchased an acid, blast, heat, energy, or cold layered set...to keep kinetic in the base. Of course, if you're trying for 80%+ armor, I really think you're looking at the wrong variant. This armor variant is at its' best when all the pieces are encumberance sliced, and you can simply rely on the 80% protection that already exists inthe "special protection" category.

rats!!!

The fourth paragraph should read: "...and is no longer affected..."

Anyone out there teach me how to edit?

More to follow...gotta take a break for a while

Stay tuned for Dual Max Layered armor!!!

i made 50% base 58% elec non layered composite without any uber resources, just 2nd/3rdtier stuff. The ham is around 460/420/504.alot of people can use unbuffed or with few encumb slices. low cost armor

Well...that's pretty much it for crafted composite variants as I've been making them. Simply put...all composite armor is not the same. SOE may have some big problem issues they have failed to resolve with armorsmithing, but I must say their composite armor scheme allows for a lot of room to "play" with the armor setups. Here, I feel, is one case where they have shone through.

I could go on with potential regarding loot components, but think this is enough information for now to give you some ideas of what to look for. I'll give you some loot component tips, though...

Krayt Scales - Best used with Ubese armor to get Kinetic to 80%...also I hear you can stabilize the stat-shift in RIS with them...any truth to this? I haven't tried yet.

Janta Hides - Fantastic when used with Stun-layered "Tank" Composite. They can very easily get the crafted base to 70-73%, which makes 90%'s much easier to slice.

Nightsister Shards - Very good at bringing encumberance down, but not nearly as neat to play with as Nightsister Layers.

Nightsister Layers - You can't have enough of these! They are really a blast to work with in composite construction, but it takes at least 75 (in groups of 5 or more with same serial number) to craft a full set, and you're better off getting extras to cover crit fails and less-than-favorable results in experimentation. YOU CAN USE 3 OF THESE PER COMP SEGMENT, BUT ONLY ONE SHARD PER COMP SEGMENT. I have been visited countless times by people who flip-flopped it. They come up with tons of shards and very few layers...doh!

Krayt Composite Armor Segments - Very easy to work with, and I've been able to make some very excellent armor with them. Look for base effectiveness of 30% or higher.

Rancor Hides - They add a lot of HAM, but are similar to Janta Hides...even better at raising Heat...except that Heat becomes a special...80% Max