Armorsmith Archive

I'd rather have primus-layered assault with a PSG as general PvP armor. Or primus layered recon as a second choice if you still want higher energy protection.

Energy-layer recon is good for one thing, really, and that's fighting lightsabers. When you're PvPing in ubese, you find a lot of FWGs and berserker rifles pointed at you anyway. They'll positively shred you if you've gimped your kinetic protection by using energy layers.

Message Edited by DaxHerder on 08-02-2005 10:29 AM

Primus layers boost both kinetic and energy resists (but to a lesser extent than a "pure" layer) while reducing elemental resists.

Energy layers might boost energy resists by 1000, for example, but will also reduce kinetic resists by a slightly greater amount. So if a smith who makes "perfect" unlayered recon armor with stats of 7000 energy 5000 kinetic 6000 base added energy layers, you'd get stats like 8000 energy 3988 kinetic 6000 base. By doing this you've gained a little more energy protection at the cost of a lot of kinetic protection.

Primus layers added to the same armor might add 500 to BOTH kinetic and energy while knocking 1000 or so off the special protection. Elemental damage still seems to be of minor concern so not many people object to this tradeoff. Stats of primus layered recon might be something like 7500 energy 5500 kinetic 4988 special protection.

Now, when you consider what the numbers actually mean,

Prot% Dmg. Blocked
1000 = 10.5%
2000 = 20.0%
3000 = 28.5%
4000 = 36.0%
5000 = 42.5%
6000 = 48.0%
7000 = 52.5%
8000 = 56.0%

You can see that energy layers added to capped recon armor would stop 3.5 percent more energy damage than without the layers. But, the armor will now let 8.5 percent more kinetic damage through.

Primus layers added instead will stop approximately 2 percent more energy damage and 3 percent more kinetic damage so you are looking at a nearly 12 point swing on the kinetic end at the cost of less than 2 points energy protection. You will have lost 8 points of elemental protection but the elemetal damage from weapons is very weak compared to the primary damage type.

Now assault armor is the opposite of recon so everything above holds true if you just switch the kinetic and energy around. The nice thing here is that you can supplement the lower energy resistance of assault with a PSG, which will usually be more effective (at full charge) than any layer combination.

As you can see layers don't really add THAT much protection. But if you want the best, I'd look for someone who can make a suit of primus-layered composite with stats of 7500 kinetic and 5500 energy and then supplement that with a nice Mark III or Imperial PSG. Look for a PSG with 2000 or better energy protection with a recharge rate in the upper 60s or higher.

How's that?

Message Edited by pykescylla on 08-02-2005 02:07 PM

Great post Pyke. One thing I will add is that hard core PVPers will pay for that extra 1% or so or any edge for that matter, sometimes it can mean them getting one extra shot in compared to their opponent.

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WittyNewt wrote:
Great post Pyke. One thing I will add is that hard core PVPers will pay for that extra 1% or so or any edge for that matter, sometimes it can mean them getting one extra shot in compared to their opponent.

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Yeah, they will. I just hate to see them pay triple for that 1 percent while losing 3 percent on the other end (the lightsaberphobic are excused).

Message Edited by WittyNewt on 08-02-2005 09:59 PM

Eww.

A beer would be fine .

Message Edited by pykescylla on 08-02-2005 03:09 PM