Armorsmith Archive
Thread: A Guide To Armor Use
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bkbr0iler
Sat Mar 27, 2004 1:25 am
#2
This is something I posted for my guild this week. It's a summary to give people an idea on how to use armor. None of this information is going to be new to anyone and much of it is borrowed from the posts in this forum. This was my attempt to sum up the key points of how to use armor for someone who does not want to take the time to weed through all the posts. Hope this helps you.
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I used to think armor was useless. At the time I thought this, I remember doing rebel faction missions (i.e. fighting stormtroopers). I found the missions to be a challenge, which was fun, but I also found myself getting killed a little more often than I liked. So, I turned to armor for an advantage. However, I soon realized that when I wore the armor, my hams decreased MUCH faster and, consequently, I was killed much faster. What's the use in that? My armor ended up being an expensive decoration for my house.
However, I learned that if you understand how armor works, you will understand where it may be useful to you. My guess is that many of you had a similar experience that I had. But....armor can be a real advantage.
Armor Advantage:
You get a light armor rating. What does that mean? That means in most cases, the minute you are hit by something that your armor is not vulnerable against, the damage passed to you is decreased by half. Then, from that damage that gets through, it is further decreased by the effectiveness percentages it provides.
For example, if you are wearing armor with an effectiveness of 12% against heat weapons, the damage passed to you from a heat weapon will first be decreased by 50%, then 12% will be skimmed off the top of the remaining damage that gets through.
Exceptions to the rule - Armor Rating and Vulnerability:
Armor Rating means simply this: "what is the minimum Armor Piercing value of a weapon needed for the weapon to do its full damage to me?" (that explanation is borrowed from the link at the bottom of this post). If you have armor with a light armor rating, here is what happens with weapons of varying armor piercing ratings:
AP = none, armor will absorb 50% of the damage before the effectiveness percentages kick in.
AP = light, only the effectiveness percentages will matter
AP = medium, (one above your armor rating), the damage done to you will increase by 25%
If the Armor Rating is higher, there is a 50% reduction for each level difference.
If the Armor Rating is equal to Armor piercing, there is no effect.
If the Armor Rating is lower, there is a 25% increase of damage for each level of difference.
Now, if someone decides to pelt you with an acid rifle, a damage type your armor is vulnerable to, it will be just like you are not wearing armor at all, except you have all the encumberances of wearing it. It's a real bummer. It helps to do some homework on what you are fighting and put on the appropriate suit before fighting.
It sounds so wonderful. But if it's so wonderful, why did you die so fast when you wore it?:
The thing that everyone tells you is that you need to be buffed in order for Armor to be useful to you. They say that for this reason: When you wear armor, it takes points away from your secondary ham stats, which account for how fast your hams grow back and how much is taken away from your pools when you execute special attacks. What that meant for me in my example above is this: if I don't change my strategy while I wear my armor, I'm going to die really fast. When I wore the armor without understanding what it did, I continued to spam my special attacks, which in turn led to my action pools depleating quickly and not growing back.
So, if I do well without it, why even bother?:
Good question. If you find that what you do on a day to day basis does not require armor, don't waste
your money. However, you will find that there are some situations that having armor is not just a nice
thing to have, but a requirement.
What do you mean? I haven't been anywhere that requires the use of armor. When would I use it?:
Another good question. I'll answer it with my own questions. Have you been to the genoshian bio lab? Have you been to Fort Tusken? Have you ever fought a creature that you could take one on one, but as soon as his buddies join in, you're toast? Have you ever been maintaining a harvester, been attacked, and didn't make it to your bike in time to get away? There are situations where you are taking too much damage to last long enough to do what you need to do - be that killing or escaping. When you have 3000 points in
your health pool (being buffed of course) and something (or somethings) are hitting you for 1500 pts every couple of seconds, how long do you think you are going to last? Armor is the most effective means of staying alive.
Ok, I think I see the benefit and want to give it a shot. What are some methods for trying this stuff out?
There are several things you can do - I'll describe three here. The first tactic I will describe allows you to wear your armor more. The second tactic is more defensive, and you will only put it on when you need it. The third is a blend of the two with the addition of spice, buffs, stat migration....
For tactic one:
The first thing you need to do is to get low-encumberance armor that offers a decent percentage protection from the damage types you will incur (in the case of Tuskens, this would be energy I think). A well made bone armor, mabari, or chitin, or tantel helmet will protect you from this damage type, while keeping encumberance down (leave it to the armorsmith to craft in energy protection).
This will allow you to keep functioning without suffering too much penalty for special moves and healing, while still giving you some protection from damaging attacks. When you need to heal up, take off the armor to regen faster (send me an email in game and I will send you
a good description on how to set up an armor macro).
Tactic two:
Grab yourself a High Protection rated armor suit (generally this is going to be composite, allthough there
are others you can get - make sure you read what you are buying!). In this case, you will leave your armor off until you start taking damage. When you start taking damage, you will quick put it on to prevent yourself from dying while you escape! Wearing the armor in this situation will allow you more time to escape while your armor takes the sting out of the hits you receive.
When wearing armor in this situation, don't do special moves or heals (only the default moves), this will preserve your hams.
You may need to re-align your stats (cntl + c | Stat Migration) to allow you character to wear heavy armor. There are other things you can do, like spice up, get buffed, or get your armor sliced (all of which have advantages and disadvantages).
Tactic Three: What most people do imho
Armor affects your secondary ham stats, which affect how many points are taken from your health, action, and mind pools, and how fast those pools will regenerate.
So, buff your secondary stats as much as possible! Doctors will hit your heath and action pools and secondaries, while muscians will buff your mind secondaries. Also look to food buffs and spices to buff these stats. Again, you may also need to migrate your secondary stats in order to weary heavy armor.
What this tactic allows you to do is a blend of one and two. Continue to fight, heal, or do what you do with minimal impact on encumberance, while your composite(or otherwise heavy) armor offers you great protection from damage. You will still probably want to take your armor off between battles to heal up.
You also need to be painfully aware of when downers occur when you are using spice as most will negatively
affect your secondary hams (can be countered with a good food buff).
I'm super interested in knowing everything there is to know about armor, where can I find out more?
Why, Right here: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=armorsmith&message.id=20122
However, I learned that if you understand how armor works, you will understand where it may be useful to you. My guess is that many of you had a similar experience that I had. But....armor can be a real advantage.
Armor Advantage:
You get a light armor rating. What does that mean? That means in most cases, the minute you are hit by something that your armor is not vulnerable against, the damage passed to you is decreased by half. Then, from that damage that gets through, it is further decreased by the effectiveness percentages it provides.
For example, if you are wearing armor with an effectiveness of 12% against heat weapons, the damage passed to you from a heat weapon will first be decreased by 50%, then 12% will be skimmed off the top of the remaining damage that gets through.
Exceptions to the rule - Armor Rating and Vulnerability:
Armor Rating means simply this: "what is the minimum Armor Piercing value of a weapon needed for the weapon to do its full damage to me?" (that explanation is borrowed from the link at the bottom of this post). If you have armor with a light armor rating, here is what happens with weapons of varying armor piercing ratings:
AP = none, armor will absorb 50% of the damage before the effectiveness percentages kick in.
AP = light, only the effectiveness percentages will matter
AP = medium, (one above your armor rating), the damage done to you will increase by 25%
If the Armor Rating is higher, there is a 50% reduction for each level difference.
If the Armor Rating is equal to Armor piercing, there is no effect.
If the Armor Rating is lower, there is a 25% increase of damage for each level of difference.
Now, if someone decides to pelt you with an acid rifle, a damage type your armor is vulnerable to, it will be just like you are not wearing armor at all, except you have all the encumberances of wearing it. It's a real bummer. It helps to do some homework on what you are fighting and put on the appropriate suit before fighting.
It sounds so wonderful. But if it's so wonderful, why did you die so fast when you wore it?:
The thing that everyone tells you is that you need to be buffed in order for Armor to be useful to you. They say that for this reason: When you wear armor, it takes points away from your secondary ham stats, which account for how fast your hams grow back and how much is taken away from your pools when you execute special attacks. What that meant for me in my example above is this: if I don't change my strategy while I wear my armor, I'm going to die really fast. When I wore the armor without understanding what it did, I continued to spam my special attacks, which in turn led to my action pools depleating quickly and not growing back.
So, if I do well without it, why even bother?:
Good question. If you find that what you do on a day to day basis does not require armor, don't waste
your money. However, you will find that there are some situations that having armor is not just a nice
thing to have, but a requirement.
What do you mean? I haven't been anywhere that requires the use of armor. When would I use it?:
Another good question. I'll answer it with my own questions. Have you been to the genoshian bio lab? Have you been to Fort Tusken? Have you ever fought a creature that you could take one on one, but as soon as his buddies join in, you're toast? Have you ever been maintaining a harvester, been attacked, and didn't make it to your bike in time to get away? There are situations where you are taking too much damage to last long enough to do what you need to do - be that killing or escaping. When you have 3000 points in
your health pool (being buffed of course) and something (or somethings) are hitting you for 1500 pts every couple of seconds, how long do you think you are going to last? Armor is the most effective means of staying alive.
Ok, I think I see the benefit and want to give it a shot. What are some methods for trying this stuff out?
There are several things you can do - I'll describe three here. The first tactic I will describe allows you to wear your armor more. The second tactic is more defensive, and you will only put it on when you need it. The third is a blend of the two with the addition of spice, buffs, stat migration....
For tactic one:
The first thing you need to do is to get low-encumberance armor that offers a decent percentage protection from the damage types you will incur (in the case of Tuskens, this would be energy I think). A well made bone armor, mabari, or chitin, or tantel helmet will protect you from this damage type, while keeping encumberance down (leave it to the armorsmith to craft in energy protection).
This will allow you to keep functioning without suffering too much penalty for special moves and healing, while still giving you some protection from damaging attacks. When you need to heal up, take off the armor to regen faster (send me an email in game and I will send you
a good description on how to set up an armor macro).
Tactic two:
Grab yourself a High Protection rated armor suit (generally this is going to be composite, allthough there
are others you can get - make sure you read what you are buying!). In this case, you will leave your armor off until you start taking damage. When you start taking damage, you will quick put it on to prevent yourself from dying while you escape! Wearing the armor in this situation will allow you more time to escape while your armor takes the sting out of the hits you receive.
When wearing armor in this situation, don't do special moves or heals (only the default moves), this will preserve your hams.
You may need to re-align your stats (cntl + c | Stat Migration) to allow you character to wear heavy armor. There are other things you can do, like spice up, get buffed, or get your armor sliced (all of which have advantages and disadvantages).
Tactic Three: What most people do imho
Armor affects your secondary ham stats, which affect how many points are taken from your health, action, and mind pools, and how fast those pools will regenerate.
So, buff your secondary stats as much as possible! Doctors will hit your heath and action pools and secondaries, while muscians will buff your mind secondaries. Also look to food buffs and spices to buff these stats. Again, you may also need to migrate your secondary stats in order to weary heavy armor.
What this tactic allows you to do is a blend of one and two. Continue to fight, heal, or do what you do with minimal impact on encumberance, while your composite(or otherwise heavy) armor offers you great protection from damage. You will still probably want to take your armor off between battles to heal up.
You also need to be painfully aware of when downers occur when you are using spice as most will negatively
affect your secondary hams (can be countered with a good food buff).
I'm super interested in knowing everything there is to know about armor, where can I find out more?
Why, Right here: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=armorsmith&message.id=20122
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