Rifleman Archive

I recently obtained a full suit of Ubese, and am pretty happy with it. But I've been wondering: all-around, what is the best armor for Riflemen to wear?

Anyone?

for what?? you cant stand up to a melee type in a fight no matter what armour you wear. armour is useless against other rifle users and commandos. grab a helmet that protects from acid and you wont have problems with eyeshot. grab a chest plate to protect against pistoleer spamming stoppingshot and disarming shot. i woud say probably composite and a crate of shield gens and you will be fine.

personally i dont use armour. but i dont pvp all that much either. i think pvp is dull and most folks just run round spamming one special. gnorts are more of a challenge than most players.

Barb, I don't think he was asking for PvP only. What I have found is that Ubese is great for PvE, but I only use the Jacket, Pants, and Gloves. The Gloves only because I like the way they look . The Ubese gives me a few extra hits before the mob incaps me, allowing for a couple extra warning shots to stick.

As for PvP, I really don't do it yet. From what I have seen and read though Composite is the way to go, especially acid defense Composite helm for eyeshot spammers. Like I said though I have no personal experience on this, soon though soon......

Oh and I have my jawa ion ready for pvp 180-340 with powerup.

the problem tho in PVE is that if it comes to you having to use armour to defend yourself your probably not going to survive anything worth killing anyway. armour has such a bad effect on mind drain doing specials it is almost detrimental to use it. i can see a definate difference in my ability to keep up a decent rate of fire when using armour of any sort. i have gotten my headshot3 with a T21 down to the mid 80's and most other specials in the 40's. using a laser my mind bar hardly moves at all.

that is just my opinion on armour tho. i prefer to have massive firepower and keep the beasties off of me by intelligent use of pets and warning shots.

last nite lag was really bad and i was dying a lot but then the lag monster will kill anyone.

"the problem tho in PVE is that if it comes to you having to use armour to defend yourself your probably not going to survive anything worth killing anyway. armour has such a bad effect on mind drain doing specials it is almost detrimental to use it. i can see a definate difference in my ability to keep up a decent rate of fire when using armour of any sort. i have gotten my headshot3 with a T21 down to the mid 80's and most other specials in the 40's. using a laser my mind bar hardly moves at all. "

Without the Ubese helmet, which has a 200+ mind cost ouchie, just the jacket, pants, and gloves my mind cost is around 60 total. This is not even sliced or special made for lower mind encumburence. So the mind cost is low and the added drain is negligible. With this armor I can take on mountain squills and pickets much easier and with less downtime and no deaths. But this is just my personal experience, to each their own I say.

Armour macros - for PvE they are critical. If things start to go south you hit your armour-up key and equip a pistol. Warning shot and run around like an idiot until the beastie either runs away or someone can take it off you - it's surprising how long you can live with a good set of armour (Kinetic Ubese sliced for encumb, no helmet is the way I go). Can help against gangs of NPCs too - at they are shooting at you while you run out of range and suppress the incoming melee guys.

Once danger has passed hit another macro to switch back to clothes and continue laying down the damage.

Believe it or not, there are good, high quality helmets and armor out there for rifleman.

But first, we need to explore one thing, and that is AR.

If you are being hit by a weapon that has AP 0 while you're wearing armor, you automatically get a 50% reduction in its damage before effectiveness is counted in (assuming the damage type wasn't one of the armor's vulnerabilities)

So, if you have a 50% suit of composite, being hit by an AP 0 weapon, it will only do (0.5 *0.5) 25% damage compared to unarmored.

For this you are cost alot of encumberance.

Now, if you get a suit of good, light armor, that has say, 30% resist, you will only take (0.5 * 0.7)35% damage compared to armoredwith alot less encumberance cost. Thats only a 10% gap with less encumberance penalties, thus less HAM drains and higher primary pools.

So, for PvE, it would seem that the low encumberance suit will affect your fighting the least and provide the maximum benefit. For specifics, you'll have to test out your specific special at different HAM levels to find out for certain...

Now, the other thing is finding an armor with few vulnerabilities. Tantel is one of which, when its not broken that has no vulnerabilities, Composite has stun vulnerability only. The interesting thing that most overlook though is the "bad" armors.

Mabari only protects against heat, blast,and kinetic, essentially.
Bone only protects against electricity and energy.

Both of these are generally light armors if someone will make up a quality set for you, but obviously have alot of holes/vulnerabilities. The thing is that bone has alot of options for looted segments: kimoglia and voritor, both of which plug up vulnerabilities. (heat and cold for kimo, making it a viable armor against pistoleers, riflemen, the LLC, and flame throwers; kinetic for voritor making it viable against melee, jedi, and critters). A good set can easily hit 30% resist when made by a master artisan.

Another idea that I haven't tested is get krayt scales and put them into armor segments. I am not entirely sure how it works, but the scales impart composite-esque effectiveness area (leaving only stun vulnerable) making it good to put into a low level, light armor so you can get that AR 1 rating.

In the end, it really just comes down to what school you fall into. Personally, I hate removing my armor because I want to sit down.

*Note: This is for AP 0 weapons only, for AP 1+ the effectiveness takes on a much bigger role than the AR*

The prior example would reduce like this:

50% composite: (0.75)*(0.5) 37.5% damage compared to unarmored
30% light armor: (0.75)*(0.7) 52.25% damage compared to unarmored
(gap of 14.75%)

For PVE

I have an armor macro for some 49% kinetic Chitin armor, if something warps I have it auto equip a scout blaster and the full suit of armor. so how i messed it up and every time I equip it it also throws an adhesive mesh trap

For NPC/Faction Missions

Composite Chest and Legs, Bone everything else,Tantel helm

For PVP

Composite everything , have helm hotkeyed for when Eyeshot spams start flying.
of course I have to be buffed to ware it all and regen. If there is a down time break , unequip and rest up

My primaries are 700/700/900
with 2ndaries 400/450 400/450 550/600 or something like that

But most of the time hunting its just boots jacket and pants

To be in complete honesty, I must say I don't use any armor. I never have.

Yet,still hold myself <i>VERY</i> well in PVP, be it solo or in groups.

However, I'm looking into making some padded armor at this time. I've gathered dozens of Night Sistersegmants that have -10 to mind and also some nice rare Rifleman segmants with +'s various abilities. If the Krayt "Scales" enchance the Night Sister segmants I hope to have a very, very low mind encum suit of armor, with great stats from the 100% top grade componets and the Krayt Scale enchancements.

If the experimentation doesn't work with Padded. I'll try it with Composite.

If you're out hunting solo using conceal shot and rarely, if ever, getting attacked, you don't need to be wearing armor, plain and simple. You're not using it most of the time, and it slows your regen rate and makes those special shots take more of your mind. That being said, however ...

Sometimes those mobs love to warp on top of you (don't we all know it), and sometimes you just get aggro'd. I heartily suggest having a suit of armor ready for you to put on at the push of a button with a macro. Now, as for what type of armor you need, let's take a look.

As with most everything in this game, the type of armor you want depends on your playstyle and what you are hunting. What works for me may not work as well for you, and vice-versa. Here are a few suggestions, though:

• Mabari Armor -- That's right, the novice armorsmith item is perfect for the solo creature hunting rifleman. Ask your armorsmith to experiment on the efficiency so as to boost the kinetic protection. You should be able to get it somewhere between 15-25% kinetic, depending onif the smithhas advanced components or not. Mabari is also extremely light (mind encumbrance on a Mabari helmet is usually 60-70). It does have a few drawbacks, however -- no arm/bicep protection (Chitin biceps work well with it) and no energy protection (vulnerable to NPCs andbasically useless in PvP).
  
  This energy protection problem can easily be overcome, however, if you can get your hands on either Krayt or Voritor scales (not segments). These are used in the process of crafting segments and will impart energy protection, boost the kinetic protection, and in the case of Krayt, also boost everything but electricity and stun.
  
  
  
• Ubese Armor (sans helmet) -- Good kinetic protection (30-35% for standard non-layered, 50% or so for advanced)as well as protection against energy attacks (good against NPCs). Generally lighter than comparable chitin armor (unlayered), the Ubese helmet is awfully harsh on the mind encumbrance, so I'd use another type of helmet. Ubese is also layerable, so you can get extra protection with a minor encumbrance penalty.
  
  If you always fight critters and want to have some extra kinetic protection, get a kinetic layer. If you fight both critters and NPCs (even some PvP), go with either heatlayers or get a heap of Kimoglia, Sharnaff, or Rancor scales/hides, as these will also impart heat protection. Personally, Iwear a heat-layered Ubese suit with a kinetic-layered Tantel helmet. Unsliced, this has a total encumbrance of 310/380/330, and I would have died a lot more without it.
  
  
  
• Voritor Hide/Bone Armor -- What's this? Go to Dantooine and kill a ton of voritors (lizard things that apparently have no harvestable resources). Loot them. About 15% of them drop Voritor Hide segments which are essentially kinetic-layered bone segments. This is the lightest armor in the game, and has an AR1 protection against the two most commonly encountered damage types in the game. Unfortunately, the kinetic protection is locked at about 5% (there is a bug with layers), but there are plenty of benefits to it. If you have this, you can wear it without even thinking about encumbrance.
  
  
  
• Personal Shield Generator -- stackable over your armor, wearable by Wookiees, no encumbrance, high energy protection, etc. Fragile, though, so only use them in emergencies. Again, I would die a lot more without these.

That's about it from my end. I don't think I'd recommend anything other than these to the average rifleman who's not engaged in daily pitched PvP battles (you arebest off going withvariants ofcomposite there, since you should well be buffed anyway). Don't bother with Chitin unless you plan to switch over to a melee or pistol when mobs get close. Don't bother with padded, either ... I don't recommend it for anyone, since it has vulnerabilities to both heat and acid. Totally useless for PvP.

i only wear gloves,boots and helemt(only special occations)

i have found it helps some but,i look cool,lol

Thanks, guys. Much appreciated.