Questions on Armor Base Resists

[GalenKnighthawke]

OK....Some insist to me that the base resists on metal armors are actually lower than on leather armors, and that this resist imbalance is as much a factor in the under-use of the heavier armors as is meddability.

Yet when I raise this in public, people link me to Stratics and UO Guide pages showing that the resists are about even!

And yet, in the armor debate going on now over Publish 81, I see that idea raised again, by others.

So...Question One.

Which is it. Are the resists between the lighter armors and heavier armors imbalanced, and if so in which direction? This is, I think, a factual issue. Someone is right, and someone is wrong.

And, Question Two.

Is there some value in raising the base resists of all armor? The idea here is that a noob would be able to toss on NPC-made armor and have some minor level of viability while gold farming. Would this have far-reaching consequences I am not accounting for? Would those be good or bad consequences?

-Galen's player

 

[CovenantX]

I believe all armor types base non-exceptiional resists & base materials (Iron, reg-leather, bone, wood, & dragon scale armor are 15 total, Studded leather actually has 16 total resist. with the base material..

been like this since AoS' release.

Well, If the base resistances were higher depending on which types of armor, heavier (non-med) armor should, have more over med-able armors...
and if the resistances are high enough you would end up with room for an extra mod (maybe more than one) that doesn't need to be a resist increase via imbuing.

I don't see any problems with increasing the base resistances on non-med-able armor, it just shouldn't be so high that having room for "Mage Armor" would make it the best because of it.

gotta find a sweet spot for total resistances.

 

[Lord Frodo]

OK....Some insist to me that the base resists on metal armors are actually lower than on leather armors, and that this resist imbalance is as much a factor in the under-use of the heavier armors as is meddability.

Yet when I raise this in public, people link me to Stratics and UO Guide pages showing that the resists are about even!

And yet, in the armor debate going on now over Publish 81, I see that idea raised again, by others.

So...Question One.

Which is it. Are the resists between the lighter armors and heavier armors imbalanced, and if so in which direction? This is, I think, a factual issue. Someone is right, and someone is wrong.

And, Question Two.

Is there some value in raising the base resists of all armor? The idea here is that a noob would be able to toss on NPC-made armor and have some minor level of viability while gold farming. Would this have far-reaching consequences I am not accounting for? Would those be good or bad consequences?

-Galen's player

http://uo2.stratics.com/items/magic-item-properties/items-base-properties

 

[Thrakkar]

Would this have far-reaching consequences I am not accounting for? Would those be good or bad consequences?

For sure to some extent. Increased armor would mean increased survivability for every single encounter. So if you don't want easier bosses, you would have two option: Either tweak the damage model or tweak the encounter. In the end nothing would have changed much...

The idea here is that a noob would be able to toss on NPC-made armor and have some minor level of viability while gold farming.

I think a noob, who is still figuring out the deeper mechanics, is doing fine with a 70 all suit.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

So are those people who say the base resists are not even simply flat-out incorrect?

-Galen's player

 

[CovenantX]

So are those people who say the base resists are not even simply flat-out incorrect?

-Galen's player

Not really sure what you mean, exactly by that...

All armor has the same total resist it's just divided up differently between the 5 resistance types.
Studded Armor just has 1 more resist point, above all other armor types.

I think increasing the base resistances of all armor above Cloth & Med-able Leather could be beneficial to the armor revamp...

Samurai Armor receiving "Mage Armor" from being made Exceptional because of Reforging, (mage armor property still counts as used item weight towards imbuing), would make that the new superior med-able armor if that type received a moderate bonus to base resistances.

 

[Padre Dante]

So are those people who say the base resists are not even simply flat-out incorrect?

-Galen's player

I'm not sure what it has been - whether people are complaining that base resists are't even (untrue, mostly), or that the base resists shouldn't be even, which was possibly an argument to make non-medable armor better for something (in this case, easier to hit 70's). A search on stratics or uoguide, as you suggested in the OP, would show that only studded or bone armor have higher base resists (by a total of ... 1). Even if you consider material enhancing, valorite actually provides 1 additional resist point than does barbed leather (iirc).

So in the end, I think it has either been misinformed posts - or posts that were trying to say "give metal more base resists since leather is medable!" (or something of that nature...)

 

[Obsidian]

I don't think base resists are the problem for any armor, but the inequalities come from imbuing and then reforging. I am not at my computer at the moment to pull up actual numbers, but consider the strength of blood wood for example after fire resist imbue and then enhance. Not to mention you get a free HPR 2. Consider frost wood and heartwood too. The other inequality is for things like cloth that cannot be enhanced for extra resists or bonus mods. Same goes for dragon scales, bone, stone, and even leather to an extent (no bonus mods but luck).

 

[NuSair]

At the moment, wood should be better than leather or metal simply by the fact that you cannot recycle it and it takes an extra ingredient (bark fragments) to make it.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I'm not sure what it has been - whether people are complaining that base resists are't even (untrue, mostly), or that the base resists shouldn't be even, which was possibly an argument to make non-medable armor better for something (in this case, easier to hit 70's). A search on stratics or uoguide, as you suggested in the OP, would show that only studded or bone armor have higher base resists (by a total of ... 1). Even if you consider material enhancing, valorite actually provides 1 additional resist point than does barbed leather (iirc).

So in the end, I think it has either been misinformed posts - or posts that were trying to say "give metal more base resists since leather is medable!" (or something of that nature...)

The ones I know have arguing they are not the same.

But whenever I raise the issue in public, they are nowhere to be found!

*sighs*

-Galen's player

 

[G.v.P]

So are those people who say the base resists are not even simply flat-out incorrect?

The only problem with blacksmith right now, as addressed in the Pub 81 Update thread, is how lesser ores provide little help when compared to wood material bonuses. As suggested in the other thread, we pretty much only use Gold, Valorite, and Verite to enhance metal armor, whereas we use all three leather types (for the most part) equally and don't need to worry about any types after that. Other than putting dull copper or something on a shield I don't really think anyone would use copper, shadow iron, agapite, or bronze.

As stated in this thread, most armor follows a 15 total resist base. Tailoring features a +12 barbed material bonus (+11 horned) and blacksmith features a +13 valorite material bonus (+12 verite). Statistically you might say valorite gives the better overall piece of armor, however, you then have to go back to the base of the type of armor. For example, you can imbue leather up to 19 fire resist while plate only goes up to 18 fire resist. Since people often go for 85 fire/poison (or 110 fire for sampires), leather is currently better to imbue than plate due to its base.