Seriously, is there a point to any other armor besides Light Armor?

With perks, light armor lets your character move faster and crit more often PLUS decreases the likelihood that an enemy crits you. I don't know about you, but an enemy crit is one of the most dangerous obstacles for me; well worth losing the extra DT just to avoid those. Normal clothing can offer faster movement and ocassionally some nice stat bonuses (+1 Charisma, endurance or agility. Don't underestimate any of those; Endurance is self-explanatory, CH improves your followers and agility improves your reload) but doesn't provide any good DT. Medium armor provides slightly more DT, but nothing more than that. Heavy armor provides even MORE DT, perhaps some STR, and, through a perk, more resistance to the seldomly used energy weapons (Fiends are the only EW enemy that one can expect to constantly run into, and they're hardly dangerous). This is usually all at the cost of -1 to agility, a huge weakness to Pulse weapons and again, you move slower.

So sell me on this: why would anyone pick anything but Light Armor? I get that not everyone is going to invest two perk slots into LA and sometimes people do just seek pure DT, but my point is that if someone is truly looking to have the best possible armor and the best possible defense and they're willing to invest in those perks, HA, clothing and MA really don't have anything going for them. Shouldn't they get some perks too?

Not everyone values movement while shooting. Power armor grants its own bonuses, such as being able to Rambo entire camps without healing or having a concern for your health. Not everyone plays the same way. One of the strengths of this franchise is the ability to take on many varied situations with a wide array of solutions.

PREFERENCE!!!!

But that's just it. The difference between the DT of the best quality Light Armor and the best quality HA is 10, where the LA provides 18 DT and the HA provides 28. 18 DT already has you pretty much covered and the 10 DT difference isn't so signifigant when you consider the fact that LA could potentially save you from an enemy crit, which would spare you FAR more HP than that 10 extra DT would; hell, it may be the difference between life and death. I'd agree if HA offered like 40 DT and LA only offered 18, but as it is now, I see the extra crit %, the extra crit protection and the increased movement speed as being well worth the loss of 10 DT.

It's also worth mentioning that the best MA is only 2 DT points less than the best HA. While that may not seem like a big deal, I think (could be wrong here) that the Medium armor doesn't suffer from being severely weak to pulse damage. Again, something like that could be the difference between life and death when a pulse grenade goes off.

Power armor gives you some rad resistence and strength bonuses as well. Who only carries one set of armor, btw? I have a set of good light armor and a set of good power armor on me and I switch them up based on what's happening.

People who don't stress the Strength stat, that's who!

If you don't have the DLC dead money then you don't have access to the assassin suit or the siera security armor or the light touch perk. This severally limis your light armor protection options. If your a melee or unarmed based character using heavy handed then landing critical hits isn't really a concern. So you'd go for medium or heavy armor's protection. Armor is also instantly equiping there's nothing stopping you from wearing light clothing then instantly equipping heavy armor the moment combat begins.
*Nothing looks more baddass then the NCR ranger veteran combat armor, I'd wear it purely for style*.

Most powerarmor has no agility penalty, Only T-45d and the NCR salvaged model.(which isn't even power armor anymore).
(T-51b's helmet also gives a charisma bonus of all things)

Remnant or T-51b Power Armor provides ALOT more DT protection then any light or medium armor. It offers no agility penalty. Pulse weapon weakness, meh the damage pulse grenades and mines due to power armor is comparable to frag grenades. (pre-patch). Robots have the real weakness. Contrary to popular belief criticals don't ignore DT. A high DT character will be better protected from damage. Enemies rarely land critical hits the bonus defense from light touch is minor.

Due to bug heavy armor does have an interesting perk for it. Hit the Deck increases your DT by 50% when any explosive weapon is equipped. (as opposed to simply vs explosives), Heavy duty armor thus benefits more from it. Strength is also useful to use a weapon to 100% of its effectiveness, if you plan to wear power armor in the end thats one less point of strength you need.

I will reiterate, that enemies very rarely land a critical hit. The only time in recent memory I have of being critically hit by an enemy(and noticing), was when a deathclaw critically hit me in the head and I died instantly, but at that time I was wearing light armor and had the light touch perk. The second time I remember being critically hit by the enemy was when fighting for the legion in the final battle an an NCR ranger critically hit me in the head with an anti-material rifle.

This is a good point for people who like explosives, although the only time you can really benefit from this is if you're lobbing grenades nonstop, or using a grenade/rocket launcher; temporarily switching to toss one grenade, this won't do much to help.

As for the enemy crits, that's just it: yes, they rarely happen, but when they do, you die, lolz. That's why I'd much rather reduce their prevalence as much as I possibly can.

I honostly only use LA or MA, simply because 28-48 DT is enough for me. 28 gets me through the majority of small arms confrontation, 36 DT (NCR Ranger Combat) gets me through sticky situations, and 48 DT (Gannon Family Tesla Armour) gets me through the areas that I just cant cope with, though lately I tear apart anything, and dont have to worry about my DT, so meh. It's a matter of preference I suppose.

EDIT - I still have 10 Agi thanks to Light Frame and Agi implant, and move relatively fast with MA anyway (less than a seconds difference in run speed)... so once again, I think it's all a matter of preference.

choose only one type of armor? wha?

i keep an assorted amount of weapons and armor to fit certain problems.

such as if i wanted to go through new vegas turning everyone to gound hamburger, i would use power armor and a guass rifle.

if i wanted to sneakily kill everyone in new vegas, i would use light armor and a silenced sniper rifle.

but i find myself in power armor most of the time, since if i get ambushed by something, the element of surprise wont help them.

Unless it's a deathclaw ambushing you and your extra DT does nothing to help you, whereas increased running speed and reduced enemy crit chance would.

ijs. :disguise:

Except for Reinforced Leather - light armor is just so ugly! Medium and Heavy Armor looks much better.

The winterized T-51b power armor in F3 was the BEST ever. Prove me wrong...

Enclave power armor, its medium and gives 32 DT among other bonuses. Medium armor is best, prove me wrong :wink_smile: .

I have to agree with the OP. Light Armor is the best armor type.

Light Armor
Pros
Lowest Weight which allows you to move faster
Certain Perks that give benefits, Stat points, Perks, etc
Best Armor group to use Stealth With
You don't need Power Armor Training
Most common type of armor that you find, which is a great benefit with Jury Rigging
Leather Armor
20 DT with Leather Reinforced Armor, 16 with Leather Armor

Cons
Low DT
Can Decay pretty quickly


The Pros outweigh the cons, now how about comparing it to Heavy Armor

Heavy Armor
Pros
Highest Amount of DT
High amount of item health/Won't decay quickly with the exception of the Remmants armor
Radiation Resistance
Best Armor to tank with

Cons
Heaviest amount of armor meaning low running speed
The Rarest form of armor
Jury Rigging is a requirement so that you can repair your heavy armor with Metal Armor which is the most common Heavy Armor
Need Power Armor Training (Metal Armor and Reinforced Metal Armor are exceptions)

It's about equal but getting Power Armor Training isn't easy although it's not completely hard. Jury Rigging is required unless you want to waste a ton of caps repairing your Remmants armor.

Medium Armor is similar to Heavy Armor although you don't need Power Armor Training and it's more common then Heavy Armor but not as common as Light Armor. Medium Armor does have the benefit under Jury Rigging to use NCR Armor to repair Medium Combat Armor.

Technically, theres 2 sets of Medium Class Armour that need Power Armour Training. Remnants Power Armour and Gannon Family Tesla Armour.

End thread.............

Simple. T-51b is the iconic Fallout armor. Thus, Heavy Armor wins, due to icon status.

Considering armor is only damaged when attacks exceede your DT. Remenant Power Armor tends to take very little damage or none at all. Also the best light armors are of limited supply so you'll probably want jury rigging to keep those in good repair anyway.


Check again.


And you base that on what logic? Deathclaws don't ignore DT Extra DT helps as it gives you that many more hit points. Being fast is useless if you get ambushed your not going to escape from a deathclaw by running after its already right on top of you. You can't outrun it going backwards and turning around is a even worse.

I'm not even convinced light touches critical reduction works like it says it does.

Ah, I am mistaken. Thank you for pointing that out. :thumbsup: There is only one that requires Power Armour Training. I should really stop posting when I'm half asleep.

If you fight exclusively in VATS then light armour ain't the best option.

Well, in a way, armor really isn't consequential against a deathclaw, on account of the sheer damage it does per hit. Even power armor is useless in stopping the rauaging a deathclaw can deliver.

Likewise, the lack of speed impediment (and even improvement on speed with Travel Light) that light armor provides is inconsequential, since deathclaws can outrun you.

Unless you're crazy awesome and loaded up with melee/unarmed perks and weapons, the best distance to fight a deathclaw is far away, with them unaware of your presence, and with a weapon that can obliterate their head in one shot.

You forgot CSA and Hellfire

Light touch is a very good perk. And yes light armor is better in my opinion. Since it lets you move faster, helps your sneak and stealing, less weight.

Light armor is the only choice for sneaking but that's it. At the very end of the game 4 brush gun just couldn't hurt me. My base DT was 48 plus 24 from Hit the Deck so it was 72 at the moment . Also High DT means you can take meltdown perk(without killing yourself that is). Heck, i use G.machinegun for close combat yet never get hurt.