So i have been doing some research and I do not really understand the following . . .

What is the point of going heavy armor when you can hit the softcap in medium or even light armor? What is the design philosophy behind this?

Cheers

Well its as you said a softcap. So a person in heavy armor will still have *more* armor then a person in medium/light armor. However, because of the cap, its highly debatable if its worth going over*, opposed to getting some sweet medium/light armor bonuses.

*For example, pre cap 100 armor would transfer to 100 armor on your character, post cap you may gain only 50

I don't think you can hit the soft cap in light or medium without additional enchants/traits or possibly active skills to buff your armor. For example, wearing Light Armor, I hit the soft cap when I use Lightning Form, but not without it. A Heavy Armor wearer might be able to hit that cap without any enchants/traits or actives, opening those up for other things (like traits to improve crit or enchants to improve stamina.)

There's also passive benefits to wearing heavy armor like increased Healing Recieved, increased Health Regen, increased Melee Damage, and reduced blocking cost.

Lastly, soft caps are not hard caps. With Lightning Form I'm able to get my armor up to about 2,300. A Heavy user might be able to push that to 2,500 or 2,800.

This ^

Though medium armor definitely reaches some sweet spots.

Heavy armor is much more than just higher armor rating. Have a look at all the passives in the skill line.

So yes, you hit soft cap in light armor, simply using normal class abilities with 0 enchants. And no, there is no justifying why it's acceptable.

The current soft caps are extremely terrible.

I agree because there's no reason to try and justify it.

Heavy Armor will make you more survivable. That's what people expect and that's what it does.

Youve got to remember its beta, and the feel of a pretty basic beta at that. So alot will most likely change. And caps are often one thing devs love to tinker with in early patches. On the other hand, a lower cap does encourage mixing and matching and very much keeps in theme of flexible builds that the game seems encourage. No cookie cutter builds etc etc.

So then you'll see most tanks in all heavy armor, right?

Wait, you don't....They all wear 2 heavy/5 light.

I think that ANY class ability that makes you naturally hit soft cap, is downright unacceptable. It's like its + bonus is lying to you every time you look at the tooltip! "+500 Armor? Lulz, you wish! It's actually +200," it should say!

Actually, this system reduces options, thus forcing even more people into the same builds, not the other way around. If you want cookie cutter, then the current system is the one for you.

The main reason to wear any of the armor types is for the passives.

I'm amazed that nobody has brought up debuffs.

Lets say the soft-cap is 2,000, but you are wearing a mix of heavy and 2-light and sit around 2,500 or more so you are seeing diminishing returns and the tool itself reads that your armor is 2,300. Using this example lets apply an armor debuff of 50% to this same character vs. one that ONLY got to the soft-cap of 2,000.

Using this example the person who only did the soft cap now sits at 1,000 armor for the next 10 seconds. While the other who went above and beyond to 2,500 is now at 1,250 armor for 10 seconds. So now the person with 1,250 armor is in a better situation to mitigate a bit more dmg, vs. one who only hit the soft cap. The problem is, I don't know what % difference that is and the stat weights to determine IF going over the soft-cap is ever worthwhile.

So it may be the case that for certain PvE bosses in dungeons or PvP that going over the cap could be a great thing to help mitigate those debuffs. However without knowing the impact and gear choices at max level its hard to determine and will be up for testing upon release.

This also stresses why ESO's system is pretty cool though, you can mix and match what armor you are wearing to best take advantage of or mitigate the types of damage you're receiving.

Lighting form boost your armor rating a lot. It's designed to give light armor users protection and it eat magic. Note that your caps are pretty low at low levels too.
But yes the caps are probably too low

Also Lightning Form only lasts 6-9secs (depending on level and morph) and consumes Magicka. A Heavy user can save that magicka and that skill slot for something else.

Was looking on the forums to gain understanding of this very subject. Is actually quite vexing to me if I am honest.

I had no idea what this was, until my level 8 nightblade had weapon damage overcharged. Which I only happened to notice when looking at my stats. So went doing some research, to find out what it meant. Much if what I saw, did not conclusively answer it for me. And also, seemed to come from the viewpoint of less than supportive.

I must admit, for me someone who is usually disorganised in MMOs and feeling I am behind what is required to be understood, I played with crafting, got to grips with research and enchantments. And felt pleased I was actually getting it for once. I made up a few bits of medium armour to match my level to replace the level 4 and 5 bits, made a level 8 dagger, which I added a rune to (not even big one), improved it to green status and dual wielded it with a level 7 green quest reward dagger. It never occured to me, I may hit any soft cap at all. Not with simply dual wielding to greens as nightblades are suggested to do.

I can understand soft caps for high level characters in legendary gear. But two fine daggers for a level 8? I feel I am facing yet another hurdle, which is to constantly now check on how close to overcharge I am at every step now. Here I am thinking I am doing right too. Not really a fan of this, but then I don't think I entirely understand it either. Can't promise I will love it overnight, but I would at least like to have better understanding of it.

Just to add, that was my first impressions too. Particularly as you say, racial passive skills and class ones, encourage you to take that for the advantage. But, you seem to be destined to hit a soft cap. Seems pretty perverse. But, then again, if the devs had an idea, on how to play with it, I would like to hear it.

I've been asking these questions for quite some time now, and there are no definitive answers to be found as of yet. Waiting for launch and hoping I have a sound theory with my builds.

As of now, heavy armor is under powered for this reason. The overcharge system needs to be fleshed out a bit more, and honestly right now with the lack of information from the UI and not a ton of addons to help... it's all up in the air.

There won't be a definitive answer before since we don't even know if the caps will stay the same, I am sure they plan on adjusting them and a small adjustment can change everything. I am with you on the waiting we really don't know what is worth it until people are running endgame scenarios and crunching numbers.

My understanding (if they keep things the way they are) is this.

They designed the game so that someone who reaches the hard cap has the advantage over someone who reaches the soft cap.

So if you are REALLY forming a really solid group for raiding as an example you will want your respective trinity players at their hard caps not their soft caps. A light armour wearing DK may be able to use an ability for a bit to hit slightly into overcharged armour where a heavy armour DK can:

1. Use that same ability and hit the hard cap making them much more survivable which is what can be argued right now since we don't know this for sure.

2. Be at the same overcharge without using a skill and have that slot opened up for another useful skill.

It all depends on whether hitting hard cap is worth it or not. I personally think things will probably change but we also don't know what the adventure zones are like, for all we know adventure zones could be extremely hard for a tank who has armour soft capped to handle where a tank in heavy armour making them hard capped can cope far easier.