Light vs heavy armor?

[Hyperbolt]

In almost all games i play im usually the tank in my team, but in 7 days, things look different... 

Im the kind of player that uses cloth armor almost my entire playthroughs. 

To me, mobility and stamina is more important than extra armor. 

 

Id like to see other people opinions regarding choice of armor, and their reasoning behind it!

Survivors, assemble! 

 

[pApA^LeGBa]

Same for me, light armor it is. Mobility and stamina are way too importnant. I do progress to leather and military though.

 

There is a hand full of POI´s in compopack where i would prefer heavy armor but those are late game anyways so i can respecc easily.

[Hyperbolt]

Sounds reasonable! 

 

In vanilla i consider switching to heavy only if i have got my hands on a full set of cusomized fittings mods, plus some levels on heavy armor, which is... Usually faaaar into later gamestages 😅

[POCKET951]

I tested out perfect steel armor vs perfect Military armor, min maxed with heavy/light armor perks, banded armor plating mods and customized fittings and 3/3 rule 1 cardio (found max armor values from XMLS)

 

Max Light Armor= 12.2 Armor/slot

Max Heavy Armor= 16 Armor/slot

16*5= 80

5*12.2=61

Add 5 banded armor plating mods to each (+10)

90 DR (HA) vs 71DR (LA)

 

Perfect Heavy Armor(Steel):

10.11 Stamina Regen a second

92% movement speed

90% Damage reduction

 

Perfect Light  Armor(Millitary)

12.64 Stamina Regen a second

109% movement speed

71% Dmg reduction

 

one thing to note with this is that 71% means you take 29% dmg, and 90% means you only take 10% dmg

 

so you take almost 3 X as much dmg with max  Light Armor vs Heavy Armor

 

you also regenerate stamina 25% faster with Light Armor

 

one thing to note with pain tolerance is that it takes place after you get hit

 

so whats happens with 5/5 pain tolerance is you take the max damage, and then are immediately refunded 25% of the damage you took

 

so if you got hit for 20 dmg in HA you would take 2 dmg and get refunded .5 hp and would take 1.5 dmg

 

if you got hit for 20 dmg in LA you would take 5.8 dmg and get refunded for 1.45 hp and take 4.35 Dmg

 

I think Pain tolerance is much more value for light armor, but every bit helps


TLDR:  If you want to tank up and take no dmg and be lazy and not move, use heavy armor, if you want to be agile and quick and never run out of stamina, Use Millitary armor


 

 

[ElDudorino]

Don't forget heavy armor has more crit resist. So not only do you take a lot less damage but you're less likely to bleed or get lacerations, concussions, infection, broken limbs, etc.

 

I was afraid to use heavy armor at first but found when I finally tried it that the movement penalty isn't that noticeable. As for stamina, I grab the first level of sexual tyrannosaurus at level 1 and the stamina penalty becomes hard to notice by level 20ish. At that point I'm sprinting everywhere and spamming melee attacks with no stamina issue and I'm still easily dodging attacks. Meanwhile if I do get hit I barely notice it.

 

If you've avoided heavy armor due to the penalties I think it's worth giving it a try to see how much it really affects your game.

Edited March 16, 2022 by ElDudorino (see edit history)

[Hyperbolt]

I dont suffer too much from afflictions, so that extra resistance isnt a dealsealer for me, hahah! 

I usually max out sex rex, and i resort to almost only melee, exept during bloodmoon. 

 

I dunno, a 30% movement penalty i  early game before mods and levels in HA seems like it would get noticed xD

But oh well, i suppose i can give it a shot! Thanks! 

[BFT2020]

Depends on how I am playing.  If I was going clubs / sledgehammers, I would go heavy armor.

 

Everything else I typically just do light armor.  And that is usually what I do as I don't play much with clubs or sledges.

 

I tend to prefer agility / movement over tankiness.

[ElDudorino]

5 hours ago, Hyperbolt said:

I dunno, a 30% movement penalty i  early game before mods and levels in HA seems like it would get noticed xD

If you're going from a full set of padded/nude to full heavy armor at level 1 day 1 you'll absolutely notice it, but if you're adding pieces here and there while leveling it's less noticeable.

 

Also the 30% at level 1 is huge if you're running everywhere but it mostly applies to travel on foot because in PoIs you usually won't be dashing from point to point and travel on vehicles won't be affected. So it sounds at first like you'll be playing the game 30% slower but in reality it's a much smaller hit.

 

Then of course you have the fittings and heavy armor perk.

[Shi-an]

It definitely depends on your playstyle/role in the team. After day 30 I rarely fight zombies except during BM, so there's no point weighing myself down when I'm mostly crafting/mining/building/doing trader runs and not even needing any armour anyway. This is also why I tend to remain with mostly cloth armour until I have some points in light armour and some fitting mods.

 

Also the first rule of almost all survival games is don't stay and fight if you can't win. I've seen so many players keep attacking an enemy in the hopes they kill it before they die, when if they'd just run away they'd still be alive. Even 7dtd appreciates this with the perk description of rule 1: Cardio. "The number one tactic to beat the zombie menace is to run away". 

 

That being said I've been putting points into brawling lately, and you pretty much have to be using heavy armour unless you like getting debuffs and injuries every time you fight. So I can see why you'd use heavy armour if you tend to be in situations where you can get hit a lot.

[Hyperbolt]

In multiplayer, im the one doing the building, trading and mining, so in that case it would make sense to have light armor only. 

Otherwise... Heavy armor might feel more tempting after getting a vehicle. 

 

My main weapon is mostly just a steel pickaxe after ive found/crafted it.  I save inventory space by using a tool as a weapon, haha!

 

[RipClaw]

I prefer heavy armor. In the early game I mostly use cloth armor but when I find the book that removes all penalties from wearing armor when in combat I switch to heavy armor. Also, I usually wear a college jacket which gives me 10% more running speed.

[RyanX]

I stay with padded armor until I get a vehicle, some stamina reducing points and mods then switch over to heavy armor.  By that time, I move just fine with my stamina reducing mods and about 3 points in Heavy armor.  Plus with parkour the extra jumping helps.  Since I have a vehicle I'm only off of it during horde and looting inside buildings where I am plenty fast enough in heavy armor.

 

TL;DR:  I think padded to start then jump over to heavy mid game is the way to go.