Heavy, Light, and no Armor, what's the difference?

[Seeker17281]

Hi there fellow Obliv Addicts, seeking some sage feedback on a couple of things regarding armor and its effects.

 

Short Version: Is there any difference in how much damage a character takes based upon the type of armor he wears or is it all related strictly to the armor value? I.E. Does a rating of 5 in Heavy Armor confer exactly the same damage mitigation as a rating 5 in Light Armor?

 

TLDR version

 

First off, relatively new to Oblivion, spent a 3 week crash course as it were learning how to use Wyre and sorting through mods and whatnot before I got serious about playing, till then I mostly trial ran the game with various toss away characters as I learned what I seemed to like. I'm the sort of player who goes for the immersion, but at the same time, practicalities of game design affect my character design, meaning if there's something in the game that is pure flavor but seems to hinder performance of the character, I'll tend to avoid it unless the flavor part is extremely satisfying to have.

 

So how does this relate to my Armor question? In large part, affected by my trials of setting up mods and not having prior to my getting serious about the play higher than a level 2 character, Heavy Armor seemed a bad deal. I'd look at the armor ratings of say a rusted iron cuirass vs a worn leather one and the armor rating typically was the same, every now and then a difference of one. However, the weight was a huge differance, i.e. 28 vs 3. When you're looking to be able to haul as much loot as possible so that you can build up gold reserves to do all those necessary repairs (its just sick how fast you burn through your armor and weapons), spell buying, etc, unless there was a clear advantage to wearing all that heavy armor, the opportunity cost of Heavy vs Light armor weights seemed extremely high.

 

I also noticed that while your armor skills affected how effective your magic was, that the one Mage type who I dabbled with saw no difference in his damage sustained vs the guys who I decked out in heavy or light armor. When it came time to build a character, I seriously considered a non armor wearing type due to the opportunity cost of the weight of armor worn and repair costs vs the perception of no discernible advantage to wearing any.

 

So what I did was I built a character who used Light Armor as one of his custom class skills, mainly because I liked the graphics of some of the armors and the LA weights seemed tolerable. Here's where Flavor vs Performance met and compromised. I am using FCOM with Progression and Realistic Leveling and hit level 5 just this morning, I mention this only because level based games tend to scale things in difficulty as you progress and this morning I hit a fort where the bandits were all wearing heavy armor with the exception of maybe 3 out of the 30 or so hostiles I encountered.

 

The thing that was noticeable to me was how tough these bandits seemed. However I couldn't tell if it was due to the fact they were all wearing heavy armor or if it was a case where I ran into some foes that were higher level than me. Its one of Oblivion's minor annoyances, the fact that you can't compare relative strength of you vs your opponents, but it began to make me question my perception of how armor works in this game.

 

So basically, is there more protection going on beyond the AR you see listed on a given piece or did I just get lucky and manage to find a group of higher level opponents who were tougher due to a level differance as opposed to having heavy armor making them take less damage?

[MidbossVyers]

The better you are at one type of armor, the more defense it will provide you, so choose one or the other.

[Balakirev]

For one, the obvious: the heavier the armor, the better the protection, but the greater the encumbrance, and the louder the noise while moving. It's difficult to employ stealth without magic if you're in heavy armor. Conversely, it's difficult to get adequate physical protection without magic if you wear no armor.

 

Second, the heavy armor skill builds endurance, while light armor builds speed. What you use, when you level up, matters, though you can always compensate with trainers.

 

As a rule, I favor heavy armor, even though my characters typically mix magic and melee. I don't really see the need for my people to be fast, at least, not how I play the game. On the other hand, they can always use the extra protection. Bear in mind, creating strong enchantments for your armor pieces not only improves them in different magical resistances (frost, fire, etc), but also adds to their physical resistance. So if you get some armor enchanted with fire resistance, it improves it's physical resistance, too.

 

A good wiki page on Oblivion armors.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Balakirev

[MidbossVyers]

For the sake of encumbrance, I tend to use light armor. Also, being a vampire, sneaking is useful for getting meals...

[Seeker17281]

Thanks for the feedback fellas, it was much appreciated. Should've known that the Oblivion Wiki had info like that :blush: I'll start looking there first from now on. :thumbsup:

[Xios5]

I think those bandits must have been marauders, as bandits always wear light armor and marauders always wear heavy.