Barbarian armor

[ShadowVafel]

What kind of armor barbarian should use? or should i ask better to use?
right now im using a half plate, but i saw that half plate has somthing called armor panalty or somthing (if any1 could explain that to me will be very aprishiated) while light armor like leather dont have it.
so the question still stands- what armour better to use?

[ShadowVafel]

Cwmon people help me. i rather know what to do now then to waste loads of money and then understand what was wrong.

[TheDjinnFor]

There's a few things you have to be aware of when picking armor:

-AC: At low levels, not being hit is great, and Armor Class (AC) is King for that. For higher levels, you'll begin to notice that you can't maintain a high enough AC for it to matter, so it may become a moot point. Heavier armor has higher AC, of course.

-Dex Cap: Heavier armor is harder to move in, so your Dexterity Modifier is capped at a specific bonus (called the Max Dexterity Bonus) that limits how much your Dexterity helps increase your AC. If you're a high dexterity character (generally over 14 dexterity after buffs) you want to make sure that the Dex Cap is not limiting your Dexterity Modifier.

-ACP: Heavier armor is harder to move in, and so you get a penalty to certain skills (usually physical skills, like Jump, Tumble, and Swim) called an Armor Check Penalty (ACP).

-Enhancement Bonus: All magical armor has an enhancement bonus to AC that increases both the AC and the minimum level required to use it, which is a good thing at low levels. If you can't hit relevant AC, the enhancement bonus only serves to make it harder to wear it for the special effects because you have to be a higher level.

-Special Effects: All magical armor also has a chance to have certain special effects (which also increase the minimum level). You should pick effects that help you over those that don't.

-Proficiency Required: Heavier armor requires special feats or a certain class to use. If you aren't of that class or don't have the feat you'll take a -4 to attack rolls (i.e. accuracy). Barbarians have proficiency with light and medium armor, but not heavy armor, so you will have a tougher time hitting things while wearing the half-plate, which is heavy armor. Since barbarians do not make good AC tanks, it will do you no good in trying to gain proficiency with Heavy Armor in the long run, but if you ever want to with another character you can do so by taking one level of Fighter or the Heavy Armor Proficiency Feat.

-Class Abilities: Certain abilities, such as Evasion for Rogues, do not work when using Heavier Armors. Arcane (Sorceror, Wizard, Bard) spellcasters also have a random chance (percentage) of wasting any spell they cast when wearing armor (with some exceptions), called the Arcane Spell Failure (ASF) chance.

-Metal Type: Armor can come in regular, Adamantine, or Mithral. Adamantine armor gives you an inherent damage reduction of 1 for light armor, 2 for medium armor and 3 for heavy armor; this helps in low levels where the monsters generally don't deal much damage and you can effectively ignore their attacks. Mithral armor has a lower ACP, higher Dex Cap, and is treated as an armor of one size category lower (Heavy becomes Medium, Medium becomes Light, and Light stays the same) for the purposes of determining the proficiency required and whether it interferes with Class Abilities.

In a nutshell, you'll wear the best Medium Armor (the Breastplate) for as long as the AC it is giving you is worth it (or a Heavy Armor made out of Mithral, which is treated as a Medium Armor). Eventually, enemies will begin to hit you no matter what your AC is (unless you dedicate yourself to be an AC tank, which you won't since rage gives you a big -6 to AC and you generally don't have access to Heavier Armor), and at that point you should switch to robes, which generally have a lower ML and much better special effects.

Also, the best Heavy Armor is Full Plate, the best Medium Armor is Breastplate, and the best Light Armor is Chain Shirt, for future reference. They all have the highest potential AC from their group, and generally a pretty fair ACP and Dex Cap (usually better than the next best item). Thus, they also tend to be the most expensive.

[QuantumFX]

OK, it reads like you’re new to DDO. Hi. Welcome.

As a barbarian you are only proficient in Light and Medium armors. Stuff like “plate” armor actually gives you penalties because your character doesn’t know how to wear it effectively. So, you want the best Light or Medium armor available to you.

[Scalion]

Easiest answer..


Medium Armor


You can search the auctioneer by armor type.
Just stick to medium armor and you're all set.

[dragonlo]

errrr armour class I barbarian me no need armour... armour for the softy ones

[blackjax]

If you can't do your job naked then you need to re-rolll your toon, and IMOP light armor is the best way to go, such as DT (dragon touched) leather armor, and White Dragon Scale armor, mainly white for the fortification!!

[Kmnh]

At the early game, craft a medium armor with a shard of invulnerability. It's insane from level 4 to 9.


At level 10 you can wear Heavy Fortification on your armor - a barbarian doesn't need the Minos Legens helm. Keep that one until you craft a good dragontouched armor, or loot a marilith chain, or craft some sort of epic armor.

[Forzah]

Later on you might want to use robes, since they can quickly be swapped.

[TheDjinnFor]

If you can't do your job naked then you need to re-rolll your toon, and IMOP light armor is the best way to go, such as DT (dragon touched) leather armor, and White Dragon Scale armor, mainly white for the fortification!!

necro ftl