Best Heavy Armor

[fmalfeas]

Bolded the lol. I mean you can't really swap out armor in a fight.

If you know you're gonna be taking lots of fire damage in the quest, you wear Firebreak instead of your normal, general purpose armor. Of course, it's still not enough to save you from an EH ballista in Storm the Beaches.

But for, say, a cleric doing the Fire Peak raid? Hard to find a better choice for keeping you from getting torn up by stray fire.

I stand by the Mournlode suggestion, however. Healer's Bounty triggers often enough to really matter, and it's a CL10 Heal spell. So ability damage, poison, disease, and ability drain debuffs all go poof when it does. (It's 2% chance, which is higher than a Lightning Strike weapon's chance to proc.) And at ML20, you can ER over and over and just keep coming back to it (or never stop using it in the first place). If you Tier3 it, it gets a blue slot too, but becomes BTC then.

[Enoach]

While the Thunderforge Heavy Armor is good and I have a set with the DR, I found the Epic Emerald Guard (Inferno of the Damned/End reward for series) http://m.ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Emerald_Guard
What I like is the flexibility the Augments bring to each heavy armor user.

[Inoukchuk]

While the Thunderforge Heavy Armor is good and I have a set with the DR, I found the Epic Emerald Guard (Inferno of the Damned/End reward for series) http://m.ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Emerald_Guard
What I like is the flexibility the Augments bring to each heavy armor user.

So what happens if you slow a red augment on armor? Is it a wasted augment? Does it affect one/both of your weapons?

[fmalfeas]

So what happens if you slow a red augment on armor? Is it a wasted augment? Does it affect one/both of your weapons?

You can't give it a purple, orange or red slot. But it can have a yellow/blue (one or the other) and a green.

[Lonnbeimnech]

You can't give it a purple, orange or red slot. But it can have a yellow/blue (one or the other) and a green.

And shadow dragon armor has a blue slot and it gains a green slot when its upgraded, so I'm not sure what his point was about emerald guard augment slots.

[Enoach]

And shadow dragon armor has a blue slot and it gains a green slot when its upgraded, so I'm not sure what his point was about emerald guard augment slots.

First for armor you can choose yellow or blue and later open a green slot with Emerald.

Next the ML for Emerald is 27 while Thunderforged fully upgraded is ML 28

Emerald Armor has a higher MDB through Greater Nimbleness - so good for melee with the dex and dodge bonus.

The Fortification is a 50% Exceptional bonus on Emerald while it is 130% on Shadow.

Emerald also has +3 Exceptional con, which the HH necklace can beat, but Emerald also has a +3 Charisma Skill bonus. It also has a set bonus with other nice items out of the orchard

Again, it comes down to what you need out of Armor, both are nice, but if you are not a realms fan and don't want to craft the armor then Emerald is a better fit.

[TheLegendOfAra]

What I use while TRing:

• Giantcraft Plate Armor(ML: 10)
• Black Dragon Plate(ML:14)
• Comryian Red Dragon late(ML:23)
• Flawless Black Dragonplate(ML:25)
• Shadow Scale Plate(ML:28)

Usually also alternate between light/heavy armor depending on situation.
I used to make the case for a nice set of Dragontouched Plate with 10%/20% heal amp, and usually devotion +84.
With the heal amp changes though this is kind of pointless. A nice pair of Levick's bracers alone are enough now.

I honestly don't know what heavy armor to use before Giantcraft, and usually just stick to the light armor/robes I already have for evasion since that's more effective at that level anyways. I'm curious what heavy armor people use before level 10?

[Uska]

What I use while TRing:

• Giantcraft Plate Armor(ML: 10)
• Black Dragon Plate(ML:14)
• Comryian Red Dragon late(ML:23)
• Flawless Black Dragonplate(ML:25)
• Shadow Scale Plate(ML:28)

Usually also alternate between light/heavy armor depending on situation.
I used to make the case for a nice set of Dragontouched Plate with 10%/20% heal amp, and usually devotion +84.
With the heal amp changes though this is kind of pointless. A nice pair of Levick's bracers alone are enough now.

I honestly don't know what heavy armor to use before Giantcraft, and usually just stick to the light armor/robes I already have for evasion since that's more effective at that level anyways. I'm curious what heavy armor people use before level 10?

Usually some random loot gen stuff

[unbongwah]

I'm curious what heavy armor people use before level 10?

Typically I just use lootgen or whatever BtA options I have available, like FPotR. [Technically it's med, but OPP is decent too, particularly if you can drop a med fort aug into it. And silver lining to it being med is you can use it on pure barb or FvS lives too. For a melee build, I'd ideally want MFP of Speed, but I've never pulled one, unfortunately. ] At ML:8, Guard of the Shogun or Scavenged Warplate are nice twink options for heavy-armor users; drop a heavy fort augment into their blue slots. GotS has higher MDB and skill bonuses; SWP has a colorless slot and DR 3.

[janave]

Typically I just use lootgen or whatever BtA options I have available, like FPotR. [Technically it's med, but OPP is decent too, particularly if you can drop a med fort aug into it. And silver lining to it being med is you can use it on pure barb or FvS lives too. For a melee build, I'd ideally want MFP of Speed, but I've never pulled one, unfortunately. ] At ML:8, Guard of the Shogun or Scavenged Warplate are nice twink options for heavy-armor users; drop a heavy fort augment into their blue slots. GotS has higher MDB and skill bonuses; SWP has a colorless slot and DR 3.

guard of the shogun also feats one of the now unique designes forever lost in one of the great great randgen nerfings :/

thats a plus reason to get it

[Enoach]

I'm curious what heavy armor people use before level 10?

I've used

Crafted Full Plate of Invulnerability - Early levels when things don't hit very hard DR/5 magic reduces a lot of damage

Infested Armor (ML 4) http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Infested_Armor - At this level SR 19 makes you just about immune to all mind control. Disease Guard's 1d6 Con damage for anything that hits you goes a long way for handling mobs of Kobolds, orcs, and Hobgoblins. It can be helpful in tougher fights as well.

Gorgon Armor (ML 8) http://ddowiki.com/page/Gorgon_Armor - While the DC of the Breath attack is not high using it against groups could help (Elite at level is where it suffers lower difficulties it works well), it is the Earthen Guard (Chance of Stone Skin) that is valuable as DR still is meaningful

[axel15810]

I'm curious what heavy armor people use before level 10?

Typically I use invulnerability for the 5 DR at very low levels. Usually by level 6ish when I feel the DR 5 isn't all that helpful I switch to a lootgen armor with the highest doublestrike bonus I can find for the extra bit of DPS. I usually just stick with that until I get high enough level to equip heroic black dragonplate. Typically quests are easy enough on elite that I don't feel I need the extra defense from something like the Gorgon armor the previous poster mentioned.

I'll also carry something like lootgen fire absorption amor to wear in quests like Taming the Flames when the mobs spam spells of one particular element.

[unbongwah]

guard of the shogun also feats one of the now unique designes forever lost in one of the great great randgen nerfings :/

The design I miss which I think got lost in the armor shuffle is Elocator's Habiliment.

Somewhere I've got an old lootgen breastplate I saved just because it had the same design!