krazii
09-05-2011, 02:18 PM
First of all, thank you very much to all of you for all the information in your posts. It has been very helpful in refining my engineer build, in particular thanks to kamakazee and noneno. I found it rather interesting to see all the recent opinions about armor and it’s benefit (or lack thereof) and subsequent opinions on protection and force shield. I was quite shocked and thought I was missing something. I’ve played tanks (and healers) a long time and have come to value armor very much, so I paid very careful attention to all that has been written. I will not rehash all that has been posted, there’s plenty of threads on that, but the basic premise as I understand it is that armor isn’t that important in SL as other things and as such engineer’s do not need to invest their skill points in protection or force shield.
I could not disagree more!
I believe that this perception comes from two misconceptions. First, there is a general perception that because armor doesn’t work like armor in PL, it isn’t that important. Just because armor isn’t a 1:1 reduction doesn’t mean it’s not important. The game mechanics and class abilities vary in each game (For instance, mages in PL have very powerful damage skills, not so in SL). Also, in SL the classes are much more dependent on each other and are more defined. The second misconception is that because armor only helps you a little bit per hit, it really isn’t important. I think this completely misses one of the most common scenarios in SL:> a bunch of mobs beating on your party (in particular the lead commando) at one time at which point you need everything in your playbook to survive.
So, in my humble opinion, these two misconceptions are actually the exact reasons you need to use your armor increasing skills (Protection in particular). We all know that as you go through any level in SL, there are slow parts with a few mobs and busy parts with lots of mobs. It’s those busy parts (and the bosses) where armor proves it’s worth. When a commando (or any party member) has 5 or more mobs beating on him, which happens all the time, all that extra armor saves his or her life. Why do you think the good commando’s cast their armor protection skill right before they enter combat and recast continually during combat.. Think of all the damage reduction when the various armor buffs are combined, it adds up quickly and is the difference between life and death. I can tell you from experience that I know exactly when protection (armor skill buff) has expired on members of my party and it’s not from seeing the icon disappear(which occasionally I miss), but from having to heal more and that’s what it boils down to, what actually happens during gameplay.
This post is not based solely on testing, but more so on actual game play situations. I did confirm Kamakazee’s armor test results (thanks again) and came to the same conclusions regarding how armor works. Armor reduces damage a little bit for small mobs and a lot for larger mobs (bosses). I understand and appreciate all the numbers and testing, I even find them interesting as I’m a engineer in RL. That said, for me it comes down to how armor performs in actual game play and I can tell you armor has proven it’s worth to me. I ran tests in actual game play situations where I purposely did not armor buff my party and had them not use their armor buff skills or implants. The results were noticeable. When the party didn’t use buffs, I had to heal more and more mana was consumed (and I’m very judicious about mana consumption). When armor protections were up, less healing, less mana consumption. Also, a very important benefit was there were less near death experiences when buffs are working which tends to calm those commandos nerves who get excited when their health hits the halfway point.
For these reasons, I recommend maxing Protection and putting at least one point in Force Shield mainly for mana regen. Force shield hasn’t shown its effectiveness as a damage reducer because it expires at a relatively low damage threshold.
Good luck in making your choice.
PS: I recall reading somewhere about an engineer who “controls” the battlefield with his stuns by running ahead of the pack, etc. If I ever see an engineer run ahead of the commando in any game, he/she is warned, thence booted if a repeat offender. E engineers need to stay behind their protection.
PPSS: Some already know this but there is a one minute 1 m/s, 1 dmg buff hidden in the revive skill at level one. Don’t know if it’s higher at higher skill levels or not.
PPPSSS: This also applies to Commandos and their armor buff, put as many points as you can in it!!!!!!
I could not disagree more!
I believe that this perception comes from two misconceptions. First, there is a general perception that because armor doesn’t work like armor in PL, it isn’t that important. Just because armor isn’t a 1:1 reduction doesn’t mean it’s not important. The game mechanics and class abilities vary in each game (For instance, mages in PL have very powerful damage skills, not so in SL). Also, in SL the classes are much more dependent on each other and are more defined. The second misconception is that because armor only helps you a little bit per hit, it really isn’t important. I think this completely misses one of the most common scenarios in SL:> a bunch of mobs beating on your party (in particular the lead commando) at one time at which point you need everything in your playbook to survive.
So, in my humble opinion, these two misconceptions are actually the exact reasons you need to use your armor increasing skills (Protection in particular). We all know that as you go through any level in SL, there are slow parts with a few mobs and busy parts with lots of mobs. It’s those busy parts (and the bosses) where armor proves it’s worth. When a commando (or any party member) has 5 or more mobs beating on him, which happens all the time, all that extra armor saves his or her life. Why do you think the good commando’s cast their armor protection skill right before they enter combat and recast continually during combat.. Think of all the damage reduction when the various armor buffs are combined, it adds up quickly and is the difference between life and death. I can tell you from experience that I know exactly when protection (armor skill buff) has expired on members of my party and it’s not from seeing the icon disappear(which occasionally I miss), but from having to heal more and that’s what it boils down to, what actually happens during gameplay.
This post is not based solely on testing, but more so on actual game play situations. I did confirm Kamakazee’s armor test results (thanks again) and came to the same conclusions regarding how armor works. Armor reduces damage a little bit for small mobs and a lot for larger mobs (bosses). I understand and appreciate all the numbers and testing, I even find them interesting as I’m a engineer in RL. That said, for me it comes down to how armor performs in actual game play and I can tell you armor has proven it’s worth to me. I ran tests in actual game play situations where I purposely did not armor buff my party and had them not use their armor buff skills or implants. The results were noticeable. When the party didn’t use buffs, I had to heal more and more mana was consumed (and I’m very judicious about mana consumption). When armor protections were up, less healing, less mana consumption. Also, a very important benefit was there were less near death experiences when buffs are working which tends to calm those commandos nerves who get excited when their health hits the halfway point.
For these reasons, I recommend maxing Protection and putting at least one point in Force Shield mainly for mana regen. Force shield hasn’t shown its effectiveness as a damage reducer because it expires at a relatively low damage threshold.
Good luck in making your choice.
PS: I recall reading somewhere about an engineer who “controls” the battlefield with his stuns by running ahead of the pack, etc. If I ever see an engineer run ahead of the commando in any game, he/she is warned, thence booted if a repeat offender. E engineers need to stay behind their protection.
PPSS: Some already know this but there is a one minute 1 m/s, 1 dmg buff hidden in the revive skill at level one. Don’t know if it’s higher at higher skill levels or not.
PPPSSS: This also applies to Commandos and their armor buff, put as many points as you can in it!!!!!!