Real talk its not really that worth it to wear light armor.

I have seen lads say that speed is king meaning that Medium and heavy armor not as great as light armor.

Issue is that with light armor, if do get into fight. you get hit with so many more fracs then you would otherwise would, have you been wearing Medium armor. Not to say that speed is still not king it is the issue i find is that light armor gives doesn’t give you enough speed to make it worth the high risk of fracs.

I for one find that No armor is better then wearing light armor, yes you die right fast but tend to in fact get LESS fracs when i wear no armor then i do wearing light armor i think this because of the fact that with no armor you die faster because you take more damage overall because your chest and groin lacks armor and with the boot and gloves armor ( at least i think that boots and gloves give a bit of armor i could be wrong.)

Your limbs tend to not hit the frac level as readily. simple put the damage gets spread around better until you reach the death point meaning the risk of fracs happen less.

whats more No armor give you enough speed to out run most castes of xenos were as Light armor while it does give enough speed to out run many of the castes it also doesn’t give enough speed to skirmish on weeds where as No armor gives you enough speed.

anywho lads tell me your thoughts on this matter. Going forward i am ether going to wear medium or No armor and leave the light on the rack.

As an CT main. Light armor is better than no armor because the main killer is acid, while still providing decent speed. As for medic, I could see both being used.

Also, no armor makes you horribly weak to neuro. Sentinel bait. I should also point out light armor is better to not get screech capped when you need to run but still provides atleast some armor when getting FFed or frontlining. If you expect to be not frontlining, just wear no armor yeah. It’s why so many IOs, Medics, and some ungas not wear armor. But if you expect to be the victim of marine friendliness 10x24 AP bullet to your chest, not having organ damage instantly is nice.

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The stats don’t matter.

The drip does.

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Durability doesnt matter when 1 hit is usually guaranteed death regardless, most castes have stuns or slows, the game is not getting caught in a situation where you are being attacked in the first place, +anyone can just aim feet, hands or head to go around it anyway

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Right now the marine meta heavily favors mobility over durability. As mentioned above a lot of xenos already have one hit kill combos that will either leave you in crit or dead so there’s no reason to be a slower target.

Besides, you potentially deny a warrior fling cap by dying faster.

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Maximizing your mobility is important for a few reasons

  1. To space enemy attacks, higher speed gives much more leeway in how deep you can position safely
  2. Repositioning aggressively is very powerful in the right hands
  3. Without either of these things, chasing on the Frontline becomes both much more dangerous and much more weak, as well as utilizing positioning to zone enemies, as well as fragging enemies who are out of position (since you kill more often the closer you get to enemies) and completing time sensitive tasks (such as tactical plays)

Other problems with heavy/medium armor include

  1. Enemies are more likely to target slow targets - new players with light armor have a much easier time escaping a dangerous position then one who is obviously slow
  2. Splinted fracs slow MUCH more in medium/heavy armor
  3. Negative drip

Advantages of medium/heavy armor

  1. Higher effective hp (because rng frequently dumps slashes into chest, leg, and arm), may walk out of fights with only 1 frac instead of 2.
  2. Same slowdown on weeds as light armor
  3. Use b12 instead of medium
  4. Higher physical and internal resistance primarily protects from bullet fracture, so it’s useful for needing less surgery on the frontline

Disadvantages of no armor

  1. You die on 1st slash because the first instance of slowdown completely nullifies your advantage, and you literally get fracced 5 times as a result
  2. Does not protect from ff
  3. Useless on Frontline outside of specific situations because it’s very easy to defend from a 1 hp marine using weeds

Basically

Medium Sacrifice game impact for slight ttk improvement and less ff frac, not as important as mobility tbh

No armor sacrifices all ur effective hp so you are too easily zoned out of fights to have an impact, and it’s advantage is easily swatted away using weeds abilities and fracs. It’s situationally useful but very easy to counterplay since it forces you to play even more defensive then medium/heavy but can be useful in very time sensitive tasks like getting bodies while an enemy is distracted

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No armor is good until you get slashed once or ffed.

As a person who has played for 6 years and mostly played on frontline arrow tip, having atleast light atmor can keep you on feet until you pain crit

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The idea is you want the armor to match your use case

Personally, there’s a big difference between pushing up front in a B12 or medium versus doing that in light armor.

B12 for instance will save you from so many fractures that would’ve been guaranteed to be round ending if you went through the same abuse in light armor. This is often the case when squad leading. You’ll quite often be encountering xenos upclose in chokes and also be at the receiving end of often ridiculous amount of friendly fire. Granted you’re not indestructible, but you’ll walk out of it with way less fractures while having dealt some damage. In comparison to wearing light (ravagers will probably kill you in 2-3 slashes and give you 3 fracs if you’re wearing light, or FF will absolutely shatter you as well just by some lucky round).

However light does have its use case too. Some armor is better than no armor. Ideally you want to be experienced enough to know how to quickly reposition yourself at angles at which you can shoot targets at range and keeping yourself out of harm’s way. Or if you need to relocate between different areas fast (backline).

For pushing up the front line while in tight quarters against xeno structures, B12/medium armor might be more useful. This is so to reduce the number of fracs or revives medics need to deal with, and increase the amount of damage you can sponge up before the push (unga ball) will slow down.

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Catzonwheels I hear you, I agree entirely, I wear B12, I will ALWAYS spend the points on B12, idgaf

However I think you need to make a conscious effort re: brevity, I’ve read a lot of your posts and you always present real good ideas/etc. but – I guarantee you can cut your OP down to 5 sentences

Dgmw I know I’m guilty of it too sometimes

Re: Arbs –

For pushing up the front line while in tight quarters against xeno structures, B12/medium armor might be more useful. This is so to reduce the number of fracs or revives medics need to deal with, and increase the amount of damage you can sponge up before the push (unga ball) will slow down.

This is 10000% true

The average marine does not benefit from increased mobility.

Medics and momentum suffer from excessive fracs.

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Well, it depends, with how CM is built light armor is usually the best armor in theory because most fights that are won by marines are in a skirmish, IE the xenos push out, you pull and punish accordingly, or in a full commited push, usually with an OB, CAS, some other flank, basically the xenos are pulling and you, knowing they wont stand and fight, go after.

With good gamesense light armor is better in all these senarios, as you fight only when its advantagious and never when its not, you dont overcommit to a bad fight and get mauled by a woyer, and generally since you keep pretty safe you also dont get FFd like crazy.

However in practice you cant be perfect, and maybe something like B12 can be a really good choice if you are hard frontlining all the time, mainly to survive a random few slashes, maybe a woyer grab if you get saved, or a good bit of FF, you are a bit easier to cap and slower, but might be worth the internals etc.

Thats really been the status quo for a good while, B12 is avaialble to all so its superior to med/heavy as the slash prot is just almost heavy with medium movement, a while ago this was kind of an issue with the service jacket, and id argue it kind of is now too.

Basically what you are saying is pretty much right, against everything but FF no armor is kind of superior, unless you are pushing and especially in 1v1s, with how health works you just die with about the same damage as light would anyway so the protection isnt worse, if anything its arguably better since you die quicker and wont get capped. Theres some niche downsides too, like sents and no light on webbing, but kind of feels irrelevant alot of the time, IMO B12 shouldnt be available for PFC, no armor should have way bigger downsides like expect to have no organs left, or dont expect to walk away without a new leg type deal, atleast then heavy is a bit attractive since its a step up from mid, and light isnt outshined by no-armor speed demons.

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no armor is better than light armor

yeah dude wait till the sentinel stunlocks you forever

also b12 if you are frontlining and unga balling (chasing deep after scree)

light armor if you are backlining (clearing weeds behind and being a xeno menace)

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Speed is king. Go fast or die.

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Young runner (xx-121) has died.

00:05

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Light armor will make you more lethal for chase-downs, good for an aggressive playstyle. I never use it because I prefer armor slots and increased protection.

In my opinion you get more value from M4, medium, and B13 armors. In theory yes, mobility can protect you from Xenos. In practice I find that if a Xeno is going to tee off on your ass, you were already cornered or stunned, so you’re gonna want more plating to try and save you from crit. If you have proper positioning, I don’t find mobility to be quite as important.

Also have to keep in mind that protection from FF is a big deal. People are dumb, you’re gonna get shot. Light vs medium makes a big difference in time to crit.

Ultimately there’s no right answer, just depends what you want. I prioritize staying out of crit so I can stay fighting and trade damage with Xenos in cqc if I absolutely need to. A lot of my loadouts also benefit heavily from more armor slots.

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Élan, forward marines

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You want speed more than anything as a medic to go for the dive recovers.

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Until you spend more time ctrl+click failing

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Grab intent is better

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Speed is safety

… an old maxim from mountaineering.

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The best drip is wearing 11 splints, and light armor is the most sure way to land those bonebreaks.

External webbing is technically faster Time-To-Splint, but medics will leave you in pain crit and forcibly med-evac you if they catch on, making light more consistent.

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