Armor Reasoning

Alright, so I’ve got something to say in the ways of armor and why classes use what. Let’s start off with the classes I play most: Hunters and Rogues.

Hunters sub 40: Leather

Some might think that being a hunter just means standing in the back of the group shooting stuff that you’re assigned to, and sure, that’s definitely part of it, but only while in groups. When running around solo (which hunters are remarkably good at by the way), you’ve gotta have protection. Most of the caster classes have buffs that enhance their armor; hunters don’t, and are also not technically considered a caster class (we shoot stuff with a ranged weapon, not necessarily using mana). Leather is easily accessible from the beasts we hunt and helps when handling our pets (they can be quite…aggressive when you first train them; often leading to them actually trying to bite the hand that feeds them). Leather gives a good amount of protection from our pets and enemies while still giving us mobility while we increase our muscle mass during our level progression. Mobility, very useful for hunters, you’ve gotta know when and where to run if you pull aggro off your pet.

Hunters 40+: Mail

One of the two classes that use mail at the peak of their training, Hunters have some…”special” needs for their gear. After achieving the fortieth level most hunters have accumulated enough muscle mass to wear mail armor, though it’s not always a good choice at the time. There are a lot of hunters in their early 40s that try to convert their equipment immediately, but they don’t realize that the stats they lost from their previous gear far outweighs the improved armor that mail gives. The real reason we use mail though is that when we no longer have to do any level progression we prefer to have pets that dish out lots of damage, and as such they generally have a temper. Mail class armor helps to greatly reduce the damage they can inflict when in a frenzy. Naturally, after you’ve had a pet for a while and have done a good amount of adventuring with it you won’t have to worry about it attacking you, but being cautious never hurt anyone. Plus we can keep enemies attacking us to prevent tank-deaths while in groups (though most of the time we keep them as frozen as possible), but that’s just really an added benefit of wearing the stuff. Yup, mail armor on Hunters is definitely for protection from beasts we train.

Rogues: Leather

Simple, dark, skin tight leather suits rogues perfectly. It’s very quiet so it’s excellent for sneaking in. Mail and Plate are too loud and bulky, very not suited for stealth operations. Cloth is flimsy, loose and “swooshy.” It’s also no good for concealing weapons and poisons in. If you’re gonna hide weapons on your person, you better be able to know exactly where they are at all times, loose clothing doesn’t let you do that. It’s also very hard to be stealthy when your gear isn’t skin tight and nothing but leather gives that kind of comfort. Think about it, the only people who can be truly stealthy use leather equipment. I’m pretty sure that some of the high end leather goods have hidden metal reinforcements, but not so much that it’s obvious or noise producing. Leather: The ultimate choice for those the stealthy lines of work.