How much strength for Plate Armour?

[ArmoredRevenger]

I've found a set of Plate Armour but apparently my strength is insufficient and it's hindering my combat ability. How much strength is the minimum to mitigate this? (I know that the Armour Skill is helpful too but I read that insufficient strength really hinders you.)

Thanks guys this game is really fun despite dying about 20 times now xD.

[FDru]

EV penalty x3 so... 21(?) for plate.

[some12fat2move]

EV penalty x3 so... 21(?) for plate.

That would be the case if plate armour had EV penalty 7, but it has 6. So it's 3*6 which is 18.

[ArmoredRevenger]

Hahaha really just 18? I'm at 17 right now. Thanks.

[FDru]

EV penalty x3 so... 21(?) for plate.

That would be the case if plate armour had EV penalty 7, but it has 6. So it's 3*6 which is 18.

Thanks for the correction. I knew I might have been off on that.

Semi-related question: does STR reduce the incidence of "your <armor> prevents you from hitting blah blah" (and if it's not, how do I know how much of <whatever> I need to make that go away)?

[mrbobbyg]

You ideally want to have a few points more STR than the minimum if you can spare them.

As far as I know, it's the armour skill that reduces the hit penalty from heavier armours, but if you're wearing armour that's too heavy i'm not sure if that makes it worse. Don't wear armour that's too heavy.

[BlackSheep]

Semi-related question: does STR reduce the incidence of "your <armor> prevents you from hitting blah blah" (and if it's not, how do I know how much of <whatever> I need to make that go away)?

Short answer: yes, up to a point. For more details, read the Adjusted EV Penalty knowledge bot entry.

Once you have EV Penalty * 3 strength, more strength won't reduce your armor penalty. (It's only useful in case your strength is drained, which is rare.) Armor skill reduces the penalty by 2.2%, and since there's a maximum skill level of 27, you'll never fully eliminate it. Weapon skill or Fighting have a bigger impact on accuracy.

[ArmoredRevenger]

I see so generally I'm better of improving my skills with weapons and fighting as opposed to Armor. I'll switch my focus then when I die xD.

[BlackSheep]

If your current goal is to hit things harder and more often, yes. If you're hitting things just fine, you'll want to raise Armour for more AC.

[mrbobbyg]

I see so generally I'm better of improving my skills with weapons and fighting as opposed to Armor. I'll switch my focus then when I die xD.

To expand a bit, you're going to see vastly diminished returns on skilling your melee weapon once you have reached minimum delay. So, if you're using a dagger, and you have 10 skill in short blades (min. delay), taking that to 25 is a massive waste of exp for little return. If you're using a triple sword, you're going to see meaningful improvement up to 24 skill in long blades (although the returns will diminish as the exp per level of long blades increases).

[BountyHunterSAx]

And the flip-side of that applies too. It's a hell of a lot easier to train Armour from 0->5 than it is to train (for a caster) Conjurations from 17->22. So, there are times where reducing the penalty is a smarter option in the short-term than raising the power/accuracy directly.

-AHMAD

[crate]

you're going to see meaningful improvement up to 24 skill in long blades (although the returns will diminish as the exp per level of long blades increases).

Well you also get a bigger gain per level as you get close to min delay (reducing a delay of 19 by 0.5 isn't a big deal; reducing a delay of 7.5 by .5 is much more important) so it's not really that simple.