Best heavy armor for a DPS melee?

[Lampros 112]

I am torn between Blackened Plate and Patinated Plate for my MC - who is a melee Brawler. I guess Normad's Brigandine works, too? What would you guys suggest would be best for a DPS melee? It's PotD; and this guy will be going last after my tank has gathered up the other mobs; so I'd rather not go anything but heavy armor.

[Lampros 112]

Wait, holy sheet! 15 HP heal per round?!!! Well, I guess that almost settles it...

[Boeroer 15,226]

Blackened Plate comes fairly late though. I mean you have to kill some powerful fampyrs to get it.

The Bloody Links with the enchantment "Crimson Steel" gives +2 Armor Rating when bloodied and thus gives the same base AR as plate armor - and at the same time gives all-stackable +5 to all defenses which is great. And it comes quite early (buy it in Fort Deadlight from No-Nut Ned).

Devil of Caroc's Breastplate has a somewhat similar enchantment (+2 R when bloodied, but limited to 2/encounter) and will give you more resources (+2 Discipline and +2 Mortification).

Reckless Brigandine has "Into the Breach": more melee weapon dmg as you lose health (but max +20% damage). AR increases as you lose health (max +2 AR). So it works a bit like the Bloody Links - but this requires to beat the Deathguard in the Forgotten Catacomb (which is a lot easier than killing the Fampyrs in Splintered Reef though).

With "Constant Rebound" and "Bronze Juggernaut" as enchantments I also guess the Patinated Plate is great in TB mode (since the recovery penalty doesn't matter that much). Which you can also get quite early. 

Another heavy armor that could be nice for a damage oriented Brawler in TB mode is Kāhako Nihi. But also late ad it's best used with unarmed attacks.

[OldCookies 4]

I know you're playing in turn based, but I think in rtwp Patinated Plate would be the best for dps. There's a GameFAQs guide that says that it's the most lightweight heavy armor with the correct enchantments due to some silly inversion things that I don't fully understand.

[Lampros 112]

22 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Blackened Plate comes fairly late though. I mean you have to kill some powerful fampyrs to get it.

The Bloody Links with the enchantment "Crimson Steel" gives +2 Armor Rating when bloodied and thus gives the same base AR as plate armor - and at the same time gives all-stackable +5 to all defenses which is great. And it comes quite early (buy it in Fort Deadlight from No-Nut Ned).

Devil of Caroc's Breastplate has a somewhat similar enchantment (+2 R when bloodied, but limited to 2/encounter) and will give you more resources (+2 Discipline and +2 Mortification).

Reckless Brigandine has "Into the Breach": more melee weapon dmg as you lose health (but max +20% damage). AR increases as you lose health (max +2 AR). So it works a bit like the Bloody Links - but this requires to beat the Deathguard in the Forgotten Catacomb (which is a lot easier than killing the Fampyrs in Splintered Reef though).

With "Constant Rebound" and "Bronze Juggernaut" as enchantments I also guess the Patinated Plate is great in TB mode (since the recovery penalty doesn't matter that much). Which you can also get quite early. 

Another heavy armor that could be nice for a damage oriented Brawler in TB mode is Kāhako Nihi. But also late ad it's best used with unarmed attacks.

Yes, this would be a choice once I've gathered everything. I didn't grab Blackened Plate until level 16, and I don't think I can at least post level 13 at the earliest (but even that's doubtful). What enabled me to kill the Fampyrs painlessly was to spam scroll nukes by multiple characters, and I can't reach high enough Arcana for a while.

In contrast, I grabbed Patinated Plate at level 8, so it is the default armor for a long time.

4 hours ago, OldCookies said:

I know you're playing in turn based, but I think in rtwp Patinated Plate would be the best for dps. There's a GameFAQs guide that says that it's the most lightweight heavy armor with the correct enchantments due to some silly inversion things that I don't fully understand.

Ironically, it's the very speed advantage that Patinated Plate gives that makes me not like it as much! (Of course, I can opt to avoid the speed enchant though.) With the speed enchant (and bonuses from MC Berath's Blessings, Alchemical Guile, and Swift Flurry), I was going ahead of the main tank, and I definitely didn't want to do that. Instead, I like to set things up with my main tank (Swashbuckler) putting Persistent Distraction and Lower Their Guard on multiple mobs and enabling my MC to do massive damage with Clear out>