Dark armor without the blades?

[Quillan]

Dark armor without the blades?

Just a curious thought on my part. I saw some stats on the items posted on another site; they say there that equipping the swords without wearing all of the armor is what causes the problems. Has anyone tried just equipping the armor and not the blades? What happens?

I ask because aside from the vampiric effects, the blades look good but on par with other things available at the time while the armor seems far superior to any other contemporary set.

 

[chiefje]

Nothing happens, you just get really good armor. No draining the life from enemies though. You'll need all items to get that ability.

 

[Quillan]

That was exactly my point. Prior to this, the best armor in Chapter 1 was the Hunter's Armor you could make from a diagram gained from the Troll Trouble quest. It had an armor of 10 or so, and commensurate stats. Blasphemer's Armor is 15 armor, almost that of the Dragon Scale Armor from Chapter 2! Oathbreaker's Armor has a 30 armor! The best available in Chapter 2 is 18, I believe, and 30 isn't that far from the Vran Armor in Chapter 3. However, Anathema is worse than the Robust XX you can make or buy right at the start of Chapter 2, and Ultimatum is just barely superior to the Jagged Blade. I'm considering saving the money on the blades and just doing the armor.

 

[Tristanian]

Yep, it is possible to use the armor pieces (any dark armor piece) with no penalties. It's the swords you need the full sets for. And for the record, Kayran's armor is slightly superior to the Hunter's armor in Chapter 1, though you can arguably craft the 2nd way faster. As for the Dark sets in themselves (pure armor), they have no equal. The dark swords in Chapter 3 you can probably skip, since Deithwen, Zerrikanterment and Caerme are better depending on the situation.

 

[rmack91]

However, having the full set and a few points invested in the sword development tree makes the swords well worth it - you can recover health fast enough that you barely need to defend/dodge.
The set in the 3rd chapter though is a huge investment for the limited use you can get from it.

 

[cyberarmy.603]

That was exactly my point. Prior to this, the best armor in Chapter 1 was the Hunter's Armor you could make from a diagram gained from the Troll Trouble quest. It had an armor of 10 or so, and commensurate stats. Blasphemer's Armor is 15 armor, almost that of the Dragon Scale Armor from Chapter 2! Oathbreaker's Armor has a 30 armor! The best available in Chapter 2 is 18, I believe, and 30 isn't that far from the Vran Armor in Chapter 3. However, Anathema is worse than the Robust XX you can make or buy right at the start of Chapter 2, and Ultimatum is just barely superior to the Jagged Blade. I'm considering saving the money on the blades and just doing the armor.

Dark set's weapons steals life from enemies if you have full set and thats really helps, espc. if you are a swordmaster and got area of attack talents.