Alright, so skelly armor is another one of those tier-2 armors along with jelly, wolver, and other various sets. The one thing that skelly downsides in is a negative defense towards fire, but is greatly rewarding with its shadow, ice, and poison defense.
What are your thought on the armor and do you think that the armor is still worth it even with its fire downside?
If you are considering doing Vanaduke runs you will definitely hate that negative fire resist. Fire in T3 is killer, which is why you see so many Vog, Volc Salamander and Grey Feathers. You would probably need to switch up the armor if you are doing those runs, but Shadow defense is great for graveyards and since most areas that contain zombies are usually poison or ice themed (other than firestorm citadel) so the resists do benefit. Since devilites do shadow damage now, it can also help out against them.
I myself don't find freeze or poison much of a problem, where as in T3 getting lit on fire could mean half of your life going down.
As for Tier 2 armor, it's not bad, you will go through undead and fiend areas taking a lot less damage, but since so many things do elemental damage I'd avoid that armor.
I wear skelly as a costume because I like the spikes, but I don't think that anyone wears it as their actual armor. The problem is in the compromises. Fire and Shock are considered dangerous whereas Freeze and Poison are not. So the armor penalizes one dangerous type in exchange for bonuses two less important types - not a great trade-off.
Also, the armor doesn't provide any intrinsic bonus such as Vog Cub's ASI: Medium.
Those that desire some shadow defense usually either go with down the Divine Mantel route. It doesn't have normal defense, but it instead includes Elemental which can be deadly when dealt from various constructs.
I paired it with vog cub coat and volcanic plate shield to try and negate the fire weakness, but its just on my helm, so I doubt it plays too much into effect.
It also has a nice UV, piercing defense: medium, which became a lot more handy now that most beast/jelly enemies now do pierce.
I don't have much of a problem in the citadel, seeing as its just my helm, but I wouldn't recommend anything more than 1 piece of skelly armor.
Besides, Im not much of a "hard-core" player. I don't always optimize my armor on what produces the best results, but what looks good.
Sure, I can equip it as a costume, but its simply too much work crafting up another line with my energy restrictions, not to mention the dread of people who fully inspect me realize the "vog cub" clone I would really be. Masquerading under the charade of uniqueness.
In short, I would say that having a skelly piece in your armor isn't crippling as it seems, but you should leave it as one, and maybe try something else that looks good with it (Vog cub coat, Dread Skelly helm, looks totally kick-ass).
I have gotten numerous complements on my armor, not to mention countless accidental trade invites from people trying to inspect me. (Dread Skelly just goes perfect with my Cold iron Vanquisher as well).
So remember, if it looks cool, and it feels cool, then by damn, its cool.
Most every armor with multiple defense/resistance has a downside. It all depends on what you plan to do with the armor (read: don't go into the Citadel with the Skelly line).