I'd make an intro here but I'm pretty sure we all know that SK's armour is in an abysmal state of balancing. Here are the guidelines I used to think this up:
-Offensive armour is too defensive. As a result, defensive armour loses out for not being offensive.
-It is not my intention to decrease the power of offensive armours, they will remain useful for their intended purposes.
-Everything has too much normal defence. I think a system where armours generally have more specialised defence than normal just like monsters do would make it harder to bring the same damn armour with you everywhere without worries. I say we make normal damage something to be treasured. This would also balance normal damage weapons in Lockdown somewhat, although that is not my primary concern and normal would still be kinda blergh there versus having two special weapons.
-Super ultra mega thanks to Fehzor, who went over this with me.
-"8 Defence" means "8 bars of defence, as viewed on the toolbar" while "4 Fire resist" means a Max Fire UV, or 4 lows, or 2 bars on the tooltip. +1 of anything else generally refers to low.
You can read along with the spreadsheet, although all the info within has been copied here for your convenience.
This is the old spreadsheet, which the first page or so of complaints are about.
That dumb generic armour only newbies use
The purpose of the Cobalt line is to be all-around. Right now it just kind of all-around sucks but with my suggested changes...
Azure Guardian Helmet
8 Normal Defence
+2 Fire Resistance
+2 Freeze Resistance
+2 Shock Resistance
+2 Poison Resistance
+5 Health
Look at that utility! You could put this with, say, Chaos Cloak to avoid negative stats at all. That makes for one very good all-around set if you ask me. I deliberately made it the helmet so you can't combine it with, say, Black Kat and Mask of Seerus.
The health is not buffed from previously, it's merely adjusted to reflect a level 10 piece instead of a level 1 as previously.
Azure Guardian Armour
8 Normal Defence
3 Piercing Defence
3 Elemental Defence
3 Shadow Defence
+5 Health
The armour gets defence with the helmet gets utility. This may or may not be a running theme with this re-rebalance.
Almirian Crusader
8 Normal Defence
6 Shadow Defence
+5 Health
+4 Curse Resistance
-2 Fire Resistance
+1 Sword Charge Time Reduction
This is identical to the currently existing set, but with a little bit less fire weakness. I also put Sword CTR on it, a cue taken from Almirian Crusaders and their endless charge attacks.
That armour for furries
Vog Cub
6 Elemental Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+3 Fire Resistance
+2 Sword Attack Speed Increase
The nerf is less substantial, now. Compared to the current set, I chopped off about 1 Normal (comparable to a medium UV) and 1 health. The previous state was 4 less Normal and 1 Health. (The armour said +3 but this was because I derped and referenced level 1 pieces. This has now been rectified.)
Skolver Clone
6 Piercing Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+3 Freeze Resistance
+2 Sword Damage Increase
Snarbolax
6 Shadow Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+2 Freeze Resistance
+2 Poison Resistance
+2 Sword Attack Speed Increase
Rags for the men with no names
Shadowsun
8 Shadow Defence
6 Piercing Defence
+4 Health
+3 Poison Resistance
+2 Handgun Damage
I'm keeping this with no normal damage. As a tradeoff, it has as much specialised defence as the defensive armours, making it very effective at blocking incoming projectiles. I would like gunslingers to chip in on whether or not they consider this a buff.
Deadshot
6 Shadow Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+3 Curse Resistance
+2 Undead Damage
+1 Handgun Attack Speed Increase
This one seems like it'd still be better than Almirian Crusader, due to the lack o f
Justifier
8 Piercing Defence
6 Elemental Defence
+4 Health
+3 Stun Resistance
+2 Handgun Attack Speed Increase
Nameless
8 Elemental Defence
6 Shadow Defence
+4 Health
+3 Freeze Resistance
+2 Handgun Attack Speed Increase
U MAD, BOMBAH?
Volcanic Demo
6 Elemental Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+3 Fire Resistance
+2 Bomb Charge Time Reduction
It's Vog Cub for bombers. Apparently bombers do not need charge interruption reduction, and it's a pointless, useless bonus. Might as well remove it, in that case!
Bombtastic
6 Piercing Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+3 Freeze Resistance
+2 Bomb Damage
It's Skolver, but for bombers.
Mad Bomber
6 Shadow Defence
4 Normal Defence
+3 Health
-2 Fire Resistance
-2 Freeze Resistance
-2 Shock Resistance
-2 Poison Resistance
+2 Bomb Charge Time Reduction
+2 Bomb Damage
And here's Mad. It's got 2 less normal than usual to balance out with all the other reduced class armours, but otherwise it's the same Mad Bomber you know and love, free of worthless bonuses you don't need since you don't get hit and with more defence you'll need instead since you don't get hit. Wait, what?
Mercurial Demo
6 Elemental Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+3 Shock Resistance
+1 Bomb Damage
+1 Move Speed Increase.
Nothing surprising here.
Defensive sets
Grey Feather
8 Elemental Defence
6 Normal Defence
4 Piercing Defence
+5 Health
+5 Fire Resistance
+5 Shock Resistance
And here's my new gimmick. Grey Feather emulates the defences of a gremlin. Strong against elemental, okay against normal and piercing, weak to shadow.
Divine
7 Elemental Defence
7 Shadow Defence
+4 Health
+4 Fire Resistance
+4 Shock Resistance
+4 Curse Resistance
+2 Fiend Bonus
Divine is like the last time you saw me rebalance it, but the fiend bonus is +2. I'm a bit worried it's overpowered, but it should be less so now that everything has more normal. You could still pick Grey Feather over this from it having normal and piercing; as well as a bit more shock and fire. Divine also has class armour health.
Chaos
6 Elemental Defence
2 Normal Defence
+3 Health
-3 Fire Resistance
-3 Freeze Resistance
-3 Shock Resistance
-3 Poison Resistance
-3 Curse Resistance
+2 Charge Time Reduction
+2 Damage
Why would you use Mad over Chaos? Because Normal Defence, that's why. Also because Mad has merely -2 while Chaos has -3 to its statuses. Any concerns about whether or not you'll be able to use this if your connection is laggy can be written on a formal complaint letter and thrown in the bin. It's a glass cannon set. -1 to every stat resist for the sword bonuses and snip with the normal defence for the gun bonuses.
U JELLY?
Royal Jelly
8 Piercing Defence
6 Normal Defence
4 Elemental Defence
+5 Health
+5 Stun Resistance
+5 Sleep
Someone actually asked for sleep back. Why not.
Ice Queen
8 Piercing Defence
6 Normal Defence
4 Elemental Defence
+5 Health
+5 Stun Resistance
+5 Freeze Resistance
That puts Ice Queen back to being a no-brainer. There are bigger fish to fry.
Mercurial
6 Piercing Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+3 Shock Resistance
+2 Move Speed Increase
+2 MSI should be pretty powerful, so it gets class armour defences.
There's a zombie on your lawn
Dread Skelly
8 Shadow Defence
6 Normal Defence
4 Piercing Defence
+5 Health
+5 Freeze Resistance
+5 Poison Resistance
Nothing special here.
Let's have a look at plate armour again
Ironmight Plate
11 Normal Defence
6 Piercing Defence|
+6 Health
+4 Stun Resistance
+4 Shock Resistance
-1 Attack Speed Increase
Replaced interruption reduction with Shock Resistance. Ironmight has shock, Volcanic has Fire. Now they're balanced. You may think the sheer amount of normal defence going on is a bit much, but that's actually just about what it currently has. Most of these values are.
Volcanic Plate
11 Normal Defence
6 Elemental Defence
+6 Health
+4 Stun Resistance
+4 Fire Resistance
-1 Attack Speed Increase
Ancient Plate
15 Normal Defence
+9 Health
+4 Stun Resistance
-1 Attack Speed Increase
-1 Movement Speed Increase
These are all current values except for the health, which is upped by 1 like the other plate sets.
Pretty skirts for ladies
Valkyrie
7 Shadow Defence
6 Normal Defence
+5 Health
+4 Poison Resistance
+4 Curse Resistance
-4 Fire Resistance
+2 Damage Versus Fiend
Compared to currently, it has 1 more Shadow.
Fallen
7 Shadow Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+4 Fire Resistance
+4 Poison Resistance
-4 Curse Resistance
+1 Attack Speed Increase
-2 Damage Versus Fiend
1 more shadow, 1 less health.
Heavenly Iron
7 Normal Defence
6 Shadow Defence
+5 Health
+4 Curse Resistance
-4 Shock Resistance
+1 Damage Versus Fiend
+1 Sword Damage
Unchanged.
Furries but for creatures without fur
Deadly Virulisk
7 Normal Defence
6 Piercing Defence
+5 Health
+4 Poison Resistance
+2 Damage Versus Slimes
This is identical to the current set. I had a thought about it, and I couldn't see why not keep this one set with more normal.
Volcanic Salamander
7 Normal Defence
6 Elemental Defence
+5 Health
+4 Fire Resistance
+2 Damage Versus Slime
Someone wanted to keep the slime bonus on this one. I don't use it, so who am I to argue?
Arcane Salamander
7 Normal Defence
7 Elemental Defence
+5 Health
+4 Fire Resistance
+1 Damage Versus Slime
+1 Damage Versus Beast
It's got one more defence but in exchange the damage bonus is split. Again, this is identical to the current set but with extra health. I had a think about it and I could imagine circumstances where the split slime/beast could be useful. Not many, mnind, but some. Mostly they involved Wild Hunting Blade.
Rawr, I'm a dragon
Dragon Scale
7 Piercing Defence
7 Elemental Defence
+4 Health
+4 Fire Resistance
+4 Poison Resistance
+4 Stun Resistaqnce
+2 Damage Versus Beasts
Compared to the original, it has stun resist. This is for the sake of balancing it against Divine. Otherwise untouched.
Radiant Silvermail
7 Piercing Defence
7 Shadow Defence
+4 Health
+4 Shock Resistance
+4 Poison Resistance
+4 Curse Resistaqnce
+2 Damage Versus Undead
Compared to the original, it has shock resist. This is for the sake of balancing it against Divine. Otherwise untouched.
What about all those overpowered hats?
Let's start with the Mask of Seerus.
Perfect Mask of Seerus
6 Elemental Defence
4 Normal Defence
3 Piercing Defence
+4 Health
+3 Fire Resistance
+3 Shock Resistance
-3 Freeze Resistance
-3 Poison Resistance
+2 Handgun CTR
+1 Handgun ASI
All resistances lowered a tad. Defences emulate those of a gremlin, so it's kind of like an offensive Grey Feather.
Kat Claw Cowl
8 Shadow Defence
6 Normal Defence
+4 Health
+4 Freeze Resistance
-3 Shock Resistance
-2 Curse Resistance
+1 Sword Damage
+1 Sword Attack Speed Increase
Kat Cowl is like currently, but with one less health.
Kat Eye Cowl
6 Normal Defence
4 Shadow Defence
+4 Health
+4 Freeze Resistance
-3 Shock Resistance
-2 Curse Resistance
+1 Handgun Damage
+1 Handgun Attack Speed Increase
Kat Hiss Cowl
6 Normal Defence
4 Shadow Defence
+4 Health
+4 Freeze Resistance
-3 Shock Resistance
-2 Curse Resistance
+1 Bomb Damage
+1 Bomb Charge Time Reduction
And the big whooper.
Black Kat Cowl
6 Shadow Defence
2 Normal Defence
+3 Health
+4 Freeze Resistance
-4 Fire Resistance
-4 Shock Resistance
-4 Poison Resistance
-4 Curse Resistance
+3 Damage
+1 MSI
Negative resistances are a bit stronger than on Chaos due to the postive freeze. Otherwise much like Chaos.
My name is Fehzor and I approve this message.