by ProbablyManuel
Hi Requiem enthusiasts,
I’m happy to share the first content update to Requiem since the SSE port.
This release removes the extra armor rating against slash, blunt, and pierce attacks. While it was a well-intended idea to bring a common feature from other RPGs to Skyrim, it didn’t work out in practice for several reasons.
- You don’t have enough control over the damage type of encounters to make the choice of armor meaningful.
- The resistances aren’t powerful enough to make a noticeable difference when fighting NPCs.
- The feature lacks proper integration into the UI.
Instead, high-quality armor materials now provide unique bonuses for each piece. For example, elven armor increases the strength of spells or dragon armors reduce the strength of incoming shouts and can even make their wearer immune to Unrelenting Force. Additional ranks of ranged protection remain in place, but they no longer clutter up your active magic effect menu. Instead, the ranks are reassigned to provide a more natural progression so that there is no need to compare values.
For the full list of changes, please refer to changelog. In the following I’ll talk a bit more about changes and motivations that may not be obvious from the changelog.
They still exist as a specific material bonus in two instances. Dwarven armor reduces damage taken from blunt attacks because dwarven metal is described as having distinctive impact-absorbing qualities. Steel plate armor reduces damage taken from slashing attack because this is the primary purpose of plate armor.
The damage resistances of creatures are not changed in this release.
Was light armor buffed?
Since the armor rating (AR) of most mid and high-level armors was increased by 100, on a first glance it may look like light armor is much more protective than before. A full set of dragonscale armor now has 600 AR without tempering bonuses. If you add a shield, you almost reach the armor cap (prior to armor penetration). However, if you do a breakdown by each damage type, the perspective changes. Compared to 5.0.0 dragonscale armor has -60 AR against slashing attacks, the same AR against blunt attacks, and +30 AR against ranged attacks. Only against unclassified attacks (e.g., dragon bites), light armor has more armor rating than before. This is mitigated by the fact that such attacks often have high armor penetration and therefore still bypass this extra AR with ease. On the other hand, dragonscale armor (and other well-protected light armors) weighs much more than before and the hidden damage reduction provided by each Evasion perk has been removed without replacement. Therefore, light armor is in fact less protective in the late game than before. This is an intentional change because the late game was unduly favoring light armor over heavy armor as the result of cumulative changes to the armor system throughout recent releases. The removal of the hidden damage resistance from Evasion perks should be a healthy change because this feature yielded certain situations where light armor was, bizarrely enough, more protective than heavy armor.
What happened to heavy chitin armor?
Heavy chitin armor is changed to a light armor and is now known as reinforced chitin armor because there is a lack of choice when it comes mid-level light armors while there are already enough heavy armors available. This change coincides with the appearance of heavy chitin armor, which looks barely any different from the light variant, and chitin being exclusively a light armor in Morrowind. In its place bonemold armor is made available in mainland Skyrim and functions as a light-weight heavy armor that still provides decent protection. This aligns well with the appearance of this armor and coincides with bonemold being a medium armor in Morrowind.
Some of the new material bonuses look very strong?
The material bonuses are designed to be on the stronger side for several reasons.
- The differences between armors should be noticeable enough to make the choice of armor meaningful.
- Mid-level armors should have a niche compared to the prominent high-level armors, although an optimized build is still best served with the usual suspects.
- Fighting NPCs clad in high-quality armor should stick out more.
- Daedric armor in particular should be worth its crafting and exploration requirements.
Having said this, the individual bonuses aren’t written in stone. I welcome any feedback on them and will refine details if necessary.