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Tactics Is Armor worth it?

RenegadePenguin27

Active member
Jun 18, 2019
30
6
With the amount of chip damage in the game it rarely seems like a good idea to buy armor. By the time the large zeds arrive in a wave the armor is mostly gone, and gets depleted in a single hit (which is survivable anyway). It seems like the only scenario where it comes into play is if you're hit multiple times by a large zed in quick succession, which I've found only happens if a group of large zed spawns at once in a wave.

Chip damage to health is mostly ignoreable (and somewhat beneficial to the team since the medic gets extra dosh for healing you), so it seems like the dosh being wasted on the armor that gets chipped away. The only perks it seems useful for are the ones with back line roles, which tend to not take chip damage and only get hit if something breaks through.

I generally don't bother with it except for the boss round; the Heavy Armor skills don't seem to change things much since the lost armor can't be regained in a match like health can. It seems like a lot of other players don't bother with it either, since their blue health bar is usually empty at the start of a wave.

Do you find it to be a good buy?
 
The way I play I generally skip armor early rounds and invest money into weapons and ammo, but start investing into armor mid to late game as it can def save you from a surrounded scenario giving you enough time to get out and back to friendlies if you over reached or from a combo attack from one of the bigger zeds. Armor mitigates the damage from the attacks, so while you'll still take a hit to the health pool, it will be lessened.
 
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That's generally what I was doing as well. However, I find the scenario where the team gets swarmed tends to happen in the latter half of a wave, and by then the chip damage has reduced your armor to 50 or 30 points; it isn't as helpful then since the big hit or getting stuck in a swarm tends to deal 50 or 60 damage, which is survivable without the armor and you can get healed back from fairly quickly. The combo attacks from large zeds seem like you'd need to be near full armor to survive and escape from (since they either kill you or leave you depleted enough that you get finished off quickly thereafter).

If there were a way to buy something like 50 armor midway through a round it would be totally worth it. The closest thing I've found is to hold off on getting the Support's supply kit until the later half of the wave, since it gives you 20% armor and it'll probably get used very soon.
 
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Even on Hell On Earth, I wouldn't buy armor until the last couple of waves when I have purchased the main weapons and nobody else needs the Dosh.

Unless playing solo, buying armor in early rounds is such a waste of money considering how little it will last, and that there is bound to be someone on your team who would appreciate being given that Dosh more than you'd appreciate the armor.

Also, it's kind of an insult to the Field Medic on the team, as they're the ones with the purpose of keeping you alive, and it's like you don't trust them by buying armor early on when it's not necessary. Medics also tend to not get much Dosh from kills in the easy waves and get a lot of it from healing and gifts, which you're denying them by buying armor. Many times I've been bored as the Medic because of this.
 
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