by sprockitz » Tue Sep 16, 2014 9:20 am
quick update from my experience with a few different armors.
I've tried Rank 2 (Duranium), Rank 3 (U238), Rank 5 (Nucleon Tempered Steel), Rank 7 (Magnetic) and Rank 8 (Electrum)
It seems like they all fall in rank order. That said, I didn't see much difference between rank 2 and rank 3 and both only had minimal impact. With 5 tons and 6-7 endurance I still took 50-75% damage with a fusion cannon. With 6-7 tons of rank 5 and 7 endurance, this decreased to 40-55%. With 10 tons of rank 5 it decreased to 25-40%. Rank 7 and 8 saw the biggest jump, with 10 tons of rank 7 and 7-8 endurance damage was 12-16%. With rank 8 and 7-8 endurance it was 10-14%.
My conclusion, rank 7 seems to be enough to make all weapons relatively ineffective...in that they are doing less than half the damage of ram or strafe. Based on this, it seems to make sense that rank should not be maxed out before the big 4 stats.
That said, I haven't really studied the effect of the different armor on tactical attacks...so there may be a little added benefit that I'm neglecting.