Assessing Armor: Phoenix Armor (Patreon)

So before we get onto Leather, and drill into why it's such an amazing armor set that everyone makes use of at one point or another. I want to look at one of the 'so close but so far away' armor sets in the Phoenix Armor. With that done we can get onto leather and then look at the Hybrid armor sets from the Lion Knight and the alternate leather set in the Wall mini-expansions.  All of which use existing gear in a different manner and mostly succeed.

So, when I look at this set, I'm going to give the Phoenix a break and ignore how poorly designed the hunt/showdown is and how bad the weapons are (the strength on the Phoenix weapons is so weak because they were all 'balanced' around always charging with them - this is not how you should be designing your custom content btw people, always design for something to be good in isolation, if it requires an armor set to work, build it into the armor set, don't slap it onto a weapon or make your weapons weak to 'balance').

Phoenix Helm

Resource Cost: 1x hollow wing bone, 1x small feather, 1x bone

Assessment

Efficiency: This is basically 2 bone and 1 hide for this helmet, and it's a great price for a great piece of gear. I have a lot of time for the Phoenix Helm and its efficiency is one of the higher ones for head gear.

S

Defense: Exceptional defense, because this gear not only gives you 4 armor points to the head, but it also (when active) provides an evasion token. 

S

Abilities: So the ability on this helm not only requires you to complete BRG for your affinities, but it also requires you to be insane. However, when you complete both of these pre-requisites the reward is worth it. Not many people realise it but +1 Evasion Token is worth more than +1 Evasion, because there are things that make use of tokens.

A-

Affinities: A down blue affinity on a piece of head gear is the very definition of average. When you consider that this means the head and body affinity requirements are completed by the armor set itself, that's a very solid position for the affinity. Typically this gear will occupy the 2 or 5 positions on the grid (think phone/num-pad)

B

Score: A superb piece of gear, if we could continue the trend with the other parts of the Phoenix set, we'd have an armor set that is absolutely worth the time and effort!

 A+

Phoenix Plackart

Resource Cost: 1x iron, 1x leather, 1x tail feather, 1x hide

Assessment

Efficiency: So this piece of gear costs 2 'advanced' resources in the iron and leather, but it only needs one phoenix specific resource. Which is a heck of a deal, meaning you're more likely to be able to get this gear completed without too many phoenix fights (the cost of phoenix fights on your hunters is high).

S+

Defense: Absolutely off the charts on the defense front. The Phoenix Plackart boasts one of the most incredible and powerful defensive abilities in the game (and 4 armor points to boot). As long as you can fuel the insanity requirements of the ability (see below) you can tank for days.

This piece of gear is the number one reason why you would consider Phoenix Armor.

S++

Abilities: As mentioned in the defense situation the ability on this armor piece is incredible. As long as you are insane, for the cost of 1 insanity (suffer 1 brain damage) you can ignore the first hit you take each turn. Passive. It's not Block, it's not Dodge, it's not Deflect. It's straight up one of the most powerful abilities in the game bar none and it is this ability that has the Phoenix Plackart turning up in mongrel build after mongrel build.

One of the best items in the game.

S++

Affinities: The affinities are also really good. You get up blue, left green and right red. However the Plackart needs all of these connected to activate. Which is a high cost, if you look around at the gear in the game you'll notice that right green and left red are not exactly common. So you can get shoe horned a fair bit - and as we'll see, the rest of the armor doesn't help this situation. That's why, despite having a decent set of affinities, I can't give it a great score here, because their layout is kinda ass.

A-

Score: If you can meet the requirements for this piece of gear, you'll have one of the best items in the game strapped to your chest. It's absolutely the centrepiece of the armor set. However, Warlord Armor makes better use of it, so I can't give it the highest score here.

S-

Phoenix Gauntlet

Resource Cost:   1x iron, 1x leather, 1x small feather, 1x bone

Assessment

Efficiency: So, you'd think that because the cost of this gear isn't much different from the plackart that it would score a similar amount. But honestly, no, despite being close in cost. The level of power you get from the Gauntlet is significantly lower than most other parts. You pay too much for what you get here.

D

Defense: It provides decent armor, and a little insanity when departing, so the defense isn't awful. But, in fact it's not defense that's the problem with this gear card.

B-

Abilities: The ability is pretty weak for the tier that this armor is at. +1 insanity when departing is worse than the stuff you get with Leather armor. So I can't really praise the gauntlets for doing something, because what it does isn't good enough.

C

Affinities: N/A - and this is a serious issue, so there will be a deduction in the score section..

Score: So, as you can see, we've tanked pretty hard in rating from the head and body, we're now sat with a piece of gear that kind of does nothing other than exist. It's biggest crime is that it doesn't help activate the plakcart in any manner at all. A left red on here would have changed everything.

D

Phoenix Faulds

Resource Cost:   1x iron, 1x leather, 1x tail feather, 1x organ

Assessment

Efficiency: Again this piece is priced almost the same as the Plackart, but it's way worse. Everything I wrote about the arms applies here.

D

Defense: Same as the Gauntlets

 B- 

Abilities: And again, as it's basically the same item copied.

 C 

Affinities: N/A

Score: Everything I wrote about the Gauntlets applies here again. This armor set didn't need one piece of gear like this, and it has two.

D

Phoenix Greaves

Resource Cost:  1x iron, 1x leather, 1x small feather, 1x organ 

Assessment

Efficiency: Again this doesn't compare to the Plackart, however this gear is significantly better than the two that have come before it. And actually the Greaves are a solid and useful piece of gear in their own right. This time, the price is worth it.

A

Defense: Not as high as the Head/Body but you should never underestimate how powerful being at 7 movement can be defensively. Especially when you can stack

A

Abilities: The ability of this piece is phenomenal. +2 movement has a whole bunch of applications, especially when you consider that it has no affinity requirements. You can reach 10 movement easily with 

S

Affinities: The single right red half-affinity isn't really that useful, especially when you consider that the body piece has the same affinity. Overall right red half-affinities are worth less than red left half-affinities.

B-

Score: OK, so movement is super powerful, even conditional movement that can be switched off by brain damage. And, as strong as this movement ability is, there is anti-synergy between the boots (which want you to preserve your insanity) and the body (that drains your insanity away). So individually these boots are amazing, but they struggle in this armor set.

A-

Phoenix Armor

Resource Cost:  1x hollow wing bone, 4x iron, 4x leather, 2x small feather, 2x bone, 2 x tail feather, 2x organ, 1x hide

Assessment

Efficiency: Total cost for what you get is a tad on the high side. This is because the Phoenix set is a mess, harmed by a lack of affinities on three pieces of gear and torn in two directions - it's not sure if its an offensive set or a defensive one, so it ends up doing neither.

C+

Set Bonus: Charge is a splashy, high impact ability that is 'supposed' to help make weak weapons more powerful. You will find some use for it in the core game only as it can be helpful, especially when you're up at the high movement. Or if you meme and combine it with harvestman.  However, it is not as good as the Dragon Armor or Screaming Armor set bonuses, and these 'spend activation + movement to do a move and attack' abilities are a dime a dozen. Charge is the third worst of these (better than pounce).

The armor gain for the set is basically the same as normal. Nothing to write home about.

D-

Defense: Defensively this set almost has it all. It's got a bit of evasion, the incredible Plackart ability, high movement for kiting. But, the set constantly drains your insanity away, which eventually switches off most of your defensive abilities (apart from the evasion) and you're left with something that can just charge at the monster every other turn.  

The armor levels are 5 at every location, which is solid, and the Plackart ability is the best in the game. So it still gets a good score, but over time in a showdown this armor suffers.

Additionally, I have not mentioned it until now, but the Phoenix armor is flammable, this is actually a relevant negative keyword. It's not as bad as fragile or heavy, but there are certain hunt events that will punish you for wearing Phoenix armor and you have to be super careful when fighting Sunstalkers or the Dragon King.

A+

Abilities: The evasion token, the Plackart ignore hits and the extra movement are all excellent abilities. The arms and waist gear on the other hand have the Leather Mask's ability split between them. So they're kind of not that great. But the package as a whole, if you can support it with a deep pool of insanity, is impressive.

A

Affinities: 1 Blue affinity, 1 green half affinity and 2 red half affinities is a terrible selection for the amount of effort you have put in to making this gear. It gets even worse when you realise that the green affinity doesn't combine with monster grease and both the red affinities do not combine with the Monster tooth necklace. Only the Blue Affinity is in an easy to use and desirable orientation (head to body joined).

Also the complete lack of affinities on not one, but two pieces of gear really harm synergy for load-outs, this in itself might have a relevant build (Death Mask hates affinities). But the head and body both crave a RGB set of affinities in order to work.

E

Score: Overall this armor set isn't absolute garbage, but it is very over priced and underpowered for what you get. In essence you're either going full tank with this set, by jumping through hoops to keep the Plackart active, or you're going to get a smidge of insanity and then use movement to charge the monster. But if you want to do the second one, there are better options available with other armor sets.

C- 

Next time we'll look at leather and then we have all the information required to assess the Warlord, Vagabond, Dancer and Brawler armor variant/hybrid armor sets!