The use of a lordly helmet

[Patoson]

I own a lordly helmet, but many people have told me that it is quite useless, since headshots deal a lot of damage anyway.

Is it still useful against melee weapons? I'd like to hear the opinions of people who own one, to know if it's really useful or not.

[Gurnisson]

Is it still useful against melee weapons?

Yes, it helps quite a bit in melee, especially against one-handers. It also helps a lot against weaker projectiles throwing weapons like javs and war darts, against the weaker xbows and against cut arrows. Still, it's not what one should loom first, because you don't always need extra head armor.

[oprah_winfrey]

It is less useful then body armor or gloves, and more useful then boots. Also, it is more useful for melee then against ranged, since you will probably be dead anyway.

[Torben]

to withstand headshots of greater weapons,  loomed plate helmets are needed for the average char.

first armor to loom should be hand,  also because you can get any other armor for them via trade,  head armor tends to be special because it alters you look a lot,  so you need just THAT helmet to get this n that trade out of it.

[oprah_winfrey]

The biggest problem with having a loomed helmet is if you change your mind about what helmet you want/change your armor style. Trading away a helmet for another specific helmet is not the easiest thing.

[Patoson]

Thanks for the replies!

Here's my setup: +3 head, body, hands, Danish GS and Barmace.

I want to trade the Barmace for another weapon. And then I'm wondering whether I should trade the helmet for another weapon or not. I'm not going to retire anymore or buy more looms (can't afford it).

What would you do in my situation?

[Torben]

Thanks for the replies!

Here's my setup: +3 head, body, hands, Danish GS and Barmace.

I want to trade the Barmace for another weapon. And then I'm wondering whether I should trade the helmet for another weapon or not. I'm not going to retire anymore or buy more looms (can't afford it).

What would you do in my situation?

well,  weapons are the fun part in crpg imo,  I didnt have any loomed armor for the longest time, only two weapons,  and I did well,  and had a lot of fun.  also:  doing helmet for weapon,  you can ask for gold on top.  keep that gold,  and if you should want to get a helmet again some time,  put gold on top of the weapon and geht the helmet back.

but if I would have to choose,  I would rather have two weapons I frequently use

[Zanze]

A +3 Helmet or Boots are both very useful. The entire philosophy of helmets and boots being useless is one of the reason over 80% of my hits are either leg shots or head shots. Everyone has their loomed body and gloves with upwards 70 armor, but only wear 50-60 armor helmets and about 20-30 armor boots.

Just silly how many people I see in transitional+ and wearing leather boots.

NH_Turboflex did a test on the difference between a Lordly Warlord Helmet vs Non. Longbow + Bodkin to face without loom = 50% hp (24 str/ 7IF)
Longbow to face with loom = 30%.


Coincidentally those numbers look very similar to what you would get for body/gloves...

But hey, if you want to listen to everyone elses helmet/boots suck, I'll enjoy playing tic tac toe with your eyes and knees.

[Torben]

A +3 Helmet or Boots are both very useful. The entire philosophy of helmets and boots being useless is one of the reason over 80% of my hits are either leg shots or head shots. Everyone has their loomed body and gloves with upwards 70 armor, but only wear 50-60 armor helmets and about 40-50 armor boots.

Just silly how many people I see in transitional+ and wearing leather boots.

NH_Turboflex did a test on the difference between a Lordly Warlord Helmet vs Non. Longbow + Bodkin to face without loom = 50% hp (24 str/ 7IF)
Longbow to face with loom = 30%.


Coincidentally those numbers look very similar to what you would get for body/gloves...

But hey, if you want to listen to everyone elses helmet/boots suck, I'll enjoy playing tic tac toe with your eyes and knees.

I concur about the usefulness of loomed helmets,  just see weapons as actively upping the fun factor more : )

about boots:  first:  your loom level of body armor already adds +x to leg armor,  AND  damage to legs is 80%,  passively "adding" to leg armor by decreasing incoming damage.  so nah,  dont see them toooo important,  althou i often go for legs as well,  specially cav guys

[Zanze]

I concur about the usefulness of loomed helmets,  just see weapons as actively upping the fun factor more : )

about boots:  first:  your loom level of body armor already adds +x to leg armor,  AND  damage to legs is 80%,  passively "adding" to leg armor by decreasing incoming damage.  so nah,  dont see them toooo important,  althou i often go for legs as well,  specially cav guys

Even with the -20% damage, having 40 armor to your legs and 60-70 armor in your body is still a pretty easy choice for me. =D

[Uumdi]

Its usefulness comes and goes, but you'll thank your lucky stars when it happens.  Especially after the heavy lance nerf, it often makes the difference between life and death now, since they hit at head level a lot of the time. 

+3 Fluted Varangian has left me blackbarred more times than I can count, and when you can back away from a poor choice in melee engagement after being overheaded by a poleaxe, you have faith that it was a good choice.

If you're thinking about weapons, you could try ranged.  Crossbows are versatile heirlooms that work especially well with 2H builds.  Throwing, archery, and cav are options too, but you really need to invest your build in them.

[oprah_winfrey]

Its usefulness comes and goes, but you'll thank your lucky stars when it happens.

I remember someone in ATS asking Dan if head/leg (don't remember which) was useful. His response was something along the lines of Only when you get hit in the head/legs.

[Digglez]

My survivability increased significantly when I made the jump for 40 to 48 armor helm, then heirloomed it to 53 armor.  You'd be surprised the amount of times you get hit in your head.  Also, the logic behind ' you take more damage from headshots so its useless' is completely stupid.  If anything, that makes head armor MORE important, so you dont take gigantic hits for chunks of your life.

I dont know how Warband calculates damage, but in other RPG's, armor is applied BEFORE damage is done. so having armor in critical areas that take increased damage is vitally important.

The moral of the story is, you shouldnt skimp on other areas of your armor, they should all be roughly equal in value

[Teeth]

You can get higher head armor easily anyway for not that much weight and money increase. For example:

Getting the equivalent of 3 loom levels worth in head armor from a Guard Helmet, which would be a Vaegir War Mask would give me 0.5 weight more and give a 1.7k gold price increase.

0.5 weight, 1.7k, that is not worth giving up 3 loompoints and being stuck with one helmet.

[San]

Top head armor, medium body armor is a winning combination for movement speed, cost, and durability. You become immune to 1shots that way. I definitely recommend after your body armor and weapon.