Amarr medium suit has more total hit points than the other three, so you could think of that as a pre-determined mod slot that doesn't take up any CPU/PG.

Yet the other suits can use that mod slot to not only make up the difference but exceed it considerably and still have the same number of mod slots free as the Amarr suit has. For instance the Minmatar suit can place a shield extender in and have vastly more shield HP and still have the 3 slots the Amarr suit has.

I still can't quite understand why the Amarr suits have equal shielding and armor when in Eve Amarr have utterly poor shielding. It seems like a bit of an illogical jump.

I'm talking total hp, not just shield or armor. If Minmatar medium puts a shield extender do they have more total HP? Also while others can use the slot for more customization, keep in mind these extra hit points don't take up any CPU/PG.

And I'm with you, I'm not sure when Amarr became the race of balance.

Also the Amarr proto suit has 50 more CPU and 20 more PG then the other Proto suits. It stacks the best off of passive skills out of all the dropsuits. Since it has the most Base Health if u 180 + 180 its the most u get out of any suit. They run a bit slower but have faster shield regen delay if the shield is not dropped. I must say the Gallente 25% cpu reduction on the Assault skill is a bit too much.

The fact that Amarr suits are now omni tanks is stupid. The reason you don't do an omni tank in eve is because you can't focus on making both tanks work. Also why the hell are Amarr suits now shield tankers? What the hell is that about? Amarr have always been armour tank. And now you people are like "Yeah that totally makes sense" instead of "No it's never been like that and it's stupid."

But this isnt EvE? And as of yet, the only way to effectively armor tank is when you are being backed by a logi.

We only have a set number of suits and each of them have to be noticeably different from each other.
Gallente = Armor
Caldari = Shield
Minmatar = Fast
Amarr = Mid shield/Armor

Amarr dosnt need to be changed, but some more suit variants could be added.

No this is Eve. It is an online persistent shooter set in the Eve universe. Coming out with "It's not Eve" is blatantly wrong. Amarr have always been the Armor tanking race of the Eve universe far more than the Gallente have been.
This is the equivalent of making the Caldari armor tankers.

Gallente - Armor repair/Damage with Blasters/Drones
Caldari - Shield buffer/Damage with Railguns/Missiles
Minmatar - Shield boosting/ Damage with Autoguns/Fast
Amarr - Armor buffer/Damage with Lasers/Drones

It's not difficult to differentiate between the four races. To me it just seems like they lamed out at Amarr suits instead of putting a bit of effort into differentiating between the two shield tank races and the two armor tank races. One extra problem with the current setup for Amarr suits is that like in Eve, you now need to max out your SP in both Armor AND shield tanking in order to make the suit work. Which is just ridiculous since you only need to bother maxing out Shields for Mini's and Caldari and Armor for Gallente. Yet for the Amarr suit you're putting in over double the SP just to keep up with what the Gallente suit can do with more armor and 2 extra low slots.

I run an Amarr assault suit, and I love it.

Dual tanking works in Dust, and I'm glad the Amarr ground troops have equal armor and shields. This is a terrible segue into a list.

1. You can get a crazy high buffer. Higher than just shield or just armor.
2. You can get better resistances to various types of weapons. A laser can strip you shields but has trouble with your armor, or you can survive a grenade thanks to having good shields. ( the poor sap in the gallente suit next to me got blowd up.)
3. Can be easily justified by a clever item description as to why the Amarr are running both shields and armor. Possibly something about keeping a high buffer, or even better a blurf about how this suit is mass produced by slaves they wanted it to be highly adaptable for any situation as you can't really just go buy another type of suit.

I frankly love the tank I can get going on this suit, and I also love the Amarr suit's bonuses.

And let's not forget about balance. Now we have three racial dropsuits with good shielding, but only one with good armor. Minmatar weapons are as useless as ever, and Amarr weapons will be as useful as ever. Honestly, who thought this was a good idea?

Put it as an Armor tanker which is what they should be. Straight into buffer tanking. Make Gallente repair tanking. Keep the weapon bonuses for each..

I've tried buffer armor tanking build after build. To have any sort of survivability you have to have reppers. Currently there is no way to make buffer armor tanking not blow ass. It'll all be repair tanking anyway.

I'm glad they are an trying an omni tank. a suit with ok shields and ok armor is a decent addition to the various types of suits. It takes a lot of SP to get the most out of that tank, and due to having to have mods that affect both neither the shield won't be as strong as a caldari, nor will the armor be as good as a gallente. All while being slower and having fewer mod slots than any other suit, so there is your drawback.

@ulysess - When I ran an HMG I always would flux first. It worked pretty well. besides a 5% swing either way isn't that bad. I'd hardly call them useless as I've been getting the SMG to still kill people pretty dang well this build.

I agree that Amarr would have been the obvious choice for pure armor tanking, but what's the point debating it, swapping the art on amarr and gallente suits wouldn't change game play at all.
It's as pointless as saying "The gallente suits don't look gallente to me, they need more green". This thread was about game balance after all, not lore.

What the hell is the point of it?

No this is Eve. It is an online persistent shooter set in the Eve universe. Coming out with "It's not Eve" is blatantly wrong. Amarr have always been the Armor tanking race of the Eve universe far more than the Gallente have been.
This is the equivalent of making the Caldari armor tankers.

Gallente - Armor repair/Damage with Blasters/Drones
Caldari - Shield buffer/Damage with Railguns/Missiles
Minmatar - Shield boosting/ Damage with Autoguns/Fast
Amarr - Armor buffer/Damage with Lasers/Drones

It's not difficult to differentiate between the four races. To me it just seems like they lamed out at Amarr suits instead of putting a bit of effort into differentiating between the two shield tank races and the two armor tank races. One extra problem with the current setup for Amarr suits is that like in Eve, you now need to max out your SP in both Armor AND shield tanking in order to make the suit work. Which is just ridiculous since you only need to bother maxing out Shields for Mini's and Caldari and Armor for Gallente. Yet for the Amarr suit you're putting in over double the SP just to keep up with what the Gallente suit can do with more armor and 2 extra low slots.