To everyone who thinks Armor Tanking is useless.

1. You probably think the plates make you ridiculously slow. Why don't you do the math and see exactly where a 10% reduction actually takes you. You don't become as slow as a heavy, I can guarantee you. You still get around just fine. I've ran down several people with my armor tanking suit. When you are traveling distances within a single base, you are going to get there at pretty much the same time as a guy without armor plates, so it's ideal for defending the entirety of a base. The only point where you'll notice the speed difference is if you're trying to run long distances between bases.

2. You probably think armor sucks because it doesn't recharge automatically and even when it does it is slower than shield recharging. However, Gallente gets a ton of low-slots so you have room for a couple complex armor repairers. With these two plus the skill bonus, you are repairing 12.5 per second. And this is continuous, no delay. A shield tanker may have to wait 6 seconds for the recharge to kick in, in that time I have already repaired 75 of my armor. And if a shield guy gets hit just a little during that delay it starts over. Armor repairers are much better in my opinion for long shootouts whereas shield tanking is better for when you plan for quick engagements.

3. Armor plating gives you a lot more health than shield extenders. They also don't get wiped out when standing somewhat near a flux grenade. They can be repaired by an equipment that can go over 100 hp per second. There is no shield repairer tool. When you get revived by a nano injector, it revives a percentage of your armor but none of your shields, so armor tankers come back stronger.

Not even to mention we are getting a new weapon in a couple days that will tear through shields. I'm not saying shields are useless, but armor tanking does have plenty of upsides.

1. Walking speed is important for 1v1, and gallente are always easier targets because of that.

2. A Caldari can fit extenders without having to fit any "reps".
And no, that's 100% false and I tested time and time again, after the first hit, another hit won't reset the timer.
Putting a shield reg on your suit will negate a lot of that time spent waiting.

3. Armor plating gives you a bullet more health.
A bullet.
And if you use it you don't get to have proper recharge.
Any explosives destroy armor instantly, and its not like you have a layer of suit behind that armor like shields do.
Also, that 100hp rep is a lie, its only for vehicles, I checked.
Shield transfers will come, EVE has it, its not like CCP cares about Shield/Armor balance like they showed time and time again.

The scrambler rifle does 120% damage to shields and 80% to armor.
AR does 110% to shields, 90% to armor.
So none of your upsides are actually true.

1. Yes, I have, and its slow as hell.
Have you ever tried to use shields?

I stopped right here because you are insisting on something that is simply not true. And yes, I have tried complex shield extenders.

Then I guess we have different standards.
I could do the same and stop when you say its not much of a difference.
I notice it, believe me.
When I face Gallente suits they are far easier targets than Caldari ones.

Edited my post above a little bit if that helps.

CCP Guy1: "Hey, we have this useless thing we really hate, its called 'Armor tanking'! (shudders)"
CCP Guy2: "Heh, lets give it to the Gallente, just to troll people. You need to be close range to use the Gallente AR? Nope, you're too slow to close the distance because of Armor."
CCP Guy1: "GENIUS!!!"
CCP Guy2: "Oh, and lets make it so that no matter how many reps you put on your suit, the base shield regeneration is still higher!"
CCP Guy1: "AWESOME! I will update the stats spreadsheet right now"
CCP Guy2: "And lets make it so that if you put on 4 complex plates, you will move like a heavy, won't regenerate, and you will only gain 3 bullets worth of HP compared to 4 complex shield extenders!"
CCP Guy1: "Really, you are the best!"
CCP Guy1: "But what about balanced armor and regeneration?"
CCP Guy2: "Don't worry about it, regeneration is slow and the HP difference is 1 bullet at best. Oh and they move like crap"

CCP Guy2: "So umm, we have this thing we REALLY love, its called shield tanking."
CCP Guy1: "Oh, we should totally give that to the characters we love the most, the Caldari!"
CCP Guy2: "Oh yeah, and lets make the Logi more tanky than a Gallente assault with 4 complex armor plates!"
CCP Guy1: "But don't shields regenerate?"
CCP Guy2: "Excatly >: D"
CCP Guy 1: ">: D"

I swear, while trying to fit a Caldari character and Gallente character, this is what I imagine CCP were thinking.