I think I found a good one

Basic ferro
Basic armor plate
Basic armor plates
Complex Armor plate
complex repairer

905 EHP, 11.25 Repair and a 8% penalty.

I think you just found the build that was in my dreams.

But it forces us to be very Logi dependant and our HP still doesn't exceed shields. In order for there to be a balance or a benefit different than shields we need to have equal HP and slightly lower repair, or Higher HP and lower repair.

About to try it out.

About to try it out.

About to try it out.

Can I direct you to the beginning of the thread? Fitting more then one plate on a proto assault gal means two reppers, a max 12.5 hp a sec and a smaller buffer then a shield tank with just complex extenders and you have a slower speed (even if that is slightly curtailed now). Yes your gal logi does okay with a natural 5 hp a sec and 5 lows, but that is an exception, not the rule of armor tanking.

Yes those weapons do more damage to shields not armor but, as we've discussed, the problem is the hard swing. For instance hybrid weapons, the AR and Shotgun, do 110% damage to shields and 90% to armor. That is a pro. Explosive damage, grenades, flaylocks and mass drivers, do 150% to armor and 80% to shields. That's a pretty hard swing of a con. Maybe I should focus on the pro here, but contact grenades keep exploding in my face.

If I am not mistaken, explosive damage is 130 over 70. I could be wrong however. Once again play to your strengths. That is the nature of this game. Manny a Caldari sum have lost their lives to my pro scrambler rifle and pro flaylock on my Amarr alt. it gives me much pleasure to see them die so easily.

Next up needs to be new high slot armor modules. For example...

Armor Hardener: decreases damage taken by armor by a carefully playtested non-OP percentage, with a stacking penalty (2,4,6%?)

Nanite Injector: decreases Armor Repairer cycle time by a carefully playtested non-OP percentage
(10,25,40%?)

If I am not mistaken, explosive damage is 130 over 70. I could be wrong however. Once again play to your strengths. That is the nature of this game. Manny a Caldari sum have lost their lives to my pro scrambler rifle and pro flaylock on my Amarr alt. it gives me much pleasure to see them die so easily.

And why would we use any of the above instead of a plate or armor rep?
Especially the resistance one, 6% lol.

Because you would use them in high slots my man. That's why. As for the percentages, ignore my numbers. I don't know the math but there must be a percentage that is balanced.

First off, +1 for death to shield tanks.

130 to 70 is a 60% swing to my 70% both are quiet large. Also, how does one play to your strengths in dust? I think this will reveal me as a terribad player but I often don't get to choose who I'm fighting. I can't look out across the field to find the scrambler rifler suits and I defiantly can't avoid a good scout with a flaylock. Explosive grenades are ubiquitous, every militia suits gets one, plus they are easy to fit so how do I avoid those, I mean from the obvious don't walk on the grenade indicator.

I apologize if I seem overly aggressive or anything, I welcome discussion, it's just been a frustrating day. That said take the next part with a grain of salt.

If you can only play to your strengths then you can't play an armor tank. Decent reps require either standing on a kill me beacon (nano hive which easily shows up on enemy mini maps) or to hug a logi-bro (everyone should get a hug). Without a fast recharge I have to avoid encounters until I repair, however I am slower even with shenanigans, then the people who want to kill me. Even if I take cover, it can take up to a minute to refill my buffer. 60 seconds is a long time to hide if someone is looking for you. I can't out buffer my foes, I can't out rep them. I certainly could equip dedicated anti-shield weaponry but if I do that why shouldn't I just shield tank? My sp is invested, if I am going to change my skill plan why bother with armor at all? I

I think that post that say "armor is good in a group" or "it's balanced you just can't see it" are outright fallacious and damaging to creating any semblance of balance. Why? The create false parallels that ghetto-ize the armor tankers. They say you can't play like the rest of us but it's okay, you have your niche. But math and experience shows that the niche does not exist and no amount of platitudes about play style will change that.

If you don't have a logi suit but have a assault or basic suit try this out

2x complex Ferro scale
1x enhanced reactive plates
1x complex plate
2x extenders

Needs engineering to max but gives 840 hp but only 1.15 repair.
Probably a better fit out there but what I'm going to try.

Give me a module with a 50% resistance against explosives and I'm in.

Or try

2x complex ferro
1x basic reactive
1x complex plate

1x complex energizer
2x complex extenders

800 EHP and 40 HP/s on shield repair, and 1 HP/s on armor

No way it's 40 hp. Maybe 34. And that's a lot of CPU.

We need to get a confirmation from CCP if the way the stacking penalties are working in our favor is on purpose or a mistake before we make any suggestions on polishing armor. If they are meant to work in our favor this is a small step into the fixing of armor, but there is still a lot to be done, for example we yet have the ability to buffer tank, racial bonuses still need fixing, and the plates are still very penalizing in terms of CPU/PG. Although a Gallente assault can now get the same HP as a Caldari assault without gimping his speed to much, the repairs are still way off balanced and the Caldari has more CPU/PG in reserve than the Gallente.

P.S: If CCP confirms this is intentional I will take back everything bad I have said about them , although it does not excuse the bad communication between CCP devs and us armor tanks.