It's pretty typical in this game. The first level of a new armor or weapon will be a small upgrade over the top level of the last set with the real gains only coming with the top levels. Feels bad but is one of the prices we pay for playing EA.

Besides nuking everything with magic is AWESOME!

Probably because you are only able to upgrade the latest armor to level 2 because the improvements necessary to the newest forge is/are unfinished.

Originally posted by alden.monzon:

Probably because you are only able to upgrade the latest armor to level 2 because the improvements necessary to the newest forge is/are unfinished.

If that's the case why release it at all, the current gear is worse than old gear making getting it pointless. I'm safer in padded armor with a lox cape than I am with the new stuff. My old sword and shield are better as well. Why would anyone want to go into the Mistlands knowing it's all downgrades?

I'm hoping that the reason they did not release the tier 3 and 4 upgrades for the armor is that tier 3 and 4 will give resists.

You do it to be on the cutting edge of exploration of an exciting new world and possibly have some small impact on the ultimate form that world takes,

Besides it isn't nothing. By the time you have gotten the gear to the max level it is possible to at this point you will have something like 8 more points of armor (guess from memory, reality may differ). Not huge sure but not nothing.

Originally posted by Arthur Beltway:

Originally posted by alden.monzon:

Probably because you are only able to upgrade the latest armor to level 2 because the improvements necessary to the newest forge is/are unfinished.

If that's the case why release it at all, the current gear is worse than old gear making getting it pointless. I'm safer in padded armor with a lox cape than I am with the new stuff. My old sword and shield are better as well. Why would anyone want to go into the Mistlands knowing it's all downgrades?

Ask the devs. I'm just stating an observation. Still, the new carapace armor are still better than the padded ones since you get a few armor points (even though the increase is just a little)

Havent used the weapons, but I'm pretty sure at least the bow is better by a little margin.

Going by wiki numbers there's 20 point difference between max wolf and max padded.
So sounds about right carapace is only marginally better when you can't even max carapace currently.

Check out the mod Epic Loot. It adds some neat little items that have some stats, and the ability to break those down and enchant crafted items with random stats. It adds a little more to the end game. The enchants are random, and there are set bonuses as well.

Originally posted by Arthur Beltway:

Am I missing something? Why is the difference between Max Padded armor with a Linen cape and Max Carapace with a Feather cape 4 armor points xD You're telling me from Yagluth to The Queen I get 4 more armor and that's it?

Is this supposed to be the "We're phasing out heavy armor, no one should use anything but light armor from now on" expansion?

Because the options right now is 4 more armor OR nuke everything with magic

Edit: Now that I look at it, the new buckler is worse than the black metal shield as well. It's stats are just worse. What the hell is going on?

The carapace buckler has a 2.5x parry bonus, the blackmetal shield only has a 1.5x bonus. The buckler is much better.

Also, I’d imagine if there’s no update that adds a new black forge upgrade before ashlands, then you’ll probably be able to make one very early on in the ashlands progression tree. Maybe ashlands armor is super late in progression? Maybe there’s no ashlands heavy armor at all and instead upgraded carapace replaces it? You gotta think long term considering the devs are making the game so that everything blends well once it is finished, and not so much on a per update basis.

Originally posted by Arthur Beltway:

Originally posted by alden.monzon:

Probably because you are only able to upgrade the latest armor to level 2 because the improvements necessary to the newest forge is/are unfinished.

If that's the case why release it at all, the current gear is worse than old gear making getting it pointless. I'm safer in padded armor with a lox cape than I am with the new stuff. My old sword and shield are better as well. Why would anyone want to go into the Mistlands knowing it's all downgrades?

There’s not a single weapon or armor in mistlands tier that is worse than the plains version. Mistwalker is substantially better than the blackmetal sword due to it dealing more damage, frost not being resisted by seeker soldiers unlike slash, and frost overall being a very strong status effect.