I sometimes use the root helmet in swamp for the poison resistance, but, as long as (as I pointed out in another post) you don't shower in the green mist of a blob, iron provides plenty of resistance to poison, so it usually goes on the shelf pretty quickly.

I've been trying out the harnesk lately. It is nice to wear around the house in the plains to resist the occasional dive bombing deathsquito before breakfast. It also helps against ticks, especially the starred ones. The non-starred ones are not normally a problem if you have an AOI weapon, or are quick at rolling, but the 2* ticks work fast, especially in lighter armor. I don't find any use for it otherwise, and I'm only using it now because I'm using all light armor. With heavier armor, I don't think the tradeoff is worth it.

Fenris, on the other hand, is awesome. It's good all the way through mistlands, especially if you have a high move and jump skill. It's alot of fun combined with a quick weapon like a knife.

Going the light track, I skipped iron (of course) and just went straight to Fenris armor from troll. You have to be careful of the cultists in troll armor or you turn into a pile of ash, but it's well worth it.

One additional point is that Wolf Armor isn't far beyond Iron. So going Root then upgrading to Heavy Wolf Armor is also super-viable.

For me it is a huge iron sink I avoid. Iron buckler and troll armor sees me into the mountains, but it's very dangerous to get hit by a stone golem or 2* wolf. If you find yourself having trouble with stamina management and taking hits regularly, by all means get it. It is a big upgrade when available.

Wolves deal slash damage not pierce. 70/105/140 slash damage from 0 to 2 stars.

2 piece root is ideal for the swamp, the head is good enough you don't have to make/carry the meads and the chest shuts down the biggest danger: starred archer draugr. I would ditch them before fighting cultists though.

One upside to root armour is the mats aren't useful for anything else.

Only you know if you want the bow skill buff, it's not really necessary but if you rely heavily on bow you might want it.

Personally I wouldn't consider root armour just for movement speed, but I might stick with troll instead of moving to iron. The best armour for movement speed is fenris armour, made from fenris hair found in frost caves in the mountains.

Heavy armour is good if you find you're getting hit too much. It's good for entering new biomes where you don't know what the dangers are, it gives you room to make mistakes and a fighting chance of survival. If you can avoid getting hit there's really not much point to it.

Originally posted by FissionChips:

One upside to root armour is the mats aren't useful for anything else.

Only you know if you want the bow skill buff, it's not really necessary but if you rely heavily on bow you might want it.

Personally I wouldn't consider root armour just for movement speed, but I might stick with troll instead of moving to iron. The best armour for movement speed is fenris armour, made from fenris hair found in frost caves in the mountains.

Heavy armour is good if you find you're getting hit too much. It's good for entering new biomes where you don't know what the dangers are, it gives you room to make mistakes and a fighting chance of survival. If you can avoid getting hit there's really not much point to it.

ya my style is to kite anything that can hit me in 2-3 hits, and when blocking, i dont try for the perfect block, i just block early and take it. then follow up with my sword or mace.

I mostly skip iron gear. I make the helmet, the pick axe and the atgeir then I head off to the mountains with a root chest piece while still wearing troll pants (but not in the caves with that setup). If I decide to bother with Bonemass then the iron mace too. But I sometimes skip or postpone him.

You can keep using root harnesk throughout the current game. If you ever find yourself in need of fire resistance to cover for the weakness, you can simply go for a dip or chug some wine, or you can combine the two to have actual fire resistance while using root harnesk.

It's also a good idea to familiarize yourself with enemies which deal piercing damage and which do not, and with which attacks.

Just preference. Iron is more reliable because of the armor but Root is also useful if you use bow a lot.

The most useful pieces of root are chestpiece for pierce resistance, and helmet for poison resistance.

Pierce resist is useful all the way until the end of the game, with it being especially good in plains against deathsquitos and mistlands against seekers.

Poison resist is useful in the swamp so you no longer need to consume meads all the time.

Originally posted by MythN7:

i know one would have less armor, but is the root better than the iron cause of the bow set and move speed?

Root armor is far superior to iron Armor for a number of reasons. Which you choose depends more on your play style and your ability to dodge vs tank damage.

With that said, you will experience far greater protection from damage resists on Root armor than Iron armor. Using base values, here are some numbers:

Base Iron Armor value = 42
Base Root Armor value = 24

That means, if an enemy attacks with 100 Piercing damage, you'll take 58 if you're wearing armor, and you'll take 76 if you're wearing Root. Iron is protecting you from a whopping 18 damage, so Iron is better, right? WRONG!

In the Root set, the Root Harnesk (chest piece) provides Resistance vs. Pierce. Resistance provides 50% damage reduction for the damage type it resists. So with this new information:

Enemy attacks with 100 Piercing Damage

Base Iron Armor value = 42 : 100 - 42 = 58 damage received

Base Root Armor value = 24 w/ 50% damage reduction : 100 * .5 [damage reduction is applied FIRST] = 50 - 24 = only *26* damage received!!

So not only do you take less damage from Piercing / Poison, you also gain +6% movement speed (because iron is -10% and root is only -4%) and a +15 to bow skills.

Now, the biggest trade off for me is fire wielders (cultists in particular) will melt your freaking face off. You do NOT like fire, at all. Make fire resist potions and drink 'em, and keep drinkin` em.

TL;DR - the only drawback to Root armor is that the mats are a little more difficult to gather and you're exceptionally weak to Fire damage. Otherwise, Root armor is far superior to Iron against most enemies (especially deathsquitos and wolves as they both do piercing damage)