What the rest said, I only wear Troll-hide at the moment, meanwhile my other buddies are wearing Iron. Why? Because I use the bow mostly, and with a good shield and mace, you don't need armor if you can time the parry. Armor just keeps you from keeping murderized by Death Mosquitoes and such. Even with Troll-hide level 2, and some good food in me, I can take a couple hits from those things. They're only scary when they 1-hit you from out of the blue.