Originally posted by HOUSE_D:

Not sure if you get poison resistance from root helm unless you complete the armor set. I read somewhere on one of the gaming sites you don't get the resistance or bonus arrow damage without full set. I've been wearing just the helm and still taking a good amount of poison dmg.

You get the bonus. The full set bonus is 15 to bow skill. The poison bonus, like the pierce bonus on the chest piece for it is just on the piece itself not the set.

You may be thinking of the Fenris set, it requires the full set for its fire resist bonus.

My favorite current load out is the carapace helm for the high armor and no speed debuff, the root chest for the pierce resist, the fenris pants for the slight movement speed bonus and the feather cape for the featherfall effect. You're effectively at 1% increased speed and 60 some odd armor with pierce resist added in. You're faster than no armor at all by a hair, have decent armor, resist to one of the most used damage types and as long as you carry fire resist mead or just another pair of pants to swap into the fire vulnerability is no big deal.