Increase in No-armor endorsement builds?

I have been noticing a disturbing amount of no-armor endorsement builds lately. I have seen countless assassins running around with RoF/Speed/Health Regen or Skill Regen. I have also played a few gunners who used RoF/Acc/Crit. Then there are the several assault builds that use no armor as well. I have also played a few tanks who have used RoF/Speed/Skill Regen. More and more snipers seem to be using some mixture of Clip, RoF, Critical shot, and skill regen.

I have found myself slowly stepping away from gold and silver armor for a while now. My main gunner build is RoF/Acc/Armor, while it used to be the standard Armor/RoF/Accuracy. My support build uses RoF/Skill Regen/Armor. My kills have seen a large increase, but my deaths have also increased with the change from gold armor as well.

Does anyone have an idea as to why there are so many people that are not using armor? When I first started playing 3 months ago, it seemed like everyone was using armor, but now it seems like there are a lot of unorthodox builds that are surprisingly effective without armor.

People tend to copy what they see doing really well, so if someone like Xeno is using an armorless assault and doing very well with it, chances are it's going to spread.

A lot of high-level Assassins running around without Armour, which is confusing. Still, I almost have 150 Ejector kills, so shine on you crazy-*** diamonds.

A lot more Snipers running Accuracy as well.

I plan to try running RoF/Armor/Accuracy for my sniper. You would think that some of the not-so-good no-armor assaults would go back to armor when they fight a decent armored assault. I also find it way too easy to kill an unarmored class unless they are half-way decent. Maybe we should encourage some people here on the forums to start using some more interesting builds and see what works for them. I think I might try a gold speed gunner if it works for someone else.

honestly i don't run armor except on tank and assassin. i don't really see it as a necessary endorsement on any other class.

I disagree. A no-armor sniper dies from an assassin dagger front grapple. I find that to be stupid, therefore I run silver armor. A no-armor assault also dies really quickly from a lunge-grapple combo. I usually don't give assassins a chance to sneak up on me, but sometimes a good or lucky assassin can get you off guard. I don't like taking chances.

I agree that you should run armor on a sniper, altho i generally prefer other endorsements i see how armor is important. armor on assault i don't find a necessity. I usually stay mobile and rarely get grappled. I do rarely get grappled tho, but that's a price i'm willing to pay for the build i run.

What is your build?

My assassin and sniper don't have armor. I usually do well. It's just the way I play though, and don't encourage others to use my builds.



Really, if you play using the class's natural tendancy to resist damage, you don't need armor. Assassins shouldn't be near insta-gib danger, and should cloak to get around without being seen and flee when chased, and just attack when able. Snipers shouldn't be near insta-gib danger, and should either snipe from an area with map control with the correct ice traps placed, or keep a low profile and change places often (I like the second one).

Sometimes, people need to learn to use armor though. If you MUST be assassin against ImHudson, use armor. If your tanking against snipers or gunners, gold armor please. If your sniping against nothing but assassins and assaults, gold armor please. I change my classes all the time based on who im up against, everyone should learn to do that.

I run Gold RoF silver Acc and bronze skill on assault

That is a pretty interesting build. Definitely unorthodox.

Sounds sound. (Get it? Lol.)

I flip all those around, but I use a similar one.

I used to run Acc rate and clipsize on my assault

I'd say it comes down to the quality of your opposition. In your average pub game you can get away with no armour on most classes. But if you get two or more players who know what they're doing, especially if you kill them a few times and they start to focus fire you, then gold armour suddenly seems like the only way to go.

I don't notice much benefit from bronze armour on any class. Front assassin grapples are so rare when you know how to counter them that for me they're not a reason for an endorsement. So it boils down to whether there are better alternatives for that particular class. For Gunner with gold/silver acc/rof there's not much else worth putting in bronze. For the other classes there are decent alternatives (skill recovery for example, if you're not running it)

I heavily dislike the necessity of armor. I really do. Armor, and RoF are on EVERY, SINGLE, one of my builds. Most other ones honestly are just not worth it, and I hate it. I should be able to compete with a guy if I put all my endorsements into my gun, whereas he puts his in his health. This would make it more fair, and actually come down to player skill with the occasional luck.

As it is, it's really just a matter of "ARMOR OR GTFO", which drives me nuts.

Reason why I disliked CoD4, either stopping power or jugg. Or hardcore but who wants to play hardcore.

I have ran gold speed when upgraded to passive 3 (dual miniguns) and had success against pubs.

If you are good at clawing and the other team isn't a pub-stomping party, gold speed gunner jetpacking around the map getting the drop on people and getting away quick can net you a good amount of kills, and its pretty damn fun.

It's especially fun when you pickup speed upgrades. In my experience speed upgrades stack on top of speed endorsements, making you able to be very very mobile. Jet packing 3/4ths of the map in 1 jump from a wall with a fully spun minigun devastates the unsuspecting.

think ppl are becoming better at the game and better at countering assassins..
which makes them more confident to not use Armor

It almost seems to me that armor is really training wheels for most classes. It gives new players a sort of crutch so that if they make a mistake they don't have to die for it nessecarily. People like xeno who play no armor assaults or like hudson who i believe runs a no armor tank sometimes manage to wreck people without it so it almost seems like it isn't really crucial to most classes. I personally don't use armor on my assault, but I do use it silver on my sniper and tank. As a sniper I like the ability of being able to survive the front grapple from an assassin and being able to take that one extra bodyshot from another sniper. But on a side note I do feel like there are some endorsements that definantly outclass others such as RoF. It is basically a great endorsement fro any class and you don't really see a whole lot of builds without it.

As it's been said before, it depends on the quality of opponent. I would love to play any or your armor-less classes. Sniper needs armor. That's a fact jack. I run two Sniper builds. I'm either running Armor, RoF, Clip or RoF, Armor, Clip. Which one I run with depends on which part of the map I'm working and the perceived ability of my opponents. I wholeheartedly agree about RoF though. Every class benefits from it's inclusion.