It is just smarter to use Plate.
You can take a look at TOS Base’s Item Database, but here are a few examples:
Level 75
Riena Plate Armor: +52 Physical Defense, +10 Stamina
Riena Leather Armor: +32 Physical Defense, +6 Evasion
Riena Plate Leggings: +50 Physical Defense, +170 HP
Riena Leather Pants: +30 Physical Defense, +8 Poison Resistance
Level 120
Legwyn Family Plate Armor: +69 Physical Defense, +170 HP
Legwyn Family Leather Armor: +46 Physical Defense, +4 SPR
Legwyn Family Plate Pants: +69 Physical Defense, +4 SPR
Legwyn Family Leather Pants: +46 Physical Defense, +18 hp recovery
Legwyn Family Plate Gauntlets: +61 Accuracy, +5 Physical Attack, +7 Physical Defense, +255 HP
Legwyn Family Leather Gloves: +77 Accuracy, +7 Critical Rate
Legwyn Family Leather Boots = +77 Evasion, +18 Stamina
Legwyn Family Plate Greaves = +61 Evasion, +7 Physical Defense, +255 HP, +18 Stamina
Level 170
Roxona Plate Armor: +82 Physical Defense, +6 CON, +8 Ice Resistance
Roxona Leather Armor: +55 Physical Defense, +5 CON, +5 SPR
Roxona Plate Pants: +82 Physical Defense, +37 Critical Resistance, +6 Ice Resistance
Roxona Leather Pants: +55 Physical Defense, +8 Dark Resistance
Roxona Plate Gauntlets: +72 Accuracy, +8 Physical Defense, +289 HP
Roxona Leather Gloves: +91 Accuracy, +3 DEX, +35 Critical Attack
Roxona Plate Boots: +72 Evasion, +8 Physical Defense, +289 HP, +22 Stamina
Roxona Leather Boots: +91 Evasion, +3 CON, +25 Stamina
As you can see, most equipment give defense oriented stats. But there is also the Armor Mastery attributes:
Plate Mastery: Defense
- 3 pieces give +34 HP per level (+1700 at level 50) and Physical damage taken decreases by 5%
- 4 pieces give Stamina (+16 at level 50) and Physical damage taken decreases by an additional 10% (15% total)
Leather Mastery: Dexterity
- 3 pieces give +1 Evasion per level (+50 at level 50)
- 4 pieces give +0.5 extra Evasion per level (+75 total at level 50)
So a quick comparison at level 170 Plate vs Leather set using 5 pieces:
Plate: +180 Physical Defense, +2278 HP, +6 CON, +72 Accuracy, +72 Evasion, +37 Critical Resistance, +14 Ice Resistance, +38 Stamina, -15% physical damage taken
Leather: +55 Physical Defense, +3 CON, +91 Accuracy, +166 Evasion, +3 DEX, +35 Critical Attack, +8 Dark Resistance, +25 Stamina
No matter how you look at it, Plate gives the best stats all around for a Swordsman.
There is also the situation of particular builds. For example, Hoplite doesn’t really care about evasion and the stats Plate gives are better for those builds, while Corsair really likes to have the extra stamina so Plate is better too.
What about DEX builds, wouldn’t they want that extra evasion?
Not really. They are already building heavily into DEX (which gives Critical Rate, Evasion and Accuracy), and the amount of points they need to feel comfortable with their Critical Rate gives more than enough Evasion already.
The difference between Plate and Leather is only 94 Evasion, which isn’t gonna do much when you are already dodging as much as you can with your DEX alone.
No one has done extensive research on how Evasion works in the game yet, but there is definitely a soft cap as it is impossible to dodge 100% of the attacks.
Here is one my favorite videos about this topic that Mixology made to test Evasion in the game: ‘Perfect Dodge’ and Sadhu class
On the other hand, all the stats you get from Plate will help your build more since you can take advantage of them.
What about Vubbe Fighter Gloves and Cafrisun Set?
Cafrisun doesn’t work with Concentrate anymore. And in my opinion, in the first place it wasn’t worth giving up all the stats on better equipment to get a very small extra amount of damage.
Vubbe Fighter Gauntlets are nice to have at low levels, but eventually every build outgrows them. From my experience, it is around Rank 5+ when most people stop using them in their builds.
The gloves also got slightly more difficult to get now, and by the time you get them you might not even need them anymore. If you can get them sure, use them, but don’t go way out of your way to get them, it is not worth it.
Hoplite also doesn’t really need the gloves, since they get Finestra.
What about awakened items?
From my experience, even using the best awakened items still results in Plate winning over Leather.
You could go around and look at every possible combination of awakened items and find out one that could work better for one specific build while using Leather. But it wouldn’t apply to every Swordsman build, and overall most if not all the builds benefit from Plate more.
