The Age of War Chapter 2 update for Conan Exiles introduced a number of balancing changes to the combat system. In particular, the way that stamina works has been altered. You’ll notice that stamina regeneration now occurs much faster than it ever did, beginning at just 0.1 seconds after an action, while stamina costs have been increased in some cases, such as when you swing weapons or perform a double jump. This means that agility-based builds are now much more appealing since the more agility you have, the higher your stamina pool is. Having said that, there’s still room for strength-based armor builds depending on your playstyle, so on this page, we’ll cover a few options for each using Light, Medium, and Heavy armor sets and pieces.

Differences Between Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor¶

The first thing worth noting when you’re thinking about the best possible armor to wear in Conan Exiles relates to the differences between light, medium, and heavy armor. These can essentially be summed up by the following points.

Armor Values¶

As you might expect, heavy armor has the highest armor values in the game, making you much tougher to kill. The higher your armor value, the more direct hits it’ll take to bring you down. This can make PvE combat much more forgiving when you’re fighting a lot of enemies or a powerful boss, but in PvP it will slow you down significantly and become more of a burden. Medium armor can provide a decent balance between armor values and maneuverability, but whether it’s enough to sacrifice the best of either is debatable.

Speed and Evasion (dodge-rolls)¶

One of the most important aspects of PvP combat in Conan Exiles is the ability to move quickly. Light armor not only allows you to run faster than you would otherwise be able to with medium or heavy armor equipped, but it also allows you to dodge-roll more swiftly, and also recover from those dodge-rolls more quickly. It’s for these reasons that light armor is generally preferred in PvP environments, where speed and stamina recovery are among your highest priorities.

Armor Durability¶

The other important things to consider about the different armor types are their relative values for durability, weight, and carrying capacity. In general, heavy armor pieces will be much more durable than medium or light ones, which means you can wear them for much longer without worrying about them breaking, and therefore having to gather materials for repairs. You’ll also be able to take a lot more hits from tough enemies with higher durability values. For context, a good heavy armor set can have a 1,000 - 1,600 durability rating, while a light armor set is limited to 480 - 720, or 600 - 900 at best.

Weight, Encumbrance, and Carry Capacity¶

The amount that your armor weighs will also need to be considered. Using heavy armor means that you’re limited to carrying fewer items overall since it accounts for much more of your total encumbrance value. You can see this in the top left of your basic inventory screen, where you’ll see a bar that represents different thresholds of encumbrance in accordance with different colors and percentages, as follows:

• Green (between 0 - 49%)
• Yellow (between 50 - 74%)
• Orange (between 75 - 89%)
• Red (between 90 - 100%)

If you’re fighting in PvP or you need the most amount of maneuverability in general, you’ll want to stay within the green bar (between 0 - 49%) of encumbrance. This will allow you to be as fast as possible both in running and dodging, but it’ll also reduce the amount of stamina you use per action. The same principle applies even when you’re exploring in PvE environments; if you want to gather the most amount of resources without having to return to your base, you should aim to use light armor to increase the overall amount that you can carry.

The only exception to this would be if you’re entering a region where you really think you’ll benefit from having heavier armor. However, even in this scenario, if you practice your dodging skills you can rely on using light or medium armor in the most dangerous situations. In this way, you’ll get the best of both worlds, since you can acquire a lot of resources and still defeat the toughest enemies without having to worry. With that said, not everyone has the time to become an expert in Conan Exiles combat, and some of the stats on heavy armor can be incredibly valuable regardless, so it’s still worth considering them.

Temperature - Heat and Cold Resistance¶

One final difference to consider between light, medium, and heavy armors in Conan Exiles is the amount of resistance they provide to hot and cold environments. You’ll find that heavy armor provides the most amount of resistance to both of these environmental extremes, but it’s not true of every piece or set. You’ll have to check each set that you wear and the individual pieces associated with them to see what you can expect from these resistances, and be ready to use one that will make your life easier in those inhospitable environments. If you don’t want to be limited to specific armor based on the environment you’re in, you can always use consumables such as potions, elixirs, and food to mitigate negative heat or cold instead.

Best Light Armor for Agility and Strength Builds¶

We’ll start off with a few options for light armor builds. As mentioned above, the reason you might want to play with light armor is that it provides the most amount of maneuverability on the battlefield, allowing you to recover from dodge-rolls and regenerate stamina more efficiently in general. For these reasons, it’s often preferred in PvP environments, but if you’re confident in your ability to dodge and avoid heavy attacks from tough enemies, you’ll benefit from using it in PvE too, especially since it gives you the most amount of freedom to sprint and climb, but also carry more items thanks to the reduce encumbrance.

Black Corsair Set - Agility¶

The Black Corsair light armor set is not only one of the best for its category, but it’s also incredibly easy to get the recipe for it by reading a pirate note at Buccaneer Bay. It provides the best bonus to agility weapon damage with a combined total of +30%.

Silent Legion / Darfari and Misc Sets - Strength¶

If you’re looking for a strength-based alternative to the Black Corsair Set, you have a few options which mostly consist of either the Silent Legion Light set or the Darfari Skin set, with a few additional random pieces. We’ll start with a combination of the Silent Legion and Darfari sets.

As you can see, this set will provide less overall damage boost than the agility set, coming in at +18%, but it’s an option for those who prefer strength-based weapons alongside having slightly better carrying capacity.

If you don’t necessarily have a preference between strength and agility builds, but you still want to have a more balanced light armor set, you can keep the Silent Legion Light Pauldron from the above configuration but replace the rest with the Perfected Light Turban, Silent Legion Light Gauntlets, Leggings of Kurak, and Perfected Light Boots. This will give you a decent balance between strength and agility damage, but it will also boost your stamina pool by +30, and your carrying capacity by +30, and it will provide followers with a +8% overall damage boost, making it a great choice for PvE environments.

Best Medium Armor for Agility and Strength Builds¶

Now we come to the best choices for a medium armor build. As we’ve discussed above, light armor is generally considered the best for PvP battles, but medium armor has its place, especially in PvE. The below sets will provide you with much greater armor values in exchange for less overall damage output, but you’ll also gain a significant amount of follower damage and concussive damage, both of which are great when fighting NPCs. On top of this, the armor is more durable overall so you don’t have to worry about repairing it as often, but it weighs more so you’ll be slower and have more difficulty when climbing.

Skelos Cultist Master’s Set - Agility¶

If you want to focus purely on agility damage with a medium armor set, while also benefiting from some of the additional stats mentioned above, it’s difficult to beat the Skelos Cultist Master’s set.

A Mixed Medium Build (Misc of Voidforged, Silent Legion, Perfected Medium) - Strength¶

If you’re looking for a more balanced or strength-based medium armor build, a misc set consisting of the Perfected Medium Cap, Voidforged Dragonbone Tunic, Silent Legion Medium Gauntlets, Perfected Medium Tasset, and Silent Legion Medium Boots is a good option. You’ll also get some extra carrying capacity with this one, mitigating some of that which is lost by using medium armor over light armor.

Best Heavy Armor for Agility and Strength Builds¶

The heavy armor sets listed below are only recommended for use in PvE environments where you think you’ll need the extra help from higher damage resistances. Heavy armor is less useful in a PvP context for reasons we’ve already discussed above, but in the simplest terms: it will slow you down and make you an easier target for anyone with a light or medium-based build. If you want to be competitive in PvP, your best bet is learning how to avoid attacks with clever movement and dodges, rather than relying on your armor to reduce incoming damage from them. With that said, there’s a place for heavy armor in some of the most brutal boss battles, where being hit is difficult to avoid.

Redeemed Legion Set - Agility¶

The Redeemed Legion Set provides a massive boost to your overall armor value when compared with any medium or light armor set. This will make it much more difficult for most enemies to kill you in less than 6-12 hits, making you as tough as you can possibly be against them. You’ll also gain some bonuses to heat and cold resistance, so it can be useful to wear this armor in the most inhospitable environments.

All of this comes at a cost, however, and you’ll find that you inflict far less damage than you could with the best light and medium builds. You’ll also be much slower and you might as well forget about climbing anything taller than a small tree. Finally, your carry capacity will be significantly reduced before you become too encumbered to do much other than walk incredibly slowly from one place to the next. In short: you should only wear this armor when you think it’s absolutely necessary, otherwise the disadvantages are arguably too crippling.

More Conan Exiles Guides¶

If you’re looking for more Conan Exiles guides, be sure to check the links below.

• How the Purge Works in Chapter 2
• Tips for Surviving the Purge - Best Bases
• Purge Rewards in Conan Exiles
• Religions, Altars and Avatars Guide