Moved here from the ranger topic, I thought it was worth exploring a bit more.

>(Embodiedchaos) The evasion hindrance butchers us for wearing anything other than cloth.

>(MockerJB) That's very strange. As a fellow armor tert, I've seen some awesome LC set ups. I'm surprised you're so "cloth or die," Raikage. For what it's worth, I repeat that as an armor tert, I would love dampen, or skein of shadows. I am hoping very much that skein is not signature. Making chain just a little less brutal on stealth (which is what it sounds like skein is specifically targeting) would be absolutely awesome.

>(EmbodiedChaos) Well its not just armor tert that does it. Being a combination of armor tert + survival primary + other factors tiers good thief defenses specifically at focusing evasion. I have tried every armor mix there is, and every one of them gives you a lower effective defense than just wearing cloth.

This is strictly limited to PvP, I assume? My level 50 thief isn't really a great example of how 'real' DR plays, and I've never PvP'ed with him.

I've also never really done mixed armor setups with a thief. I just took light armor and went with it, knowing I could move around in the sub-classes for better protection vs. hindrance, and end up with pretty decent armor and a respectably low penalty.

I think what Raesh was implying was that, with the new khri, we should be able to mix in heavier armors without completely tanking evasion/hiding (even though the reduction only applies to stealth). Have you tested this in the 3.1 environment and found it to be not true? Or has not enough changed to warrant reevaluating your previous tests?

I look at dampen mainly as a training tool. It will help train the heavy armors while still being able to hide/backstab/ambush. If you are using light armor its benefit is very small. Without dampen and using a light armor setup and the least hindering shield, a thief can be at minimally hindered for stealth. With dampen, this drops down to barely, but the stealth effectiveness is probably only increased by a few percent. If you don't use a shield, the stealth hindrance can be reduced to zero.

For the light armor users, dampen does not have much value compared to other khri.

<< The only effect it has is on stealth hindrance, which by itself is not good enough to warrant use in 99% of circumstances you would run into.

I agree that it feels a little redundant with already darken in our disposal. Given that a regular thief in a 150 circle range will be able to operate effectively under 4-5 khri, i doubt dampen will make that list for the most of us.

On the other hand i think there might be some use for it yet for a few non-combat related situations but i have not tried it.