New Armor - Compound Plate

In today's Forsaken Mission, they released a new item: Compound Plate.

This is a bit of a surprise, as I was expecting there to be one more week of the old prizes (Sawfish, Agility, Assault Disrupter) before we saw anything new.  But since we've got it... I'll crunch the numbers and give you some quick thoughts: 

Type	Level	Lab	Armor Points	Weight	AP / ton	Shipyard 2 AP / ton	Build Time w officer (h)	AP / hr	Resistance
Depleted Uranium	4	10	2156	479	4.50	5.30	21.60	99.8
Drac D2-E, T, N	2	n/a	750	167	4.49	4.49	4.32	173.6
Drac D3-E, T, N	3	n/a	1250	278	4.50	4.50	8.64	144.7
Drac D3-U	3	n/a	1250	278	4.50	4.50	11.70	106.8
Drac D4-E, T, N	4	n/a	1750	389	4.50	4.50	25.92	67.5
Drac D4-U	4	n/a	1750	389	4.50	4.50	36.90	47.4
Plate1 X, M, C	1	n/a	750	150	5.00	5.88	4.32	173.6	B-2 / P-6 / X-8
Plate2 X, M, C	2	n/a	1250	250	5.00	5.88	8.64	144.7	B-4 / P-10 / X-16
Plate3 X, M, C	3	n/a	1750	350	5.00	5.88	25.92	67.5	B-6 / P-14 / X-22
Comp Plate 2	1	n/a	1255	251	5.00	5.88	TBD	#VALUE!	B-2 & P-4 & X-4
Comp Plate 3	2	n/a	1770	354	5.00	5.88	TBD	#VALUE!	B-2 & P-4 & X-6
Comp Plate 4	3	n/a	2285	457	5.00	5.88	TBD	#VALUE!	B-4 & P-6 & X-8

I'm only comparing these armor types - The Drac E and U are the same but have different build times. You can go back to my earlier article:  Optimizing Your Armor - Build Time & Weight to see the whole table.

A couple things popped out at me quickly:

• The Compound Plate has the same Armor Points per ton as the previous Plate.
• Compound Plate 2 is approximately equivalent to Plate 2, Compound 3 is approximately equivalent to Plate 3, and Compound Plate 4 is in a class of its own - with even more armor points than the previous champ - DU4.
• No Radioactive Resistance here... keep waiting.
• With Compound Plate on Tier 2 of the mission, this is a way for lower level players who might not be able to reach Tier 3 to have access to heavier armor.

The next thing I wanted to look at is - how good are the bonuses?  

I compared 3 Compound Plate armors to the 3 equivalent (one tier up) Forsaken Plate. 

Tier 1: 

3 pieces of Compound 2 give Ballistic -6, Penetrative -12, Explosive -12

3 pieces of Plate 2 give Ballistic -4, Penetrative -10, Explosive -16

Compound 2 is better for Ballistic and Penetrative, worse on Explosive.

Tier 2: 

3 pieces of Compound 3 give Ballistic -6, Penetrative -12, Explosive -18

3 pieces of Plate 3 give Ballistic -6, Penetrative -14, Explosive -22

Compound 3 is even on Ballistic, worse on Penetrative and Explosive.

Tier 3 is tough to compare, since the Compound Armor 4 has more armor points than any other armor piece.

The other consideration is build time.  I'll have to wait until someone wins the armor and share the numbers, but the Draconian Compound Armor (U) had drastically higher build times than the other armor types.  I would expect the Forsaken Compound Armor to have a similar increase in build time over single purpose forsaken plate.

So, when would I recommend using the compound armor?

First of all, If you want the extra armor points, Compound Armor 4 is the new king.  Just be ready for long build times and long repair times.   

I've never liked Forsaken Plate for penetrative damage reduction - there aren't any missiles that have the high salvo characteristics that make Plate very effective compared to Drac M armor or Drac E armor.  With the compound armor, you are 'paying' for the penetrative protection.  On my Tier 1 example, 3 compound pieces did better than 3 mixed plate pieces, but I'd rather fit 2 Ballistic Plate and 1 Explosive Plate for better protection against those two damage types, and not worry much about missiles (I usually bring a phalanx or two to any situation where I expect missile fire).

So - I'm not too excited about these new Compound Armors - I might plug in the numbers to consider them in future builds, but I certainly don't think refits are in order.  So the only places where I would recommend them are:

• If you need as much protection as possible in a ship with few armor slots, use Compound 4.
• Lower level players who don't have D3 or D4 armor may appreciate the access to larger pieces of Compound Plate on Tiers 1 & 2.

Keep waiting for something anti-radioactive, and enjoy your rep points from the Forsaken Missions!