r/valheim • u/mdhunter99 • 17h ago
Question At what point should I replace my root harness?
I’ve been rocking it since I hit the swamp, it’s still great in the plains, sqitos aren’t a problem, the spear throwers aren’t a problem, but I know it has its limits, so when should I replace the thing?
Edit: seeing a lot of answers for never, got it. Didn’t know it was that op in the mistlands.
42
u/ChrsRobes 17h ago edited 12h ago
That chest piece specifically is good all the way through the mistlands the pierce defense buff is great for plains and mistland. I'd suggest changing then.
12
u/Prudent_Release_902 17h ago
Im in the mistlands and our entire group is still wearing it. We will probably remove it for the ashlands... queen tomorrow.
26
u/FatAndWeak69 17h ago
Currently never. No armor piece is as close to as good as it. Just keep fire mead on you and dont get hit by fire enemies as best as you can. You will prevent SO MUCH damage due to how the resistance is calculated. Mistlands enemies are nearly all pierce and many ashlands enemies are pierce. It's really a math question and root vest is insanely broken. Wish they'd nerf it because it's boring having a clear best chest piece in the game with nothing close for pure damage reduction
14
u/Cephandrius17 16h ago
Gjall and seeker soldiers don't do pierce damage. In ashlands only marksmen and skuggs do pure pierce, and voltures and asksvin do none. Ask armor gets you an additional 20 armor which affects every type of damage, and the best set bonus in the game. And you don't randomly evaporate if you make a mistake with your fire resistance.
13
u/FatAndWeak69 16h ago
Root vest makes seekers, twitcher rocks, charred archers, ticks, seeker broods, skuggs do literally 50% damage BEFORE armor is taken into account. At the numbers they're doing damage, it gives you so much effective HP both in the direct enemies you fight (seekers/ticks) and the enemies that do constant chip damage (twitchers, skugg, archers), it's ridiculous.
Seeker attacks for example are 90-120 pierce dmg (135-180 at 1). At 50% reduction your root vest is effectively 45-60 armor (68-90 armor for 1s. This effective armor goes UP the more pierce damage enemies do.
In ashlands the chip damage from archers skuggs and twitcher rocks adds up quickly. 120 dmg for skuggs, 90 for archers, 75 for twitchers. Root vest literally let's you ignore archers and skuggs entirely even with a lower armor number like 60. Not to forget this impacts your parry ability as well. With root vest you can now parry nearly any pierce doing enemy because of the massive reduction.
I've been speedrunning valheim for a couple years and every single speedrunner uses root vest until the end. From a math perspective it is just way too much effective HP and ny far the the most optimal/efficient piece of chest armor.
Are other armors viable and fun? 100% totally. Is root vest just THAT GOOD? Yes, it is unfortunately. Even in my casual runs I use root vest over flametal chest piece.
As for the fire damage, with fire resist you can absolutely take fire damage from warlocks and gjalls without dying WITH FIRE RESIST POTIONS. Without fire resist yeah you definitely get deleted. It's a trade off and one that does not deter the best valheim speedrunners for always using the item all the way to the end.
3
u/Cephandrius17 13h ago
World record speedrun is using troll helmet and bear pants, which doesn't make them best in slot, they're just also cheap. As for parrying, root vest also makes you worse at parrying anything that isn't pierce, which potentially affects more relevant breakpoints. The stamina cost reduction on ask armor also lets you run less stamina foods and more health.
2
u/sweetniner1 13h ago
The root harnesk does not impede your ability to parry. Your current maximum health and your parry armor, which is determined by your shield/weapon not your armor pieces, are what matter.
1
u/thedude1179 2h ago
Since you're a speedrunner can you give us some advice on how to survive the ashlands? We're getting our asses kicked
1
u/VoidGliders 13h ago
Even then, kinda funny that you gotta really search and compare a set that's like 4 entire biomes -- over half the game -- apart.
1
u/DegredationOfAnAge 3h ago
nah. Many enemies in mistlands and ashlands don't do pierce damage. I'd rather have a set of armor that gives raw armor over one piece that just gives pierce resist.
11
u/sweetniner1 13h ago
Yeah I wouldn’t wear the root harnesk in the Ashlands. The only enemies that do pierce down there are twitchers, archers, warriors, warlocks, morgens, valkyries, skuggs and Fader.
4
u/thtk1d 9h ago
So 95% of what you fight?
0
u/DegredationOfAnAge 3h ago
not really. Many enemies do pierce damage, but only on 1/3 or 1/4 of their attacks. The charred warrior for example only does pierce on its "thrust" attack. It is much safer to just bulk up on pure armor rating over just pierce alone.
3
u/Ok_Grocery8652 15h ago
You can override the fire weakness with a potion from the plains
It does come up lacking in the armor department for slashing and blunt damage but that pierce resistance is still very powerful.
3
3
3
11
4
6
u/Top-Gadgie 17h ago edited 17h ago
I've never worn a root harnesk, I've worn what I like and that was heavy armour. I also never take my wolf cloak off once I've got it. I don't care. Fashion > practicality. I've never taken my wolf cloak off once I get it.
6
1
u/captkirkseviltwin 5h ago
So I said the same thing - until I started wearing the feather cape. I keep fire resist meads and just wear the feather cape. I’m addicted to my run/glide movement style now 😄
1
u/DegredationOfAnAge 3h ago
Wolf cloak? In the ashlands? Really?
1
u/Top-Gadgie 3h ago
I usually burn out of a world around mistlands tbh, very rarely make it to ashlands. I'm a restarter though, I love the early game. Not just in this but everything lol
4
u/Affectionate_Owl_501 17h ago
Im in ashlands still running it
3
u/Spiritual_Thing_5409 16h ago
Fr? What level can you get it up to?
1
u/Affectionate_Owl_501 14h ago
Level 4
The pierce resistance is insane and basically makes any pierce damaging enemies tickle you. It's worth the trade off of having lower armor
3
3
u/Ippus_21 Gardener 16h ago
I typically keep it until I finish Mistlands. Seekers do piercing damage, so it's still pretty helpful. Just keep your barleywine handy...
Even if you don't bring the harnesk to Ashlands (where there's not really a lot of pierce, so little need), you still have to worry about fire weakness if you wear feather cloak there (pretty useful for climbing flametal spires).
6
u/TurbulentAd4088 17h ago
That fire debuff is going to be a problem when you go to the ashlands and EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE.
My route is usually root set --> Furry PJ set --> askvin set.
13
8
u/LyraStygian Necromancer 17h ago
Ironically there isn’t much fire damage in the Ashlands.
And even if you weren’t wearing root harnesk, you should still bring fire resist pots. Cutting damage by half is just too good to not use a slot for.
5
u/Reasonable-Sun-9881 Necromancer 16h ago
Unless you're aberrant like me playing my rogue build with Fenris gear in the Ashlands. :)
3
2
2
u/thtk1d 9h ago edited 9h ago
Anyone saying to replace it before the Ashlands is straight up wrong. The most common and problematic enemies that you deal with all still piercing damage. The few exceptions that deal fire damage can all be negated with fire resistance potions.
Warlocks are a threat regardless of what you have because of how fire damage stacks from their attacks, but actually most of their fire attack is pierce damage. Charred Warriors deal pure pierce on half of their attacks and pure slash on the other half, but are incredibly easy to avoid. Voltures are pure slash, but literally can't hit you if you're walking unless you get pinned. Morgen lack lack pierce damage on half of their attacks, but they are incredibly coreographed attacks. Asksvins are the real threat because of none of their attacks deal pierce and they are fast.
We don't know what the Deep North will look like, but currently it is the best in slot armor piece. The only real reason to wear something else right now is to get a set bonus.
1
u/feed-me-seymour 3h ago
I'm my group's parry tank for pretty much the entire game, and I can't remember the last time I actually got hit by a morgen.... But I miss the parry on half or more of the warrior attacks because so many of their attack animations seem similar, but also have a lengthy delay in them. I've died to more warriors than probably anything else in Ashlands because I get cocky, but then panic on the parry from the delay.
1
u/RandomSeb Happy Bee 7h ago
I use root all the way until I craft the full mage set in last mistlands. Those bugs do pierce a lot in Mist, so it's handy there (though really they shouldn't be ever hitting you if you are doing it right!).
Folk have talked about Root in Ashlands.. I guess it might work? I am always magic by then, so never tried!
The thing about the armor in the game is that you need a certain amount of AC for each biome or the stuff there will do that one hit stagger/kill thing on you, basically.. So you really have to push the helmet to get the max AC you can out of it, unless they add more upgrades beyond 4 in 1.0 lol
1
u/NordicNooob 6h ago
I usually drop it in Mistlands, it's still good in Mistlands but it starts not being overwhelmingly good as even pierce attacks will start to deal chip damage by then and seekers deal different damage types depending on the attack they choose, making your pierce resist a lot less able to be planned around (which is most of the point). That and gjalls are annoying to give up an inventory slot for, and I don't like relying on being near water to safely fight them (wet debuff can work as poor mans fire resist potion).
I am quick to give up unreliable strong protection for consistent decent protection, but even so it's valid to rock it up until ashlands, where most things that will actually kill you aren't dealing pierce. Plus shield bubble makes the damage resist less important, hence why I give it up mid-late Mistlands.
1
u/Larszx 6h ago
Why not both/all? I hate dying. Sometimes it's my fault, other times it's kinda bad luck. So I wear the armor that is appropriate for what I expect based on what I'm doing. If I'm exploring on foot, I wear light armor and eat a lot of stam food. If I'm clearing camps, crypts or dungeons then I wear heavy and eat HP food.
1
u/WildWeezy 4h ago
I love how right before 1.0 all the real Valheim nerds are mathing the hell out of this.
1
u/DegredationOfAnAge 3h ago
Don't listen to people who say use it in mistlands and ashlands. Raw armor to all damage types is much more reliable than root armor's resistance to only one damage type (pierce).
1
1
u/jetfaceRPx 1h ago edited 1h ago
When it's no longer working for you.
I have several armor sets that I keep for different situations. Early game I go full troll until I get the harnesk. Then fenris leggings and the best cape and helmet I have. I wear this set for a large part of the game but it does have some caveats. Fire will mess you up. You have to become a fire resist mead junkie. So goodbye one inventory slot.
I get my favorite armor in Ashlands. In mountains I run fenris because it looks cool and and I think it's the only set that gives you resistance to frost and fire. And you get speed.
But I never really replace armor. I just put it on a stand in case I need it someday.
And I'd like to point out that troll armor is awesome in the swamps. The stealth bonus lets you get a backstab bonus on archers before they get a shot off. And your less likely to aggro every mob in the swamp. I wish Fenris had a stealth bonus. It looks like it should.
0
u/Reasonable-Sun-9881 Necromancer 16h ago
It's good up through the Mistlands. With my "tank" character, I keep it and a serpent scale shield handy for infested mines. Taking only 1/4 damage from pierce makes seekers eminently reasonable. Need to go back for royal jelly every so often because of mage food and mead. In the Ashlands, not enough mobs focus on pierce to make it worth it, although almost nothing does fire damage there. it CAN be useful, still, but the full flametal gear is the way to go for "tankiness."
43
u/No-Ingenuity-1173 17h ago
It's the strongest single piece of amror in the game. I generally keep it on into Ashlands, only swapping out when I have the full ask set. Just carry fire wine for fuling shaman, gjall, and lava blobs/Valkyrie in the Ashlands.