Changes to material bonuses for Meteoric Iron

First up - well done for starting to address the "bronze is the only choice" balance.

I've just done the maths on how the changes to the Item Damage Resistance stat on White Iron and Meteoric Iron add up over a complete set of chain armour, and I have to say there is still work to be done.

Adding a 25% boost to a stat which is already a % boost on some small numbers add up to very little real difference.

The HP boost on the White Iron is quite decent (+0.3 DR, +75HP for augmented set), so i'll instead concentrate on Meteoric Iron, where extra Damage Resistance is all it offers.

Meteoric Iron Coil of Wire changed from 4% Item Damage Resistance to 5% Item Damage Resistance per coil of wire. Meteoric Bindings changed from 0.8% Item Damage Resistance to 1.2% Item Damage Resistance per binding.

Gloves (both recipes need 2 coils of wire, and gloves have base DR of 2)

Previous: +8% Item Damage Resistance, Total DR: 2.16 (2.2 on tooltip)
New: +10% Item Damage Resistance, Total DR: 2.2
Change: 0.04 DR​

Boots are the same, going from 2.16 to 2.2

Change: 0.04 DR​

Helmet makes a difference which recipe

Augmented Chain Helmet Previous: 2.252 DR (2.3 on tooltip)
Augmented Chain Helmet New: 2.324 (2.3 on tooltip)
Change: 0.072 DR
Chain Helmet Previous: 2.32 DR (2.3 on tooltip)
Chain Helmet New: 2.4 DR
Change: 0.08 DR​

Leggings makes a difference which recipe

Augmented Chain Leggings Previous: 2.424 (2.4 on tooltip)
Augmented Chain Leggings New: 2.548
Change: 0.124 DR
Chain Leggings Previous: 2.48 DR (2.5 on tooltip)
Chain Leggings New: 2.6 DR
Change: 0.12 DR​

Chest makes a difference which recipe

Augmented Chain Chest Previous: 5.352 DR (5.4 on tooltip)
Augmented Chain Chest New: 5.744 DR (5.7 on tooltip)
Change: 0.392 DR
Chain Chest Previous: 5.44 DR (5.4 on tooltip)
Chain Chest New: 5.8 DR
Change: 0.36 DR​

So across the whole set of armour, assuming you take the "best gains" it is a total change of 0.676 DR
Old total DR: 14.416
New total DR: 15.092
Change: 4.7% increase

So your 25% increase at the start amounted to only a 4.7% actual gain in the impacted stat.

Currently a set of the equivalent "best gains" pieces in Bronze is 13.256 DR

In summary:
The +1.8 DR more than a bronze set really still feels like it's not even a choice. (It was +1.2 DR more than bronze previously)

A possible solution:
Perhaps you could consider having the bonus being something more like +0.25 per coil, +0.1 per binding damage resistance (not percentage, but actual bonus) or adding a small "max damage resistance" increase to meteoric as a secondary buff?
This would give the following total DR amounts for a full set:

Meteoric Iron Chain: 17.750
Meteoric Iron Augmented Chain: 17.6​

At this point approximately 4.5 DR more than Bronze makes it a more tempting alternative.

 

I use Constantan... DR I always add on Mastercraft, and since the DR changes, it doesn't make a huge diff anymore. Only way I see it mattering is if you want to add DA over DR (which I don't). Only time I make Bronze for armor now, is when I run out of Nickel.

 

Thank you lordenglish for this in depth explanation... I was excited about the changes since I wear meteoric iron but this is not as exciting but hopefully they will take note.

 

This is really helpful information. This should be brought to the attention of the developers.