Bracers miss the mark

[Shadowy Reality]

Bracers come in three varieties, greensteel (5/+1), mithril (5/+2) and adamantine (5/+3).

These are mainly leveling items, as in epics nigh every monster, and all PCs, will have +3 weapons or better.

Adamantine: This in itself almost rules out adamantine bracers out of being useful. No new character will have the coin to buy an adamantine bracer, and when they do have spare for one, they will likely not need it.

Greensteel: these are rarely seen, as +1 weapons are common even in low level enemies, these are virtually useless.

Mithril: these are more common as 5/+2 is somewhat decent and they are still affordable for newer characters, somewhere between 5,000 and 15,000 gold pieces.

The issue is that even being cheaper, they still fall flat really quickly. I do not have a comprehensive list of early enemies that have +2 weapons, but as early as Sea Bandits, some of them have +2 weapons, which are enemies around level 10.

I am almost sure it only gets worse from here, I can try to make a list of enemies with +2 weapons below level 20. These items had the potential to ease some of the leveling pains of certain builds, such as 2-handed, or two weapon fighting builds that traditionally are missing 5 AC from not wielding a shield, but as they currently stand, not so much.

[Subtext]

I think the point of the bracers is less so the raw variant (even though the DR is nice on earlier levels) but the bonuses from the advanced version with having +2 to a stat and +5/+6 to specific skills.
One can argue if the skills and spells are optimally chosen but in general I think those bracers are super useful.

[dominantdrowess]

I am with Shadowed Reality. Unless I am sailing I don't really use the bracers. I literally runed the Preservation Bracers with +2 Wisdom, in order to add +2 Sail ... but to max my wisdom out while sailing. But overall; I think these items are awkward inventory clutter unless you're doing it for the lore bracer.

[AstralUniverse]

I think bracers hit the mark, except the charisma one which cannot take a masterwork rune, last I checked. They are useful for their flat DR in PvE for some builds, and they are useful for their skills and +2 stat on other builds. Seems to hit the mark just fine.

[-XXX-]

I think bracers hit the mark, except the charisma one which cannot take a masterwork rune, last I checked.

They can be runed

[Shadowy Reality]

My point is that the flat DR in PvE isn't actually all that great. I do think these could help two handed or TWF builds which typically lack the AC to clear content on their own, but they don't because of the reasons I mentioned above, the DR actually isn't useful for too long after you get them.

They are good because of stats, and because some of them have useful skill bonuses, not because of the DR itself.

[-XXX-]

It's a +2 stat gear piece. The DR isn't great, but it isn't terrible either - it works argainst manticore spikes and evard's.

[AstralUniverse]

My point is that the flat DR in PvE isn't actually all that great. I do think these could help two handed or TWF builds which typically lack the AC to clear content on their own, but they don't because of the reasons I mentioned above, the DR actually isn't useful for too long after you get them.

They are good because of stats, and because some of them have useful skill bonuses, not because of the DR itself.

I actually use Ethereal Visage a lot and I've used the addy bracers on 3 different hexblade builds over the recent years, and I wouldnt say that most enemies in late-game pve have +3 weapon mod. Maybe a few here and there, but definitely not most. Beyond that, as was said already, they are also useful BiS item for their +2 stat and +6 skill on many builds, so between that and also having this pve perk for low ac builds, seems to make a versatile and not too op item that you can use, or live without. This is fine.

[Xerah]

My most sought after purchase is mithral bracers when levelling a new character. There are far fewer that have +2 weapons than you are suggesting there are.

[Reikenbach]

Mithral bracers feel like they're in a good spot, while Adamantine bracers feel like the DR is more a detriment than a boon - by the time you can afford them, DR 5/+3 isn't helping you at all. They're still valuable for some builds, however, due to the +2 primary stat and large skill bonuses.

The real offender are Greensteel bracers, which have 5/+1 DR. Almost everything has a +1 weapon - I think someone else confirmed that even the rats you fight in the first available writ have a +1 weapon. Given Mithral seems more common than Arjale, there's really no point to the Greensteel bracers existing.

[AstralUniverse]

Greensteel bracers are actually the most cost efficient bracers and arguably the best early game investment in the game. Not only they have +1 stat and runic, making them versatile and valuable to many, but +1 weapons are actually super uncommon all the way to early epics. The few dungeons with a lot of +1 weapon mobs can just be skipped if it's a real issue.

[chris a gogo]

Well unless the price has gone up a lot from the last time I used them my characters buys them before level 10 for around 120k, so I think they are pretty useful.

Also it really depends on what class your playing as to if you want them or not, I will say I've never bothered with the mithril or green steel ones.

[Kalthariam]

Honestly.. adamantine bracers are often considered subpar options for people when they are gearing out their characters.

Most people say getting personally dwemored Bracers are better when your finalizing your gear equipment. Outside of maybe casters that want that full soft +12 Mental stat 24/7 to keep their spell slots. I don't know how often they are used.

Mithril bracers seem to be in a good place based on how more prevalant mithril has become over the years.

Greensteel is still very weird that they are the weakest of the bracers. Generally you don't find Arjale until high level dungeons.. and the high levels that have it usually ignore it because unless your making a greensteel weapon for someone no one really uses greensteel?

It also doesn't really make sense to me that greensteel is weaker than mithril, when in basically every other armor peice a greensteel peice of armor is equivalent to mithril protection wise, it just has different bonuses.

[MRFTW]

I think I'd almost always take a set of dweomered +3 discipline bracers, unless one of my characters scaled exceptionally well from one of the impressive +skills on the bracers, which isn't that common but handy when it happens.

I actually think changing bracers' DR would help things in general. Give Adamantine +7/5 and mithril +3/5. That'd make it a good choice and provide some minor counterplay to WMs. I picked +7 as that'd allow a level 30 fighter / epic AA to bypass it, maybe +6 is more reasonable.

[Good Character]

Some are attractive: Avoidance, Persuasion, and Knowing.

Avoidance: Access to a +6 parry source, easily runed, and free Shield spell.
Persuasion: These have lost a bit of oomph over the years due to the introduction of other sources for Bluff and Perform.
Knowing: A good swap if you're a Search hound, or you're really good at gear swapping for the Lore in PvP.

The issue with the rest is that their stats are completely useless.

Aggression: Doubling down on Intimidate and Taunt is never happening, so having one take up space makes runing more difficult.
Preservation: It's Heal. +6 is not worth the +2 in three other useful skills.

I do think we have to keep in mind that these came out 4 years ago. A lot has changed since then.

[Eyeliner]

I like Aggression on low to mid level characters. +2 strength even if only for carrying capacity and a four uses of expeditious retreat plus damage reduction aren't going to help win in PVP but they make gathering and writs a lot easier. If I have someone who fell into money early on (found a few star sapphires in chests, etc) I'll buy these for quality of life alone. Later on, yeah, they're not the best option.

I don't know if it's good or bad that there are no level requirements on bracers, by the way. Giving a level 3 any adamantine bracer is huge and I'd be surprised if these aren't one of the most passed-along things in factions.

[Mattamue]

Greensteel bracers are one of the first things I save for on a new melee character.