What armor should I get next

[Bonewagon]

I'm about to start my next month in the game, and will be putting in some more RL cash. I bought a suit of Pixie, and I guess it's better than nothing, but as I get more into mining and going to more dangerous places, I'd like to invest in something a little better.

Can anyone recommend a set or mix of sets which would give me a decent spectrum of defenses without being crazy expensive?

[Meric]

If you are not being mentored, so don't have an expectation of an adjusted Pixie, then I'd suggest Shogun as the next one.

[mastermesh]

Might cost a bit but full set of UL ghost or gremlin is nice to have on hand. Gremlin is looted, so might be a little harder to find, but should be in auction. Ghost is crafted. Check PA and Twin Malls. Buzz, Auktuma, or the SFE guys might have some? Since ghost is crafted it's typically cheaper to buy it in a mall shop than in the auction (most auctions on that stuff is resellers who buy supplies from the mall shops and then mark it up in the auction a little more then they bought it for actually I suspect)...

Once you get the armor, use plates to up the defense on them a little. 5b and 6A are the most used for mid-level hunting I think -- 5b for most mobs that you need evade on, and 6a for the bots. Some lower level plates work too... really depends on what you want to hunt really. For example, if you are just going after snablesnots and that's it, good ol cheap goblin might do fine.

Study entropedia and look at the mob types that various mobs do, then look at the armor charts over there and find the right mix for you. You DON'T want the mob to only do one point damage on you ALL the time. You want slightly more damage than that so you aren't paying for overprotection (similar to overkill but it's in the cost that mob does to you and your armor/fap costs, etc. instead of the other way around in overcost on ammo that kills mob far, far far below zero health like you have with overkill)

[Neil Stockton]

Depends if you're looking for armor for mining or for actual hunting. At your level, it I think ghost would be terribly uneco for hunting. But it could work for mining where you would only get the occasional hit. When mining around mobs, I'm assuming you're flying in, dropping, flying out and not just running through a mob field with half a dozen mobs chewing on you.

[Bonewagon]

Depends if you're looking for armor for mining or for actual hunting. At your level, it I think ghost would be terribly uneco for hunting. But it could work for mining where you would only get the occasional hit. When mining around mobs, I'm assuming you're flying in, dropping, flying out and not just running through a mob field with half a dozen mobs chewing on you.

Right now, my favorite mining area is one with a low mob population, you have to be right on top to get aggro, and the stuff I'm getting is decent enough to keep me afloat. If I keep going, I'll move to another area to give time for things to respawn, often times in areas that are not so empty. I have to zig-zag between mobs, and sometimes get aggro, but since my claims are almost always small, I can usually collect them before I die. I just mine in my clothes, as I can't afford to repair atm.

In a week, I plan to get serious, get a real finder, and go places that are more dangerous, so armor will be needed.

[wizzszz]

Armour alone will not help you one bit:
If a mob attacks you, it will keep hitting you until you die, you kill the mob or you manage to drown/turret it, which usually means that you end up with a huge repair bill.

Don't drop too close to mobs and if a claim is close to a mob, use summon claim to move it out of the mobs aggro range.

Or let it simply kill you and TP/fly back to proceed with your mining run - a TP chip plus implant or a VTOL are still cheaper than an armour like ghost or gremlin.

[Cly]

... does offer one specific upgrade which many miners consider super-helpful.

If they have a claim, and are being aggro'd, the right armour will allow them to extract that claim before they die to a monster.

So while it obviously should not be used as a WAY to mine in those areas, it offers a feasible chance to extract a claim found assuming you do find one in a dangerous area.

Check your budget options, and the damage types of the creatures you plan to run between at entropedia.info

Shogun is a solid recommendation, as are ghost and gremlin (roughly in that order for costing).
Notice that I say costing, not pricing, as the markup on some pieces of ghost may be higher than on Gremlin, but to repair Gremlin to full TT will take 140 PED more than Ghost will.

As others have said - having a way to "leave" a fight is a great idea as well. So if you haven't bought yourself a Sleipnir yet, I'd suggest heartily that you consider it now, as it will help both getting into new areas to mine as well as allowing you to hop inside and zoom out of an aggressive situation after you've hauled stuff out of the ground.

[Bonewagon]

...
As others have said - having a way to "leave" a fight is a great idea as well. So if you haven't bought yourself a Sleipnir yet, I'd suggest heartily that you consider it now, as it will help both getting into new areas to mine as well as allowing you to hop inside and zoom out of an aggressive situation after you've hauled stuff out of the ground.

I bought a Sleipnir on my first day. Probably the only smart thing I had spent my PED on