I'm not sold on the new armor and weapon. I really like the frost cave, they're interesting to explore (at least when you find one, but that's early access for you so no big deal).
The good stuff : The new armor look awesome, and the buff to move speed is really good. I just outrunned a pack of fuling plus a deathsquito while I was out of stamina. Good mobility is always welcome. Forst resistance on the armor let you use any cape, so its a plus for customization I guess.
Now for the less good…
- Fire resistance : before the caves, there was no serious threats using fire damages. Surtling are no concerns since you encounter them in the swamp, where it rains. Fulings mages can be deal with at range, same for torch fulings. Yagluth is atm the endgame boss, so you have plenty of time to craft yourself a set of padded armor. So the fire resistance is only really useful against cultist, which is the only fire based threat you encounter in a tight environment.
- Bonus to unarmed damages : there's no reason to train unarmed before crafting the flesh rippers, so you are at a disadvantage here. I guess putting a fenris armor make the rippers slightly more viable, but not that much. Which lead me to…
- The flesh rippers themselves : 72 slash damages at max level, same as an iron sword. But the sword allow you to use a shield with it, while the rippers uses both hands. This is a weapons obviously useless against drakes. It can't block a golem attack without you being staggered (so shield is better here). And it's no better than any other weapons against wolves. You'll be better using Forstner to tempo wolves with forst damages. I didn't find its attack speed but it doesn't seems better than a sword.
- Low defense : Fenris armor has a defense between root and iron. But it's an armor made to go close combat, where you gonna take hits. I just took a hit from a fuling which shred half of my life (with plains-level food). And if you want to use the fenris armor to its full potential, you can't use a shield. So you put yourself in danger by using this armor, compared to all the other one.
So we have an equipement using a skill that nobody trained, made to go close combat but can't take many hits, with a resistance not that useful in the game. I guess it's useful to clearing caves, but its big material cost (166 fenris hair for the full set + full rippers) means you probably won't explore more caves once you're maxed.
Now the last light armor we got was the root set, which was awesome. There's nothing to throw in the garbage with this one, every buff it gives stay relevant during the plains (minus Yagluth). I use it since I first craft it. I don't see myself doing the same with the fenris set + flesh rippers.
So, what's your thought on this new equipement ?
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/tcd456/whats_your_thoughts_about_the_new_equipement/