Reference PSA: Which Armour Should I NOM?

Today's PSA is a response to the following question:

"Which is the better item to NOM - the Depleted Uranium Plating or the Xeortrium Armor?"

My short answer is: It depends on what you are going to do with it.

However, I felt that was a little short for a PSA, so I have a longer answer.

Item Statistics

First off, I'll say that there are three options - the third being not to NOM either of them, but rather to save your money and buy a Linked Nanobot Casing.

The stats are as follows:

Xeortrium Armor
Discovered just before the Starcrash, xeortium is a rare asteroid metal which can be worked into nanotubes providing excellent tensile strength and armor. The latticework is much less bulky. Unfortunately it is also easily spotted by scanners due to its rarity.

Mk.I Mk.II Mk.III Mk.IV Mk.V
Shields 0% 0% 1% 4% 9% 12%
Engines 0% 0% 0% 3% 6% 9%
Resist Critical 0% 1% 2% 4% 6% 8%
Resist Amount 0 10 20 30 40 50
Hull Points +150 180 210 240 270 300
Rarity Rare
Sell Value 50 points

Depleted Uranium Plating
Dangerous to use, this armor is nevertheless exceptionally dense. The mass is resistant to energy weapons, however it gives off so much residual radiation it interferes with targeting computers.

Mk.I Mk.II Mk.III Mk.IV Mk.V
Weapons -10% -8% -6% -4% -2% 0%
Shields +10% 13% 18% 25% 28% 30%
Engines -30% -28% -25% -22% -18% -15%
Enemy Malfunction Chance 0% 0% 0% 1% 1% 2%
Hull Points +250 260 280 320 330 360
Rarity Rare
Sell Value 50 points

Linked Nanobot Casing
Atomic-sized Nanobots coaxed into protecting specific portions of the ship can provide amazing strength allowing for less mass and superior protection. While limited, the effect is still astounding, however there is a constant energy cost to keep the links.

Shields +25%
Engines +5%
Hull Points +200
Energy -1
Rarity Very Rare
Sell Value 250 points

I've removed the NOM path from the LNC, as I don't think it's relevant to this discussion. You can find it at the link.

Item Costs

The costs are are as follows:

XA/DUP
Basic Item: 750,000
Mark 1: $1,380,000
Mark 2: $2,890,000 ($1,510,000 more than Mark I)
Mark 3: $8,040,000 ($5,150,000 more than Mark II)
Mark 4: $19,230,000 ($11,190,000 more than Mark III)
Mark 5: $36,830,000 ($17,600,000 more than Mark IV)

LNC
Between $9,000,000 and $11,000,000.

As you can see, an LNC is slightly more than a Mark III XA or DUP.

Purpose of Each Item

This section covers the overall usefulness of each item.

Xeortrium Armor

The basic Xeortrium Armor is a clean hull boost - no additional bonuses, but no drawbacks. Useful in all builds that like additional hull.

PVP: Good
Belt: Good
Rescues: No Impact
Salvage Foray: No Impact

The NOM path for the Xeortrium Armor makes it a better, mainly as a PVP item. The improved sheilds and engines are useful for both PVP and belt runs. The reduction in critical chance and damage, on the other hand, is only useful in the PVP battles.

The NOM path for the Xeo Armor was recently updated to reduce the shield bonus and add an engine bonus - a full discussion can be found here.

Key Quote:

The reason for this suggestion [to reduce the shield bonus and add an engine bonus] is to allow the Xeo to continue to be used as useful piece of armour as far as Mk3 and then putting engine bonus at the far end of the scale so its a deliberate choice to get to. The problem is that the MK3 Xeo with an engine bonus is very nearly as good as, or better than a LNC - hence the loading of the engines into the Mk4 and Mk5 nommed states - as they do take alot of effort to achieve.

PVP: Excellent
Belt: Good
Rescues: No Impact
Salvage Foray: No Impact

Depleted Uranium Plating

The basic Depleted Uranium Plating is a huge hull boost, and a small shield boost. The DUP also feature a small weapons reduction and a significant engines reduction.

The basic DUP is reasonably useful for turtles and juggernauts in PVP, but not very good (especially in multiples) in the belts.

PVP: Good
Belt: Decent
Rescues: Poor
Salvage Foray: Bad

Note: If you have negative engines, you will never succeed on a rescue.

The NOM path for the Depleted Uranium Plating improves everything, and adds an Enemy Malfunction Chance (an extremely strong ability). By the time the DUP reaches Mark V, it is the best hull booster in the game, and features a solid shield boost and a significant engine reduction.

A series of NOMed DUPs is solid in multiples, provided you equip a good engine to counter the engine loss.

PVP: Superb (especially for turtles)
Belt: Good
Rescues: Poor
Salvage Foray: Poor

Linked Nanobot Casing

The basic LNC features a good hull boost, a solid shield boost and a little engines boost. The LNC also features a -1 energy hit. This is generally seen as a bonus as it allows pirates to manipulate your energy levels, allowing additional attacks for each 'tank' of fuel.

PVP: Good
Belt: Good
Rescues: Decent
Salvage Foray: Decent


I hope this answers your query.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Bridgeburners