As an avid Witcher 3 player with over 500 hours clocked across multiple playthroughs, I‘ve developed a deep familiarity with the pros, cons, stats, and appearances of every obtainable witcher armor set in the game. From humble leather jerkins to legendary grandmaster gear, I‘ve collected it all.
In this blog post, I will be analyzing all of the witcher armor sets and definitively ranking them from worst to best based on the following criteria:
- Defensive Capability – Raw armor rating and monster damage resistances
- Offensive Power – Weapon damage, sign intensity, crit chance/damage
- Set Bonuses – Effects gained from wearing 2, 3, or 4 pieces
- Appearance – Visual aesthetics and "coolness" factor
- Build Synergy – How well the armor set complements different builds
I‘ll also talk about optimization strategies for some of the top sets using skills, glyphs, and abilities that dramatically improve their capabilities. So without further ado, let the witcher armor ranking begin!
My History of Testing Witcher Gear
Before I dive into the rankings, I wanted to quickly talk about my experience using witcher armor sets across various playthroughs…
On my first playthrough I went with a jack-of-all trades approach, collecting the diagrams for every base set I could find and swapping between them to match the situation. This gave me an appreciation for the flexibility of gear like Griffin and Wolven, but I never fully experienced the awesome capabilities sets like Feline and Manticore could enable once upgraded to grandmaster.
It wasn‘t until NG+ on the Death March difficulty that I decided to commit fully to one armor path and deck out my build to match. Going all-in on an alchemy build with Manticore suddenly made combat a cakewalk with Euphoria and my maxed out bombs and potions. This inspired me to test out "full builds" for each witcher school, spending hours respec-ing my skills and glyphs to best optimize my gear.
After countless tweaked builds across various NG+ cycles, I now feel fully qualified to assess the relative power and overall appeal of the witcher armor sets. Time to get ranking!
Ranking Criteria for Witcher Armor Sets
I wanted to first explain what criteria I used to assess each set since witcher gear can vary wildly in capabilities depending on if you judge it by defense, dps potential, or roleplaying appeal. Here were my main evaluation metrics:
Defensive Power
- Armor rating
- Resistances to monster damage types
- Max vitality buffs
- Lifesteal/health regen bonuses
Offensive Power
- Weapon damage increase
- Sign intensity boosts
- Critical hit chance/damage
- Specific attack type bonuses (fast, strong, bleeding, etc.)
Set Bonuses
- Effects gained from 2, 3 and 4 piece set combinations
- Unique bonuses not found on regular armor pieces
Visual Aesthetics
- Overall visual appearance and "coolness"
- Dyes well with different color schemes
- Armor piece themes match nicely
Build Synergy
- Complements specific builds and playstyles
- Enhances key abilities and skills
- Synergizes with mutations, glyphs, and talents
With these metrics established, let‘s start from the very weakest witcher armor set and work our way up!
8. Basic Leather Armor
Kicking things off with more of an "anti-armor" set, the basic leather jerkins you start the game with offer extremely limited defensive or offensive capabilities. With low armor ratings across the board and no set bonuses whatsoever, this primitive witcher gear becomes virtually obsolete the moment you unlock the ability to craft witcher-school gear sets at level 11.
About the only positive thing I can say about the basic armor is that it looks like functional gear for a no-frills monster slayer on a tight budget. The bare-bones leather and bits of chainmail fit the look of a working witcher, even if the stats leave much to be desired.
| Armor Piece | Armor Rating |
|---|---|
| Chest | 65 |
| Gloves | 32 |
| Boots | 32 |
| Pants | 48 |
| Steel Sword | 59 |
| Silver Sword | 50 |
With stats this low across the board, no resistances, zero set bonuses, and limited visual appeal, the basic leather witcher armor firmly takes last place. Let‘s move onto the next set which at least has a cool venomous theme!
Armor Rating: 2/10
7. Viper School Gear
Technically the first "craftable" witcher set you can unlock is the Viper School gear which can be obtained by collecting the scattered diagram pieces across Velen, Novigrad, and Oxengard. This armor set oozes toxic flavor with its snake-like scale patterns, venomous green accents, and alchemical quilt patches sewn into the armor pieces.
Unfortunately the Viper School gear suffers from a lack of upgradability, stopping at enhanced quality and never reaching the grandmaster gear tier. This leaves many of its stats lacking compared to others that can eventually be upgraded to legendary gear.
Here‘s a look at what the maxed out Viper School witcher gear provides:
| Armor Piece | Armor Rating |
|---|---|
| Chest | 205 |
| Gloves | 97 |
| Boots | 97 |
| Pants | 145 |
| Steel Sword | 237 |
| Silver Sword | 202 |
The resistances remain very low and the set bonuses focus mostly on damage-over-time from venomous Viper swords along with some light poison buffs. Without grandmaster gear to compete, Viper School remains a mediocre choice for practical purposes but wins stylistic points if you dig the venom and mutation vibe.
Armor Rating: 5/10
6. Forgotten Wolf Gear
This armor set was added with the Hearts of Stone expansion and offers an alternative version of the iconic Wolf School witcher gear. The diagrams are discovered during a quest to unveil secrets of a lost witcher named Jerome who disappeared in the Gorgon-infested swamps outside Oxenfurt.
Upon restoring and equipping the recovered Forgotten Wolf gear, it becomes clear this armor set is designed more for fashion than function. The lack of a wolf‘s head helmet is disappointing and it features lower resistances and less synergistic bonuses compared to the traditional Wolven gear.
That being said, maxed out Forgotten Wolf gear still provides decent protection for an all-rounder build:
| Armor Piece | Armor Rating |
|---|---|
| Chest | 335 |
| Gloves | 158 |
| Boots | 158 |
| Pants | 237 |
| Steel Sword | 355 |
| Silver Sword | 355 |
And while the 3 piece set bonus offering +5% damage dealt per piece of heavy armor equipped won‘t win any awards, the chest armor does uniquely give a +50% bleeding chance which stacks nicely with Wolven‘s bleeding focused skills.
In summary, the Forgotten Wolf gear looks stylish in a rugged witcher kind of way but loses out on the awesome wolf helmet of the traditional gear. And the stats are designed more for form than function. Cool armor set? Yes! Best in terms of performance? No.
Armor Rating: 6/10
5. Wolf School Gear
The OG Wolf School armor will always hold a special place in my heart as one of the first complete witcher sets you can craft. I have very fond memories of donning this striking blue armor with awesome wolf head helmet and noticing Geralt suddenly becoming a whirlwind of claws and blood with the sword damage buffs and bleeding chance increases.
Here are the stats for a maxed out Wolven gear set:
| Armor Piece | Armor Rating |
|---|---|
| Chest | 335 |
| Gloves | 158 |
| Boots | 158 |
| Pants | 237 |
| Steel Sword | 355 |
| Silver Sword | 355 |
Fairly standard protection ratings but where this armor set shines is the bleeding-focused set bonuses:
- 2 piece: +10% bleeding chance
- 3 piece: 20% bleeding damage increase
- 4 piece: 5% damage buff per bleeding enemy (max 30%)
Combine this with skills like Rend and Flood of Anger that spread bleeding effects, and suddenly entire mobs are bleeding out thanks to your razor claw strikes!
The Wolven armor also has a very balanced distribution of sign intensity, attack power, and vitality buffs which make it a nice jack-of-all-trades option for hybrid builds. And of course we can‘t discount the awesome wolf design with fur mantle and ferocious helmet!
Overall the flexibility and bleeding bonuses earn Wolf armor the #5 spot in our rankings. But there are still sets better optimized for damage and defense…
Armor Rating: 7.5/10
4. Manticore School Gear
With Blood and Wine‘s release, a new contender entered the arena taking 1st place in many players‘ armor rankings. I‘m talking of course about the deadly Manticore School gear!
This armor oozes a lethal predator vibe with spikes jutting from shoulder plates, scale-like patterns on the fabric, and wing decorative motifs. And the power you can unleash with a properly optimized Manticore build is equally devastating thanks to some incredibly potent alchemy focused bonuses.
| Armor Piece | Armor Rating |
|---|---|
| Chest | 389 |
| Gloves | 184 |
| Boots | 184 |
| Pants | 276 |
| Steel Sword | 419 |
| Silver Sword | 419 |
Right away you‘ll notice higher armor and damage output than Wolven gear along with valuable enhancements for toxicity limit, bomb damage, and potion duration.
But where Manticore really takes flight is when you lean all the way into critical hit damage bonuses, which when properly stacked with decoctions and the Euphoria skill, allows you to one-shot virtually any foe with 10,000+ damage strikes!
Combine that slaughtering power with the recent addition of levity runewords to unlock Manticore‘s true potential. Just be prepared to chug extra potions to keep toxicity high.
All said, Manticore armor earns a top #4 spot for unleashing devastating critical hits through an optimized alchemy build. Just watch your toxicity levels!
Armor Rating: 8.5/10
Now for the podium placements, starting with…
3. Feline School Gear
The Cat School witcher armor has always been focused on maximizing Geralt‘s refined swordsmanship and deadly strikes. This light but durable armor gives a number of bonuses to fast attack damage, rear backstab blows, and weapon critical hits making it the damage dealer‘s dream.
Max upgraded stats:
| Armor Piece | Armor Rating |
|---|---|
| Chest | 335 |
| Gloves | 158 |
| Boots | 158 |
| Pants | 237 |
| Steel Sword | 355 |
| Silver Sword | 355 |
But the true power comes from the stacking critical hit chance and damage buffs gained from Cat School set bonuses:
- 2 piece: +15% critical hit chance
- 3 piece: +40% critical hit damage
- 4 piece: +100% damage if hit from behind
This means a well-timed, charged up rear attack can demolish virtually any enemy with a disgustingly massive damage number. We‘re talking 30,000+ on the final Sword of Destiny blow when maxed out!
The Feline armor definitely caters damage focused playstyles the most while looking sleek and stylish. Custom dyed black it would make the perfect fit for a Wraith assassin build. Fear the mega crits!
Armor Rating: 9/10
2. Griffin School Gear
Claiming the silver is the often overlooked Griffin School armor which offers modest protection ratings but gives ludicrous boosts to sign intensity and stamina regeneration. This allows hybrid mage builds to spam devastating magic from afar while recovering endurance at ridiculous rates.
Fully upgraded stats:
| Armor Piece | Armor Rating |
|---|---|
| Chest | 301 |
| Gloves | 143 |
| Boots | 143 |
| Pants | 214 |
| Steel Sword | 324 |
| Silver Sword | 324 |
Nothing crazy defense-wise but solid overall. The true power of Griffin School however comes from its unparalleled set bonuses for a sign build:
- 2 piece: Sign intensity +30%
- 3 piece: Stamina regen +4/second
- 4 piece: Allows 2nd cast of signs without using stamina
This combination enables you to hurl overpowered Igni blasts that melt armor while recovering stamina fast enough to continuously pepper enemies with 2000+ damage Aard shockwaves. No monster can even touch you!
And we haven‘t even discussed complementary skills like Flood of Anger or glyphwords like Pyromaniac. Just know a properly optimized Griffin sign build REIGNS SUPREME!
The often unsung Griffin School armor beats out Manticore and Wolf builds through sheer magical dominance! All hail Griffin gear #2 spot!
Armor Rating: 9/10
But there can only be one…
1. Bear School Gear
Claiming the undisputed BEST armor set position is the legendary Bear School gear. This witcher armor offers unmatched protection and resistances allowing you to soak devastating blows without breaking a sweat.
Fully forged Bear gear stats:
| Armor Piece | Armor Rating |
|---|---|
| Chest | 408 |
| Gloves | 193 |
| Boots | 193 |
| Pants | 289 |
| Steel Sword | 443 |
| Silver Sword | 443 |
The armor rating alone exceeds everything else by a noticeable margin. But even more impressive are the resistances once fully upgraded:
- All monsters: 75%
- Elemental: 95%
- Poison + Bleeding: 115%!!!
This makes Bear builds almost immune to dragon fire, foglet magic, bruxa bites, you name it! You are an impenetrable tank able to brush off blows that would kill any other witcher.
The set bonuses further augment the tankiness:
- 2 piece: 3,000 vitality
- 3 piece: 1.5% health regen during combat
- 4 piece: 10 damage absorbed becomes vitality
Leaning all the way into the tank build, you can use Invigoration talents to convert massive health pools into heavy attack damage. Add Warrior‘s leather coat to ignored damage limits and suddenly your strikes hit as hard as Feline School in the end.
Despite recent nerfs, the Bear School witcher armor still reigns #1 offering near impenetrable defense and monstrous health pools perfect for an unstoppable tank. All enemies cower before its mighty roar!
So there you have it – the DEFINITIVE witcher armor rankings and analysis of the very worst to the undisputed best. I‘m positive this order won‘t match everyone‘s personal preferences so please share your own armor rankings in the comments. I‘m open to debate on placements!
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Happy hunting on the Path witchers!