The best armor sets in God of War Ragnarök let you defeat your foes as quickly as possible. You want to focus on offense over defense, and there are six armor sets that let you do this efficiently.
Radiance Set
This set is composed of the Shoulder Straps of Radiance, the Gauntlets of Radiance, and the Belt of Radiance. The chest piece has a moderate Luck-based chance to grant a blessing of Runic on any last-second evade. The arm and waist pieces activate a realm shift every time you make a last-second evade. When the arm and waist pieces are both equipped, the duration of realm shifts is 1.75 seconds.
Since this armor set focuses on last-second evades, you should dodge as much as possible instead of blocking or parrying incoming attacks. While this can be risky, the rewards for avoiding attacks at the last moment give you almost two full seconds to counterattack. In battles where you need a bit more time to deal with your enemies, this can be a huge advantage.
Evasion is the only way to deal with red ring attacks, so this gear is particularly useful against foes who use a lot of those types of moves. With that said, you dodge a lot in GoWR in general, so the realm shifts are always useful. There are also other types of equipment that enhance or focus on realm shifts, which lets you put together a great evasion build.
Radiance Set Max Stats
- (Chest Piece) Shoulder Straps of Radiance: 82 Strength, 48 Defense, 41 Runic, and 41 Luck
- (Arm Piece) Gauntlets of Radiance: 68 Strength
- (Waist Piece) Belt of Radiance: 68 Defense
Raven Tears Set
This set is composed of the Cuirass of Raven Tears, the Bracers of Raven Tears, and the Girdle of Raven Tears. The chest piece had a low Luck-based chance of granting the Healing Mist effect every time you hit an enemy. The arm and waist armor increase the healing power of Healthstones, Rage, and gear effects. When the arm and waist pieces are both equipped, the power of all healing is increased by 30%.
Arguably the best armor set for regaining health, the Raven Tears pieces of gear can help you avoid getting killed if you’re careful. The Healing Mist effect is not an actual cloud of mist, but a buff that lasts for eight seconds. The health regeneration is fairly slow, so you still need to block, parry, and dodge attacks. However, since this set’s effects have a chance to trigger on every hit (albeit with low odds), the healing is fairly consistent, to say the least.
While the Healing Mist effect is a bit slow, the main power of the Raven Tears armor comes from how it affects other types of healing. Getting more health from Healthstones is universally helpful, as they are fairly common. Since they also stun nearby foes, abusing them can have nice results. Also, using some versions of Spartan Rage combined with this armor will let you pretty much fully heal yourself in a manner of seconds.
For the best results, you want to combine the Raven Tears set with bits of equipment that get you more Healthstones and increase your Spartan Rage meter. When you do so, you will greatly buff your survivability. Also, be sure to raise your Vitality, Defense, and Luck stat for an even better time.
Raven Tears Set Max Stats
- (Chest Piece) Cuirass of Raven Tears: 48 Strength, 109 Defense, and 48 Luck
- (Arm Piece) Bracers of Raven Tears: 64 Strength, 34 Defense, and 30 Luck
- (Waist Piece) Girdle of Raven Tears: 98 Defense and 30 Luck
Berserker Set
This set is composed of the Berserker Cuirass, the Berserker Gauntlets, and the Berserker Waist Guard. The chest piece massively, yet temporarily, boosts your melee damage. But it also increases how much damage you take whenever you use a Relic.
The arm guards have a low Luck-based chance on every hit you land to create a soul explosion. This deals damage and decreases the Cooldown of your Relic. Lastly, the waist armor has a moderate Luck-based chance to also cause a soul explosion, but from taking damage, blocking, and parrying.
Right away, you probably notice that this set’s arm and waist pieces don’t stack a particular effect; they have slightly different ones. However, they both contribute to creating soul explosions and reducing the Cooldown of your Relic. The soul explosions, while interesting and novel, are not the point of this set. They do decent amounts of damage, but this set shines the most from Relic abuse.
There are two ways you can optimize such a tactic: use this set to repeatedly trigger a Relic with a short Cooldown or increase how much you can use a Relic with a long Cooldown. Either way, you’re relying on your Relic a lot. Make sure to unleash lots of attacks at foes after using a Relic as well to make the most of this armor’s effects.
As such, this armor set gives you the chance to do a lot of damage in a short span of time. For example, if you combine a high-damage Relic with the huge melee buff given by the chest piece, you can melt the health bars of even the burliest foes. Though, you must be wary of getting hit, as you will take increased damage as well.
Berserker Set Max Stats
- (Chest Piece) Berserker Cuirass: 68 Strength, 27 Defense, 41 Runic, 41 Vitality, 41 Cooldown, and 41 Luck
- (Arm Piece) Berserker Gauntlets: 77 Strength, 21 Runic, 21 Vitality, 21 Cooldown, and 21 Luck
- (Waist Piece) Berserker Waist Guard: 77 Defense, 21 Runic, 21 Vitality, 21 Cooldown, and 21 Luck
Surtr’s Scorched Set
This set is composed of Surtr’s Scorched Cuirass, Surtr’s Scorched Arm, and Surtr’s Scorched Girdle. The chest piece grants bonus damage when you attack an enemy while they are attacking. The arm and waist pieces reduce incoming damage and increase your stagger resistance during all of your basic attacks and skills. When both the arm and waist pieces are equipped, they reduce all damage by 40%.
If you like wildly attacking your enemies without thinking about anything else, then this is the set for you! The mindless approach to combat can be refreshing amidst all the fancy techniques and crazy builds. This is the best armor for a simple and brutal approach to GoWR‘s combat. Use it to interrupt enemy attacks with your own assaults.
Since Surtr’s Scorched set increases your Strength, Defense, and Vitality, it enables you to fully embody its effects. Regardless of your weapon preferences, this set will universally help you take down enemies. There is also room to improve if you equip the ideal amulet enchantments, such as those that increase the aforementioned stats. This armor is basic in concept but beautiful in battle.
Surtr’s Scorched Set Max Stats
- (Chest Piece) Surtr’s Scorched Cuirass: 82 Strength, 68 Defense, and 48 Vitality
- (Arm Piece) Surtr’s Scorched Arm: 94 Strength and 30 Vitality
- (Waist Piece) Surtr’s Scorched Girdle: 17 Strength, 76 Defense, and 30 Vitality
Dragon Scaled Set
This set is composed of the Dragon Scaled Breastplate, the Dragon Scaled Bracers, and the Dragon Scaled Girdle. The chest piece applies stacks that increase Strength and Defense upon successful blocks and parries. The arm and waist pieces increase shield damage and cause successful blocks and parries to deal shield damage to nearby enemies. When both the arm and waist pieces are equipped, shield damage increases by 50%.
This armor set grants excellent defensive boons that allow you to deal big damage. A modifier of 50% for any kind of damage is huge and pairs well with the more offensive shields—like the Shatter Star Shield and the Stone Wall Shield. [Marshall, please link the best shield article in the underlined text]. What’s more, you can keep increasing the Strength and Defense stacks as long as you don’t take damage. As such, if your skills are on point, you can gain devastating combat momentum with this set.
On top of all that, the Dragon Scaled armor also gives you a lot of Strength and Defense when it is equipped. In addition to this being useful for set-related tactics, these are the two most important combat stats in the game. Even if you don’t use many shield attacks, the big addition to these stats will always be helpful.
Dragon Scaled Set Max Stats
- (Chest Piece) Dragon Scaled Breastplate: 95 Strength and 95 Defense
- (Arm Piece) Dragon Scaled Bracers: 93 Strength and 26 Defense
- (Waist Piece) Dragon Scaled Girdle: 26 Strength and 93 Defense
Lúnda’s Lost Set
This set is composed of Lúnda’s Lost Cuirass, Lúnda’s Lost Bracers, and Lúnda’s Lost Belt. The chest piece causes unarmed attacks, parrying, and blocking to have a high Luck-based chance of dealing bonus damage and poisoning the enemy. The arm and waist pieces increase melee damage against poisoned enemies. When both the arm and waist pieces are equipped, the damage against poisoned enemies increases by 40%.
Firstly, poison is straight-up broken in God of War Ragnarök. When an enemy is poisoned, its power level drops by one for as long as it’s poisoned. This means that foes who should normally be too strong for you to handle can get knocked down to a manageable level. When an enemy’s level decreases like this, their offensive and defensive stats decrease as well—which can turn the tide in any fight.
Lúnda’s Lost armor set lets you poison foes frequently and efficiently if you continuously fight while unarmed (in addition to blocking and parrying when needed). Also, when you’re attacking poisoned enemies, that 40% damage buff really shreds their health bars. The unarmed light attack combo is very fast compared to most weapon combos, so you can mash R1 and demolish most threats easily.
Although the chest piece’s effect is based on RNG, there is a high likelihood of it activating, which means that, with enough fast-hitting attacks, you can pretty much keep a target poisoned for the duration of the fight. On top of that, unarmed attacks are often better at applying stun damage, so combining stun tactics with this armor set gives you a truly deadly build.
Lúnda’s Lost Set Max Stats
- (Chest Piece) Lúnda’s Lost Cuirass: 68 Strength, 54 Defense, 27 Runic, and 54 Luck
- (Arm Piece) Lúnda’s Lost Bracers: 77 Strength, 17 Runic, and 34 Luck
- (Waist Piece) Lúnda’s Lost Belt: 77 Defense, 17 Runic, and 34 Luck
