What's the best light armor?
Rathound Regalia, no matter how many times Styg nerfs it. Friendly rathounds are teh bestest thing ever!
But seriously, it depends on what you want to achieve. Craftable stuff in order of armor penalty:
5%+
- For maxing dodge/evasion, the answer is infused siphoner leather jumpsuit. Being able to run through acid puddles is a nice little bonus. Just don't expect any worthwhile damage reduction when you actually get hit.
- If you're all about speed and stealth, infused cave hopper leather armor is the way to go: agility & movement bonus, slots for black cloth and soft padding. There's a ql 60ish leather hidden in the cave hopper cemetery.
10%+
Extra crit chance sound good? Infused rathound leather armor is your choice. Resistance/threshold is not as bad as with the 5% armors but still fairly low. You should have decent amount of dodge/evasion and/or ways to disable enemies.
15%+
Tactical vest with supersteel sheet is probably the most versatile. You'll get 16-17 DT with a good sheet, +200% vs bullets and +35% vs knives. Biohazard vest is a good option, it lets you skip carrying gas mask and/or biotech suit swaps. Sturdy vest is also okay if you regret dumping con.
20%+
You won't get nimble's secondary bonus with it, but infused ancient rathound leather armor is the smelly hobo version of metal armor. Great damage resistances, thresholds & reductions at high quality, but you'll need higher than usual tailoring to match the quality.
The only light armors I haven't used much are infused mutated dog leather (stats similar to infused rathound leather, healing bonus) and infused pig leather (15% penalty, fairly high resistance, HP bonuses).