I know the thread is kinda necro'd, but I caught something that was said that I somehow missed, a long time ago:
I would argue that those armors have saved my hide many times back when I was new.
This is (almost) impossible.
The Wood Armor Set, has a combined total of 3 Defense. In Classic Mode, Defense provides a 0.5 damage reduction, so that 3 Defense provides you with a whopping 1.5 damage reduction.
The weakest enemy in the game, the humble green slime, can do 5-8 damage, so after armor, depending on how rounding works, you take 3-6 damage.
Unless you are incredibly terrible at the game, I don't see this armor "saving" your butt, whatsoever. Anything above a green slime, we start moving up into the 15, 20+ damage per hit and that certainly won't save you then unless by some miracle you get hit and have 1HP left. This sounds more like winning the lottery and less about "wow I'm glad I had that wood armor on".
Wanna know what early-game armor
is worth using and is easily obtainable during the first 5 minutes of gameplay? Cactus Armor. Same 3 defense, but the attackers take 15 damage (Classic Mode) when they hit you. Getting cactus armor could potentially be dangerous (not something you'd wanna do in hardcore, but we're talking about newbies and Classic Mode play here, don't forget the context).
It reinforces my point about early-game and early-game equipment: Most of it is copy-pasted with no effects beyond such meager statistical increases, most of which are too low to really mean anything in the end. Cactus Armor is one of the few exceptions and is probably the first set of armor a player should go for before their journey to getting something better, either seeking out enough hearts that they can survive the first two bosses without any more armor, or getting silver/tungsten or better. With 13 Defense, Silver Armor reduces damage taken by 6-7 per hit, and that
is significant enough to be noticed. Add an Ironskin Potion and an accessory or two that has + defense and you could easily get up to the mid 20s defense.
But, again, that's not something you do at the very beginning of the game.
I bet a lot of newbies to the game look at that 1-2 Defense on Wood Armor and go "hmm... I wonder if that does anything?" and they craft the armor, and they note that they are taking pretty much the same amount of damage and they go "meh, that didn't do anything at all" and correctly conclude that they need way more defense than that for it to matter. Thsi would then surely lead the newbie to see other armors, such as tin and copper, and go "why would I go through that much trouble to make something that doesn't do anything whatsoever?"
This is why such weak equipment needs some sort of bonus for actually using it. Like the Cactus Armor. Despite having 3 defense, the Cactus Armor is instantly put into a "Why wouldn't you?" category, because of how nice 15 damage (plus mild knockback!) is at the very start of the game if you would happen to get hit.
It just kinda sucks to, you know, have only 1 such armor set at the beginning of the game. Wouldn't it be nice to have more than just one that has some sort of actual benefit to using it? Earlier in the thread, I used the example of maybe Wood Armor gives some sort of small armor pen bonus to bows to encourage one to use it for archery?
I noticed someone earlier used the arguement that players should choose what weapon they want to use because of their playstyle, well sure. Okay, if you wanna tank, grab cactus armor at the start. If you wanna archer, make wood armor (assuming it had the bow bonus I proposed). Maybe add similar bonuses to other armors. Small little things that are helpful at early-game but lose their luster later to encourage you to go after better equipment post-EoC.
Armor Pen is that perfect thing early-game because it is such a struggle to do more than 5 damage against some of the tougher stuff you find in the caves until you find a good weapon (EoC weapon, enchanted boomerang, an ice sword, etc) but yet once you do find good weapons, adding, say, +4 damage to your attacks doesn't mean as much once you start doing 20+ damage. You'll want better defense or better set bonuses soon.