Is light,medium or heavy armor better? What is the best setup? What is the best weapon type and what is best in slot? I just started playing the game during free weekend so I don’t know much.
There’s not really any one “best” setup, it all depends on your preferred playstyle. For instance I prefer to play slippery little stab machines and tend to gravitate towards roguey archer types so I mainly roll in light armor with daggers and a bow, but that may not necessarily be what works best for you. Which is a lame answer I know, but I don’t know how you want to approach the game and I’m not super fond of “you have to use this weapon and wear this armor” advice because that just tries to force everyone into the same shaped hole.
I’d recommend just playing around with various weapons and armors to see what you like best, there’s no real “wrong” way to play these sorts of games.
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Welcome to the community, QuietGoblin!
As others have said, there’s no single best optimal equipment build. There are builds that are best for you, though. You just need to figure out the playstyle that best matches your preferences and abilities, and that can be achieved only through experience (as in, playing the game, not experience points as a game mechanic).
In early phases of your adventuring career, a spear/pike can be a very good weapon. Its long reach and quick stabbing attacks are a great advantage against most early-game opponents. One-handed axes are very strong, versatile weapons too. I love daggers, but they can be hard to learn at first, and you need to get uncomfortably close to your opponent.
Shields are, in my opinion, a bit difficult to use, but that may be because of my custom left-handed keyboard setup more than the game mechanics.
Two-handed swords and hammers can be difficult to use at first. They’re powerful, but slow, and early on you can’t afford to take hits, so it might be better to use a weapon that’s fast. Similarly, early game heavy armors don’t offer significant damage reduction, so lighter armor might be better. The basic light armor is very easy to make and repair and gives you a bonus to your Encumbrance stat. That way you’d be able to carry more stuff while adventuring and establishing your first bases (and running away from overwhelming numbers of opponents).
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For PvE, I still would say: 1h-axe. NO shield (because of hyperarmor).
Shield only if you want to tank against bosses.
Why 1h-axe? Because of the jump-heavy attack. Even when you are circled from enemies, as long as you can launch this attack you can break free.
Compared to 1h-mace, which get staggered 90% of the time. Have to test 1h-mace + shield, because at least with Lovetap I had hyperarmor then. But I always used it with a shield…
Which axe: Festering one. Best one. Hard to get… I have >1000 Fragment of Powers and only got it 2 times (I have >5 SoC…). Or Axe of the Lion (gives + 5 STR). For “roping” people at night: Glimmermoon.
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This is my favorite heavy attack sequence to watch. I love the way they spin around.
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Honestly if you just started playing, I’d recommend you craft one of everything and test them out for yourself. There are some videos you can watch that will teach you the different effects each weapon or armor has, but it doesn’t really give you a good sense what it’s like to use them. If you decide you hate using a particular item (for me that’s the mace and the warhammer, also i don’t like wearing heavy armor unless I have to tank) then you’ve only lost a few hours of gathering resources.
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First thing I did was get my armor sorted out.
Light and Medium are usually a good start vs heavy armor. Good mobility, strong enough for early fights and not too bad on weight while your encumbrance is lower.
Figure out which one you like fighting (moving) in better and then tune your weapon choice to that.
Basically come down to 2-handed weapons. 1-handed with shield, or 1-handed with a free hand (good for carrying torches into caves, dungeons).
And be ready to jump back and forth a couple times till you find your sweet spot. Main thing that got me was I figured out quick that I would rather shield up than dodge arrows and other projectiles. No stamina cost for holding a shield up. But it is more weight, and your movement speed is cut when using it.
Once you know which of the main weapon classes you feel comfortable with, you can go on the wiki and see the stats for each.
Roughly it’s Stone, Iron, Steel, Hardened Steel, Star Metal and then it drifts off to more exotic weapons. All Weapon types have examples throughout the scale, so you will just be upgrading to a stronger material. The DLC weapons all have unique names after the DLC pack they were in, but they’re still just iron weapons and star metal weapons going by damage numbers and by the time you get to Star Metal you’ll have picked up on the exotic stuff most likely.
I always carry a bow as well, to pick off numbers from larger groups before they get on me and the real fight gets going.
Other equipment: water flask, small amount of food, bandages, torch and depending on where I’m going 1 or more types of potions and/or extra arrows.
I’d read up on the wiki. It gives a lot of information. Helped me make the most of my time. I do like going to new areas and checking out the map, but I don’t like having to go back multiple times for things I missed. I rather be working on my next build.
I really should give Yogs touch a try 
But in the overall category, I still think that the Lion axe is better, because of the +5 STR.
Not all enemies have high armor and need high-AP.
I am still pissed, that I dont have a pre-nerf Lying bastard sword. It looks so damn nice, but thanks to Funcom strange logic, it got nerfed. Because 2h-weapons got balanced?! Even when Lying bastard sword is technicaly an Axe…
Also the best Axe in the game was: Act of Violence. It was also the most fun times I had killing bosses… I think this was also the time, I did 90% of my UC runs.
PS.: I use this new weapon fitting, which gives +dmg and +%AP.
If your new, Make all stone weapons, little to nothing in cost that can’t be replaced, (you’ll find them in loot alot)
I like Spear at Start of game, good way keep safe and stab stuff.
Sword and Shield is good, the heavy has knock down, and can be combo’d into it. Plus you can hold a torch or shield.
By end game, you ether get some really good legendary, or Using a fave type. Doesnt really matter PVE wise. All of them work.
Armor… I wear mostly Light, with some Med mixed in, More carry weight, less slow-down. Fashion above all else. XD
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For sure not on things, which has NO ARMOR at all. %AP is meaning less there and enough things dont have any armor at all.
But enough thins have armor 
Therefore its a great PvP weapon. Will try killing things at Mounds and volcano later.
And here comes trick jot29 
Give your thrall the same weapon as you and give your thrall godbreaker boots.
As soon as you need to repair your weapon, swap it with the thrall. It will repair it during the fight
Yeah, my thrall loses +2 STR from the boots… But I dont need a massive supply of kits with me. I have 2 kits with me, for either tools or my thrall just disappaers and I need it to repair 
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If you wear it yourself, your weapon will also hold longer… Sometimes you get dmg 
When I have sth else todo and I am standing in my base, I put on several godbreaker pieces and get heatstroke. With that I repair the mainhandweapon
I change weapon and armor many times a day
I got light armor for harvesting and heavy for dungeons though.
The best way, I guess, is just to try everything. No one knows which sort of weapon you prefer or which one you can handle best. I had a lot of fun crafting and using new weapons and see what my character is able to do. And if you don´t need a weapon anymore, you can put it on your wall right in your base
btw that´s what I do with legendary weapons, because most of them are not that good, but nice to have ^^
I don’t have enough mouse buttons. Left for light attack, right for heavy attack, middle for… well, it’s just the scroll wheel which sucks as a mouse button. I’d rather not invest in a gaming mouse with extra buttons because they’re all designed for right-handers so the buttons are placed unintuitively (for me).
But like I said, this problem’s me, not the game (or shield, or even the mouse, really).
Mace + shield combo will remove 1 sunder but against NPCs it’s not a big deal.
For groups - with this AI patch especially - I would say 2H axe but you have to time it just right: 5-6 steps between you and the enemy start the heavy and spin until you cleared a whole camp. And don’t forget to sing along ‘you spin me right round’!
I too game left-handed. What worked for me was binding block/kick to mouse 5 (i.e. thumb button).
Mouse options for left-handed gamers range from disappointing to non-existent. Ergonomic options designed for gaming may as well be a myth, which leaves us with either ergonomic left-handed mice that are terrible for gaming (like the vertical mice), or with the ambidextrous models.
The last good ergonomic left-hander I had (Logitech MX 610) ceased to be viable years ago thanks to interference from the proliferation of wi-fi devices. The best option I’ve found since is the Logitech G903. And yes, I’ve tried the left-handed Razer Death Adder, but the way it flares out at the top hurts my hand, plus I absolutely hate using a wired mouse.
What really sucks though is that there are no versions of devices like the OrbWeaver for left-handers (i.e. mouse left, OrbWeaver right). I’ve wasted sooo much money trying to find decent gaming keyboards that suit my style (NumPad w/ thumb on arrows) that it’s maddening. Best I’ve been able to come-up with is using the right half of an ErgoDox. :-\
I have Thags 2h-axe… Should give it a try for clearing low-level camps 
Loincloth and 2h sword just like Conan.
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It depends on what fits better to what build you’re doing. If you’re going for strength I would go for heavy and any weapon with high damage as well as high armor penetration. Swords perfered for me.
Curiously enough, this “iconic representation” of our favorite barbarian antihero wasn’t really common in the original stories. Depending on circumstances he wore furs, silks (!), mail armor and even full plate. His choice of weapons varied from long daggers and poniards to cutlasses and arming swords (and rarely axes, despite the popular image created by artists such as Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo) and in a couple of instances, a bow.
The Atlantean sword in the Arnold movie is a weird weapon: it has a two-handed grip but a very short blade. I think it was designed so that Arnold could pose with it in a movie poster with the whole sword showing in the picture. (It also weighs three times as much as a regular sword, possibly so that Arnold’s muscles would bulge nicely when swinging that sword.)
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The best setup for me is flawless epic heavy armor with vitality bonus for both pve and pvp with bulk plating upgrade(81% damage reduction). You can only craft this at lvl 60. I recommend yamatai/argossean from dlc or cimmerian if you don’t own dlcs. Bear in mind that other players can give you the armor if they own the dlcs. You can mix these to get the temperature that you want, be it heat, cold or neutral.
For weapons, Axe of the lion legendary (you can buy this from other players for as low as 500 hard bricks) is very overpowered in pve, with master weapon fitting. You can maw down 20 mobs at once as the special attack will make you immune to knockdown and this weapon has top tier damage for a one handed, 54. Also gives you 5 strength which is insane.
For attributes, for this setup to perform really good, you need 4 perks in vit (to get that boosted regen from consumables and more hp), 3 in grit (for more dmg reduction and more stamina), 1 in agility (to run longer), 1 in encumbrance(to carry your armor) and put the rest into strength and you should have 4th perk in strength because of the weapon’s 5 str which will increase special attack damage by 15%.
For a boost in dmg/vit you can use special fish bufs and tatoo of your choice. Also, have a bearer follower to carry the loot that you get.
For boss fights, replace bearer with a fighter and use venom infused daggers yourself to stack poisonx10/bleedx20. Your fighter should have sword of crom or adventurer’s blade.
Also, if the boss has poison immunity, use predatory blade with light attack instead of venom infused daggers.
For pvp, just use venom-infused daggers or veon-infused pike, which you can find in unnamed city library. I find the daggers better because they apply 2 stacks of poison per hit.
This is the best for me. I’ve owned everything in pve/pvp solo. This is a power-house build I use for everything combat related. I’ve been using this for a year, and still using it.