Actually maces and warhammers and thinner 'stabbing' swords were invented to kill guys in platemail IIRC(or the sort of armor GW calls platemail), the heavy part smashes a small spike into the plate, stabbing the guy inside. The shield is for deflecting maces and swords.
In GW, and most RPGs, realism goes out the window and it's all about looking badass. I've got like 5 different sets of armor on my war(vabbi, luxon, plate, glads, and vanilla kurz, soon to be asuran), each with a different functionallity, and each is badass in it's own way.
There are different looks you can go for, about 3 main ones. First is what you'd associate with a 'Knight', like the kurzic, platemail, sunspear, templar ect. Next you got your 'gladiator/soldier' types, stuff a fighter would wear for mobility or environmental protection, like the actual gladsarmor, the Vabian, the early chain and ringmail, and the hide armor, like Charr hide or norn. Then you got the freaky sets, stuff that just looks far out, mainly Primeval, the Luxon and obsidian to a lesser extent. It looks like you're in to the 'knightish' sets. I will say, if you look around, Elite Platemail is actually very common, probably the most common set I see and the elite version is a reskin of the vanilla version(I like the etching on the elite version better then the boar on the 'nilla though).
I recently got Luxon 15k, dyed it brown+green, and before I had my hands on a oaken aegis and briar blade, I look like a mini-juggernaut runnin around. It also meshes with mursaat weapons, undead gear and the like.
That's what it's about, getting a set of weapons and accessories that go with your duds, and matching it up with dyes. Some weapons go better with different sets than others, like the 'freaky' weapons match the 'freaky' armors the stuf like runic blades, longswords, and aegis type shields go with the plate sets, the 'savage' lookin stuff, skull shields, dead swords ect, goes with the hide sets. The Scimitars and curved blades look sooooo sweet on vabbi armor, especially with a sun/moon shield. Get a look in mind and make it work..... goddamn I got to stop watching project runway...
