I haven't had any problem with any armors, they all work. Still say compo should be a tad heavier because I still don't like the idea of maxing out both offense and defense, balance by cost is super dumb because you just deny half your team the chance for tanks(assuming you tried making it cost more). Also I was surprised, I thought bio diesel had highest torque.
Abs is an "okay-choice" as your first armor, it's even a "not-so-bad" mid game armor, especially when your team aren't doing very good. I am not sure about your scenario but I am fairly sure abs isn't at the level of "one random rocket and 3 plates off", if you didn't create that tank, maybe it's a newb with plain armor.
I remember I used to look at plate cost in my early days, so I suspect that absorbent goes a huge way towards reducing noob paper tanks since it costs add much as paper and weighs no more than paper.
