I went with Heavy Plate all the way at low circles. My evasion was non-existent, but it doesn't matter much at that point. In a swarm of eels, I could stand all day, get hit by every single attack, and not take a scratch. Wound up with 100 shield, and around 50 evasion up in blood wolves, and up to that point had never died hunting. Ever. That's with 5+ hour long hunting trips without leaving for healing. At low circles, good heavy plate really does make up for not being able to dodge.
Somewhere around blood wolves, I got my hinderance worked down to unhindered and starting learning evasion like crazy. It's about 30-40 behind my shield currently. Anyway, the point of the story is, don't avoid wearing heavy plate so you can evade at low circles. In heavy plate, it won't matter if you evade or not. It's better to try to work your hinderance down while you are fighting things weak enough where you will survive the hits. If you use leather until youur evasion is good, and then switch to Plate, you will be starting out at tougher critters with all that plate hinderance, when instead you could have already trained it off.
