What I'm doing for my rigger is upgrading my Cheetah armor x2. So he's at Spd 6, Bod 2, Arm 8H. He's not going to be running down the fire lanes, but sneaking (autosoft) then pouncing (Ram attack) on fringe targets.
SPD 6 gets 320m/turn. Bod 2 x 5 = 10P -6AP damage. The cheetah resists half (5P). Since his armor is greater than the damage and hardened, he takes no damage from the ram. Target should get knocked down and next pass cheetah could use bite 5P -3AP for a possible coup de grace, or take off before target's buddies react.
If you want a tank... you can up armor more but it reduces your speed.
Hardened armor is always going to be better.Hardened Armor: 1) If the modified DV of the attack is less than the modifield Armor value of the target, the target takes -0- damage. 2) you automatically add a number of successes to your damage resistance test equal to half of your modified armor value. (Ie AP reduction)
Edit: looked around more. This analysis points to vehicles and drones being DoA in any kind of combat.
http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=23044.0