Armory And Bitcoin Core

[BitCarnage]

This seems like a simple question but I cant find the answer. Do I need to install bitcoin core, download the 390GB block chain for Armory Wallet to work? I, like many others are stuck on Preparing Database in offline mode and the solutions Ive read seem absurd having to add special parameters to config files or redefine file paths. The app should work out of the box, but it doesn't?  Will Armory work without bitcoin core installed?

[DdmrDdmr]

There’s no way around it:

to generate the Armory wallet requires the official Bitcoin Core wallet because of the lack of Armory needed network functions;

See: https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Armory

You also seem to need a full node, and it won’t work with a pruned one. Read through:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1426012.0

Why not go along with something like Electrum?

[goatpig]

Will Armory work without bitcoin core installed?

You can create wallets and sign transactions with offline Armory.

To go online you need Bitcoin Core. This is an integral feature of Armory. There has been some work to smooth out the connection between clients and remote dbs in the upcoming release but in general you are expected to run your own instance of Core. If you don't see the value in that, then Armory isn't for you.