The arcteryx wraith is a good windshirt. The material is grabbier which helps with pack-slide and it seems more breathable and just slightly more robust than many. Also available in earth tones thanks to the mil line.
For the longest time, a windshirt was my outer layer, usually over just a base layer. Raincoats were largely worthless because I got just as wet inside as out.
This winter, I got a Mountain Hardwear shell made out of DryQ Elite. It is fast replacing a windshirt as my primary outer shell. I might get a little bit wetter inside of it than I do inside of a windshirt or softshell, but not by much. On the other hand, it does actually shed rain and it cuts wind better than windshirts do. I've been supplementing that with either an REI endeveaor vest or a merino hoodie for moving in. The merino is hard to make the cut because it weighs so much, but both of those are filling that "a little more than a baselayer but not a full on shell" role with better moisture transport than the windshirt used to.
Best way to express it is overlapping ranges of cold/wet (1-10):
baselayer: 1-2
endeavor vest or merino hoodie: 2-6
windshirt: 3-7
MH dry q elite: 3-10
I haven't yet found the conditions in which I'm moving and wearing anything more than a baselayer and mountain hardwear shell (plus gloves and hat of course) without getting too hot and wet. Spent a lot of time this winter in conditions down to -10f with a good bit of wind and that still held true.
