Decoupling stats from armor's visual appearance?

In the recent IGN Nightfall hands-on article the following sentence could be read: "Arenanet also mentioned they were decoupling stats from armor's visual appearance, ..." Does anyone have a clue what this means exactly? Is it simply the fact that certain armors look the same regardless of stats, unlike most armors in Prophecies?

I would read it that like the Factions armor, such that all armors appearances will be avialable with all stats. So if I wanted to get the Ascalon (char head) warriors helm it wouldn't have to be only +1 tactics.

So... armour isn't coming with all stats anymore?

It means every armourset will cover every stat, like Factions/FoW armour. Hopefully they go back to Tyria and do it there. 15k Ascalon is the best warrior set in the game, yet crap stats.

Or it might mean that theres a system to change the armor stats after you've already bought it.. Hopefully.

I agree, I always wanted to walk around in 15K Wanderer's, but I never wanted to walk around with crappy stats...

Yup, ranger Druid armor is with Druids stats in Prophesies. In Factions (and probably Nightfall) you can get any skin available with the Druids stats. This is unlike the preview event I think, where there were (at least) 2 armors available, both with different skin and different stats. (dont be a wiseguy and say there were more, which are the same armor arts, but with higher armor)

I though of that too.

That'd be great; no need to have 3 different armour sets for specific builds.

Insignias were mentioned, which sound like they'll be for inscriptions but for armor instead- basically upgrades with the "inherent" mods that come on a piece of armor. So basically, you could take the Bloodstained upgrade and put it on your 15k Bonelace boots, or change your Knights gloves to Gladiator to match the mods on the rest of your armor set.

It was also mentioned (can't remember if it was from IGN or the GW Insider) that monsters will drop armors with inscriptions, just like they drop runed armors now.

o.o i would much like my knights armor to be useful again thanks~

It would really make the game better visually since there's lots of cool armorsets in Tyria that just plain suck but would be nice to wear. Too bad the ugliest armor (gladiator's) is also the best.

Hmmz. Well I've already gone through the trouble of buying a set of monk armor for each stat, except for vs. Physical which I need to get and while conditioned which i'll never get. I wear a set of 15k Saintly Pants and Chest with 15kWanderers arm and feet though, and it'd be good to be able to change the arm and feet stats from vs elem to +health or +energy. Other than that insignias wouldn't help my monk's overload of inventory

For my other chars though this is gonna be a huge help. I've got tons of Tyrian armor that'd I'd like to change up the stats of. Like giving my 15k Glad's Armor arms the stoneskin mod, and changing some stats on my 15k Studded Leather armor.

And looking through the list of armors I see a lot of other Tyrian armors I'd like to mod for usefulness. (:I)<--(new smiley I just made up) This may actually increase my inventory, what with all the cool armors I'll be able to stockpile and use frequently :O

ArenaNet could take it a bit further and detach all armor properties so you could change its skin, modifiers and rune on fly. Of course, you have to buy each of them before they appear as options. Maybe something like this:



Another option would be to create armor sets which take only one slot from inventory. Current implementation for armor sets takes too much space.

Yeah, armor storage really needs to be optimized. There is no point in trading armor, since it's customized already, so it would be nice if they are not normal "items" in your inventory. Instead, they can be a list that shows up when you click on your gloves, boots, leggings, etc. This will also help with all the holiday hats that our characters have.

This might be difficult for A.Net to implement though, since armor each armor piece is represented as an item right now.

It would also make it another great gold sink for them.It would nice though to change the stats on some of the Tyrian amour say Knights to Elemental like Wyveren or even Knight to Glads.The 15 k Glads I know is the best looking but the 1.5k is just as good although they it use to look better with knights and Ascalon boots.

Didn't we already know this form the preview event? anyway its good to have confirmation that each skin has each stat. none of the "hmm which to choose? good looks or good stats?" debates

I can't believe people say the knight's stat "sucks"... I think people honestly just stand around in Grotto or Balthazar's Temple all day and repeat whatever the guy in fow is saying.

If you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that all you're going to be facing is physical damage, then Knight's is marginally better. Otherwise, it's simply inferior. Knight's does have its place in the game, but if you can only buy a single set of armor, Knight's isn't your best option.

I disagree with you on this one Maxie. Wanderer's is very useful in certain areas where elemental damage is high. I know every monk and his/her dog goes for ascetics, but I loved the wanderer's skin so much that was what I wandered around in until I got 15k Kurzick about 2 months ago. I've never had energy problems either.

Armor storage ftw? Maybe just have one additional "bag" in each person's inventory that can only be used for armor and can hold like 20 items?