Update on Armor Mechanics

A couple of notes on armor that I've been meaning to post for a while.

First, autohit looks like it's working its way out of the game. Skills that might have autohit at one time no longer do, and now have directional mechanics - skills like Fire Storm appear to come from above giving a good percentage of head shots, blasts off to the side hit the hands more frequently. How the percentages change, and what skills hit from what direction is unknown, but simply put the tactic of wearing a different chestpiece of a suit of armor is obsolete.

The tactic of using gloves / boots for the +energy, however, is alive and well. Once those are synched up it'll make sense to use complete sets of armor again.

Second, an update on how Ascalon armor works. Basically, each piece of armor acts as though it has a Rune of Minor Absorption in it, meaning that all damage you take is reduced by 2, regardless of hit location. These bonuses stack neither with each other, nor with Absorption runes. Practically, this means that the Ascalon and Knight's armors are completely useless. Multiple pieces of either have zero benefit, and once you have a rune of Absorption the bonus of either suit is redundant. Your best course of action? Grab a pair of Ascalon Boots early in the game for the easy damage reduction, then ignore the set entirely.

Peace,
-CxE

Cool. Thanks. I like it being that way.. makes it more realistic and fun.

I found the Knight's Armor to look very stylish on my W/Mo. Now sadness has overcome me, I must retreat to the inner workings of my home so I can weep.

Thanks for the update Ensign, I found it interesting. I proclaim this to be a good source!

--Ginko

So what you are saying ascalon and knights are useless because they are AC 80 vice AC 85 like the others at the hi lvl?

Yep, that's exactly what I'm saying. Platemail is 80 +20 vs. Physical, Dragon is 85 +10 vs. Physical. Knight's and Ascalon are 80 +10 vs. Physical, with a 'bonus' that doesn't actually do anything if you have your Absorption Rune - and doesn't do anything beyond the first armor piece in any case. Hence both suits are strictly worse than both Platemail and Dragon armor, and should not be touched.

I'm disappointed too, as Knight's is the best looking suit of armor from where I'm sitting, and it has been changed from a Platemail clone (which is actually useful) into an Ascalon clone (which is not). Hopefully they'll tweak these armors a bit before release so that they're actually useful again.

Peace,
-CxE

Ok,thanks for the help.

I have a question Knights armor isn't 80, +20 vs physical. I always thought it was the same as platemail because that is what all the Guild wars sites databases say.

It was identical to Platemail until recently (the last BWE I believe). As of then it stopped being a copy of Platemail, and started being a copy of Ascalon Armor. Knight's Armor requires Leather Squares as a rare component, instead of Steel or Pelts.

A bunch of armor sets have been switched up recently, and I don't know of any up to date sites. I guess we're just putting things off here because we're waiting for things to settle. =p

Peace,
-CxE

Ok. Thanks. I have to tell my warrior freind that now, becasue last Beta he bought half of the Knights set becasue it looked better than the Platemail. I have to tell him to switch now.

It really isn't right that the Dragon's armor and the Platemail armor is better and cheaper than the Ascalon and Knights armor.

I just looked over my screenshots, and apparently the PvP Knight's Armor is identical to Platemail, while the PvE Knight's Armor is identical to Ascalon Armor.

I don't know how that's supposed to work, either.

Peace,
-CxE

So this means instead of using Ascalon Chest and Plate for everything else (except helm, and possibly gloves if we're using hammer), we will now all be swaping between Plate and Dragon (I prefer Dragon as I think I will be taking more elemental damage than physical), with a minor absorption rune in each set, and still using the +skill helms and maybe knockdown gloves?

Or using Gladiator's Armor for boots and gloves for the +1 energy from each, with the damage appropriate chest and leggings.

Basically, yeah. Use Plate or Dragon for everything, depending on where you want your protection - use Gladiators Gloves/Boots if you want a bit of energy at a cost of a lot of armor.

Peace,
-CxE

I hope they make a few different armor sets equal yet different for endgame. I really like the look of the Knight's Set when I played a long time ago. Hopefully whichever set I go with will end up looking good. For me appearence in such a good looking game plays a major factor.

Well this will definately swap things up a bit. I was wondering why the last time I played, I didn't seem to get any kind of appreciable benefit from my rune of minor absorbtion. I am a little curious about the testing methods you used to come to these conclusions. (mostly because it seems it would have taken a lot of time)

Any other armor updates? I only know of the elementalist's armor changes...

Master Armor = gone, at least not in ventari's dell (did they change the name again? I forgot)

Air elementalist chest part now have +15 vs air magic instead of +10 vs air magic, at ventari's dell (I still have my old +10 one T-T)

It doesn't take a lot of time, really. Take a mixed suit of armor (I was using ringmail with ascalon gloves/boots). Get hit by a bunch of Lightning Orbs from a lowbie Flash Gargoyle. Take 4 damage per hit. Take off your gloves, and still take 4 damage per hit. Take off the boots too, and take 6 damage per hit. Take off everything and start taking naked damage. Put on gloves, take naked damage -2. Put on gloves and boots, still take naked -2.

Come back later with level 20 Knights and Ascalon crafted. Mix and match Knights with Ascalon, still just get -2 damage per hit. Toss a minor absorption rune in your leggings. Get -2 damage per hit.

I didn't cover every possible iteration, granted, but I saw enough to conclude that none of the 'reduces damage from attacks' bonuses stack.


A ton.

Elementalists now have 5 choices for armor - the 60 AL suit, as well as Pyromancer's (60, +15 vs. Fire), Hydromancer's (60, +15 vs. Cold), Aeromancer's (60, +15 vs. Lightning), and Geomancer's (60, +15 vs. Earth).

Rangers have their basic set, along with Druid's (70, +30 vs. Elemental, +1 energy), Drakescale (70, +30 vs. Elemental, +15 vs. Fire), Studded Leather (70, +30 vs. Elemental, +15 vs. Lightning), and Frostbound (70, +30 vs. Elemental, +15 vs. Cold).

Monks have their basic set, along with Tattoos (60, +1 energy), Wanderer's (60, +5 vs. Elemental), and Judge's (60, +10 vs. Physical, -1 energy). Saintly is still craftable but is simply Wanderer's with a different graphic.

Mesmers have their basic set, plus Virtuoso (60, +15 while casting), Enchanter's (60, +1 energy), and Rogues (60, +10 vs. Physical, -1 energy). They may or may not have another craftable set that isn't available on PvP characters.

Necromancers have their basic set, plus Necrotic (70, double damage from holy), Bonelace (60, +15 vs. Piercing), and Scars (60, +1 energy). They also have a 60, +10 vs. Physical, -1 energy set, though that might have changed.

Warriors are effectively unchanged, with Platemail (80, +20 vs. Physical), Dragon (85, +10 vs. Physical), Ascalon (80, +10 vs. Physical, -2 damage), Gladiator's (80, +1 energy), and Knight's (either the same as Ascalon or Platemail, depending on the week).

I'll be bugging people in Ventari's Dell next BWE to find out exactly what's available now.

Peace,
-CxE

Hmm, I hope they reduced its price in steel in accordance with this change.

That's really too bad about the Knight's and Ascalon sets. I wonder if allowing the bonus of these sets to stack with the Absorption Rune would be too powerful. If not, then perhaps they could be made useful again by granting the bonus only when you wear the entire set, and then letting it stack with the rune? I'm horrible with numbers, so I really don't know how that would work out in the end.

It's still 112 Hides, 28 Steel, 6000 gold for a full set as far as I know. Steel is actually pretty common, though, I wouldn't worry about acquiring it too much. Don't think about crafting it - that's a waste of money - trade for it off of people for around 30-50 gold per ingot.

All the crafting materials are fairly common now, and the only really rare ones (Linen and Silk) aren't used all that much - the armors that used to require them got taken out of the game. The gold is a much bigger deal than the materials for everything but Scars / Tattoos, and probably even then, too.

If anyone knows about any of the additional sets, particularly the Monk / Necromancer / Mesmer ones, please let us know.

Peace,
-CxE

Hydromancers Set still needs Linen... But it CAN be bought at a ridiculous price of 200 gold + 5 Plant Fibers...

However, you can Expert Salvage Kit it from a fair amount of Robes, from what I could tell.

And Mind Spark Garbs, if you fancy running Fort Ranik again. Same with Silk.

Hydromancer's is Linen now? OUCH. It used to be shells. No wonder demand for those went through the floor.

They've been shuffling the various materials around. What uses Silk now besides Virtuoso?

Peace,
-CxE

Well, I know that some of the Mesmer armor requires it now, as well as linen, or did in the last BWE. I don't recall the classifications.

I think they will be introducing more armors before release, this cant be guaranteed but it is most likely. The current armor selections are very slim

It's pretty much guaranteed. There's too few armors on currently

Thanks for the update Charles, I have to tell you that my jaw was on my desk reading this entire thread. I thought there was something different last event, I am one to wear different pieces depending on what i'm doing, and I added a minor rune to knights leggings and chest piece. I seemed to not make a any notable differance. All I can say is wow, I hope they make more adjustments before release.

Hydromancer is linen now!? @_@

2 times more people going to visit nebo village now =P

Isn't the difference between "80+20 vs physical" and 80+10 vs physical with -2 to damage taken" pretty marginal? I would think that the difference would only be one or two extra points of damage per hit, and that doesn't seem to signifigant to me at least. Yes, there is a difference, but isn't there a point where the difference is so marginal that it doesn't really matter?

Not quite sure what the message here is. Seems to be that you might be saying:

a) Specific skills are more likely to hit certain areas now, depending on what skills they are, ie: firestorm.

or

b) All skills (unless overwise indicated) now have a directional factor that affects hit area percentages.

Or both?

Will check it out myself when I get the chance, either way.

I believe the point of the post was that the -2 could be acquired from a rune and the damage reduction didn't stack; this made ascalon type armor strictly inferior to the other types since they could also get the -2 to damage.

Laz

It's about as significant as the difference between Platemail and Dragon Armor - there's a bit of min/maxing but it's largely cosmetic. The point of these tests, however, is that the -2 damage taken mod doesn't actually do anything, so it's a choice between 80 +20 and 80 +10, which is a non-choice.


Most attacks have a directional factor - attacking from higher ground gives you more headshots, attacking from below tends to hit boots, and the like. This has always been the case.

What is (was) also the case is that some skills don't deal with hit locations at all - they just hit the target, period. If that's the case, and the skill does not ignore armor, then the armor level of the target's chestpiece is used. Many spells fit this description.

The message is that the set of spells that hit the chest automatically is a whole lot lower now than once thought - instead they use hit locations like everything else. For example, at one point it looked like Firestorm always hit you squarely in the chest, so you could, say, use a Drakescale chestpiece in an otherwise mixed armor set, and always get the +AL vs. Fire mod for the purposes of that Firestorm. But now it looks like that isn't the case - instead it appears that spells like Firestorm use hit locations, and furthermore the hit *direction* comes from above, giving a disproportionate number of headshots.

Basically the strategy of mixing your chestpiece up for better protection against Elemental appears to be much weaker now than it used to be, so plan accordingly.

Peace,
-CxE

Do people honestly do this now that armor isn't associated with a hotkey? (i.e. F1 for one set of armor + weapon, F2 for another, etc...)

You would have to drag and drop the armor onto your guy to do this everytime....

Hmm... Thanks for the updates. Unfortunatly, I liked the look of Ascalon Armour a lot. But not as much as the Dragon Armour so I guess that's a bit of luck. It does seem extremely stupid to have 2 sets of armour that are clearly worse than the others and especially that their materials are extremely hard to come by in some cases. I wonder if they will be balanced later without changing the armour itself. Perhaps there is something we haven't seen yet that makes them good? But probably not. Anyway... They will be rebalanced eventually.

My notes from the march BWE for the 'rare' material for each mesmer armor:

Rogue's - leather squares (not steel as most guides still say)
Performer/Virtuoso - silk
Courtly/Noble - linen
Enchanter's - glittering dust

in the standard amounts for the secondary material.

I never take them off. You'd lose the max energy if you did. +energy gloves / boots for life.

Peace,
-CxE

I thought you were talking about the free energy trick that people do with foci, where they keep it unequiped, then equip it for a free 10+ energy. I thought you were talking about doing that with the +energy armor.

My mistake, sorry.

No one seems to have any updated pages on that new +energy armor though, what exactly are the stats on the pieces?

OK Ensign.I have set of Knights armor both top and bottom with a minor runes of absorb both on top and bottom.I am planning on getting gladiator boots and guanlets and a Knights helemt.What do you think of this set up or would a better helmet be better I don't like platemail very much atleast not the male version and this for a female player?What are you suggestions?

Rather than resurrecting a four and a half month old thread.. why not just send him a PM? And why have two runes of absorption? They don't stack.. you realize..

Please use the search button.. keywords like "absorption" and "knights armor" will get you many many results which will explain much better than dragging an old old topic back from the dead.

Closed.