Performer's Armor

Hi, I tested this in the Isle of the Nameless vs Master of Lightning, thought I'd share it with you:

1. Prophecies Performer's/Virtuoso Armor bonus: +15 armor while casting spells. Global, just as GuildWiki says. Only works with spells, just as the description says.

2. PVE craftable Virtuoso Armor (tested this using Shing Jea shoes from Kaineng): +15 armor while activating skills. Definitely local. I'm too lazy to test it for whether it stacks with Prophecies Performer's/Virtuoso Armor.

I used signets and 0 dom backfire, and energy tap whenever the Master used Lightning Orb, and healing spells so I didn't die.

I've been looking into this too, and I came up with the same results. I also found out that the Tyrian and Canthan armour bonuses *do* stack.

Using Tyrian Performer's gloves and a Canthan Virtuoso's chest:
Isle of the Nameless obelisk normally hits for 42dmg.
While activating a non-spell skill: 33 if it hits the chest, 42 otherwise.
While casting a spell: 25 if it hits the chest, 33 otherwise.

(All armour AL60, Enchanter's legs and boots, and non-spell skill was Troll Unguent)

I'm guessing this corresponds to a full +30 armour while casting spells, but I can't confirm this as looking at the damage equations makes my brain hurt

What about using Tyrian Performer's gloves, canthan virtuoso's boots and the rest savants and obviously using some stances. Will this make you pretty tough ?? + 15 +15 +10 ?, but I realise most of that only stacks when your casting.

I don't think it'd quite work like that, as Savant's and Canthan Virt's give local armour bonuses rather than global.
If you were casting a spell and in a stance, you'd be getting +30 on your boots (+15 Perf's and +15 Virt's), and +25 on your legs and chest (+15 Perf's and +10 Savant's)

For me, the moral of the story is: Grab some Tyrian Performer's gloves quick before they nerf them to match the Canthan ones

I still refuse to accept that this is nothing more than a bug.

Every 40 armor constitues a reduction of half non-"plus" damage, or base damage. So 25 sounds like it they stack; based on Aethan's data.

Are the Prophecies/PvP armor being tested newly crafted, or crafted long time ago? Just want to make sure.

If they ever implement an armor "upgrade" NPC I'm never going anywhere near it, that's for sure. But you know,
I hope that the global effect of the original Performer's Armor doesn't get nerfed, because it does help quite a bit in PVP - casting is the only time when you're not kiting, really.

If ANet is reading this - don't let this become another HoD sword issue, but also remember that nerfing the global armor bonuses would unbalance everything from Droks/IDS Running to PVP. Just because Assassin Armor is terrible doesn't mean you have to nerf everyone elses...

It looks a bit unclear in my original post, but by PVE craftable Virtuoso Armor, I meant PVE Factions craftable Virtuoso Armor. AFAIK, Prophecies still has the old armor.

What I'd also be curious of is whether the canthan versions of armors with global bonuses (e.g. Ascalon Armor) are also local and stacking.

Re: Craft time - I don't think it really matters since all the prophecies ones have the same +15 armor while casting spells but:

The Prophecies armor I tested it with were crafted sometime around January, but I think I tested the bonus with a pvp character I created around the time of factions release.

What is a mesmer with 14 fast casting suppose to do ??
I don't cast for long enough for those bonuses to be useful. I'm just going with savants and Mantra of Recovery but I still drop like a fly

Quote: Originally Posted by Pan Sola