13 Oct 2005 at 11:47 - 4
Except for the few global armor bonuses (Damage Absorbtion from Knights/Ascalon & +15 AL while casting on Mesmer armor) each armor bonus is LOCALISED, and no armor bonuses stack be they localised or global in effect. (what I mean is you can wear 4 pieces of the mesmer armor which provides +15 AL while casting, but you'll only get +15 AL.. not +60 AL)
This means you onlyt get the benefit from that armor if you get hit in the part where your wearing that set of armor. The bonuses on the armor's do stack with their base armor, but not with other pieces of armor.
So take elementalist for example - I'm wearing AL 60 Hydromancer gloves, boots & leggings and Pyromancer Chest armor.. I then get smacked in the chect by a fire attack! Because I'm wearing Pyro armor on my chest I have an effective AL of 75 vs that attack (60+15).. whereas if I got hit in the legs my AL would only be 60 - since the Hydromancer AL bonus is not against fire!
so basically each armor bonus you have (apart from 2) stack with the armor's base armor when you are struck at that position by the damage type the bonus effects. Bonuses aren't stacked all over, and niether in AL stacked.
It comes down to the fact that when you get attacked you can be hit in 1 out of 5 places - chest, legs, gloves, boots & head. After detirmining where you get hit the game then detirmes the damage you take based on the armor you have at that location... and the armor it uses is the base AL of the armor plus any armor modifiers on that piece of armor that are applicable (ie +15 AL vs fire when against foire based attacks) and then any special global effected armor bonuses (ie +15 AL while casting Mesmer Armor, +x Armor bonus on weapons, shields, etc)..
Understand?