Armor and shield player guide

This guide is designed to help new and experienced players understand how armor works and how to create mixed armor setups.

Skillset Placement

Your guild can be armor-primary, armor-secondary, or armor-tertiary. The main consequence of your guild's armor skillset placement is to determine how quickly you learn armor skills. The better your skillset placement, the more field experience you can hold, and the more efficiently that field experience is converted into actual ranks. See Experience for a more detailed discussion.

Additionally, your skillset placement determines your access to skillset-based perks.

	Primary	Secondary	Tertiary
Guilds	Paladin	Barbarian, Ranger, Trader	all others1
arm-worn shields	all sizes2	medium2 or small	small
arm-worn shield protection penalty	lowest	average	worst
ability to work down hindrance	best	average	worst
armor mixing penalty	none3	average	worst
can avoid penalty to aiming/loading bows while wearing	medium or small shields	small shields4	no shield
extra stance points from the Defending skill	every 50 ranks	every 60 ranks	every 70 ranks
more nuanced shield appraisal	automatic	requires shield ranks	requires shield ranks

1. Although Commoners are treated as having all secondary skillsets for experience drain purposes, they lack the other perks of secondary skillset placements.
2. You must be at least 4th circle to take advantage of the ability to wear medium or large shields.
3. Every 10 circles, Paladins gain the ability to negate the mixing penalty for one armor type, so that by 30th circle, they can wear all four armors without a mixing penalty.
4. Barbarians and Rangers can avoid the penalty by arm-wearing a small shield. Traders cannot avoid this penalty.

Stats That Apply to Both

Hindrance

Wearing armor makes it more difficult for you to move in combat. Hindrance comes in two types:

• maneuvering hindrance: penalizes all defenses, with evasion being most affected and shield being least affected
• stealth hindrance: makes it more difficult to engage in stealthy actions such as hiding

Armor has separate maneuvering and stealth hindrance ratings, while shields impose equal maneuvering and stealth hindrance.

As you gain ranks in armor skills, you will experience less hindrance in that type of armor. How much hindrance you can work off depends on your skillset placement and the type of armor.

When you appraise a piece of armor you are wearing, you will see:

• the base maneuvering and stealth hindrance for that piece

You feel certain that a heavy vardite plate cuirass with a reinforced design appears to impose noticeable (8/15) maneuvering hindrance and significant (10/15) stealth hindrance

• how much maneuvering and stealth hindrance you are actually experiencing from it (usually lower than the base hindrance due to your skill)

If you were only wearing a heavy vardite plate cuirass with a reinforced design, your maneuvering would be barely hindered (1/14), and your stealth would be fairly hindered (5/14).

• the total amount of maneuvering and stealth hindrance you are currently experiencing from all of the armor you're wearing.

But considering all the armor and shields you are wearing or carrying, you are currently fairly hindered (5/14), and your stealth is highly hindered (10/14).

Base Hindrance Levels, From Best to Worst:

Order	Base Hindrance
0	no
1	insignificant
2	trivial
3	light
4	minor
5	fair
6	mild
7	moderate
8	noticeable
9	high
10	significant
11	great
12	extreme
13	debilitating
14	overwhelming
15	insane

Current Hindrance Levels, From Best to Worst:

Order	Current Hindrance
0	unhindered
1	barely hindered
2	minimally hindered
3	insignificantly hindered
4	lightly hindered
5	fairly hindered
6	somewhat hindered
7	moderately hindered
8	rather hindered
9	very hindered
10	highly hindered
11	greatly hindered
12	extremely hindered
13	overwhelmingly hindered
14	insanely hindered

Construction/Durability and Condition

After the protection and hindrance stats, you will see a line like this:

You are certain that the plate cuirass is nearly impervious to damage (17/18)¹ and is in pristine condition (100%)².

Shields and armor become damaged during use. Though they cannot be permanently destroyed or weakened, you will need to periodically repair your equipment to experience peak performance. The first part of that appraisal tells you how durable the armor is. The more durable it is, the longer it takes for the armor to become damaged and need repairs.

Construction Levels, From Worst to Best:

Order	Construction
1	extremely weak and easily damaged
2	very delicate and easily damaged
3	quite fragile and easily damaged
4	rather flimsy and easily damaged
5	particularly weak against damage
6	somewhat unsound against damage
7	appreciably susceptible to damage
8	marginally vulnerable to damage
9	of average construction
10	a bit safeguarded against damage
11	rather reinforced against damage
12	quite guarded against damage
13	highly protected against damage
14	very strong against damage
15	extremely resistant to damage
16	unusually resilient to damage
17	nearly impervious to damage
18	practically invulnerable to damage

The second part of that line tells you how much damage the armor has taken. When it gets below 80%, you will start to experience diminished performance:
Equipment Damage Levels, From Best to Worst:

Health	Description
100%	in pristine condition
91-99%	practically in mint condition
81-90%	in good condition
71-80%	rather scuffed up
61-70%	some minor scratches
51-60%	a few dents and dings
41-50%	several unsightly notches
31-40%	heavily scratched and notched
21-30%	badly damaged
0-20%	battered and practically destroyed

Shields

Shields come in three sizes: small, medium, and large. In general, larger shields offer more protection but at the expense of greater weight and hindrance. (All shields have equal maneuvering and stealth hindrance.)

Additionally, not all sizes are equally suited for all attacks.

Size	Melee	Missile
small	100%	80%
medium	98%	90%
large	96%	100%

Shield Protection

When you appraise a shield, you will see a line like this:

You are certain that the shield offers good (12/26)¹ to incredible (23/26)² protection.

The first value is the "basic defense" (or minimum defense or low-end protection). This is a guaranteed minimum level of protection afforded to all adventurers, regardless of how skilled they are in using shields.

The second value is the "full defense" (or maximum defense or high-end protection). In order to take advantage of the shield's full defense, you need to have skill in shield usage. The higher the full defense rating, the more ranks are required to take full advantage of it.

Shield Protection Levels, From Worst to Best ("expanded scale" only visible to Paladins and skilled users):

Order	Expanded Scale	Order	Standard Scale
0	no	0	no
1	extremely terrible	1	extremely terrible
2	terrible
3	dismal	2	dismal
4	very poor
5	poor	3	poor
6	rather low
7	low	4	low
8	fair	5	fair
9	better than fair
10	moderate	6	moderate
11	moderately good
12	good	7	good
13	very good
14	high	8	high
15	very high
16	great	9	great
17	very great
18	exceptional	10	exceptional
19	very exceptional
20	impressive	11	impressive
21	very impressive
22	amazing	12	amazing
23	incredible
24	tremendous	13	tremendous
25	unbelievable
26	god-like	14	god-like

Wearing Shields

Depending on your guild and the size of the shield (see above), you may not actually need to hold it in the hand in order to use it. You may be able to ADJUST it so that it's worn on the arm.

Advantages of Arm-worn Shields

• frees up the hands to allow use of two-handed weapons, including crossbows and bows
• As long as you're in shield stance, you are ready to block any surprise attack.

Drawbacks of Arm-worn Shields

• 20% decrease in protection (as opposed to holding it)
• offensive and defensive penalty while using two-handed melee weapons with worn shields
• penalty to aiming and loading bows (see above for exceptions)

Choosing a Shield

You should begin your training with a small shield. Depending on your budget, you will be able to choose from among a store-bought shield, a crafted leather shield, or a crafted metal shield. Player-made crafted shields will cost at least several platinum coins, so if you are just starting out pick up a reinforced cougar-hide targe from Bukor's Leatherworks (Knife Clan) until you can afford to upgrade.

At lower skill levels, try to maximize worn basic defense while minimizing hindrance. Most of the time you will be wearing a shield on your arm, so it's a good idea to compare the worn defense (not the higher held defense) between shields. Crafted metal small shields tend to offer higher basic defense at the cost of higher hindrance when compared to crafted leather small shields. If stealth matters, look for a lower hindrance leather shield. For those on a tight budget, consider acquiring boar-skin leather from wild boars or covellite from mining and finding a tailor or armorsmith to create your shield for a small fee.

At higher skill levels, most players favor crafted leather small shields because they offer similar or greater worn full defense to metal shields while having lower hindrance and weight.

For a skilled Paladin (150+ ranks of shield), a large metal shield is the most popular option (although some high-level Paladins say that a small diamond-hide shield outperforms a large vardite pavise shield at melee). Most other guilds prefer small leather shields, even those that are capable of wearing medium shields. Characters that rely heavily on stealth and evasion tend to prefer the smallest, least hindering shields.

Why don't more people use small metal shields?

Although small metal shields often have a good basic defense rating, they tend to be more hindering than their leather counterparts. However, there are some exceptions, such as the metal sipar, which can get down to 1/15 hindrance in lumium.

Why don't more people use medium shields?

Medium shields are not a popular choice. This is because most people either want to minimize hindrance, so they go with small shields, or they want to maximize protection, so they go with large shields. (Additionally, most guilds are only capable of wearing small shields.) Medium shields fall between the two, a niche for which there isn't much demand.

Why don't more people use large leather shields?

While large leather shields may be lighter and less hindering than their metal counterparts, they tend to have lower full defense ratings. Most people who use large shields are Paladins who want to maximize protection. Hindrance is less of an issue to them, because they rely on defenses (namely shield) that aren't as sensitive to hindrance. They don't usually want to reduce hindrance at the expense of protection.

Player-Made Shield Templates

When considering which type of player-made shield you want, the larger templates offer more protection but are usually more hindering and heavier. You can get an idea of the relative size of different templates by looking at the volume of material required to make them.

Leather Shields (Tailoring)

Size	Template	Volume	Standard* Weight	Standard* Hindrance	Worn Basic	Worn Full
small	ordinary shield	8	32	03-light	02-terrible	07-low
small	small shield	8	32	02-trivial	02-terrible	07-low
small	targe	10	40	04-minor	02-terrible	08-fair
small	target shield	12	48	02-trivial	01-e.terrible	07-low
medium	buckler	12	48	??	??	??
medium	medium shield	16	64	??	??	??
medium	oval shield	20	80	??	??	??
large	kite shield	24	96	??	??	??

* Note: Standard leather refers to goblin-skin leather with no modifications

Metal Shields (Armorsmithing)

Size	Template	Volume	Standard* Weight	Standard* Hindrance	Worn Basic	Worn Full
small	target shield/round sipar/triangular sipar	14	70	02-trivial	04-v.poor	08-fair
small	ordinary shield/targe/ceremonial shield	16	80	04-minor	05-poor	09-b.t.fair
medium	medium shield	20	100	05-fair	??	??
medium	medium buckler/circular buckler/curved shield	20	100	??	??	??
medium	oval shield/skirmisher's shield/jousting shield	25	125	06-mild	??	??
large	kite shield/warrior's shield/aegis	30	150	08-noticeable	??	??
large	tower shield/battle shield/heater shield/war shield	40	200	10-significant	??	??

* Note: Standard metal refers to 100% high-carbon steel with no modifications

Body Armor

DragonRealms differs from many other games in that any guild can wear any type of armor. As mentioned above, your guild's skillset placement simply determines how quickly you learn armor skills and how effectively you can reduce hindrance by training armor.

Body armor comes in four types: light, chain, brigandine, and plate. Modern light armor is less hindering than chain, which is less hindering than brigandine, which is less hindering than plate.

Light armor consists of cloth, leather, and bone armor. (Bone is a catch-all for any light armor that is not made of cloth or leather.) This is the lightest, least hindering armor. Light armor offers lower protection than the other types of armor, but it's also lighter and less hindering. This is one of the most popular armor types, especially among characters that rely heavily on stealth and evasion.

Chain armor or mail is made of small metal rings linked together to form a mesh. Most armor-tertiary guilds who don't opt for light armor use chain armor.

Brigandine is made of overlapping metal scales, bands, or small plates. It is not commonly used as a primary armor for the same reason that medium shields are not popular: that most people either want to minimize hindrance, so they go with light or chain armor, or they want to maximize protection, so they go with plate armor. Brigandine falls between the two, a niche for which there isn't much demand.

Plate armor is made of articulated metal plates. The heaviest and most hindering armor, plate is the primary armor of choice for Paladins. Plate is not a popular choice for armor-tertiary guilds due to its extreme hindrance.

Armor Protection and Absorption

Armor protects against six different types of damage:

• Physical: puncture, slice, impact
• Elemental: fire, cold, electrical

For each type of damage, there are two defense ratings:

• Protection: An armor's protection reduces incoming damage by a flat amount, making it ideal for dealing with light hits. While it may not reduce damage by as much as absorption (the other stat), protection tends to be the stat that reduces damage to 0.

Protection is heavily modified by a skill contest of your armor factor versus the attacker's offensive factor. (Armor factor is armor skill and a few other modifiers. Offensive factor is weapon skill and some other modifiers.) With low armor skill (compared to the attacker), your armor loses all of its protection.

• Absorption: An armor's absorption reduces damage by a percentage, making it ideal for mitigating large hits. However, absorption generally won't reduce damage to 0. (That's what protection does.) In player-made armor, absorption generally correlates with the density of the material used.

Unlike protection, absorption is not severely penalized by lack of armor skill. It is only modified slightly by a skill contest of your armor factor versus the attacker's offensive factor.

Armor Protection Levels, From Worst to Best:

Order	Protection
0	no
1	poor
2	low
3	fair
4	moderate
5	good
6	very good
7	high
8	very high
9	great
10	very great
11	extreme
12	exceptional
13	incredible
14	amazing
15	unbelievable

Armor Absorption Levels, From Worst to Best:

Order	Absorption
0	no
1	very poor
2	poor
3	low
4	somewhat fair
5	fair
6	moderate
7	good
8	very good
9	high
10	very high
11	great
12	very great
13	extreme
14	exceptional
15	incredible
16	amazing
17	unbelievable

Choosing Body Armor

Although strictly speaking, you will get the best performance by choosing one type of armor and sticking with it, the majority of players prefer to train multiple armors to earn extra TDPs for raising stats. At low levels, the TDPs gained from ranks is quite small, but it grows substantially over time. An additional advantage of training multiple armors is the added flexibility you have down the road. If you manage to come across a really good piece of armor for a skill you don't train, it could take a very long time to back train the ranks to use it at level.

TDPs From Armor Ranks

Ranks	1 Armor	2 Armors	3 Armors	4 Armors
50	6	12	18	24
100	25	50	75	100
150	56	112	168	224
200	100	200	300	400
250	156	312	468	624
500	626	1,252	1,878	2,504
750	1,408	2,816	4,224	5,632
1,000	2,502	5,004	7,506	10,008
1,250	3,909	7,818	11,727	15,636
1,500	5,628	11,256	16,884	22,512
1,750	7,660	15,320	22,980	30,640

Drawbacks of Mixing Armor

• Mixed armor penalty to hindrance for every additional armor type worn at the same time. (In other words, your total hindrance will be greater than the sum of the hindrance from each piece of armor.)

As mentioned earlier, every 10 circles Paladins gain the ability to negate the mixing penalty for one armor type so that by 30th circle they can wear all four armors without a mixing penalty.

• Even without the mixing penalty, the more of your body that is covered by heavier armors the more hindered you will be. This is felt most keenly by armor-tertiary guilds and those who rely heavily on stealth and evasion.
• Paladins who prefer to wear plate are sacrificing protection for parts of the body covered by the lighter armors.

Coverage Areas

When wearing armor, the experience that you get -- and the hindrance that you experience -- is based on the amount of the body covered by that armor. For example, if you were wearing full plate with brigandine accessories, 71.4% of your armor experience would go to plate armor, and the remaining 28.6% of your armor experience would go to brigandine. Moreover, 71.4% of your total hindrance would be attributed to your plate armor, whereas 28.6% of your hindrance would be attributed to your brigandine armor. (You can check your total hindrance by APPRAISING a piece of armor you are wearing.)

The experience/hindrance percentages were initially calculated by the player of Codiax. Ataelos derived the values below through extensive research.

Area	Exp/Hind	Cloth	Leather	Bone	Chain	Brigandine	Plate
head/eyes/neck	15%		cowl	cowl	balaclava	balaclava	sallet/armet/great helm
head/eyes	10%						bascinet/visored helm/closed helm
head/neck	13%	hood	helm	helm	helm	helm
head	8%	cap	cap	cap	cap	cap	dome helm/morion/barbute
eyes	2%	mask	mask	mask	mask	mask	mask
neck/chest/back	35%	mantle	mantle	mantle	mantle	mantle
neck	5%	aventail	aventail	aventail	aventail	aventail	aventail
torso/arms/legs	79%	hauberk	leathers	hauberk	hauberk	hauberk	full plate/fluted plate
torso/arms	53%	shirt	coat	coat	shirt	shirt	half plate
torso/legs	65%	robe	robe	robe	robe	robe	field plate
torso	39%	tabard	jerkin	tabard	lorica	lorica	cuirass
chest/back	30%	vest	vest	vest	vest	vest
chest	15%						breastplate
abdomen	9%	tasset	tasset	tasset	tasset	tasset	fauld
back	15%						backplate
arms/hands	20%	sleeves	sleeves	sleeves	sleeves	sleeves	sleeves
arms	14%	vambraces	vambraces	vambraces	vambraces	vambraces	vambraces
hands	6%	gloves	gloves	gloves	gloves	gloves	gauntlets
legs	26%	pants	greaves	greaves	greaves	greaves	greaves

You can use this chart to created mixed armor setups that divide experience as evenly as possible. For example, if you wanted to train chain armor and light armor, you might try a chain robe (torso/legs), and a leather cowl (head/eyes/neck) and sleeves (arms/hands). When choosing where to put which types of armor, it is often advisable to put the most protection on your vital areas (head, neck, chest, abdomen, and back).

For those who are considering whether to buy one large piece of armor or several small pieces of the same type (for example, a ring hauberk versus a ring lorica + ring vambraces + ring greaves), it takes the same amount of material. Here are the advantages of each approach:

Advantages of Larger Pieces of Armor

• reduced item count (as few as three for a full suit of armor)
• reduced time required to repair your armor (fewer pieces)
• reduced roundtime for removing all armor in combat (since you are reducing the number of pieces to remove)
• If you are trying to alter a complete suit of armor, it requires fewer sessions (as well as sometimes being easier to design).
• When looking at your worn items, your description will not be as cluttered (assuming you don't have any items that conceal armor).
• Combining coverage areas means you are less likely to take up limited inventory slots used by other types of items. (For example, aventails use a neck slot, which is commonly used by items with special mechanics. Masks use the only nose slot. Backplates use a shirt with armor slot. Tassets and faulds use a waist slot.)

Advantages of Smaller Pieces of Armor

• reduced weight
• reduced hindrance
• Smaller pieces of armor are easier to craft, requiring less skill to get the most out of rare materials.
• If you later decide to mix armor, it is less expensive to have a few accessories made than to pay for a whole new setup.

Player-Made Armor Templates

As with shields, you will eventually want to upgrade to player-made armor when you can afford it.

Light Armor

Player-made light armor comes in three material types, which each have three different styles. Each style requires the same amount of material to make and (all other things being equal) will be pretty similar in total stats. Light armor styles differ in which kinds of damage they favor (offer better protection against) or disfavor (offer less protection against).

Cloth Armor (Tailoring)

Style	Favors	Disfavors
Quilted	puncture
Padded	slice
Insulated	impact	puncture

Leather Armor (Tailoring)

Style	Favors	Disfavors
Rugged	puncture
Thick	impact
Coarse	slice

Bone Armor (Carving)

Style	Favors	Disfavors
Segmented	N/A	N/A
Notched	slice	impact
Ribbed	impact	puncture/slice

Metal Armor

Player-made metal armor comes in three types, which each have three different styles. Unlike light armor, the three styles of each metal armor are effectively three tiers of protection. For each type of armor, there is a light, a medium, and a heavy style.

Heavier styles:

• offer superior protection (absorption is based on metal density and unchanged across styles)
• are more hindering
• weigh more
• require more metal to make

Metal Armor (Armorsmithing)

Type	Light	Medium	Heavy
Chain	ring	chain	mail
Brigandine	scale	brigandine	lamellar
Plate	light plate	plate	heavy plate
Plate (head)	dome helm	morion	barbute
Plate (head/eyes)	bascinet	visored helm	closed helm
Plate (head/eyes/neck)	sallet	armet	great helm

• Armor-tertiary and armor-secondary guilds usually prefer the light styles of metal armor, especially if they rely heavily on evasion.
• Paladins (armor-primary) prefer the heavy styles, although sometimes you see novices with low strength and stamina using the light styles.

Commonly Used Materials

Metal armor material cliff notes:

• If you want cheap and light, buy covellite.
• If you want minimum hindrance, buy minimum density lumium.
• If you want great all-around protection, buy maximum density high carbon steel.
• If you want better physical protection than steel, buy maximum density damite.
• If you have a fortune to blow, consult with an armorsmith about the rarest metals.

For a direct comparison of metal qualities, see forging materials.

• Steel: This is the standard material for metal armor. It is a significant improvement over storebought armor. Affordable.
• Covellite: Slightly less protection than steel, but significantly lighter, less hindering and much better durability. Affordable.
• Lumium: Almost the protection of steel, but can be made lighter and less hindering. Pretty affordable, about twice as expensive as steel.
• Damite: Superior to steel in protection, but heavier and more hindering. Expensive, about fifty times more expensive than lumium.
• Kadepa: Similar to damite (though with slightly less absorption, and better cold/fire defense). About twice as expensive as damite.
• Audrualm: Higher absorption and better cold/fire defense at the same weight and hindrance as lumium. Three to five times the cost of damite.
• Silversteel: Slightly lower elemental, but the same physical protection as audrualm. Practically invulnerable to damage. Six to eight times the cost of damite.
• Icesteel: Highest elemental protection, but the physical protection is slightly less than steel. Hard to find in large quantities, and about ten times the cost of damite.
• Vardite: Same physical protection as tyrium, with higher electrical defense and slightly less cold/fire defense. It is pretty hard to find in large quantities. About ten times the cost of damite.
• Tyrium: Makes very rounded metal armor with the best physical and consistent elemental protection. Finding it in quantities needed for armor is practically impossible; it is almost always used for weapons instead. At least thirty times the cost of damite.

Armor Enhancements

Player-made shields and armor (except bone armor) can also be enhanced in the following ways:

• tempering/sealing: improves construction/durability (this should always be done)
• lightening/trimming: decreases weight by 10% (without affecting protection or hindrance)
• reinforcing: increases protection, hindrance, and weight

There may be a bug with reinforcing shields. No one I know has ever seen the shield's protection increase, but the weight and hindrance still increase. So at this time, I would not recommend reinforcing your shield. --ISHARON (talk) 17:12, 4 September 2015 (CDT)

You can reinforce or lighten but not both, as they are mutually exclusive processes. These enhancements are permanent, so choose wisely.

When looking at player-made armor, enhancements may show up in the following ways. (You can also RUB the armor with a cleaning cloth to see which enhancements have been done.)

Armor Enhancements

Type	Tempering	Lightening	Reinforcing
Leather Shield	sealed/sealed with protective wax	lightened/with fitted seams	reinforced/with a reinforced design
Metal Shield	tempered/with a tempered face	lightened/with a trimmed face	reinforced/with a reinforced design
Cloth Armor	sealed/sealed with protective wax	lightened/with fitted seams	reinforced/with a reinforced design
Leather Armor	sealed/sealed with protective wax	lightened/with fitted seams	reinforced/with a reinforced design
Bone Armor	N/A	N/A	N/A
Chain Armor	tempered/crafted from tempered links	lightened/with trimmed links	reinforced/with a reinforced design
Brigandine	tempered/crafted from tempered scales/bands	lightened/with trimmed scales/bands	reinforced/with a reinforced design
Plate Armor	tempered/crafted from tempered plates	lightened/with trimmed plates	reinforced/with a reinforced design

Shopping Guide

Storebought

You can either browse Elanthipedia's shops, or you can use the query pages to find something more specific. The query pages allow you to specify types, minimum or maximum stats, etc. When using the queries, you may want to exclude festival, quest, and auction merchandise by scrolling down to where it says "Rare?" and choosing "only not." (Be aware that the queries may not retrieve items that were added to Elanthipedia after the server move of May 2014.)

• Shield Query
• Armor Query

Remember, Crossing's grizzled old war veteran will also trade you for your starter armor if you don't desire leather.

Player-Made

You can either go directly to the crafter and order something to your specifications, or you can browse the player-owned shops in the market plazas.

• Player Armorsmiths: for metal armor
• Player Tailors: for cloth and leather armor
• Player Carvers: for bone armor

• Etherian's Plaza Shop Browser: a sortable, searchable list of the inventory and prices of all player-owned shops

• Isharon's Item Stat spreadsheet: stats for weapons, shields, and armor (does not include every item in the game)