Armor
Armor
When you're unable to evade, parry, or block a blow your armor is there to both provide protection and absorb a portion of the damage. Going without any armor at all is not optional.
Higher levels of each armor skill lowers the corresponding armor's hindrance while increasing its protection.
See the Armor and shield player guide for a more in-depth look at the following concepts and armor in general.
Armor Stats
All armor has an area it covers, weight, protection and absorption against the different types of damage, a maneuvering hindrance, a stealth hindrance, and a construction/durability.
Protection: reduces incoming damage by a flat amount, making it ideal for dealing with light hits
Absorption: reduces damage by a percentage, making it ideal for mitigating large hits
Maneuvering Hindrance: penalizes all defenses, with evasion being most affected and shield being least affected
Stealth Hindrance: penalizes stealthy actions such as hiding
Construction: how hard a piece of armor is to damage from combat
Durability: how much more damage an armor can take until it is completely ineffective
The effectiveness of armor from reduced durability is a sliding scale. Also as durability lowers or even reaches zero the repair cost of the item increases substantially therefore it is recommended that you repair before the armor falls below 80%.
Armor Types
There are four varieties of weight/protection/hinderance within each class. They are listed lightest-to-heaviest below.
| Skill | Types | Crafted by |
|---|---|---|
| Light Armor | Cloth, Leather, Bone | Tailoring, Carving |
| Chain Armor | Ring, Chain, Mail | Armorsmithing |
| Brigandine | Scale, Brigandine, Lamellar | Armorsmithing |
| Plate Armor | Light Plate, Plate, Heavy Plate | Armorsmithing |
Coverage Areas
You must protect your:
Head - Eyes - Neck
Arms - Hands
Chest - Abdomen - Back
Legs
Clownsuiting
The nickname for wearing multiple types of armor in order to train more than one armor skill at once. There is a hefty maneuvering hindrance penalty to mixing armor types which increases with every additional type you wear. Only Paladins may reduce this penalty every 10 circles through 40th.
As an example you could wear a metal armet, metal scale gloves, metal chain shirt, and rugged greaves from Tembeg's Armory to train all 4 skills at once.
Others choose to change their leg armor, known as greaves swapping, during combat so that they are only mixing two armor types.
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