Armour

Overview

• There are 3 types of armour: light, medium and heavy. Armour’s primary function is to reduce damage taken. All armours can be equipped by all characters
• Players can equip 6 pieces of armour and a shield for defense.
• Unlock higher tiers of armour with the Armour Character Development skill.
• Each type of armour is weakest to a specific damage type. Knowing what type of armour a foe is wearing and using the correct weapon against it can significantly increase damage dealt to him.
• Wear 4 pieces of one type of armour for the Armour Set Bonus which automatically increases all damage reduction values by 10%. There is no additional bonus for 5 or 6 pieces of armour.
• Each piece of armour has a Stamina Drain Multiplier. The higher the value, the more stamina it drains. Heavy armour drains the most stamina, and light armours drain the least stamina. Stamina is required to block, sprint, kick, and perform medium or strong attacks. For a full breakdown of how armour affects stamina drain, go here.
• Armour negatively affects your ability to do damage. This is represented by the damage multiplier, which is a cumulative value showing how much your equipment is affecting your damage capability. In general, wearing a full set of heavy armour will result in the lowest possible amount of damage dealt, whereas wearing a full 6 piece set of top tier light armour will result in the highest amount of damage possible. Archery is especially difficult in heavy armour.

Light Armour

• Made from cloth and leather in the Tailoring and Leatherworking profession
• Has the lowest stamina drain and a high damage multiplier but offers the least amount of protection overall.
• Especially weak to slashing damage
• A favorite of high damage playstyles including archers, scouts, cavalry, and skirmishers.

Medium Armour

• Made from a mix of leather, metal, and cloth in Tailoring and Leatherworking and Armoursmithing
• Moderate stamina drain, a moderate damage multiplier, and offers fairly good overall protection.
• Especially weak to piercing damage
• A favorite of duelists, bruisers, swordsmen, and those wishing to balance offense and defense.

Heavy Armour

• Made primarily from metal with some leather and cloth in Armoursmithing
• Very high stamina drain, a very low damage multiplier, and offers very good overall protection.
• Especially weak to bludgeoning damage
• A favorite of shieldmen, heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, and medics.

Shields

Shields block melee and ranged attacks when properly angled. A shield has a large blocking radius in front of the character. Players wishing to get “around” an enemy’s shield will need to learn good positioning and the correct directional attack to achieve this. Regardless of size or shape, all shields have the same blocking hit box.

Shields do not use directional blocking, but may be moved slightly and held up in front of the face to prevent head shots (use the tilde key to help with the camera while doing this). A shield worn on the back will block arrow shots, but not melee hits.

Shields negatively affect damage output. Heavy shields reduce damage output by 10%, and light shields reduce damage output by 2%. A quick way for a melee player to improve damage is to switch from a heavy to a light shield or to unequip it entirely.

Shields may be used to stun or stagger enemies with the shield bash ability [Hold right click + left click] if selected in the abilities tree. Shield bashes deal a small amount of damage.

Light Shields

Light shields are used by skirmishers and archers in order to provide a bit of protection without sacrificing too much damage output.

• Low damage reduction
• Low shield resistance
• Much less durability than heavy shields
• Reduce damage output by 2%

Heavy Shields

Heavy shields are used by front line fighters because they can absorb large amounts of damage and withstand sustained attacks.

• High damage reduction
• Excellent shield resistance
• Excellent durability
• Reduce damage output by 10%

Regardless of shape, all shields have the same blocking hitbox.

Shield resistance

Shield resistance is the measure of how much damage the shield and arm can take before being temporarily exhausted. Shield resistance regenerates over time.

Higher shield resistance values will allow the user to absorb more hits with the shield before becoming temporarily exhausted. This simulates the shield taking damage as well as the arm tiring from holding the shield. When shield resistance is depleted, the sound of splintering wood will be heard by nearby players, and the shield holder will begin using their weapon to block.

Shield resistance will regenerate over several minutes. A minimum of 100 shield resistance is required to be able to hold up a block.

Axes and Breaker builds are most effective for destroying shields.

Heavy shields have significantly greater shield resistance values than light shields, making them invaluable in shield walls and heavy combat in close quarters.

Shield durability is tied to shield resistance. As durability goes down, the maximum shield resistance also goes down. This means that low durability shields will need to be repaired or replaced in order to be useful in a sustained battle.

Unlocking Armours in Character Development

See Character Development for a rough guide to the character development system as a whole. Please remember is not necessary to fully max out the lower tier masteries in order to move to the higher tier masteries. In other words, you don't need full horizontal progression to make vertical progression, as the image below indicates.

Press ['] (quote) to open the Character Development screen and tab over to armours to view this screen.

To unlock armours, players begin with wearing gray tier 1 armours and work their way up to access to tier 2, 3, 4, and finally tier 5.

To advance to tier 2, wear any tier 1 armour.

To advance to tier 3, wear any tier 2 armour.

• Tier 3 is divided into light, medium and heavy armour masteries.
• Wearing any tier 3 armour grants XP toward vertical progression to tier 4.

To advance to tier 4, wear any tier 3 armour against enemies of level 20 or higher.

• Tier 4 is divided into light, medium and heavy armour masteries.
• Wearing any tier 4 armour grants XP toward vertical progression to tier 5.

To advance to tier 5, wear any tier 4 armour against enemies of level 35 or higher.

• To advance to tier 5 light armours, wear any tier 4 light armour against enemies of level 35 or higher.
• To advance to tier 5 medium armours, wear any tier 4 medium armour against enemies of level 35 or higher.
• To advance to tier 5 heavy armours, wear any tier 4 heavy armour against enemies of level 35 or higher.

Tier 5 is subdivided into masteries for each specific armour piece within each armour type. Each tier 5 armour must be mastered independently. To do this, simply wear the exact type of tier 5 armour you wish to master.

• LIGHT ARMOUR
  • Helm
  • Shoulders
  • Chest
  • Legs
  • Gloves
  • Boots
  • Shields

• MEDIUM ARMOUR
  • Helm
  • Shoulders
  • Chest
  • Legs
  • Gloves
  • Boots

• HEAVY ARMOUR
  • Helm
  • Shoulders
  • Chest
  • Legs
  • Gloves
  • Boots
  • Shields

Benefits of Armour Mastery

Each node of armour mastery grants one or all of the following:

• Increases damage reduction by 2%
• Decreases armour durability loss by 10%
• Decreases shield durability loss by 10%
• Increases shield resistance by 3%
• Hover over each node to see exactly what benefits you get from unlocking each node.

Also see: Item Quality | Item Tiers | Stamina Drain Multiplier | Armor Sets