Difference between revisions of "Armor"

Latest revision as of 01:45, 11 July 2018

In Diablo III, "Armor" has two meanings.

It's a common term used to refer to any sort of equipment other than a weapon or shield.
It's a specific statistic that means what "defense" does in most ARPGs. Higher Armor means that characters take less damage from all attacks, through the damage mitigation effect.

Armor's Function in Diablo 3[edit | edit source]

The armor stat works much like a resistance in Diablo 3. Higher Armor means that more of the damage from attacks is absorbed or mitigated. This is not how armor (defense) worked in Diablo 2; in that game higher armor worked against monster to/hit and made it less likely that they would strike your character with an attack. This design choice forced the developers to make monsters hit for very high damage since they so seldom connected, which lead to a boom or bust sort of combat.

Diablo 3 uses the resistance-like form of Armor to create a steady flow of damage that players can learn to mitigate with more Armor, higher hit points, blocking, life regeneration, life on hit/life leech, or other options.

Armor Damage Mitigation[edit | edit source]

Armor tooltip shows damage reduction.

Every piece of armor (equipment) has an Armor value in Diablo III. These add up with Strength and may be modified by various skills and passives to arrive at a total Armor value which grants a substantial damage reduction. This figure is a key source of damage mitigation in Diablo 3 and has a major effect on a character's survival ability.

Higher Armor values make a clear difference in the damage taken. Some stats, all for a level 60 character vs. level 60 monsters:

1987 Armor = 39.84% Damage Reduction
3059 Armor = 50.49% Damage Reduction
4024 Armor = 57.29% Damage Reduction
4512 Armor = 60.06% Damage Reduction
4963 Armor = 62.33% Damage Reduction
5499 Armor = 64.70% Damage Reduction

As with resistances (which function very similarly) there are diminishing returns on the benefit from higher amounts of Armor. The first thousand points of Armor effect a damage reduction of about 25%, while moving from 4500 to 5500 only yields about 4.5% damage reduction. That 4.5% might be of huge importance to a high level character taking on a dozen enemies at once, but it's clearly a lot less of a total change than the first couple of thousand points of Armor provide.

The formula for calculating damage reduction against equal level enemies is: 100 * armor / ( armor + 50 * character level ).

In terms of effective HP for a lvl 60 character, every 3000 armor you have increase your EHP by 100%. For lvl 70 characters, 3500 armor does the same.

Strength[edit | edit source]

The Strength attribute adds directly to the Armor total, in simple arithmetic fashion. More strength = higher Armor = more damage reduction. This is very handy for Barbarians and makes them take much less damage from melee combat. Other characters get less benefit from it; the screenshot below shows a Paragon 49 Monk who has virtually no Strength on her equipment and thus gains very little additional armor that way.

Equipment[edit | edit source]

The items (armor) worn by characters in Diablo 3 are hugely-varied and individually-designed. All pieces of equipment look different on all classes, and often vary between the genders of each class as well. This required a huge amount of artwork and animation, but is part of the fine polish Blizzard puts on all the components of their video games.

Various pieces of armor, by a master blacksmith.

There are more types of armor to be worn in Diablo III. All the item slots return from Diablo II, plus several new ones; shoulders, pants, and bracers.

Helms:
- Spirit Stones (Monk only)
- Voodoo Masks (Witch Doctor only)
- Wizard Hats (Wizard only)
Chest Armor:
- Cloaks (Demon Hunter only)
Off-Hand items:
- Shields
- Mojos (Witch Doctor only)
- Orbs (Wizard only)
- Quivers (Demon Hunter only)
Shoulders -- New in Diablo III.
Bracers -- New in in Diablo III.
Pants -- New in Diablo III.
Gloves
Belts -- These do not hold potions as in Diablo II. They're purely another piece of armor.
- Mighty Belts (Barbarian only)
Boots
Rings
Amulets

Class-Specific Armor[edit | edit source]

While the developers initially planned not to include class-specific armor types, that changed during game design.[1] By the beta test there were numerous pieces of armor that could only be equipped by one class.

Weapons are much the same, with a few types that are class-specific, and others that can only be used by some, but more than one, class.

Individual Armor Appearance[edit | edit source]

The same piece of Armor in Diablo III looks very different depending on which class is wearing it, and often by the gender as well. This system expands on the basic component looks in Diablo 2, with radically more variety and design depth.

Another major change to Armor in Diablo 3 is the removal of repeating armor types on each difficulty level. Gone are Diablo 2's Exceptional and Elite armor/weapon classes, each of which repeated all the same item graphics, but with bigger stats. This means that every piece of armor and weapon in Diablo 3 is unique (by level and appearance) but also means there are fewer total items, since everything doesn't repeat 2 or 3 times.

Gear Sets[edit | edit source]

Gear sets are the term the D3 Team uses for the 18 different armor sets. See the gear sets article for full details. A few sample sets, revealed by Blizzard prior to Blizzcon 2010, can be seen below.

Two Barbarian gear sets.

Two Wizard gear sets.

Two Witch Doctor gear sets.

Archive: The Defense Attribute[edit | edit source]

The following was applicable during development, when the attributes were (briefly) changed from Vit/Str/Dex/Int. The information does not apply to the final game, and is preserved here purely for curiosity/posterity.

Armor is a value on all types of armor items. More armor = more damage reduction, but a lot of Armor is required to see significant improvements.
Defense is one of the four core character attributes/stats. It grows as your character levels up, and can be added as a bonus from items, gems, skills, and more.

Both Armor and Defense increase your character's damage reduction, but Defense offers much larger gains, per point. (But since high level armor items can have many hundreds of points of Armor, both values must be cultivated for long term success.)

Armor vs. Defense compared with item bonuses. Shot from the Diablo III beta.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[File:Paper-doll-aug2010.jpg|left|frame|Paper doll, Aug 2010.]]
+In Diablo III, "Armor" has two meanings.
-Armor in Diablo III is greatly-enhanced and improved on what was found in Diablo II. There are more types of armor, more varieties of each kind of armor, and much improved graphical representations of armor.
-[[Armor dyes]], [[crafting]], [[socketing]], [[enchanting]], and many other features have also been added to extend the armor finding game.
+# It's a common term used to refer to any sort of equipment other than a weapon or shield.
+# It's a specific statistic that means what "defense" does in most ARPGs. Higher Armor means that characters take less damage from all attacks, through the [[damage mitigation]] effect.
-Little is yet known about armor values or modifiers. Some items have been seen in early testing, but as the itemization balancing process takes place late in a game's development cycle, nothing in screenshots seen much before the beta begins should be taken too seriously.
+==Armor's Function in Diablo 3==
+The armor stat works much like a resistance in Diablo 3. Higher Armor means that more of the damage from attacks is absorbed or mitigated. This is not how armor (defense) worked in Diablo 2; in that game higher armor worked against monster to/hit and made it less likely that they would strike your character with an attack. This design choice forced the developers to make monsters hit for very high damage since they so seldom connected, which lead to a boom or bust sort of combat.
+Diablo 3 uses the resistance-like form of Armor to create a steady flow of damage that players can learn to mitigate with more Armor, higher hit points, blocking, life regeneration, life on hit/life leech, or other options.
+==Armor Damage Mitigation==
+[[File:Armor-tooltip.jpg|thumb|400px|Armor tooltip shows damage reduction.]]
+Every piece of armor (equipment) has an Armor value in Diablo III. These add up with Strength and may be modified by various skills and passives to arrive at a total Armor value which grants a substantial damage reduction. This figure is a key source of damage mitigation in Diablo 3 and has a major effect on a character's survival ability.
+Higher Armor values make a clear difference in the damage taken. Some stats, all for a level 60 character vs. level 60 monsters:
+* 1987 Armor = 39.84% Damage Reduction
+* 3059 Armor = 50.49% Damage Reduction
+* 4024 Armor = 57.29% Damage Reduction
+* 4512 Armor = 60.06% Damage Reduction
+* 4963 Armor = 62.33% Damage Reduction
+* 5499 Armor = 64.70% Damage Reduction
+As with [[resistances]] (which function very similarly) there are diminishing returns on the benefit from higher amounts of Armor. The first thousand points of Armor effect a damage reduction of about 25%, while moving from 4500 to 5500 only yields about 4.5% damage reduction. That 4.5% might be of huge importance to a high level character taking on a dozen enemies at once, but it's clearly a lot less of a total change than the first couple of thousand points of Armor provide.
+The formula for calculating damage reduction against equal level enemies is: 100 * armor / ( armor + 50 * character level ).
+In terms of effective HP for a lvl 60 character, every 3000 armor you have increase your EHP by 100%. For lvl 70 characters, 3500 armor does the same.
+==Strength==
+The [[Strength]] attribute adds directly to the Armor total, in simple arithmetic fashion.  More strength = higher Armor = more damage reduction. This is very handy for Barbarians and makes them take much less damage from melee combat. Other characters get less benefit from it; the screenshot below shows a [[Paragon]] 49 Monk who has virtually no Strength on her equipment and thus gains very little additional armor that way.
+[[File:Str-tooltip.jpg|center|frame]]
+==Equipment==
+The items (armor) worn by characters in Diablo 3 are hugely-varied and individually-designed. All pieces of equipment look different on all classes, and often vary between the genders of each class as well. This required a huge amount of artwork and animation, but is part of the fine polish Blizzard puts on all the components of their video games.
-==Armor Types==
 [[File:Blacksmith-armor1.jpg|thumb|200px|Various pieces of armor, by a master [[blacksmith]].]]
 There are more types of armor to be worn in Diablo III. All the item slots return from Diablo II, plus several new ones; shoulders, pants, and bracers.
-Click the following links to learn more about each type of armor. Full listings of all the items in the game will be added once the information becomes available.
+* [[Helms]]:
+** [[Spirit Stones]] (Monk only)
-* [[Helms]]
+** [[Voodoo Masks]] (Witch Doctor only)
-* [[Body Armor]]
+** [[Wizard Hats]] (Wizard only)
-* [[Shields]]
+* [[Chest Armor]]:
-* [[Shoulders|Shoulder Armor]] -- A new type of armor added in Diablo III.
+** [[Cloaks]] (Demon Hunter only)
-* [[Bracers]] -- A new type of forearm armor added in Diablo III.
+* Off-Hand items:
-* [[Gloves]]
+** [[Shields]]
+** [[Mojos]] (Witch Doctor only)
+** [[Orbs]] (Wizard only)
+** [[Quivers]] (Demon Hunter only)
+* [[Shoulders]] -- New in Diablo III.
+* [[Bracers|Bracers]] -- New in in Diablo III.
+* [[Pants]] -- New in Diablo III.
+* [[Hands|Gloves]]
 * [[Belts]] -- These do not hold potions as in Diablo II. They're purely another piece of armor.
-* [[Pants]] -- A new type of armor added in Diablo III.
+** [[Mighty Belts]] (Barbarian only)
-* [[Boots]]
+* [[Boots|Boots]]
 * [[Rings]]
 * [[Amulets]]
@@ Line 29: / Line 73: @@
 ==Class-Specific Armor==
-Unlike the many [[Class-Specific Weapons]], armor in Diablo III is not limited by class. All classes can equip all types and quality levels of armor (with possibly some exceptions for shields). [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/bashiok-on-class-specific-items-part-two/]
+While the developers initially planned not to include class-specific armor types, that changed during game design.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/bashiok-on-class-specific-items-part-two/] By the beta test there were numerous pieces of armor that could only be equipped by one class.
-::[[Bashiok]]: There still aren’t any armor restriction planned. Armor is a different issue as it’s shown in much the same was as Diablo II, so more types don’t actually increase the animation/modeling costs like weapon types would.
+[[Weapons]] are much the same, with a few types that are class-specific, and others that can only be used by some, but more than one, class.
+==Individual Armor Appearance==
-==Individual Armor Appearance==
+The same piece of Armor in Diablo III looks very different depending on which class is wearing it, and often by the gender as well. This system expands on the basic component looks in Diablo 2, with radically more variety and design depth.
-There are eighteen different basic armor looks for each character. Armors will have similar names, like leather armor, chain mail, plate mail, etc. When equipped, these items will look very different for each character, as has been the case in previous games in the series. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/wds-wont-just-wear-leaves-after-all/]
+Another major change to Armor in Diablo 3 is the removal of repeating armor types on each difficulty level. Gone are Diablo 2's Exceptional and Elite armor/weapon classes, each of which repeated all the same item graphics, but with bigger stats. This means that every piece of armor and weapon in Diablo 3 is unique (by level and appearance) but also means there are fewer total items, since everything doesn't repeat 2 or 3 times.
-::The Witchdoctor’s thematic palette is proving to be very broad. He can wear a lot of cool armor and still look like a Witchdoctor.
-==Armor Ratings and Stats==
+===Gear Sets===
-Little is known about how defense, blocking, resistance, and other defensive stats work in Diablo III.
+[[Gear sets]] are the term the [[D3 Team]] uses for the 18 different armor sets. See the gear sets article for full details. A few sample sets, revealed by Blizzard prior to Blizzcon 2010, can be seen below.
-===Defense===
+<center>
+{|
+| [[File:Gear-set-barb-mf.jpg|thumb|276px|Two Barbarian gear sets.]]
+| [[File:Gear-set-wiz-mf.jpg|thumb|250px|Two Wizard gear sets.]]
+| [[File:Gear-set-wd-mf.jpg|thumb|290px|Two Witch Doctor gear sets.]]
+|}
+</center>
-[[File:Buckler1.jpg|frame|Buckler, August 2010.]]
-Most items of armor that have been seen thus far have vastly higher defense ratings than comparable items did in Diablo II. A plain buckler in D3 has 78 defense, in one item hover from August 2010. To get that high in base defense on a {{iw|Shields#Elite Diablo II shield}}, you've got to go up to the highest quality Exceptional versions of shields. The Elite version of D2's buckler, the heater, has 95-110 Defense.
-Seemingly high defense on D2 shields means nothing though, out of context. It will simply take some mental recalibration for players to get used to thinking of 78 defense as what to expect from crappy low level items. A normal buckler in Diablo 2 has 4-6 Defense, so scale up all Defense values in your head around 20x.
+==Archive: The Defense Attribute==
-===Blocking===
+<u>The following was applicable during development, when the [[attributes]] were (briefly) changed from Vit/Str/Dex/Int.  The information does not apply to the final game, and is preserved here purely for curiosity/posterity. </u>
-One big difference is that Diablo III [[shields]] list a value for blocking. The buckler in the shot to the right lists 6-10 blocking. This seems to be how much of the incoming damage such a shield will absorb, on a successful block. This is a huge change from Diablo 2, where successful blocking (which was fairly easy to raise to the maximum of 75% with good equipment and points in dexterity) absorbed 100% of the incoming physical damage.
-This made a shield enormously useful for almost any melee character, far outweighing the lower damage dealt with a one-handed weapon. The Diablo III system seems likely to make two-handed weapons far more viable, if only because using a shield will not be such a huge defensive bonus.
+* Armor is a value on all types of armor items. More armor = more damage reduction, but a lot of Armor is required to see significant improvements.
+* Defense is one of the four core character attributes/stats. It grows as your character levels up, and can be added as a bonus from items, gems, skills, and more.
-See the shields page for more details.
+Both Armor and Defense increase your character's damage reduction, but Defense offers much larger gains, per point. (But since high level armor items can have many hundreds of points of Armor, both values must be cultivated for long term success.)
+[[File:Defense-vs-armor-beta1.jpg|center|thumb|600px|Armor vs. Defense compared with item bonuses. Shot from the [[Diablo III beta]].]]
-===Resistances===
-Nothing has yet been revealed about resistances, absorption, immunities, and other related issues. It's assumed that the Diablo III developers will try to make all the elements dangerous, forcing players to strive for high, balanced defense. (Unlike Diablo 2, where Lightning resistance was far and away the most important.)
+{{Template:Items navbox|basics}}
 [[Category:Basics]]
 [[Category:Items]]
-[[category:armor]]
+[[category:Armor]]
+[[category:statistics]]