Difference between revisions of "Armor"
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[[File:Paper-doll-aug2010.jpg|left|thumb|125px|Paper doll, Aug 2010.]] | [[File:Paper-doll-aug2010.jpg|left|thumb|125px|Paper doll, Aug 2010.]] | ||
| − | + | In Diablo III, "Armor" has two meanings. It can be a general term that refers to any type of non-weapon equipment worn by a player. It is also a specific term, a number found on every piece of armor. Heavier armor has a much higher Armor number, which translates to less damage taken by the character wearing it. The benefits of Armor are similar to the benefits of higher [[Defense]], the attribute. | |
| − | [[Armor dyes]], [[crafting]], [[socketing]], [[enchanting]], and many other features have also been added to extend the armor finding game. | + | As for armor in general, the equipment is quite changed from Diablo III. There are more types of armor and more slots on the [[paper doll], but fewer individual kinds of armor; D3 offers just 18 pieces of torso armor, compared to 45 in D2X. [[Armor dyes]], [[crafting]], [[socketing]], [[enchanting]], and many other features have also been added to extend the armor finding game. |
| − | + | Almost every piece of armor looks very different when worn by each class, and some offer visual differences between male and female as well. | |
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* [[Helms]] | * [[Helms]] | ||
| + | ** [[Spirit Stones]] (Monk only) | ||
| + | ** [[Voodoo Masks]] (Witch Doctor only) | ||
| + | ** [[Wizard Hats]] (Wizard only) | ||
* [[Chest Armor]] | * [[Chest Armor]] | ||
| + | ** [[Capes]] (Demon Hunter only) | ||
* [[Shields]] | * [[Shields]] | ||
| − | * [[ | + | ** [[Mojos]] (Witch Doctor only) |
| − | * [[ | + | ** [[Orbs]] (Wizard only) |
| + | ** [[Quivers]] (Demon Hunter only) | ||
| + | * [[Pauldrons|Shoulder Armor]] -- New in Diablo III. | ||
| + | * [[Bracers|Bracers]] -- New in in Diablo III. | ||
* [[Hands|Gloves]] | * [[Hands|Gloves]] | ||
* [[Belts]] -- These do not hold potions as in Diablo II. They're purely another piece of armor. | * [[Belts]] -- These do not hold potions as in Diablo II. They're purely another piece of armor. | ||
| − | * [[Pants]] -- | + | ** [[Mighty Belts]] (Barbarian only) |
| − | * [[ | + | * [[Pants]] -- New in Diablo III. |
| + | * [[Boots|Boots]] | ||
* [[Rings]] | * [[Rings]] | ||
* [[Amulets]] | * [[Amulets]] | ||
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==Class-Specific Armor== | ==Class-Specific Armor== | ||
| − | + | 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/] As of the beta test, there are numerous types of armor that can only be equipped by one of the character classes. The same goes for [[weapons]]. | |
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Above are the six gear sets Blizzard showed off pre-Blizzcon 2010. See the [[Gear Sets]] page for many more examples. This wiki will display detailed looks at all 18 gear sets for all five classes once the information is available. | Above are the six gear sets Blizzard showed off pre-Blizzcon 2010. See the [[Gear Sets]] page for many more examples. This wiki will display detailed looks at all 18 gear sets for all five classes once the information is available. | ||
| + | |||
==Armor Ratings and Stats== | ==Armor Ratings and Stats== | ||
| − | + | The function of Armor is one of the bigger changes in Diablo III's combat engine. In Diablo II, higher armor/defense (the terms were interchangeable) meant a character was less likely to be hit by a physical attack. A D2 character with very high defense could stand in the midst of swinging enemies and hardly be struck at all. As a result of this design feature, the developers had to make monster hits do very high damage, so when one did land, it hurt enough to matter. This resulted in characters taking no damage most of the time, with occasional spikes of very high damage. | |
| + | |||
| + | In Diablo III, Armor does not reduce enemy to/hit. It reduces damage taken. Thus a D3 character with high armor will still get hit as often as a character with no armor; but each hit will cause much less damage. This, in theory, means that combat will result in a steady drain of hit points, which players must find ways to manage. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Raising your character's [[defense]], the attribute, does much the same thing as higher Armor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | ===Defense vs. Armor=== | ||
| + | |||
| + | A key distinction to make, as these are very different values/functions/numbers in Diablo III. | ||
| + | |||
| + | * 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.) | ||
| + | |||
| + | [[File:Defense-vs-armor-beta1.jpg|center|thumb|800px|Armor vs. Defense compared with item bonuses. Shot from the Diablo III beta.]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
===Defense=== | ===Defense=== | ||
Revision as of 17:44, 18 October 2011
In Diablo III, "Armor" has two meanings. It can be a general term that refers to any type of non-weapon equipment worn by a player. It is also a specific term, a number found on every piece of armor. Heavier armor has a much higher Armor number, which translates to less damage taken by the character wearing it. The benefits of Armor are similar to the benefits of higher Defense, the attribute.
As for armor in general, the equipment is quite changed from Diablo III. There are more types of armor and more slots on the [[paper doll], but fewer individual kinds of armor; D3 offers just 18 pieces of torso armor, compared to 45 in D2X. Armor dyes, crafting, socketing, enchanting, and many other features have also been added to extend the armor finding game.
Almost every piece of armor looks very different when worn by each class, and some offer visual differences between male and female as well.
Contents
Armor Types
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)
- Voodoo Masks (Witch Doctor only)
- Wizard Hats (Wizard only)
- Chest Armor
- Capes (Demon Hunter only)
- Shields
- Shoulder Armor -- New in Diablo III.
- Bracers -- New in 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)
- Pants -- New in Diablo III.
- Boots
- Rings
- Amulets
Class-Specific Armor
While the developers initially planned not to include class-specific armor types, that changed during game design.[1] As of the beta test, there are numerous types of armor that can only be equipped by one of the character classes. The same goes for weapons.
Individual Armor Appearance
The same piece of Armor in Diablo III will look very different depending on which class is wearing it. This was also true in Diablo II, in most cases, but the designs have been made radically more varied in Diablo III.
Another change is that there are no normal/exceptional/elite item types in Diablo III. In Diablo II the same piece of equipment existed in two different types, with a third (elite) added in the expansion. This meant that characters could find elite armor in Hell difficulty, and armor that looked like cloth would have far more defense than the normal or exceptional version of full plate mail. The Diablo III team didn't like this, and now there are 18 levels of armor to be found, stretching throughout all three difficulty levels. Each of these levels looks quite a bit different from the others.
Though there's alot of variety, there are consistent appearance themes.[2]
- 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.
Gear Sets
Gear sets are the term the D3 Team uses for the 18 different armor sets. These items look very different on each class, and Blizzard showed off six of them prior to Blizzcon 2010. They did not identify the precise number of any of the gear sets, or let us known if any of the classes were wearing the same sets, but they did say that these were all fairly low level sets, somewhere around 4-7, in the 1-18 scale from light cloth to the heaviest plate mail.
Above are the six gear sets Blizzard showed off pre-Blizzcon 2010. See the Gear Sets page for many more examples. This wiki will display detailed looks at all 18 gear sets for all five classes once the information is available.
Armor Ratings and Stats
The function of Armor is one of the bigger changes in Diablo III's combat engine. In Diablo II, higher armor/defense (the terms were interchangeable) meant a character was less likely to be hit by a physical attack. A D2 character with very high defense could stand in the midst of swinging enemies and hardly be struck at all. As a result of this design feature, the developers had to make monster hits do very high damage, so when one did land, it hurt enough to matter. This resulted in characters taking no damage most of the time, with occasional spikes of very high damage.
In Diablo III, Armor does not reduce enemy to/hit. It reduces damage taken. Thus a D3 character with high armor will still get hit as often as a character with no armor; but each hit will cause much less damage. This, in theory, means that combat will result in a steady drain of hit points, which players must find ways to manage.
Raising your character's defense, the attribute, does much the same thing as higher Armor.
Defense vs. Armor
A key distinction to make, as these are very different values/functions/numbers in Diablo III.
- 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.)
Defense
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 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.
Blocking
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.
See the shields page for more details.
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.)
| Items of Diablo III [e] Item Basics Normal Items Crafting Legendary Armor I Legendary Armor II Legendary Weapons 1h Legendary Weapons 2h Item Sets |
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