A short tutorial on how armor effects damage in GW.

[Balefire]

Hey guys. The effect that armor defense rating has on actual damage is both confusing and often misunderstood in Guild Wars. I thought you guys might appreciate some information and statistics about it.

First of all, it is important to know that the defense of each piece of your armor does not add up to a total armor bonus, as it does in many other games such as the FF series. Every time you take damage, that damage is assigned to a certain part of body. Generally, there is a percent chance of which part of your body the damage will hit. The chest has the greatest chance of being hit, at a near 40%. Next are the legs, around 30%. Finally, each the head, hands, and feet each have a little over 10% chance of being hit. This explains why chest and leg armor pieces are so much more expensive to craft.

Other things to note about how to figure out what your defense actually is: Many spells ALWAYS hit the chest area, making that area even more important. Other items that add to defense (such as a +5 armor bow grip) always add that bonus to any part of your body that is considered hit (so it really raises the defense of each part of your armor by +5). The only exception to this is shields. Interestingly enough, shields do NOT add their armor bonus if the source of the damage was behind you.

Alright, most of you probably know most of that, but it was important to get out of the way. Now we move on to the less-known stuff.

First of all, you need to realize two important things: AL 60 is "standard," and the amount of protection an increase or decrease in armor from that amount is NOT linear. If it were graphed, Armor vs. Actual Damage would be a curve. This is what I wanted to get everyone to understand better.

At AL 60 (max caster armor), all damage taken is 100%. If you get hit for a 90 damage fireball, you take 90 damage. If you have LESS than AL 60, the damage will actually be INCREASED. Obviously, if you have higher AL, the damage will be decreased. Now I'm going to show you how much your AL effects actual damage, because it turns out that it makes a much bigger difference than you might have realized.

At AL 60, a 90 pt. fireball does 90 damage to you.

At AL 100, all damage is HALVED. Thus, that 90 pt. fireball does only 45 damage.

At AL 20, all damage is DOUBLED. That 90 pt. fireball does 180 damage. This is starting to show why less than max armored PvE chars should NOT play in the high-level PvP arenas.

Here's a list of a bunch of armor values so that you can see the trend.

AL 120 = 35% of total

AL 110 = 42%

AL 100 = 50%
AL 90 = 59%
AL 80 = 71%
AL 70 = 84%
AL 60 = 100%

AL 40 = 141%

AL 20 = 200%


I think this is really important for GW players to know. By raising your caster armor 10 points, you will be reducing damage to yourself by 16%. Take this in consideration when chosing either a +hp or a +armor mod on equipment. Armor is usually better for the caster.

Also note that, as AL goes up, the amount the damage is reduced climbs at a decreasing rate. Whereas, at AL 60, +10 armor will grant 16% damage reduction, at AL 100, +10 AL will only grant half of that, 8% damage reduction.

This should all give you a lot to lot to think about, but I'm going to mention one more thing: armor penetration. AP is more effective than I had at one time thought. If a spell, such as many Air spells, has a 25% armor penetration, then 25% of the target's armor is ignored. This makes a Warrior's armor work like a caster's, and deals a whopping 41% more damage to the caster.

Also note the difference between "armor penetration" and "+armor penetration". "+armor penetration" adds up from different sources, while the base "armor penetration" does NOT stack. Instead, the highest value is used.

There we have it. I hope that was all pretty clear. Now you'll know why my mesmer has two +5 armor mods on his staff!

[ThriKreen]

And why some spells like Obsidian Flame is good as it ignores armour: but only as a final attack, due to the way it causes exhaustion.

[Balefire]

And why some spells like Obsidian Flame is good as it ignores armour: but only as a final attack, due to the way it causes exhaustion.

Actually, that is not entirely correct. First of all, the ignoring armor ability only helps against heavily armored foes. Also, the 5 points of exhaustion caused is very minimal as long as the spell isn't spammed too much.

[Badger]

For all the gory details:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content/game-mechanics-id674.php

[Balefire]

yeah, but I figured there was more chance of people reading my shorter tutorial than one they'd have to click a link to.

[[gh]Spurty]

I just looked at the numbers and they don't add up to me

makes me think that this game is seriously overpowering for spell casters verses unarmored people. Looks like you can get spells to do almost 300% damage every hit (which is automatic with some)

Also, more retarded is the critical of a level 20 person with 12 skill in that weapon only doing 141%?

Loss of balance here clearly.

What about 'energy/force' armor that spells have no ability to bypass. Does that exist?

[ThriKreen]

It's balanced by abilities that allow you to interrupt because some spell caster spells have really long casting times. And you can easily tell if someone is casting from the symbol that appears above their head.

Case in point: Meteor Shower, for 9 seconds does like 97 damage every second, and knockdown every 3 seconds. 25 mana, recharge of 60sec I think, 5 mana exhaustion ... and a 6 second casting time.

In a PvP battle, 6 seconds is a long time and interrupting it with something as 'cheap' as Distracting Shot?

[Balefire]

It's balanced by abilities that allow you to interrupt because some spell caster spells have really long casting times. And you can easily tell if someone is casting from the symbol that appears above their head.

Case in point: Meteor Shower, for 9 seconds does like 97 damage every second, and knockdown every 3 seconds. 25 mana, recharge of 60sec I think, 5 mana exhaustion ... and a 6 second casting time.

In a PvP battle, 6 seconds is a long time and interrupting it with something as 'cheap' as Distracting Shot?

Meteor shower does that damage every THREE seconds, and it doesn't start right away. They have three seconds from when the graphics start until when they get knocked down and take damage. Anyway, I don't know what meteor shower even has to do with what spurty was talking about. It is normal armor-reduced damage.

As for what spurty says, I don't understand at all. Nobody is "unarmored." I have no idea how you think casters can get 300% damage either. Spells that bypass armor don't act as if the target isn't wearing armor, they simply do their listed damage without any damage decrease or increase.

Example: A Fireball that does 100 points of damage will do less damage to someone with more than AL 60 but MORE damage to someone with less than AL 60. An Obsidian Flame (an armor-bypassing spell) that is listed as 100 damage will do 100 damage regardless of armor level.

I have no idea about what you mean regarding a loss of balance. Every class has their uses, and ANet does an excellent job keeping the classes balanced. Please bear in mind, though, that most anything you read about GW will be assuming level 20, max attribute, full armor characters.

As for protection that spells can't bypass, there are damage reducing monk spells that will do this for every sort of damage.

[Ruined]

bale is right....the game is balance and even if u did 300%dmg with a spell, 141% by a warrior like 4 or 5 times in the time it takes to case the one spell..hmm.....

Well..the game is balanced except for eles...poor foos....

[Satanic_Hamster]

Maybe a stupid question, didn't notice it answered...

If I have armor that says:
Reduces Damage from Attacks (non-stacking)

Am I to assume that it's a "waste" to put a damage absorbtion rune on it?

-----------------------
Currently listening to Van Halen's Best of Volume 1

[Balefire]

No, it would not be a waste. As a matter of a fact, ALL warriors should have a rune of absorption on them. It is more than one of those runes you don't need. Runes don't stack, other stuff does usually. As a side-note, your armor with the damage reduction is weird. It is what I think is a bug that they've never fixed because everyone is used to it now. That damage-reduction armor does not stack with ITSELF. Thus, you only need one piece of it. It is a global effect, so put it on a small part of armor like your gloves.