Combat Analysis: Armor

Reference: Combat Roll Analysis: General Overlook

One of the key strengths to your combat avatar is to have a good defense. The primary way to defend against attackers is with good armor. Most of you reading this guide will have already discovered this basic concept out, so I will skip the small talk and dive into the more complex development of armor.

There are many types of armor out there, and I will compile a list of each type and wear to get them after I post this thread. Jedi are the only ones restricted to ROBES ONLY and every robe applies exactly what it states when examining it to your avatar in terms of armor value.

Each armor piece covers a specific area of your avatar's body and will help make up a certain % of your total armor stacking potential. This is what has been tested and on the munitions board posted by LizzyD that still holds true today:

Chest - 36%  (35.71%)
Pants - 21%  (21.43%)
Helmet - 14%  (14.27%)
Arm Pieces - 7% each  (7.15%)

This means if you have a Left Bracer with the stats 7000 / 5000 / 6000 (Kinetic / Energy / Elementals), just equipping that piece of armor will yield a total armor value on your avatar of 500 / 357 / 428. Having a full set of armor will give you a total area of protection at 100%.

The Combat Sheet does not display what your armor value means in terms of protection, but this graphic does provide a lot of information that should help you analyze your protection.

These values have been better formatted for comparison below:

Armor Values           Mitigation
------------           ----------
        1000                  11%
        2000                  20%
        3000                  28%
        4000                  36%
        5000                  42%
        6000                  48%
        7000                  53%
        8000                  58%
        9000                  62%
       10000                  65%
       11000                  68%
       12000                  71%
       13000                  74%
       14000                  76%
       15000                  78%
       16000                  80%
       17000                  81%
       18000                  83%
       19000                  84%
       20000                  85%

UPDATE: I was able to sit down and test values up to 20k. The chart above reflects this testing. I was also able to work with Puttley and come up with a formula that is as close as I can get the the results I found. For more information on that, check this thread - Armor Mitigation Formula.

Armor also helps protect you from Elemental Procedural Effects. Every elemental type can produce a debuff on you that can greatly hurt your chances of survival. If your enemy hits you with an Elemental Critical Hit, your armor is the only thing that can prevent the proc from landing. To calculate your proc defense, take 10% of each of your elemental values. For example, if you have 6500 Cold Elemental, you will have a 65% chance to avoid getting hit by the Cold proc effect when your enemy lands a Cold Critical Hit. More on elemental procedural effects in this thread - Combat Analysis: Elemental.

The last thing armor can help you with is Damage Over Time effects (DoTs). This is especially important against Commandos. Every piece of armor you have on your avatar increases your resistance chance against DoTs. Resistance is the act to fully avoid a DoT landing on your avatar. The following graph was provided by SOE in a past Friday Feature:

Every armor type resists against a different pair of DoT types:

• Assault Armor - ACID / HEAT
• Battle Armor - POISON / ENERGY
• Reconnaissance Armor - BLEED / DISEASE

The cap on DoT resistance is 60%, and every avatar has an innate 5% resistance to every DoT.

In addition to resistance, Armor also reduces DoT damage each tick. To calculate your DoT mitigation, you take armor value for elemental and find your mitigation on the graphic above the same way you check Energy and Kinetic values. You then take 50% of that mitigation and that is your final mitigation %. For example, if you have 6000 Heat elemental, your DoT mitigation towards Heat DoTs is 24% every tick. DoT mitigation is capped at 50% now.

There are many ways that players can increase their defensive to make their armor even more effective. There are also many ways that your attacker can greatly reduce your armor's potency.

Methods to Strengthen Armor

• SEAs and Exotics - The easiest way to increase your defense is to stack defensive Combat Rolls, such as Block, Evasion, Dodge, Glancing Blow and Parry. Having your armor crafted with a socket will allow you to add these modifiers to each piece.
• Buffs - Entertainers and various profession expertise allow you to increase your armor value. Due to Diminishing Returns on Armor, the more you stack, the lower the gain over time. Stack your armor wisely
• PSG - A nice addition to your Energy Armor is a Personal Shield Generator. PSGs will increase your protection against Ranged Energy attacks only. This is a very good defense in PVE

Methods to Weaken Armor

• SEAs and Exotics - Like they are used to help protect you, they can also be used to decrease your enemies' protection. The only offensive Combat Roll that will breakdown some of your target's armor is Strikethrough, and that will only work with Single Target Attacks.
• Unique Mods - Elemental Penetration came out recently. Tests conclude that stacking these mods heavy do not give you a large return to your investment so it is not advised to stack them.
  

Ways to Increase Armor

• In the Crafting Process - Layers, Sockets
• Buffs - Entertainer Buff
• Mix and Match - Wearing different pieces of armor will increase your DoT Resistance to different DoTs.

Summary

• Armor - Core defensive need to survive in combat
• Armor Value- Converts to a mitigation %, formula is known, refer to graphic and thread above
  
• DoT Resistance / Mitigation - There's not much to do against DoTs, so stack heavy in armor
• Buffs - Entertainer Buff can give you +3750 Armor

First

MasterCosmo wrote:

anything I should add?

Perhaps a section on Strikethrough effects, and loljedi armor ignoring abilities (ex. What Armor Doesn't Effect)?

Good piece though, didn't know about elemental proc chance -- I assume there's a hard cap on it somewhere to keep you from being immune to elemental proc effects?

SabaTheHobo wrote:

MasterCosmo wrote:

anything I should add?

Perhaps a section on Strikethrough effects, and loljedi armor ignoring abilities (ex. What Armor Doesn't Effect)?

 

Good piece though, didn't know about elemental proc chance -- I assume there's a hard cap on it somewhere to keep you from being immune to elemental proc effects?

I don't think there is a cap at all. It's impossible to get your elemental armor that high so I'm pretty sure it can be stacked as high as possible

I'll add a section on the lolJedi ST is for another thread

Graph-boy strikes again....I will study it a little more  and edit this one if I come up with anything.  /kowtow MC

Jod_Iegemai wrote:

Graph-boy strikes again....I will study it a little more  and edit this one if I come up with anything.  /kowtow MC

I'm just stretching my legs, I got a lot more work to do

Where you been hiding MasterCosmo?

Krelos wrote:

Where you been hiding MasterCosmo?

 

In a thing called "Life"

I'm told it's a game on hard mode, there are no cheat codes, but all the bosses use exploits so you can't win.

2009 has been a year from hell for the most part, so I'm dragging along

MasterCosmo wrote:

Krelos wrote:

Where you been hiding MasterCosmo?

 

In a thing called "Life"

I'm told it's a game on hard mode, there are no cheat codes, but all the bosses use exploits so you can't win.

2009 has been a year from hell for the most part, so I'm dragging along

I hear ya ... these past two weeks alone the instance has been bugged for me

:/

Krelos wrote:

MasterCosmo wrote:

Krelos wrote:

Where you been hiding MasterCosmo?

 

In a thing called "Life"

I'm told it's a game on hard mode, there are no cheat codes, but all the bosses use exploits so you can't win.

2009 has been a year from hell for the most part, so I'm dragging along

I hear ya ... these past two weeks alone the instance has been bugged for me

:/

 

I used all my money, and there's no max level people that will give me any. I'mma sad noob

On topic: Nice guide, I saved it in a text file for access when I need it, and for when I can't get online.

From the looks of that i would say it would give you a large advantage if you make sure you have atleast one piece of armor from each kind. The one from each kind (3) together would give you 60% dot protection, the same as an entire suit of one kind of armor.

Also, elemental penetration increases the elemental damage done by your weapon by a very low amount. IF you had 4 elemental penetration cold on your shirt, and you shoot someone and do 52 elemental damage cold, then without the elemental penetration you would do about 50 cold. As far as i have tested, it does not increase damage by DOTs.

Also, for the armor types resisting certain dots, do the gloves and boots factor into this aswell?

If so then that means you have Nine pieces of armor, not eight( correct me if im wrong) 

IF you had 3 of each kind of armor this would be 25% times 3 so 75%.

The better way would be to have two of two kinds of armor, then all of the rest be another kind. THis would mean 20% times 2 (40%) then  7 more of another set. 7 more would give you about 55%, so together you would have a total of 95%

I did read your post fairly quickly so i may have isunderstood this DOT resistance part.

Neft_Steel_scoundrel wrote:

From the looks of that i would say it would give you a large advantage if you make sure you have atleast one piece of armor from each kind. The one from each kind (3) together would give you 60% dot protection, the same as an entire suit of one kind of armor.

Also, elemental penetration increases the elemental damage done by your weapon by a very low amount. IF you had 4 elemental penetration cold on your shirt, and you shoot someone and do 52 elemental damage cold, then without the elemental penetration you would do about 50 cold. As far as i have tested, it does not increase damage by DOTs.

Also, for the armor types resisting certain dots, do the gloves and boots factor into this aswell?

-No, in our NGE world boots, gloves and belts no longer count as armor, they are basically just clothing made by a munistions trader.

If so then that means you have Nine pieces of armor, not eight( correct me if im wrong) 

-Helmet, Chest, Legs, 4xArms; 7 pieces counting as armor vs. DOT reduction.

IF you had 3 of each kind of armor this would be 25% times 3 so 75%.

- No.  If you had 2 pieces of each type it would equal 22%-ish protection against each type of DOT.  I use this mixed set formula for expample: 3x assault (26% Acid/Heat), 2x battle (22% Poison/Energy), 2x recon (22% Bleed/Disease).  This gives the more or less equal protection against all DOT types.  Some mixers will stack more of one type of armor depending on their opponent's prefered elemental type, if they know it.

The better way would be to have two of two kinds of armor, then all of the rest be another kind. THis would mean 20% times 2 (40%) then  7 more of another set. 7 more would give you about 55%, so together you would have a total of 95%

I did read your post fairly quickly so i may have isunderstood this DOT resistance part.

- I think you misunderstood the section about DOT protections.

Hope that helps clarify.