Armor

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''This article is about pieces of equipment worn by player characters and heroes. For skill and equipment effects mentioning the word "armor", see Armor (rating).''

Armor is the equipment that a character wears to reduce damage. For details on how armor reduces damage, see Damage.

''Note: Shields are considered as secondary weapons, not armor.

Five pieces, five locations
Unlike most other RPG games, the effects of different pieces of armor do not simply add up to reduce damge. Each piece of armor protects a specific body location. When a particular body location is struck by damage, only the armor worn there is used to calculate the armor effect. Thus, wearing a super sturdy helm is not going to help you much when an attacker stabs you in the chest.

Each body location has a certain probability to be struck by damage. As crafting material requirements (from the same crafter) for armors of different body locations always have a fixed ratio, folklore has it that this ratio also correspond to the relative probabilities of each body location being struck by damage.

The five body locations and their "crafting material percentages" are:
 * Head - 12.5% (1/8)
 * Chest - 37.5% (3/8)
 * Hands - 12.5% (1/8)
 * Legs - 25% (2/8)
 * Feet - 12.5% (1/8)

Note: There is a common misconception that certain spells always strike the chest (or some other fixed location). Currently there are no actual verified reports of this rumor. However, research has shown that spells and projectiles never strike the hands. See Talk:Armor for discussion.

Profession and armor
Each profession has access to "Basic" Armors, which provide standard modifications. For example, the Ranger's Basic Armor is the Leather Armor, which provides +30 armor against elemental attacks. Other armor sets usually provide additional bonuses. For example, a Ranger can purchase a Drakescale Vest, Gloves, Leggings, and Boots, known collectively as Drakescale Armor (or the Drakescale Set). This Armor provides bonus against fire damage, in addition to the +30 armor against elemental attacks that is standard for all ranger armors. The bonuses for a few armor sets are global, meaning only one piece of armor is needed for the bonus to be applied to the whole body, and equipping more than one piece will not increase the bonus effect. A few other armor sets have various penalities as a trade-off for their bonuses. Thus, the standard armor isn't always the worst armor in terms of bonuses (or the lack thereof), depending on what you value.

Most armor sets do not have a corresponding headgear. Typically, each class has a "standard" piece of headgear that has the same armor characteristics of their Standard Armor. In place of set headgear that provides various bonuses (such as +armor against piercing, +armor against lightning damage, etc.), each character has a selection of headgear that provides a +1 to a single attribute. For example, there are five pieces of Mesmer Headgear available: The standard mask, and a mask for each of the four Mesmer attributes: +1 Domination Magic, +1 Fast Casting, +1 Illusion Magic, and +1 Inspiration Magic. The sole exception is the warriors, who have both attribute headgears and set headgears for most sets (which also provide attribute boosts on top of the set bonuses).

Finally, there are some independent armor items available for Necromancers and Warriors. Necromancers can purchase Bloodstained Boots, which decrease the casting time of corpse-exploitation skills. Warriors can purchase Stonefist Gauntlets, which increase knockdown time.

If you're interested in what a particular set of armor looks like, a good way to check is by creating a PvP character and playing with the equipment selection available. This won't have nearly all the armors available, but it will have at least six varieties to check out. Pictures are also generally available here within the articles for each armor type.

When armor does not matter
There are certain situations where a character would lose the same amount of health whether s/he is wearing the best armor a hacker can create or is standing naked:


 * Damage from certain sources do not strike at a specific body location, but directly make the victim take damage. They are characterized as armor ignoring damage, see footnote 1 of damage type for more details.


 * Certain effects removes health without causing damage at all, and thus are not protected by armor. Some examples include health degeneration, life stealing, sacrifice, as well as any skill description that says "lose health" without using the word "damage".


 * Certain effects place a limit on the amount of damage the victim may receive. It is often in the form of percentage of the victim's maximum health.  Protective Spirit and Shelter are among the two most prominent examples.

Obtaining Armor
All armor is customized for their owners, thus traded armor cannot be equipped (unless you trade it away and trade the same one back).

PvE

 * New PvE characters received starter armor that cannot be salvaged or sold to a merchant.
 * Armor crafters
 * Armor collectors

PvP
PvP characters only have access to one armor piece per body location, chosen at character creation. The good news is, the armor is free and all armor types (except the basic armor) are available at max armor level. For armor variants that have the same bonus stats, only one of those sets is available for PvP characters. The art for each PvP armor type is fixed.

Special Events
Certain special in-game events (usually as reference to real world celebrations) may provide players with fun-looking armors. They typically come pre-customized, cannot be dyed (though a few of them can be), have 0 armor, but can be upgraded with runes and Infused.