Armor

Description
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.

Unlike most other RPG games, the effects of different pieces of armor do not simply add up to reduce damage. 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.

Armor stats
The stats of an armor piece can be broken into the following components:


 * Basic armor - All armor sets have basic functions (or stats) for each profession, which are available on every set of armor. Depending on profession, basic armor stats includes Energy, Energy recovery, Health and Armor.


 * Armor set bonus - Inherent bonus available only for armor from the Prophecies and Factions campaigns. Typically these bonuses involve conditional Armor bonuses, which only trigger if the corresponding armor location is struck by damage and if the condition for the bonus is met.  These bonuses are similar to those available in Nightfall with Insignias.


 * Insignia bonus - Available only for armor from the Nightfall campaign. All pieces of armor crafted in Nightfall allow for an Insignia to be added.  Insignias can increase Armor, Health, Energy and damage Absorption or other beneficial bonuses.  PvP armor uses insignia to apply bonuses to armor.


 * Attribute headgear bonus - Inherenet bonus available on most headgear. The bonus increases Attributes and stacks with Attribute bonuses from runes.


 * Rune bonus - All pieces of armor allow for a rune to be added. Runes can increase Attributes, Health, Energy and damage Absorption or reduce Condition duration.  Not all bonuses from runes stack with armor set, Insignia and headgear bonuses.

In general, the bonuses on armor sets are completely independent of the armor's art. However, because the Insignia system is only introduced in Guild Wars Nightfall and has not been retroactively implemented for the Prophecies and Factions campaigns, certain restrictions for bonus versus artwork apply. See armor types for more information.

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 developer 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 armor received in a trade cannot be worn (unless, of course, the armor you are getting was once yours). If you put an armor piece in storage, delete the character, and create a new character with the exact same name and profession, that new character will not be able to wear the old armor.

PvE

 * New PvE characters received starter armor that cannot be salvaged or sold to a merchant.
 * Armor crafters sell armor for gold and crafting materials.
 * Armor collectors trade armor for collectable drops.
 * Festival hats - Certain special in-game events provide players with a special type of headgear.

PvP
PvP characters can create and change their armor anytime they are in a town or outpost via the PvP Equipment panel. A PvP character's armor cannot be placed into storage.