Armour & Physical Damage

Armour reduces physical damage from hits. Its effectiveness depends on the size of the incoming physical hit.

Armour formula

$$R_{\text{physical}} = \min\left( 90\%, \frac{A}{A + 5D_{\text{raw physical}}} \right)$$ $$D_{\text{taken}} = D_{\text{raw physical}} \left(1 - R_{\text{physical}}\right)$$

Here, $A$ is armour and $D_{\text{raw physical}}$ is the physical portion of the incoming hit. Reduction is capped at 90%.

Example reductions

Armour	Raw hit	Reduction	Damage taken
500	50	66.7%	16.7
500	100	50.0%	50.0
500	500	16.7%	416.7
2,000	100	80.0%	20.0
2,000	500	44.4%	277.8

The same armour value is excellent against many small physical hits and less effective against a single large hit.

Local and global armour

Armour bases contribute an innate value that grows with item level. Local flat armour and local increased armour modify the carrying item’s own base. The resulting equipment armour is then combined with global flat armour and global increased armour.

Hybrid bases may divide their defensive budget across armour and evasion or armour and energy shield.

What armour does not reduce

Armour does not reduce fire, cold, lightning, chaos, or damage-over-time portions. Those require resistances, avoidance, suppression, sustain, or other defensive rules.

An enemy hit with split physical and fire damage is separated first. Armour handles only the physical portion; fire resistance handles the fire portion.

Build implications

• Flat armour is especially valuable early when base values are small.
• Increased armour becomes stronger as equipped bases improve.
• Large physical boss hits still require life, energy shield, block, recovery, or additional damage-taken reduction.
• Evasion and block prevent a hit entirely, so they complement armour rather than replacing its role.