Guide: Armor Valuation

[Zylx]

Have you ever wondered what the number by the Armor stat means? Have you ever wondered whether +100 health is better than +100 armor or vice-versa? Then this is the guide for you.

The Armor rating is a numerical value that determines how much damage gets reduced by each incoming attack dependent on a mysterious value determined by the attacker's level. This mysterious value is called the Level Modifier. We can determine the final damage reduction by a simple equation:

Armor * (Level Modifier) = Damage Reduction

The Level Modifier's value decreases as the enemy level increases, meaning you need more armor to maintain a decent damage reduction from higher level enemies.

The Level Modifier is conceived behind the scenes within the studio as a mystery (whether intentional or not) to us players (If STS is willing to share the exact modifiers, please do so). However, after a simple experiment, we can determine what the [approximate] value of the modifier is.

On my lv56 sorc, i went into Normal Glintstone (which would be lv56 enemies) solo COMPLETELY naked (no gear, no elixir, no pet, no passives, no buffs) and noted down how much each tick of actual damage (no crit) i absorb from the same enemy, and determined the average damage output after collecting several damage values. I then went in with ONLY 1580 Armor (no buffs/pets/elixirs) and did the same thing to determine the damage reduction from my armor. Please see a further post on this thread for the details on my experiments.

I have determined the approximate Level Modifier by a Lv56 enemy to be about 0.0001830899

To determine your current approximate damage reduction percentage against lvl 56 enemies, multiply your armor rating by 0.0001830899 and move the decimal two places to the right.

So for quick reference:
1,000 armor = ~18.3% DR
1,500 armor = ~27.5% DR
2,000 armor = ~36.6% DR
2,500 armor = ~45.8% DR
3,000 armor = ~55% DR
3,500 armor = ~64.1% DR
5,462 armor = ~100% DR
Against a lv56 enemy!


I may collect more data for other levels later. This is a guide-in-progress.