How much Armor actually protects - a Numa Prime Study!

[BodMaster]

Raulur, I think you may be onto something. I have made significant edits to the original post based on additional testing. I still do not have all the answers, but I am starting to think that armor effectiveness depends entirely on the enemy being fought, with harder hitting enemies having their damage reduced faster than lighter hitting enemies.

Maybe Protection and Increase Mass are worth it after all, at least for the really bad guys...

Have Increase Mass and live by it as I do alot of Guardian runs.. just before an initial clash between me and a vular or a mob this becomes a very effective skill to have.. even if its to hold of that initial damage to give you time to use your heavy hitting skills knocking them to the ground to get a one up on them and before they can attack yr Increase Mass is available to use again.

As for the moles im sure there are two different types which was more noticeable in defence, the one with metal kind of armour on their face seems to have alot more defence.. with a maxxed out com with full plat gear (repulsar rifle) I seem to be able to kill the lower lvl mole with 2-3 hits as in the mole with armour over their face takes a little longer 4-5 hits and seem to be able to take more life off when hit by one.. haven't got the exact dmg results with me but could easily be found out if needed. Maybe on the last two levels on Numa they have more of the second type of mole which seem to be heavier hitters or intact they are the same and sts has just made them stronger ect.

[Reggin]

Can't wait for pvp, so we can do some REAL testing on this... Good thread though!

[Acyer]

Look guys armor isnt same as pocket legends. Go to a low level zone and u will see. I have had increase mass capped before numa and honestly in guardian runs i couldnt tell a difference with the buff up. And also.moving points out of growing rage actually hurts as +crit helps keep aggro. Im sure when lvl cap is raised i will change my mind and put points in it. But you need to actually have aggro for the buff to work and skipping damage +taunt skills actuallly doesn't help. My moral is im using plat gear i have high dodge and great armor so i compliment it with damage and skills to hold aggro, not some short buff when i cast it by the time i get a attack in the buff is gone.

Also dont be cheap use stims, have seen a few commandos who rely too much on engineer heals

[Yurimaru]

A very informative thread, now I have a bit to think about in terms of using the dura implant vs. something else.

[thequickone]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this testing and reporting. To be honest, I read the OP once and promptly forgot about it until IBNobody started a thread about how this all affects my beloved Engie skills. Once I finish crying in my corner, I am off to respec (again) and sell my Dura-Skin Armor Implant before its price plummets...

I mean I could have told you the armor was universal...isn't that the point of having an armor system with numbers?

Yes, that is the point of having an armor system with numbers. However, it would not have been strange or even uncommon for the CLASS to have a specific multiplier. Kamikazees' research tells us such a multiplier does not exist.

Bottom line. The information that has been brought to light in this thread is ground-breaking. Anyone not paying attention has their head in the sand.

[Natolx]

So the take home message for this is that 50 armor implant is almost totally worthless?

[Sky../]

Maybe it's a percentage. Something like 12-15 armor reduces damage by 1%. That will explain why less defenes is needed to reduce 1 point against stronger mobs. Just haven't figure out if the math works with our data collected.

[Raulur]

If all you run is Outer limits, then dura-armor and protection are not really needed. I swear it is worth it on Guardian runs though... I notice a big difference with either off against vular and the G-man on those runs. I'm guessing that each campaign is the same, armor not a big deal in the beginning but important at the end.

Just swap the implants out on loadouts if you can afford more than one. For engineer I would recommend damage implant with fast dps weapon on one loadout, and dura armor plus heavy pistol or rifle on another.

[WhoIsThis]

The question is, does the decline in slope increase at a faster rate than the damage increase from enemies, or vice versa? If the former, then armor is truly more useful. If the latter... then armor may become progressively less effective with higher levels.

Another consideration may be minimum hit. In PL, even if you had infinite armor, enemies did do some damage. Perhaps there is a minimum hit here in SL?

[noneo]

Another consideration may be minimum hit. In PL, even if you had infinite armor, enemies did do some damage. Perhaps there is a minimum hit here in SL?

There must be a minimun hit. I don't think STS would allow you to walk around being invincible. If that were true, everyone would be a commando and just solo every map

[kamikazees]

I've made significant changes to the study after having tested the first Vular on Numa Prime - Uncharted Ruins. You should really give the study a re-read. It just about proves that the harder the enemy hits, the more increasing armor protects you. It's still probably not enough to make a lot difference, though.

For Guardian, my guess is that increasing a character's armor by about 10 will decrease his damage by 1. So my bet is that a skill like max Protection will decrease his damage by about 6 per hit. Max Increase Mass would decrease his damage by about 30 per hit. The guy probably hits in the 100-175+ range, so whether these skills are worth it is up for debate. I continue to think that Protection and the Dura-Implant are pretty worthless, but Increase Mass does make some sense.

[IBNobody]

There must be a minimun hit. I don't think STS would allow you to walk around being invincible. If that were true, everyone would be a commando and just solo every map

Maybe for players, but not for enemies...

I've seen attacks do 0 damage to the Guardian.

EDIT: And to KK, I owe you some potions for taking your lumps as an Engineer. I appreciate your findings, even if they are grim.

6 damage off of 100-175 is around a 4.4% reduction (6/(100+175/2)).

[Akylies]

Kamikazees, you're brilliant.

[HoWLeR]

Just a quick observation from the #'s in the original post. It appears that armor reduction per 50 armor in Cycorp is approximately 4.4% while in Numa it is approximately 3.2%. This might be because of mob stats.