How much Armor actually protects - a Numa Prime Study!

[kamikazees]

I think armor is more effective against blasters... have you tested that out yet?

I have not, but if you could test it we would all be eternally grateful!

...I believe that it is possible to get a commando with 600+ armor briefly. Maybe make a test and see if the extrapolation is correct?

Based on your comment, I tested my lvl 25 Commando in full Sandstorm Armor with max level Increase Mass. Armor = exactly 700 in that case. The burrower enemy (sorry I don't know its name) did 17 average damage (15-19). Three guesses where that number (700x, 17y) fell on the graph, and the first two don't count:

The Slope of this line is now -1/51.7, which is nearly identical to the previous Slope. So what does it mean? It means that at least for this enemy, (1) it takes about 51.7 armor to reduce the damage that enemy does by 1 point; and (2) Armor rating is universal i.e. Commando armor doesn't protect "better" than Engineer armor.

Sometimes more information raises more questions. Knowing this, do you think 6 points in Protection (60 Armor) is worth it? How about the Armor implant (50 armor)? Or max Increase Mass (300 Armor)?

[IBNobody]

Sometimes more information raises more questions. Knowing this, do you think 6 points in Protection (60 Armor) is worth it? How about the Armor implant (50 armor)? Or max Increase Mass (300 Armor)?

It just goes to show you that when getting nicked, armor beats dodge. But if you are getting hammered by enemies doing heavy damage, a 1% dodge would provide more bang for your buck.

[WhoIsThis]

Sometimes more information raises more questions. Knowing this, do you think 6 points in Protection (60 Armor) is worth it? How about the Armor implant (50 armor)? Or max Increase Mass (300 Armor)?

Protection: Probably not. It only reduces 1 damage point per hit (or thereabouts), although it does work for the entire group.

Armor Implant: No. There are more effective implants.

Increase Mass: At level 6, because there are no penalties to dodge and hit %, it is worth a serious consideration. At lower levels, the loss of 10 dodge means that that the skill has a negative effect on both survival and damage output. It leads to the reduction of about 6 damage per hit. Against mobs, this could be significant, although against harder hitting bosses, not so much. 17 damage versus 23 is quite substantial, although it will be less noticeable against enemies that hit harder.

It is open to debate. At the very least, let's just say that iron blood is a far more potent skill.