Armor Topic Bug(?)

[ignwizzywhite]

Hello Team,

Several of us in the "PvM farming" crew have recently been trying to understand more about Armor and how it impacts us when playing in the Myx Mage and Ebonthrax campaigns - because we are not seeing any benefit to wearing "3x" armor sets. Specifically, at this point based on testing, we believe there is not a benefit to wearing any armor-bonus vanities at all.

Bug: Increasing/Decreasing Armor Has No Effect in PvM

Findings: Testing in Onyx Castle - Ebonthrax

Testing against one singular mob (int-based) enemy spawn in various scenarios below:

#1. 2,552 Armor
While wearing NO vanities, pets, or elixir... only an ebon bow set (with several enchantments)
246078

Base mob damage hits are in the 243-248 range:
246073

#2. 12,052 Armor (no armor multiplier, elix)
246074

Base mob damage hits are in the same range, 243-248
246075

#3. "36,156" Armor (due to metal 3pc set of 3x armor bonus, 12,052 x3):
246076

Base mob damage hits are still in the same range of 243-248
246077

Based on these findings, I have also tested with multiple vanity sets and bonuses. This includes the Merman set (which adds various degrees of armor), the Metal Menace set 3x armor bonus, or the Dark Nymph 2pc set 2x armor bonus, etc. Furthermore, I also sampled the map Myx Mage - A Bow in the Blue with the exact same load-outs of the gear mentioned above. I found the results strikingly similar. When testing against an individual dex-based mob enemy, I was seeing 166 dmg hits continuously with no regard to an increase or decrease in my armor values.

Our crew discussed these findings, and while it is all speculation at this point, we are still confused about how this is possible considering the drastic differences in armor that we are using. To go from 2.5k to 12k to 35k+ armor and see no difference is remarkable. If there is an armor value cap per campaign, then why would a cap not allow or factor in the usage of any vanities or pets... at all? Do none of the armor sets/bonuses work as intended? Do some campaigns not have a cap at all?

EDIT: I did want to clarify that damage bonuses and multipliers are 100% working as expected, and I also tested various health values and bonuses, all of which worked as intended. The core issue is armor is not making an impact OR we as players don't understand what armor actually does.

Additionally, perhaps you may know of a resource or forum post that covers what "armor" provides? Is it supposed to factor into a damage reduction computation or an additional buffer to the health bar? I also tested the above load-outs of gear and timed how long it would take to die (turning health-potions off) and saw minimal differences (which probably are affected by the randomness of hit %/variables) when testing.

Any insight would be appreciated! My friends and I are also glad to test anything further if that helps.

[Curvatwo]

I noticed this too, hope they fix it soon with how many 3x armor sets are now in the game

[goatycoady]

I also noticed this as well… some clarity on the topic would be much appreciated. In my opinion there’s no way it’s not bugged though. The damage seems to work fine 😁

[Curvatwo]

I also noticed this as well… some clarity on the topic would be much appreciated. In my opinion there’s no way it’s not bugged though. The damage seems to work fine ��

yep, hope they will get to fixing this soon

[Chaasivab]

Can someone from STS give us an update on this or at least acknowledge that they are looking into this. An important post like this shouldn’t go over 2 weeks without someone posting that they are looking into this potential issue or at least answering the original posters concerns on the issue.

[Futumsh]

I'm not aware of anything to look into. If you've already got so much armor that you're absorbing the maximum amount from a hit, a multiplier on your armor has no effect.

[Curvatwo]

I'm not aware of anything to look into. If you've already got so much armor that you're absorbing the maximum amount from a hit, a multiplier on your armor has no effect.

I am so confused, HEALTH is what allows a user to take the maximum damage from an enemy. What on earth is the armor stat for? Is there a cap on the actual amount of armor?

[Curvatwo]

I have always though armor reduces the amount of damage taken, Can you enlighten us to how armor works?

[Chaasivab]

I'm not aware of anything to look into. If you've already got so much armor that you're absorbing the maximum amount from a hit, a multiplier on your armor has no effect.

You are saying that just like AL has a 10kish armor cap we have an armor cap in PL? If this is the case what is the armor cap in PL and why is the community just hearing about this now? I feel like this should have been communicated when gear multipliers started to come out or when we got to the point when we were going over the armor cap with multipliers.

I’m not even telling you all to change the armor to have no cap if there is one, but knowing the armor cap helps to change the kinds of sets people use potentially now and in the future to have a higher damage amount over armor since damage doesn’t have a cap.

[ignwizzywhite]

I'm not aware of anything to look into. If you've already got so much armor that you're absorbing the maximum amount from a hit, a multiplier on your armor has no effect.

This is very disappointing to hear, for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, when you say "if you've already got so much armor..." that implies that I am going above and beyond to equip a more-than-reasonable amount of armor. I showed in my initial post that I wore WIDELY accessible endgame content (yes, it was mythic, but after 4 years of a 110 cap, it should be fair to assume that a majority of players have mythic gear). Perhaps more importantly, I showed that this was evident while also wearing zero vanities or pets - which is what is frequently advertised and sold via platinum currency during nearly every event.

Armor "Cap"
From my testing, it appears that there is "cap" (or by your terms, a "maximum amount from a hit") of 2k armor. I also showed that a combination of some of the best gear and vanities totaled 36k armor (and I will ignore that there are now daily blessings that "give" 4x or 5x armor).

Vanities
Why on earth do you not factor in, or even allow, vanities to make an impact for endgame players? Endgame should be where vanities and sets matter most...and lower-level campaigns are nowhere near as strong or difficult. Endgame players are punished with this marginalizing armor cap - and I guess spending real money to buy vanity set bonuses is just "using too much armor."

#1. There are 15 pets alone that offer 1,500 armor or more (with several at 5k-6k armor and a few that can be crafted to become even more powerful). Forget any multipliers. Forget any of the many, various sets (that you sell via platinum) that offer "multipliers"...
#2. Of the vanity sets that offer any armor stat bonuses, there are the Drakula/Merman/Frankenstein/Alien sets and they all offer 150-200% of the armor "cap" of 2k.
#3. If we are talking about armor multipliers, there are 15 vanity sets that offer 2x armor or more (many of them offer 3x armor).

Normal Gear
For perspective, the BASE armor for a 110 Admiral elite dex set is 2,072. The base armor for a mythic 110 Ebonthrax dex set is 2,217. The BASE armor for a level 105 set is 1.5k. I can put together a loadout of level 90-95 gear (mixture of common pinks, elites, etc.) and reach nearly 1.1k armor - and level 90s are not allowed in the level 105-110 campaigns! Nearly all of the vanity sets, multipliers and pets that are offered to the public (via events, spending hours playing the game to hope to drop, or outright purchasing the premium currency, etc.) have no impact at all or perhaps at best a 10-25% efficacy rate for endgame players. And yet, that is nothing to look into?

[Futumsh]

Armor reduces the damage you take. It doesn't reduce it to 0. The larger the hit you're taking, the more effective armor is against it.

Beyond that, you're welcome to work it out for yourselves.
We've verified it's working as we expect it to, so closing this thread.