Hammerwiki:Armor

Armor, also spelled Armour, can either refer to a character's equipment, or a common statistic in MMORPGs called armor.

Armor As Equipment
Armor, in the traditional sense, is the clothing and protective gear that a character equips during their progression. Armor can be gained from merchants,quest rewards, and as item drops from NPC's.

Armor Types
Armor typically falls in to three catagories:
 * Robe/Light Armor - The lightest category of armor, worn by casters, healers, and many melee careers, especially those with the highest damage output. Provides minimal protection and is often more valued for its stats than for damage mitigation. Healers and high damage classes usually wear this as a tradeoff for their other abilities.
 * Chain-Mail/Medium Armor/Medium Robe - A heavy form of armor that is made of tiny of rings of metal interwoven. Much tougher than leather, but less so than plate, chain-mail is the perfect hybrid of defense and range of movement. Chain-mail (or simply mail) is reserved for melee careers who will take quite a bit of physical damage but are not solely reliant on upon the armor's protection.
 * Plate/Heavy Armor - The apex of defensive gear, plate is a series of metal plates strapped together to protect most, if not all, of the wearer's body. Plate is almost always worn by classes that rely completely on melee and defense as their main tactics (such as tanks). Plate is often only worn by a few careers in the game, as the weight of the armor is considered too heavy for any of the physically weaker characters to carry.

Armor Progression & Armor Tiers
Armor will, invariably, scale with a player as the character progresses through the game. Often times, a set of armor (even an extremely strong one) obtained at one rank will be almost useless at a later rank. This is because new and stronger armor will be available to the player, increasing their defense. Eventually, when the player reaches the apex of ranks (or "Level Cap") there will be multiple sets of of progressively stronger (and more rare) armor to further progress the player. In WAR these are referred to as tiered armor, denoting a player's progression through end-game content and PvP achievements. These armor sets are typically very opulently decorated, and is the strongest available defense equipment in the game. Often times these armor sets are considered status symbols, as players who obtain them are often times the most skilled and dedicated players on a server.

Decoration
In addition, as a player progresses through the game, various forms of customizable content will be made available to them. These come in the form of armor dyes and being able to obtain trophies from the Tome of Knowledge. Through the combination of these two variables, a player can change a basic form armor piece and alter it's appearance to fit with the rest of their set, or to completely change the look and feel of their character. An example would be two players with Tier 1 armor:

One might be the basic armor set, in it's original color scheme, with a trophy or two attached. The other character may then have the same armor set with extensive customization, going so far as to dye their entire set red and adorning it with the skulls of fallen enemies. The two will still have the same armor, with the same practical differences, however they will differ wildly in look.

Armor as a Statistic
Most armor pieces increase the armor statistic. The armor statistic reduces the damage from physical attacks (like resistances do for elemental, corporeal, and spiritual attacks), after mitigation from toughness. The reduction is 75% * (Armor / (Level * 110)), with a cap at 75%. This means that the maximum useful armor (assuming no armor debuffs will be applied to the character) at rank 40 is 4400. At 4400 armor, the character sheet tooltip will say 100% physical damage reduced, meaning the maximum 75% physical damage mitigation from armor.