Sacred 2:Armor mechanics

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Armor has two possible meanings in Sacred 2. First, it is the common term for pieces of equipment: helmets, gloves, boots, breastplates, etc. These are the various items that are equipped on the character in the inventory screen.

Secondly, Armor is also the official term for what is commonly referred to as "Resistances": those values for each of the Five Damage Types that directly counter or "resist" incoming damage.

This page will discuss both concepts, as they are highly interconnected, but will primarily focus on Resistances. Detailed information on various pieces of equipment (sets, uniques, etc.) can be found in the links below.

Armor Equipment

Armor equipment in Sacred 2 consists of two types:

• Uniques and Sets which can be procured from drops only.

• Standard Armor, which can be bought in shops as well as which will drop from enemies. Standard armor will possess a range of different numbers of item modifiers and sockets/slots which are dependent upon the Bargaining level of the character that is making the purchase from a merchant. A character with a larger number of skill points put into Bargaining will be able to see a larger number of items in the merchant as well as be offered armor of much greater value possessing more sockets and better modifiers.

In Sacred 2, players should constantly be looking to upgrade their armor equipment as they level up. Armor equipment is the primay source of Physical resistance for the player, and may also have a vast array of useful modifiers that increase in quality and quantity at higher levels.

Armor Resistances

Just as the player (and opponents) can inflict one of five types of elemental damage, they also have a corresponding Armor value that resists those damage types. The Armor resistance types are:

• Physical

• Fire

• Ice

• Magic

• Poison

The primary way the player gains resistance to the four damage types other than Physical (which is gained from Armor equipment) is to equip Relics in the Relic holder. Relics may be found in four colors: Purple (Magic), Blue (Ice), Green (Poison) and Red (Fire). The player can mix and match these relics to enhance their Armor values for any combat situation which may arise.

The Community Patch adds powerful new items called Sigils that can also be equipped in the Relic holder. Sigils offer resistances to all five damage types, including Physical. They are also set items which confer additional bonuses when all Sigils from a set are equipped.

Armor vs. Damage

Besides armor, opponents in game can have Damage Mitigation (DM) modifier for each of five Damage Types. The final formula for damage dealt (calculated separatedly for each Damage Type) is:

damage taken = damage dealt * (damage dealt / (damage dealt + damage absorbed by armor)) * (100%-DM) * Armor_effectiveness_coeff

Armor_effectiveness_coeff is a special multiplier applied to the value of damage dealt when the target of a Combat Art has armor value > 0. This multiplier prevents excessive reduction of damage when the armor/damage ratio is extremely high. Armor_effectiveness_coeff depends on the armor/damage ratio and has the following values:

Where the OX axis shows the armor/damage ratio , and the OY axis shows Armor_effectiveness_coeff.

1) The character whose armor value is equal to the amount of incoming damage, will receive 0.5*1.17 = 58% of the original damage.

2) The character whose armor value is 2 times greater than the amount of damage inflicted by the attacker, will receive 0.33*1.24 = 41% of the original damage.

3) The character whose armor value is 4 times greater than the amount of damage inflicted by the attacker, will receive X*0.2*1.3 = 26% of the original damage.

4) The character whose armor value is 6 times greater than the amount of damage inflicted by the attacker, will receive X*0.143*1.33 = 19.2% of the original damage.

• As you can see, the armor effectiveness decreases rapidly at high armor/damage ratio. Even by having the armor value exceed incoming damage by several times the character can not be made immune to this type of damage, because armor effectiveness drops significantly.

Armor vs. Damage over Time

The fundamental difference between build-in Damage over Time, caused by Spell Damage Based Combat Arts and the periodic damage caused by Secondary Damage Effects (open wounds, burn, poison) is the latter's dependence on flat damage. The periodic damage of a Secondary Damage Effect is directly proportional to the inflicted damage that caused the effect. Periodic damage caused by Secondary Damage Effect depends on how much damage the character has received: for example, if character's armor absorbs 75% incoming damage, periodic damage caused by Secondary Damage Effect will also inflict 75% less damage.

Armor vs. Critical hits

A critical hit increases the amount of damage that the target receives by 1.2 times. Critical hit damage modifier is calculated before armor absorbtion, that means armor protects from critical hits worse, because increased base damage reduces a percent of damage that absorbed by armor.

Direct Damage

Direct Damage appears to be adding X% of your damage total to the amount of damage you are normally dealing to an enemy after the damage/armor calculation is done.

Chance to Disregard Armor

This modifier gives each attack a chance to ignore armor in the damage calculation, resulting in more damage being done to the target. A high amount of armor/resistances on the target can have a significant effect on the amount of damage the target receives (especially if the hit is low damage to start with), this can substantially increase the amount of damage the target takes when the effect occurs (see graph above).

Inversion Physical Armor

Some Combat Arts have a property called "invert_armor_phy" in spells.txt. It reverses the opponent's physical armor value, meaing the higher their physical armor, the more damage they take from these Combat Arts.

There are three Combat Arts with "invert_armor_phy" property:

• Dragon Mage's Mind Strike

• Kral's Sonic Scream

• Shelob's Frosty Lair (as debuff, it inverts physical armor for a short period of time).

This modifier inflicts especially more damage against High Elf (with Crystal Skin buff), Dryad (with Ancient Bark buff) and Dragon Mage (with Runes of Protection buff).

Sonic Scream has the highest potential damage in game. This Combat Art can inflict more than 35,000 physical damage to heavily armored characters (Niobium, boss level 235).

Opponent's armor: Physical -x%

Opponent's armor: Physical exists as an item modifier that applies to weapon damage and also as a debuff that can be triggered by spells.

1) As an item modifier it directly reduces the amount of physical armor (resistance) of the targeted enemy by a percentage. Applies only to weapon damage.

2) As a debuff: Some Combat Arts with special modification have a property called "et_debuff_armor_phy" in spells.txt; this debuff partially reduces target's physical armor for a short period of time (10-30 seconds).

Ancient Magic

The Ancient Magic Skill allows to partially ignore the target's Armor as well as Damage Mitigation and DoT -% modifiers for Spell Damage Based Combat Arts. This skill causes relative decrease of these modifiers as it affects only actual modifiers the target has. Ancient Magic Mastery only affects damage from Spell Damage Based Combat Arts, not damage from weapons or weapon damage based combat arts.

Armor Lore

Armor Lore is an important skill which improves both the use of armor equipment as well as the Armor resistance values of the player. First, it reduces the movement speed penalty from wearing armor that is higher level than the player. Second, it reduces the regeneration time penalty imposed by all pieces of armor. Third, it unlocks powerful defensive modifiers on armor pieces, like Damage Mitigation (these modifiers also scales with skill level grown). Finally, it increases all of the armor resistance values of the player by a percentage. For these reasons it can be considered one of the most valuable Defensive Skills.

• See also: Influence that Skill Level has on Locked Item Modifiers

Toughness

Toughness is another powerful Defensive skill that directly affects Armor values. While Armor Lore only enhances existing armor values, Toughness directly adds a flat armor value for each damage type. This means that Toughness and Armor Lore together have a great synergy and can increase the player's resistances greatly. Toughness also adds a percentage of Damage Mitigation; a player stacking Damage Mitigation modifier may become near-invulnerable to damage even with low armor resistance values.

Combat Arts

Very few Combat Arts affect the player's armor values. Most that provide damage protection do so in the form of Damage Mitigation. However, a select few Buffs do directly improve armor:

Ancient Bark (Dryad) - provides physical armor and increases all armor values by a percent

Runes of Protection (Dragon Mage) - provides physical armor

Crystal Skin (High Elf) - provides physical armor

Damage Types Armor Does Not Affect

• Leech Life From Opponents - This is extra, non-resistable damage.
• Life Leeched Per Hit - This is extra, non-resistable damage.
• Damage Over Time - Damage over time can only be reduced by Recovery Elixirs and by modifiers specifically designed to resist it, such as Damage over Time:Fire - X%. This damage type includes some of the Secondary Damage Effects, such as Chance for Burn.