Armor

This article is about the equipment. For the armor attribute, see Armor (attribute).

Asura armor overview
Light	Medium	Heavy

Charr armor overview
Light	medium	Heavy

Human armor overview
Female	Light	Medium	Heavy
Male	Light	Medium	Heavy

Norn armor overview
Female	Light	Medium	Heavy
Male	Light	Medium	Heavy

Sylvari armor overview
Female	Light	Medium	Heavy
Male	Light	Medium	Heavy

Armor is equipment that is worn to provide defense against damage dealt by foes, to provide attribute bonuses, and to change the character's appearance. Players have six armor slots that correspond to the armor type that can be equipped in the slot. Players can also wear an aquatic helm and a back item. Armor is divided into three armor classes, which correspond to the three profession types; scholars wear light armor, adventurers wear medium armor, and soldiers wear heavy armor.

Armor slots

The armor slots correspond to the armor type that can be placed in the slot. The six primary armor slots are headgear, shoulders, chest, gloves, leggings, and boots. There are two other equipment slots that can be considered armor slots, aquatic helm and back item. Aquatic helm replaces headgear when the player enters underwater mode. The back item is grouped with the slots for trinkets and has some restrictions, and is not considered an actual piece of armor (though back items can be damaged, they cannot be broken). The armor type uses two notations in the game, one for the item tooltip on armor and one for the subcategory on the Trading Post.

Slot	Equipment slot	Trading Post
Headgear	Head Armor	Helm
Shoulders	Shoulder Armor	Shoulders
Chest	Chest Armor	Coat
Gloves	Hand Armor	Gloves
Leggings	Leg Armor	Leggings
Boots	Foot Armor	Boots
Aquatic Headgear	Head Armor	Aquatic Helm
Back	Back Item	-

Basic properties

• Defense – amount of defense provided depends on level of the equipment and its armor class
• Major attribute bonus – all items provide a bonus to one attribute
• Minor attribute bonus 1 – items from level 25 on provide a minor bonus to another attribute besides their major attribute bonus
• Minor attribute bonus 2 – items from level 60 on provide a minor bonus to two different attributes besides their major attribute bonus
• Upgrade slot for a compatible upgrade component or, for ascended quality items, a slot for an infusion
• Quality of the item which affects its rarity, and amount of defense and any attribute bonuses it provides
• Armor class of item, which determines which professions can wear the armor and how much defense it provides
• Armor type of the item, which determines which equipment slot the armor can be equipped on
• Level – the overall effectiveness and minimum level the character must be to equip the item.
• Binding – how the item is bound e.g. bound on use or acquire, account bound or soulbound
• Value – the NPC vendor price for selling the item

Defense rating

The defense rating of the armor is based on the the armor class, armor type, level, and rarity of the armor. The maximum defense for exotic level 80 armor is provided in the table below:

Armor piece	Light	Medium	Heavy
Helmet	73	97	121
Shoulders	73	97	121
Chest	314	338	363
Gauntlets	133	157	182
Leggings	194	218	242
Boots	133	157	182
Total	920	1064	1211

Attributes

Attrbutes are based on the the armor class, armor type, level, and rarity of the armor. In general, a piece of armor has a major attribute and two minor attributes. These attributes are grouped in specific combinations and the armor is given a prefix that corresponds to this combination. See item nomenclature for more information on how the armor prefix and attribute bonus are related.

Equipment Slot	Fine		Masterwork		Rare		Exotic		Ascended
	Minor	Major	Minor	Major	Minor	Major	Minor	Major	Minor	Major	Agony
Chest	54	76	59	82	64	89	72	101	-	-	-
Leggings	36	51	39	55	42	59	48	67	-	-	-
Helmet	24	34	26	37	28	40	32	45	-	-	-
Shoulders	18	25	20	27	21	30	24	34	-	-	-
Gauntlets	18	25	20	27	21	30	24	34	-	-	-
Boots	18	25	20	27	21	30	24	34	-	-	-
Total	168	237	184	255	197	278	224	315	-	-	-

Upgrade slot

Primary article: upgrade component

Every piece of armor comes with an upgrade slot where an upgrade component can be placed. Upgrade components provide attribute bonuses and other effects. The upgrade components that can be placed in armor are runes and universal upgrades. Only one ugrade component can be in an upgrade slot, applying a new upgrade component will destroy the previous upgrade component. When the armor is salvaged, players have a chance to obtain the upgrade component instead of destroying it, depending on the quality of the salvage kit.

Runes

Primary article: rune

Runes are a type of upgrade component specific to armor. There are three versions of each rune for most runes; minor, major, and superior runes. The version of the rune decides the number of tiers and the effects given by the rune. Runes have a unique mechanic of having effect tiers, where the effects provided by the rune are based on the number of the rune equipped on pieces of armor. For example, placing a Superior Rune of the Water on a piece of armor will give the first tier effect indicated on the rune. Placing a Superior Rune of the Water on all pieces of armor will give a total of six runes and give all the tier effects.

Universal upgrade

Primary article: universal upgrade

Universal upgrades can be placed on all equipment. These upgrade components include gemstones. Universal upgrades only provide attribute bonuses, which are less powerful than the attribute bonuses provided by runes in most cases.

Acquisition

• Starting equipment
• Dropped by a foe as loot
• Purchased from an armorsmith vendor
• Purchased from a karma merchant.
• Purchased from a dungeon merchant for tokens.
• Crafting armor as a armorsmith, leatherworker, and tailor
• As a PvP reward from a glory vendor.
• As a reward for completing certain steps of your personal story.

Armor sets

Primary article: List of armor sets

• Dungeon armor can be purchased with dungeon tokens from a dungeon merchant.
• Cultural armor sets for each race are available for purchase in their respective capital cities.
• Karma armor sets
• Exotic karma armor sets

Appearance

The appearance of a piece of armor can be modified by changing the skin of the armor and the use of dyes. The skin is the physical appearance of the armor and how it looks on the character. The skin of the armor is not static unlike most games and can be changed freely by players with the correct items.

Armor skin

There are two methods for changing the skin of a piece of armor, transmutation and skin items. Players can transmute the skin, attributes, and/or the upgrade component of one piece of armor to another by using a Transmutation Stone or Transmutation Crystal. Doing so will give the item the "Transmuted" property, which is displayed in the tooltip. Transmutation stones can be acquired in the Gem Store, Black Lion Chests, or map completion. Skins are consumable items players can apply to a specific armor type. These items serve no other purpose than to change the skin of the armor.

Color

Primary article: Dye

Combat view of the equipment tab.

Newly equipped armor will automatically acquire the dye scheme of your current armor, or as far as possible due to differences in the number of dye channels. Each armor piece can have up to four dye channels that affect different portions of the armor.

To change the color of your equipped armor, open the Hero Panel to the Combat View of the Equipment, and select the Eyedropper icon above the armor.

Repair

Whenever a players is defeated, a random piece of armor is damaged. This is indicated by a chipped yellow shield over the item icon. Back items are included as armor for the mechanic. The damaged status has no effect on armor. Once all equipped armor is damaged, pieces of armor will begin breaking when the player is defeated. This is indicated by a chipped red shield over the item icon. Broken armor does not provide any defense or bonuses, but the upgrade component provides its normal effects. Players are free to unequip broken armor, but it cannot be equipped. Being defeated from falling damage does not damage armor, although it will if the player is in combat mode. Players can repair damaged or broken armor at an NPC that provides the Repair services, indicated as a broken shield on the map.

Concept art

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See also

• Item nomenclature
• Equipment acquisition by stats
• Town clothing
• Starting equipment
• List of armor sets
• List of Level 80 Exotic Armor

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