Resistances

Different damage types are mitigated by the defensive stats (resistances) on different types of armor.

Certain damage types will be strong or weak against certain enemy types. So you'll have to be somewhat smart about who you're bringing where, or what kind of abilities or specs. Obviously, you'll be able to do the content, but you'll have an easier time with certain contents if you're using a certain spec over others. – Tradd Thompson

• Magic damage is mitigated by cloth armor (light armor).
• Physical damage is mitigated by plate armor (heavy armor).
• There will be resistances to elemental damage.
• Holy/radiant damage are modifying energy types that have corresponding synergies and resistances.
  • Undead mobs are weak against holy magic.
• There is also non-mitigated damage.
• Monsters will have certain types of resistances based on its type.

  Not every monster is going to have unique resistances. They'll share groups of types of resistances based on whether that monster is a particular elemental affinity or a particular heavy armor, particular weapon type, you know stuff like that. So there will be resistances groups that are shared by certain types of monsters and their location and as it relates to their lower background and stuff like that. – Steven Sharif

• Players will be able to counter resistances with resistance penetration stats.

Elements

There are elements (such as Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Electrical) in Ashes of Creation each with their own resistances.

• Other elemental influences may include Darkness, Light and Planar. The Air Strike ability has a nature based root.

• The Mage archetype offers four elemental schools as augments to a character's primary skills.

• Elements may have more influence in certain seasons and climates. For example, frost abilities may be stronger in winter. This affects both PvE and PvP.

• There may be ley lines and strong magical places in the world that change or alter the way spells work.

We've discussed a little bit about how the seasons and biomes will react with different types of skills. Like if you have a fireball and it's summer it might be a little bit different. If it's winter and you have a frost ability it might be different. – Steven Sharif

We want to get a nice spread of abilities that that are influenced by what's going on your zone. – Jeffrey Bard

Armor characteristics

Kaelar armor.

You're not going to get one set of armor that's going to be situationally relevant for every encounter you might face- that's crazy- and as a result of that you're going to have to succeed in acquiring sets that are situationally relevant for the types of encounters you are intending to face. – Steven Sharif

Armor characteristics are in general determined by the "type" of armor (Light, Medium, Heavy).

• Stat values will be predominately the same but may be able to be adjusted by crafters who are capable with that type of armor.
  • Physical Defense Mitigation.
  • Magical Defense Mitigation.

• The stat values on armor can include both damage dealing and damage mitigation stats.

Certain armor types are going to have certain type of predominant stat values. So there's going to be certain waterfall stats and/or certain primary attributes that are available on certain armor types; and then if you want to have the one that's not more prominently available- those will be rare to get- you'll have to elicit the services of a crafter who's very capable within that particular type of armor in order to get the non-traditional stats and/or waterfalls available. So there's still the ability to get whatever on these but they're going to be more predetermined for certain types of stats and waterfalls. – Steven Sharif

• Set bonuses are granted to wearers of exclusively one type of armor, for example: all cloth, or all plate.

There'll be certain types of set bonuses granted across specific full sets or partial sets of armor types. There will be a similar function in how damage is mitigated based on the type of armor you're wearing and how that relates to physical or magical incoming damage. So that's something to keep in mind. It's going to be situational what type of adversarial foe am I facing and what armor is the best against that to mitigate damage. – Steven Sharif

• The "type" of armor (cloth, leather, plate) a character is predominantly wearing is visible in their nameplate.
  • There will be strengths and weaknesses for armor sets that opponents can exploit with gear enhancements, for example.

You're going to have certain strengths and weaknesses of armor sets and those can be specced into by your opponents. For example, I might place some type of elemental enhancements on my weapon that horizontally changes my outgoing damage and that's going to reflect based on the opponent on my target opponent and what type of armor they have available to them to counter that. – Steven Sharif

• Itemization choice may potentially play into universal skill sets such as Dodge, Parry, and Active blocking.

We're playing a little bit with the idea of these universal skill sets, such as dodge, parry, block, active blocking, stuff like that; and progression within those areas. There is something to be said I think for incorporating itemization choice as part of that system as well; and how it might affect that system. That's something that I think is going to be coming up in the pitch phase here shortly from design as we implement those universal skills. So you can look out in the future for more information on that. – Steven Sharif

Light armor

Kaelar Level 20 robe set 3D render.

This set is a level 20 set and this is not cosmetic. This is an in-game achievable armor set I believe. – Steven Sharif

Light armor (also referred to as Robes and Cloth armor).

• Light armor is more mobile than heavier armor.
• Light armor is geared towards magical damage mitigation.

Medium armor

Level 10-20 crafted leather armor set 3D render.

Leather gives you a blend between both worlds. It also will have different types of set benefits that aren't purely related to damage mitigation. So that could be outgoing skill damage, it could be critical chances, it could be some other waterfall stats that are associated with it. Our armors don't just boil down to damage type mitigation. – Steven Sharif

Medium armor (also referred to as Leather armor) can incorporate robe, chainmail, and plate, influences.

• May provide some benefits from light armor or heavy armor.
• May also include benefits that aren't purely related to damage mitigation, such as improved critical chance.

Heavy armor

Tier 5 in-game earnable Kaelar plate armor 3D renders.

Heavy armor is predominantly plate metal, but may incorporate other influences, such as leather.

• Heavy armor typically has more HP than lighter armor.
• Heavy armor is geared towards physical damage mitigation.

See also

• Damage types
• Stats
• Gear