How does armor work?

Yes, I understand that it minimizes damage but, how exactly and to what extent? I have been playing this game for a few months now but, I can't figure out what armor does? Basically I am trying to figure out whether it's worth to upgrade health or armor.

Thank you.

50 armor = 50% less damage

its in percent

Every point of armor is 1 percent of damage reduction. If I have 14 armor then I have 14% damage reduction. Now Armor vs. Health is a bit more complicated, Armor makes mana pots more efficient if you have 30+. Health is better if you have less than 30armor.

Now people like Alexander always go health because it's better earlier. 2%damage reduction in most cases is worse than 225health. But once you get to 30armor it's better(for health pots) than health. Now when there's a character with an armor ignoring move then you shouldn't go armor unless you either think they will never land that move on you or that the spell is such a weak spell(i.e. Duran, Guard Fire, etc) that the damage it does isn't strong enough to stop the extra tankiness of going armor.

With a usual build with most characters getting 25attack with 5mana with 5 speed and with ultimate as well as another random upgrade/skill we'll say 2 random skills. so that's 37minerals before Armor can be gotten effectively. That means you will get to level 19 usually without spending anything on armor at all. You need 15minerals into armor for armor to be worth it so that's 8levels worth. So you will have enough armor to make armor vs. health better for armor at level 27. But you have to factor in armor packs which can get you another 10armor so that makes it so you need level 25 for armor to be worth it in comparison to health.

Now to show you extremes for armor, if you get 50 armor that means that(with full health packs and shields)you have 8,000 hp. and each health pot gives you 4,000hp per pot. with a 5 more minerals into armor and a card you will have 80 armor(max) and with full shields and health packs that's 5,000 hp roughly. They are only doing 1/5 of their normal damage against you so they have to hit you with 5x what they should have to to kill you. so your effective hp is 25,000 not including pots which each one heals about 10,000health so thats 833 health per second with only one pot. with 2 thats 1666 health per second. Assuming that all spells land it would still be hard to kill him let alone when he's dodging around.

We say thirty armor is the benchmark for armor because that is when a health pot for armor gives you more hp per pot than a health pot for health. Alexander gave us this number and nobody else has bothered to check it(P.S. you should post the armor vs. health chart into the guides section Uriel) so we all assume it's true.

Dont forget summons.

yea armor dont apply to summons T__T

uriel goes armor half the time...

If he does, it's never in my games.

Simple way to think <Armor vs HP>

=> Go HP when......

1. You are NOT the carrier.
2. You have DTS Zeros / Mechatron / Arcane OR more than 2 armor ignoring skills on the other team.
3. You are NOT massing hp pots in mid game.

If you are not going through any of the three conditions listed above,
(You are carrier + no major armor ignoring skills + not massing hp pots in mid game)
THEN go Armor.

Thanks a lot for your input, it really clears up things; exactly what I wanted to know.

This brings me to another question, how does one know which skill ignores armor and which one doesn't?

Also, why don't you want Zeros to go armor? He's a melee unit w/ high hps. Is it ok to assume that all melee units should be played w/ high armor? It's probably very easy to get that high armor 'cause they have high dmg thus requiring less upgrade on attack therefore leaving more minerals for armor and hps. Orochi is probably the best candidate for this kind of strat, yes? (He can reach 200 attack w/in five lvls.)

Please respond.

Trader Joe wrote:Thanks a lot for your input, it really clears up things; exactly what I wanted to know.

This brings me to another question, how does one know which skill ignores armor and which one doesn't?

Also, why don't you want Zeros to go armor? He's a melee unit w/ high hps. Is it ok to assume that all melee units should be played w/ high armor? It's probably very easy to get that high armor 'cause they have high dmg thus requiring less upgrade on attack therefore leaving more minerals for armor and hps. Orochi is probably the best candidate for this kind of strat, yes? (He can reach 200 attack w/in five lvls.)

Please respond.

There's a list of skills that pierce armor in the patch section. It should be near the bottom. We never said that ZEROS doesn't go armor. We said to never go armor AGAINST a zeros, because his ultimate, dark true strike, does full damage regardless of how much armor an enemy has. Also, don't think like that. While orochi has a large base attack, it is necessary because orochi is a piece of shit that revolves around mode. Skill damage is not proportional to base damage. This is shown very well with heroes like chimera, janne, or sh, who never achieve a high base damage, yet chimera/janne/soul hunter does a substantial amount of skill damage. Also, all heroes have a set amount of min they can put inside a stat. That doesn't change from hero to hero, however, the potency of each increase in stats varies based upon the stats you may observe from the hero selection screen. Don't assume to go armor or hp based on the type on char you play, base your decision off of which heroes you are against/how long you think the game will last.

SungJ wrote:Simple way to think <Armor vs HP>

=> Go HP when......

1. You are NOT the carrier.
2. You have DTS Zeros / Mechatron / Arcane OR more than 2 armor ignoring skills on the other team.
3. You are NOT massing hp pots in mid game.

If you are not going through any of the three conditions listed above,
(You are carrier + no major armor ignoring skills + not massing hp pots in mid game)
THEN go Armor.

4. You're a summoner

@Ikumo, I did misread sungJ's initial post. Thanks for the clarification about base attack dmg versus skill dmg.

What does summoning mean? (e.g. GH "summoning" golems?) And what does "mode" mean? (I am referring to your orochi comment.)

mode is an ability that increases your normal attack damage by a large amount rather than a spell you fire otehrwise. A mode is an ultimate that makes them generally more tanky and they're normal attack do a lot more damage.

Also know as "ez mode".

altho in reality mode to use well is probably harder XD