Armor / Resistance

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Armor and Resistance reduces the damage a unit or building takes from attacks. Armor reduces the damage from physical attacks (Piercing, Slashing and Crushing) while Resistance reduces Elemental attacks (Fire, Electric and Cold). This damage reduction takes place after a unit's Special Weakness and Special Resistance modifier.

Damage Reduction Amounts
Armour and Resistance follow the same damage reduction formula as each other but primarily effects damage with 2 different methods depending on the difference between the Armor / Resistance stat and the damage amount. If the Armor / Resistance is of a certain amount of points higher than the damage, it will reduce the damage by a fixed percentage. Otherwise it'll reduce the damage by half the Armor / Resistance value. Below mentions the exact amounts.
 * If the Armor is 4x higher than the damage or more, then the damage will be divided by 5.
 * If the Armor is 3x higher than the damage or more (but less than 4x), then the damage will be divided by 4.
 * If the Armor is twice the damage (but less than 3x), then the damage will be divided by 3.
 * If Armor is equal to damage or more (but less than twice the damage), then the damage is halved.
 * If Armor is less than damage, then the damage is reduced by half the Armor stat.

From Dexterity
Heroes can increase their Armor and Resistance through increasing their Dexterity characteristic upon levelling up. For each point invested in Dexterity a Hero's Resistance will increase by 1 point. For every 2 points invested in Dexterity, the Hero's Armor will increase by a single point.

From Hero Skills
In addition to that, many Heroes have skills that can increase their Armor and Resistance and even to a specific damage type. Below are those skills and what they do per point invested.


 * Invulnerability = +2 Armor
 * Elemental Resistance = +2 Resistance
 * Warding = +1 Resistance to the Hero and all his troops
 * Armorer = +5 Piercing armor
 * Scales = +5 Slashing armor
 * Thick Hide = +5 Crushing armor
 * Fire Resistance = +5 Fire resistance
 * Cold Resistance = +5 Cold resistance
 * Electrical Resistance = +5 Electric resistance
 * Magic Resistance = +4 Magic protection

From Items
Like with all Hero stats, there are items that will increase a Hero's Armor and Resistance when equipped. There are also two item sets that add +100 magic protection to the Hero when complete and equipped.

From Spells
There are a few spells across different magic spheres that allow the Hero to increase his and nearby unit's Armour and Resistance stats. The Pyromancy spell Resist Fire gives +25 Fire Resistance per spell level to the caster and nearby friendly units. The Healing spell White Ward gives +5 Resistance per spell level to the caster and nearby friendly units. The Divination spells Elemental Lore and Defense Lore give +10 Armor or Resistance respectively to the caster and nearby friendly units. The Rune sphere has two spells: Stoneskin gives the caster +10 Armor and Resist Magic gives the caster +25 magic protection per spell level. The Ice Magic spell Ice Armor gives the caster +5 Armor per spell level. The Illusion spell Shadowform gives the caster +5 Armor and +5 Resistance (+1 in speed) per spell level.

From leveling up
Each time a unit levels up, its Armor and Resistance stats will increase by between 1-3 points. Between levels 2 - 5 their Amor / Resistance will increase by 1 point. Between 6 - 12 it'll go up by 2 points. From 13+ their Armor / Resistance will increase by 3 points. As the levelling up bonuses stack, a unit can gain a total of +42 Armor / Resistance purely through levelling up.

From Researches
Many races have access to one or more researches that will increase the Armor or Resistance rating of their units and in many cases their Hero, too. Like any other augmenting research, Armor researches do not stack and instead the game uses the highest value obtained. I.E: If a race obtained Mithril (+15 Armor) and then Dark Mithril (+10 Armor), the game will discard Dark Mithril and uses only Mirthil's +15 Armor. Below are all the researches that affect Armor and Resistance. Any that say they affect all units also affects the Hero leading the race, too.


 * Knights, Dwarves, Dark Dwarves and Empire have access to a research duo known as Armorer that can add up to +10 Armor to all their units.
 * Dwarves and Dark Dwarves also have Mithril that gives +15 Armor to all of their units.
 * Knights have [Full_Plate_Armor|Full Plate Armor]] that gives +20 Armor to their cavalry units (mounted knights) only. They also have Order of the Dragon that gives +10 Resistance to all of their units.
 * Barbarians get [Magical_Tattoos|Magical Tattoos]] that gives +5 Armor to all of their units.
 * Fey have a research duo known as Panoply that can add up to +10 Armor for all of their units.
 * Minotaurs get a selfish research duo known as Shield of Sartek which can add upto +10 Armor to just their Minotaur units.
 * Daemons get a research duo known as Intangibility that can add up to +10 Armor to their Daemonic units only. They also get Doombat that gives +50 Fire Resistance to Firebats.
 * Dark Elves get a research trio known as Black Ward, which can offer up to +9 Resistance to all of their units.
 * Undead get the unfairly-cheap Dark Mithril that gives +10 Armor to all of their units.

From Hero Skills
Fey, Undead and Plaguelord Heroes have access to the Hero skill Warding that offers +1 Resistance to the Hero and all of their units. Shaman, Thief and Daemon Slayer class Heroes also get access to this skill.

From Unit Spells
A handful of units in the game can increase Armour or Resistance to themselves and nearby allied units through the use of spells: Red Mages have the Resist Fire spell, Mystics have the White Ward spell, while Nagas have the Defense Lore spell (called Shield).

From Conditions
Units going berserk loose health as if under the 'Burned' critical effect. Meanwhile, they also get a +15 Fire Resistance bonus.

Eroding Armor
Eroding Armor is a very exclusive trait - unique to the Swamp Dragon. For each strike from a Swamp Dragon's breath attack will reduce a stricken unit's Armor stat by 2 points. This effect is permanent for the remainder of the battle and cannot be reversed in any way. This makes the Swamp Dragon especially dangerous for Heroes and Titans!

Chaos Effects
The psyche condition Chaos, emitted only from Slayer Knights, Doom Knights and Daemons, reduces the Armor stat of the effected unit all the way down to 0! It also removes all stat bonuses a unit had, meaning any Resistance bonuses are also lost.

Ignoring Armor / Resistance
Some units and Heroes have the ability to ignore Armor or Resistance when working out damage calculations - in some cases bypassing this step entirely. Any unit labelled with "Ignore Armor" will also ignore Resistance, too.

Critical Piercing Attacks
Whenever a piercing typed attack causes a critical hit, it will ignore all Armor on the target. This means any unit with a piercing attack can potentially have the ability to ignore Armour. This applies to both melee and ranged attacks.

Units that ignore Armor
All Titans and Minotaur Kings ignore all points of Armor. Considering the rarity of these units, worrying about your units' Armor / Resistance stats being made obsolete is unnecessary.

Heroes that ignore Armor
Swarm Heroes and Warrior class Heroes have access to the Ignore Armor skill. For each point invested in this skill will allow the Hero to ignore up to 3 points of Armor or Resistance on each melee attack.

There are also items that allow the Hero to ignore Armor. But the amount of points ignored is specific to the item.

Resistance Secondary Effect
In addition to reducing elemental damage, Resistance also works as a form of protection against psyche effects and illnesses. The higher the value, the less likely the unit will be afflicted with a psyche condition.

Armor / Resistance on Buildings
All buildings in the game have the exact same Armor and Resistance stats. They always have 30 Armor and 25 Resistance. However, in version 10.3.23+ buildings were given an extra +10 Armor and Resistance, making 40 Armor and 35 Resistance.