• The First attribute is Hinderance, and affects your ability to evade, retreat and hide. Coupled with hinderance is weight, which will affect your overall encumberance level.

  The Second attribute is protection, which is set at a particular value. From 1 to 200 you gain 1/200th of the appraised protection per rank, after 200 ranks you gain a bonus of 1/200th of the appraised protective value per rank. Protection prevents a set amount of damage.

  The Third Attribute is absorption which is a how much damage the armor will take onto itself as a percentage of the total damage. This protection grows with the damage dealt, Making the heavier armor more attractive for this feature.

These things are the basis for the choice you must make, each of the types of armor has a strong point, and a weak point.

Leather allows for more manuverability at the loss of most of it's absorptive ability. For some Professions this is an excellent trade off, for others it is not.
(The best Guilds for leather are Thief, Ranger, and Barbarian)

Light Chain affords better protection and absorption, but is not nearly as easy to maneuver in. It is one the lightest armor available. Hence the absorption and protection are not nearly what you would get with heavier armor. Well suited for a person who wishes to utilize their evasion to the utmost who is interested in protection in the event that they do get hit. Popular with Mages who hunt with an evasion penalty.

Heavy Chain affords about the same protection as light chain on average. however it affords a good deal more absorption at the sacrifice of manuverability. This armor can be trained down as far as the lighter chain, but it takes more skill to reach the same plateau.

Light Plate is halfway between heavy chain and heavy plate. it is not as good as heavy plate, but is not as hindering.

Heavy Plate is the most most absorptive and protective armor in the realms, but are also the heaviest and most hindering.

What you have to determine when you are first looking at armor is, what level your guild can train each armor type down to. Then to determine what type of armor will suit you the best. If you think that you should wear light chain, you should consider heavy chain, as the difference in the absorptive ability is significant, and can make a great deal of difference if you do manage to get in over your head. The lighter armor are generally used by the weaker races, but as your character grows it becomes beneficial to be in a heavier armor.

Remember that the more an armor appraises for cost wise, the more it will cost to repair, and the harder it is, the less likely it is to get damaged.

The second type of combat equipment is weapons.

Weapons have a couple of attributes, The damage attributes, Balance, weight and strength.

Puncture is how well it pierces.
Slice is how sharp the edge of the blade is.
Impact is how hard the weapon hits.

Weapon damage is calculated for all three stats, and the best result is applied to the opponent, I have found that there are two possible paths to take regarding weapons, A single general weapon that works fairly well in all circumstances, or a specialty weapon suited to one type of opponent or situation. I personally prefer a weapon with a high slice and a fairly nice impact. But it again is up to you.

Balance and Suitedness will affect how often you hit, and how much your strength will contribute to the damage you do. A high reflex and agility will counteract a badly balanced weapon to some extent.

Weapon weight will affect how quickly you can swing the weapon in a set period of time, but light weapons generally do not hit as hard as the heavier weapons. I personally prefer the heavier weapons, but again it is a choice that is entirely up to you.

These are my observations, they work for me, no refunds or exchanges. But the thing that makes me Cringe is when i see people appraise Combat leathers and say "Just Like Wolf Clan" It is sad to see someone so ignorant.

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