Armor Use

The Armor Use skill is used to reduce the effects of wearing armor on one's actions, including attacking roundtime, spell casting hinderance, and maneuver hinderance. Depending on the armor, specific amounts of training are required to train off the hinderances of the armor. Spell casting hinderance can never be fully trained off (only minimized). For detailed information, see the article on armor.

Max Ranks and Training Point costs

Type	Square			Semi			Pure
Profession	Rogue	Warrior	Monk	Bard	Paladin	Ranger	Cleric	Empath	Savant	Sorcerer	Wizard
Max Ranks Per Level	2	3	-	2	3	2	1	1	-	1	1
Training Point Cost	5/0	2/0	-	5/0	3/0	5/0	8/0	15/0	-	15/0	14/0

Training Required

To reduce the penalties associated with wearing heavy armors, the following amounts of training are necessary, in number of ranks.

AG	AsG	RT	Man	Spell Circle
				MnS	MjS	Cleric	MnE	MjE	Ranger	Sorcerer	Wizard	Bard	Empath	Paladin
1. Cloth	Robes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2. Soft Leather	Light Leather	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Full Leather	2	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Reinforced Leather	6	8	-	-	-	-	6	-	2	6	-	-	-
	Double Leather	6	8	-	-	-	-	15	-	6	15	6	-	-
3. Scale	Leather Breastplate	10	13	10	15	15	15	27	10	20	27	10	15	6
	Cuirbouilli Leather	15	18	15	20	20	20	35	15	27	35	10	20	10
	Studded Leather	20	23	20	27	27	27	70	20	50	70	10	27	15
	Brigandine	27	30	27	35	35	35	130	27	110	130	35	35	20
4. Chain	Chainmail	35	40	35	50	50	50	210	35	210	210	50	50	27
	Double Chain	50	60	50	70	70	70	290	50	250	290	50	70	35
	Augmented Chain	50	60	70	110	110	90	390	70	330	390	50	110	50
	Chain Hauberk	70	80	110	170	170	130	490	110	410	490	190	190	70
5. Plate	Metal Breastplate	70	80	210	390	390	210	590	310	470	590	310	390	90
	Augmented Breastplate	90	100	230	450	450	250	690	370	550	690	310	450	110
	Half Plate	110	120	250	530	530	290	790	430	570	790	310	530	130
	Full Plate	130	140	290	850	850	330	890	490	850	890	890	790	150

Calculating Required Ranks

The relationship between ranks and skill is non-linear. The formula to calculate the number of ranks required to attain a certain skill level will vary. Find the range of skill values that your desired skill level falls into and use the corresponding equation to calculate the number of ranks:

• Skill ≤ 50 : Ranks = Skill/5
• 51 ≤ Skill ≤ 90 : Ranks = 10 + ((Skill - 50)/4)
• 91 ≤ Skill ≤ 120 : Ranks = 20 + ((Skill - 90)/3)
• 121 ≤ Skill ≤ 140 : Ranks = 30 + ((Skill - 120)/2)
• 141 ≤ Skill : Ranks = (Skill - 100)

Maneuver vs. Roundtime Penalties

• How many ranks are required to completely minimize the physical penalty of my armor?

This is the number of ranks required to train off what is frequently referred to as the "Maneuver Penalty" (listed in the "Man" column in the above table). The actual formula for the amount of skill required to reduce all physical penalties to a minimum is Skill = 20 * Hindrance (hindrance values can be looked up on the armor page in the column labeled "RT"). At this skill level, the action penalty listed for the armor will be exactly the penalty that you incur when attempting to execute a maneuver such as evading spells like Boil Earth (917) and Elemental Wave (410) or simply standing up (other factors, such as encumbrance, may also apply). As your ranks gradually approach this value, the penalty that is applied to these rolls will vary somewhere between the maximum penalty (listed under "MAX" on the armor page) and the action penalty (listed under "AP"). The rate at which this is reduced is undocumented. Characters with high Agility and/or Dexterity are not granted an additional bonus towards the reduction of this penalty.

• How many ranks are required to minimize the RT penalty of my armor?

This is the number of ranks required to train off what is frequently referred to as the "Roundtime Penalty" (listed in the "RT" column in the above table). Due to rounding of fractional roundtimes, the amount of ranks required to reduce penalties on one's roundtime, such as when swinging a weapon, is reduced. To calculate the amount of ranks required to train off the penalties imposed by a set of armor, use the following relationship: Skill = ((20 * Hindrance) - 10). Note that this is the equation specified on the official play.net armor page. It is, in fact, a bastardization of the previous formula, Skill = 20 * Hindrance, adjusted to remove fractional roundtimes. Characters with high Agility and/or Dexterity are granted an additional bonus towards the reduction of this penalty.

• Example calculation for brigandine armor:

Maneuver Penalty : Skill = 20*(6) = 120 , Ranks = 20+(((120)-90)/3) = 30

Roundtime Penalty : Skill = (20*(6))-10 = 110 , Ranks = 20+(((110)-90)/3) = 26.66667 ≈ 27

Overtraining Benefits

Overtraining in the Armor Use skill will reduce the experienced Action Penalty of the armor. Every 50 ranks acquired above the minimum ranks required to train off Roundtime penalties will result in an Action Penalty reduction of (Armor Group - 1).

"For example, an augmented breastplate requires 90 ranks of Armor Use to train away its RT adder. It has an Armor Group (AG) value of 5 (skin = AG 0, robes = AG 1, soft leather = AG 2, hard leather/scale = AG 3, chain = AG 4, plate = AG 5). Its base action penalty is 25. So, if it is worn by a player with 140 ranks of Armor Use, the action penalty will drop to 21, to 17 at 190 ranks, and to a minimum value of 13 at 240 ranks." - GM Coase

AG	AsG	AP	Ranks	Reduction Tier
				1		2		3		4		5
1. Cloth	Robes	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2. Soft Leather	Light Leather	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Full Leather	0	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Reinforced Leather	-5	6	-4	56	-3	106	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Double Leather	-6	6	-5	56	-4	106	-3	156	-	-	-	-
3. Scale	Leather Breastplate	-7	10	-5	60	-4	110	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Cuirbouilli Leather	-8	15	-6	65	-4	115	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Studded Leather	-10	20	-8	70	-6	120	-5	170	-	-	-	-
	Brigandine	-12	27	-10	77	-8	127	-6	177	-	-	-	-
4. Chain	Chainmail	-13	35	-10	85	-7	135	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Double Chain	-14	50	-11	100	-8	150	-7	200	-	-	-	-
	Augmented Chain	-16	50	-13	100	-10	150	-8	200	-	-	-	-
	Chain Hauberk	-18	70	-15	120	-12	170	-9	220	-	-	-	-
5. Plate	Metal Breastplate	-20	70	-16	120	-12	170	-10	220	-	-	-	-
	Augmented Breastplate	-25	90	-21	140	-17	190	-13	240	-	-	-	-
	Half Plate	-30	110	-26	160	-22	210	-18	260	-15	310	-	-
	Full Plate	-35	130	-31	180	-27	230	-23	280	-19	330	-18	380

References

• http://www.play.net/gs4/info/armory/armor.asp
• http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Additional_Armor_Overtraining_Benefits_Implemented_(saved_post)