SWmud

Armor Hindrance

High grade defensive armor is heavy, and it can reduce your peak damage output. Think of your armor getting in the way of your attacks; this is known as armor hindrance. Every piece of armor with a DR, DT, or AC value (<panic combat> for acronym definitions) above 0 will reduce your ability to hit or your damage output. There are 2 main reasons for this: balance and to preserve the traditional aspect of combat on SWmud. To determine how hindered you are by armor, use the <eq> command.

Hindrances Explained:

• AC Hindrance - Reduces your chance to hit an attacker
• DR Hindrance - Reduces your damage dealt by a percentage
• DT Hindrance - Reduces your damage dealt by a flat amount

Ways to negate or reduce armor hindrance:

• Improve - Armor improves by scientists or merchants (<panic improve>). is less hindering than unimproved armor.
• Bounty Hunter Guild - Bounty Hunter's are naturally less encumbered by high grade armor.

Example builds with armor hindrance explained:

• Pure Damage - Armor boosts damage and provides few defensive stats. This type of player only has a weapon and a few pieces of armor that boost weapon damage. Armor that grants damage typically provides negligible defensive stats. Since no defensive stats are provided, then the armor hindrance resulting from these pieces of armor are negligible.
• Pure Tank - This player fills most/all armor slots with high grade armor. This player uses a weapon, and they bolster their character's defenses by wearing high grade armor in most of their armor slots. Maybe 1 armor slot is substituted with a piece of armor that increases damage. This build sacrifices damage for a significant boost in defenses. This type of build depends more on partying with other players to gain damage, or using combat droids (<panic slicer> and <panic droid_types>) or bodyguards (<panic diplomat> and <panic bodyguards>) to deal damage while they shrug off the attacker's blows. The loss of damage is from 2 sources:
• Not wearing much armor that boosts damage
• Armor hindrance from all of the high grade defensive armor
• Hybrid Build - Equips a mix of damage boosting armor and high grade armor. The hybrid build involves using a weapon, all pieces of armor that grant damage, and then filling in the remaining slots with high grade defensive armor. Players that need a bit of extra tanking capability to reduce downtime between heals can utilize this play style.