Daenks/Meridian59_103 — pull request #764 by GarOfMeridian (2014-12-02 01:02:33+00:00)
Title: Proposal for Armor Revamp

* Players have a new stat called Warding. This is direct damage
reduction against magic damage; the magical equivalent of armor.

* Armor and Warding are both direct values now instead of rolled to a
random value. 6 Armor is 6 damage reduction, period. 6 Warding is 6
magic damage reduction, period. Partially magical attacks will receive
half reduction from both Armor and Warding values (ex. 2 Armor & 6
Warding will reduce a touch spell by 1 + 3 = 4).

* Armor of Gort now adds up to 5 Armor based on spellpower, and nothing
else. Its overpowered and frustrating capping mechanisms no longer
apply.

* Resist Magic now adds up to 5 Warding based on spellpower, and nothing
else. Its "Resist All" percentage effect didn't stack with elemental
resists, thus confusing players, and there were situations in which it
literally did nothing. This version will always help against magic.

* All resistance values were removed from armor and replaced with new
Armor and Warding values. Resistances will now begin to come from other
areas.

* Sockets can now spawn on body armor dropped by mobs 100 hp or over.
The stronger the mob, the better socket chances you have. Sockets cap at
4 on body armor.

* Resistance gems can be found in treasure in specific high-level
locations. Elemental resistance gems can be found in the Thrashers'
chest. Physical resistance gems are carried by the Lupogg King. Piercing
Resistance gems cannot yet be found anywhere.

New armor values:
Leather: 50 defense, 2 Armor, 6 Warding
Chain: -50 defense, 4 Armor, 4 Warding
Scale: -100 defense, 6 Armor, 2 Warding

Nerudite: -150 defense, -2 Armor, 10 Warding
Plate: -200 defense, 10 Armor, -2 Warding

Robes: 100 defense, -2 Armor, -2 Warding

With this redesign, all armors are intended to be roughly equivalent,
but different in fundamental ways based on their Armor and Warding
mixes. Leather, for example, is a light armor with good magic reduction.
Chain is a balanced light armor. Scale tends toward the physical. Plate
and Nerudite, on the other hand, are heavy armors that specialize one
stat at the expense of the other.

All body armors have a sum of Armor and Warding equal to 8, except for
robes, whose specialized function is spellpower, and whose former
weakness to all weapons and fire is reproduced here as -2 Armor and -2
Warding.