What is the Secret to Bypassing Armor?

[A_King_Doggo]

I've noticed some enemies have a (rather surprising) ability to one shot my character (not going a Vitality build) by bypassing my armor entirely.

Is there an ability that does this? if so - What is the purpose of armor?

For reference, I'm playing a Mage - So I'm not quite sure how Melee works in this one as well.

[A_King_Doggo]

Apparently, the Champion Stylonius has this ability and it procs often - Man, I'm *really* getting tired of these gimmick cities.

Next run I'm turning Arena effects off - Them combined with the 300 day timer makes this game just Anxiety: The Game, and I *really don't like how that makes me feel.*

[Lar Dass]

All rng, sometimes a hit will take off vitality/hp or their armour, some moves will guarantee hp damage such as elemental stuff

[Dunfaust]

A bit late to this one but here's the breakdown on how different attacks will target health/armor.

Knight has a skill called Salute of Honor, which is a high damage, low hit chance melee strike that ignores armor. I believe this is the skill you're being one shot by.

Standard melee attacks target random body parts. So if you have the armor broken off your legs, they might hit your legs again and kill you. The GOOD thing here, is that they will only break the armor off ONE part at a time. This can buy you a lot of time with a little luck. Otherwise, the best way to mitigate this is with the Shield Block skill, which forces all incoming attacks, including Salute of Honor, to damage your shield first. As a mage, you might also consider investing in agility, so that you can freeze your melee enemies and move away from them.

There are also special melee attacks that will target specific body parts. Shield Block will deal with this also, but it's something to keep in mind if you have exposed body parts.

Special attacks and spells that don't state otherwise ALWAYS do damage to armor first, and the excess DOES NOT bleed through to health. The GOOD thing here, is that you can break multiple pieces of armor at once, unlike standard attacks. You can go all out and potentially break every piece of armor in one hit with enough damage, if they only have one piece of armor left in bad condition, consider using a weaker spell to break it before going whole hog on their exposed body.

As for tips, well... mitigating damage in this game is hard. Against normal opponents you won't usually have any issues after a point, but bosses ALWAYS have far more stat points than their level would indicate. There is a level 60 boss that has 78 in EVERY SINGLE STAT. They're not going to miss, and it's going to hurt. So what's the strategy?

If they focus on using normal attacks, your time limit is how many armor pieces you have left. Head, arms, legs, torso, you have 4 turns (maximum, possibly less) until they turn you into paste. Use stuns to lengthen this time, and focus on doing as much damage as you can.

If the enemy is a bard or spell caster, you HAVE to lock down their special abilities ASAP. A Warrior can deal with a mage handily enough even after being Electrified, but as a Mage yourself, if you get Electrified, the fight is over. Get them with it first, and the fight is yours. Stuns work as well.

If fighting Archers, get in close. They're usually impossibly fast, hit every time, and hit HARD, but they can't shoot at close range, so figure out a way. Freeze them, stun them, teleport up to them, pull them to you, there's a lot of options.

One final tip for the 2 people who are gonna see it, pay attention to the item rewards you get from bosses. Sometimes they are MUCH more powerful than other items of the same levels. A certain level 20 boss drops a hat you might not replace until level 55 or so, for example. It's the same thing for weapons. Some of them are just normal weapons with an enchantment, others are unique weapons that might be twice as powerful at the same level.

[A_King_Doggo]

Originally posted by Dunfaust:

*Snip*

Thanks man, I really appreciate you taking the time. I'll refer to this going forward - If anyone else has any additional advice, I'd love to hear it!