Can someone convince me....

[DannyAIC]

Armor is useful for not taking damage. That's about the size of it. It's not just the +% bonus, but also the removal of the evasion penalty.
Evasion isn't king, like it may have been before. But it helps, and it helps a bunch in really small doses.

But, it doesn't help at negative values.
I did some preliminary testing, specifically to look at the value of negative evasion. Tested in the editor, the number of hits required for a Sand Warg to deal over 500 damage at similar protection values (had to discard trials that included a wound, which made getting good numbers a nightmare). I started testing with a Forest Ogre, but since their club has -acc, I discarded the trials in favor of something probably less obviously biased.


Evasion -45: Average results of 7 trials: 31.16 hits, 1.6 misses
Evasion -23: Average results of 7 trials: 31.6 hits, 1.75 misses.

Evasion values at or exceeding 0 show a dramatic uptake in the number of expected misses. Not tested as thoroughly, but with 3 trials I had 7.2 misses at 0, and 15.8 misses at 25.
I might not buy the 5th point. But if you are taking physical damage, Armor has value. If your playstyle is one that works hard to kite monsters and drop them as fast as possible, go for it. I'm not that good. I get surrounded, and like to not game over when I do.

Yeah, I mean I don't mind reloading as many times as I need to get it right haha maybe that's cheesy i dunno. I think I'm gonna take a few levels of armor, but only after the more important things are done (spells for my battlemage, weapons and crits for my barbarian etc.) You don't get the heavy armor till later anyway. Thanks guys.

[MostlyHarmless]

fwiw, i played the game through once without investing points in armor but still wore heavy sets on three warriors (and light on mage) - this way my warriors were able to max their weapons of choice + accuracy and critical, but suffered a big hit to evasion (-20 or something like that). the game was fine and in particular i was able to kill both final bosses without too much trouble, but i did find it harder than when i invested in armor because predictably i took damage faster. of course my party was a little different on the two plays, but imo armor is worth it for your front line guys.

[any6]

The fifth point is worthless, I'll give you that. 5% more armor isn't going to do much. But 4 points can make a huge difference.

A miss is damage you don't get. Damage that doesn't need healing, injuries that don't ask for a potion. In the long run, it makes a huge difference to have some 20+ evasion on your frontline.

Every point of armor reduces damage by 1 point, it is that straight forward. For a knight with full meteor, each point of armor is about 4 damage reduction. Against small mobs this reduces every hit to a laughable 1 damage. Large mobs (trolls, bosses) continue to inflict big numbers. Big numbers reduces by armor are still big numbers. Big numbers reduces by evasion are 0.

On frontline, you need 5 points in your weapon (heavy or light), a few points in accuracy and some in critical. It is entirely possible to give your frontliners 4 points in armor without noticeably reducing their damage.

On a backline mage (concentration + 3 elements) or ranged (missile/throwing + critical + alchemy) it is far more difficult to get this so I'd stick with light armor.

[minmay]

Every point of armor reduces damage by 1 point, it is that straight forward.

[citation needed]