Armor & Weapons

For many people who play Albion their main concern is their armor and weapons. And for good reason. More than anything else, your armor and weapons affect your Albion experience. They affect how you look, how you move, where you go, and how often you'll find yourself being murdered by a fellow player. I encourage you to explore your Destiny Board and read through abilities and passives. I won't go into detail about stats or list all of the abilities in this guide because the game is still in Beta and many of these things are subject to change.  However, this guide will help deepen your understanding of how the armor and weapon system is set up.

You Are What You Wear
Unlike many other games where you first choose a class or profession and then the game tells you what types of items you are allowed to wear, in Albion anybody can wear anything.  All you have to do is put in the effort (or spend Learning Points) to unlock the weapon or armor you wish to use. This also means that every single person has the exact same stats when naked.  Whether you've been playing for 8 months or 4 minutes, all naked people are equal.

While the armor and weapons are broken up into 3 sets - Warrior, Hunter and Mage - you are completely able to mix and match as you please.  In fact none of my personal builds stay entirely within one Set.  Because there are no limitations tying you to one set, you have a lot of freedom to plan out your unique niche (or just copy someone else's).  You can be a battle mage, or a speedy swordsman, or a great hammer user in a yellow dress (er... robe).  I mean, not every mismatched outfit is going to be a great idea, but there's nothing stopping you from trying it if you're willing to put in the effort to unlock the gear.

For example, while it is perfectly possible to use a healing staff while in full plate armor, it is still a better idea to wear cloth if you wish to be an effective healer because of the passive bonus to your heals that you receive from cloth chests. (More on this later.)

Choosing Your Gear
When choosing what gear you wish to use there are three main things to consider - Abilities, Passives and Stats.  Firstly, you want to look at the active abilities.  These are the most distinctive differences between specific weapons or armor pieces. I personally suggest choosing your weapon first and then designing your armor in a way that most benefits your weapon and its strengths and weaknesses. So look through the abilities on the weapons and decide what you would like to do. Do you want to burn people alive with a fire staff? Or would you rather disembowel them with claws?

Once you have chosen a weapon, start planning your armor.  Does your weapon's playstyle rely on movement speed? Soaking up damage? Hard-hitting burst damage? Check out the the different armor abilities and choose the defensive, movement or offensive abilities that best serve you.

But wait, there's more. Abilities aren't the only ways in which armors differ. Armors also provide different stats which - in the case of armor chest pieces - drastically affect your damage and resistances. For example, my 6.2 leather Hunter Jacket has a stat that increases my Physical Attack Bonus by +25% while my 6.2 cloth Mage Robe has a stat that increases my Physical Attack Bonus by +58%.  I just went and auto attacked a mob and while wearing my Hunter Jacket my normal auto attacks hit for 66 damage.  I swapped to the Mage Robe and now my auto are hitting for 83. So when choosing your chest armor you need to balance the benefits of the active abilities with the benefits of the stat bonuses.

Armor Stats
I won't list stats but here are a few tips:
All Helmets and Boots of the same tier have identical stats. Any T4 helmet will offer you THE EXACT SAME stat improvements to your Max HitPoints, Max Energy, CC Resistance, Health Regen, and Energy Regen.  All T6 boots, whether they be Guardian Boots, Hunter Shoes, or Scholar Sandals, will give you identical stats.  Therefore your choice of Helmet or Boot should be based solely on the Active and Passive Abilities.

Armor Chest stats are unique. The armor chest pieces are where the stats differ based on type and these differences greatly affect tankiness, damage output, healing and threat generation.  Therefore when deciding on a chest piece it is best to focus on the stats first and then choose between your options in what you decide is your acceptable stat range for your type of character.  Go to the Destiny Board and click through the different armor chests to check out the differences in stat bonuses.

Example: It might be tempting to want to take Guardian Armor on a healer. Guardian Armor has an ability called Enfeeble Aura which creates a field around you that decreases the damage dealt by enemies by 60% and slows them by 15%. That sounds like a great ability for a healer or support class.  However the Guardian Armor has absolutely no stat bonus for healing. On the other hand, the three cloth chests - Scholar, Cleric and Mage Robes - offer either a Healing Cast Bonus of +40%, +45%, and +50% with the option of taking the passive ability Charity which grants an additional +8% to heals.  This means that for the same energy cost as a Guardian Armor healer using their healing abilities, a Mage Robe healer will heal for +58% more.  So if the Guardian Armor would heal for 300 with an ability, the Mage Robe would heal for 474 for the same amount of energy spent.  That is a difference that can definitely be felt in a team fight.

Abilities - Actives and Passives
Every armor and weapon offers you a choice of between several active abilities and several passive abilities.  Some of these abilities are available right away and others get unlocked at T6. These abilities are chosen by clicking on the gear in your inventory or while you're wearing it, clicking Spells and then clicking on the little circles and dragging to the ability you want. The abilities available are mostly determined by type and have a few general options and one unique option.

When it comes to weapons once you reach at least T3 you get to choose 3 active abilities - the standard keybinds for these are Q, W, and E - and 1 passive ability.  The first two abilities, Q and W, are the same within each weapon subset.  So within the Sword subset, all swords are given the option between the same abilities on their first two actives.  It is the third ability that is unique to that specific weapon and that ability is not a choice. All swords also choose between the same passives.  Abilities can be changed at any time but will put all of your abilities on a short cooldown whenever you change them while wearing the gear. (Equipping gear also puts you on a short universal cooldown).

For armor, each armor piece gives you one active and one passive ability. Each Set offers the same passives and two general active abilities and one unique ability.  So all Warrior armor pieces have the same 3 passives available, Hunter armors have a different 3 passives, and Mage has its own. For actives, each armor piece has one unique ability, one that is general for the Set, and one that is general for the type.  All Helmets offer Energy Regain, all Chests offer Mend Wounds, and all Boots offer Flee.

Item Power
You can see any gear's stats by clicking on it's icon (whether in your inventory, in an inspection window, or from the Destiny Board). The top stat is its Item Power.  Item power is affected by several factors including Tier, Enchantment, and Quality. The rest of the stats that you gain by equipping that piece of gear are listed below and you can read through them. Some of these stats are percent bonuses  like the Magic Attack Bonus. These percent bonuses are determined entirely by the type of armor and, in some cases, passive abilities.  A higher tier gear of the same type will not have a higher percent bonus. Other stats, non-percent stats, such as Armor, Max HitPoints, and Physical Damage are affected by the gear's item power and will be greater at higher tiers and better qualities.

There are several factors that affect Item Power. The biggest factor is Tier. Like everything else in Albion, armor and weapons are divided into eight tiers - Tier 8 being the strongest. The jump from T3 to T4 gives 200 additional Item Power.  Each tier after that gives an additional 100 Item Power, which is then translated into additional stats.

Gear can also be crafted from enchanted resources and each level of Enchantment is worth an additional 100 Item Power (equivalent to a full tier).  There are 4 levels of enchantment. Common (or .1) is the base resource level. Uncommon (.2) is next, indicated by two green dots. Then Rare (.3 with 3 blue dots) and Exceptional (.4 with 4 purple dots). Because the enchanted resources make the item stronger you can often match item power with a lower tier if you can afford the enchanted version.  So a T4.4 fire staff is equal in Item Power to a flat T7 fire staff and will do the same damage with identical abilities.

The third thing that affects Item Power is crafting Quality. Whenever an item is crafted in Albion it is randomly generated a Quality Level.  Crafters with greater skill and mastery have a higher chance of crafting high Quality gear. Quality can also be re-rolled at the Repair Station if you pay a fee.  Last Beta I used to re-roll quality for all my gear, but in this Beta they made it way more expensive and honestly I don't see much point.  (Others will disagree strongly with that statement, I just prefer not to spend money I don't have to.)  Looking through my weapons in my GvG sets right now, each increase of Quality level only seems to be giving me an increase of 1 or 2 physical damage.  I don't feel like paying a bunch of money for the slim possibility of 1 more damage. An item's Quality is listed in its stats and is also indicated by a decorative border in the upper left corner of the item's icon.

My Builds
I am going to briefly describe my two main builds and my reasoning behind my choices so you can see an example full build.  Each build serves a specific purpose and is built around a certain style of PvP.

Sareena's GvG/Team Fight Build:
Carrioncaller - Heroic Strike, Heavy Smash, Morgana Raven, Increased Defense
Guardian Helmet -  Stone Skin, Toughness
Mage Robe - Frost Shield, Aggression
Soldier Boots - Sprint Shield, Toughness

In my Team Fight build, I run with Carrioncaller which is a type of Axe with a AoE skill shot on the third ability that bleeds and reduces incoming healing on all enemies struck by it.  This skill shot does a lot of damage and covers the choke points on most GvG maps very well.  A well timed E can decimate an enemy team. With this weapon I take Heroic Strike on my Q because it is flat instant damage and less than half the energy cost of the bleed. The bleed is strong, but I find that I run out of energy too quickly when I'm trying to maintain 3 stacks of the bleed and more often a good flat damage hit is more helpful in finishing off an enemy.  I then take the Heavy Smash on my W because of its high damage and the debuff it inflicts on the enemy target's armor and magic resist.  (For duels against high mobility targets like a warbow, I will swap my W to Battle Frenzy so I can stay in their face.)

For my armor I take Mage Robe for the bonus to my damage.  I then take all defensive abilities as I tend to get focused a lot by the enemy team.  I take the defensive ability Stone Skin, rather than Ice Block from Cleric Hood, because I prefer to be mobile and keep fighting rather than stay in stasis. I also take the passive on my weapon that increases my defensive stats after every 5 auto attacks.

Sareena's Ganking/Open World Build:
Pike - Spirit Spear, Cripple, Rooting Smash, Slow Poison
Mage Cowl - Poison, Aggression
Hunter Jacket - Haste, Increase Move Speed
Scholar Boots - Run, Aggression

While my Team Fight build is all about defense and damage, my Open World build is all about mobility and control. First of all, I use Pike which is a type of Spear. This weapon has a stackable Q that buffs my auto attack damage and increases its range.  At 3 stacks I have the range of a bow but with more auto attack damage and if I stack a 4th time I lose all stacks but gain a speed boost.  This is helpful for chasing prey or for escaping from groups. Cripple is a close range ability that removes all speed buffs from an enemy target.  In such cases where the speed buff grants additional bonuses (like the Sword's Iron Will sprint which gives defenses as well) it removes those bonuses as well. The unique ability for the pike is a targeted melee range ability that roots the target and damages them based on how many stacks you had on your Q.  When 3 stacked, the Rooting Smash does a ton of damage. I then take Poison on the helmet for a ton of easy damage, Haste for the extra sprint and attack speed buff, and Run for the increased speed.

When ganking, this build is meant to give me the speed I need to catch up with a passing horse in gallop, the CC to stop the horse long enough for me to use abilities, and the damage to dismount the target.  Cripple is to remove their sprint after they are dismounted and they try to flee from me. In Open World fighting around objectives, this build gives good sustained damage, lots of mobility to kite the enemy, and good burst damage with the rooting smash and poison helm.  It has no defensive abilities so it relies entirely on your good positioning to keep you from dying.