Editing Combat (section)

==Defense==
===Skills===
Defensive skills aid in reducing damage received or avoiding it altogether.
* [[Magic Defense]]—Helps you resist magic from spells and magic items.
* [[Melee Defense]]—Helps you evade melee (hand-to-hand) attacks.
* [[Missile Defense]]—Helps you avoid damage in missile (long-ranged) combat.
* [[Shield]]—Use the Shield skill to make full use of shields and magic reducing properties of shields.

===Avoiding an Attack===
====Skill Modifiers====
=====Weapons=====
In addition to the offensive modifiers mentioned above, weapons can also receive bonuses to all three of the main defensive skills. 

Melee defense modifiers can be improved permanently with [[Weapon Tinkering]] ([[Brass Salvage]]) and temporarily with the [[Heart Seeker (Spell)|Heart Seeker]] spell.<br>
Magic and missile defense modifiers can be improved permanently by using the [[Missile Defense Weapon Augmentation]] and [[Magic Defense Weapon Augmentation]] (+0.5%, 1 use, cannot use both augs on a weapon).

<div>
<div style="display:inline-block; vertical-align: top;">[[File:Melee Weapon Defensive Modifiers.jpg|frame|A melee weapon with 2 of the 3 possible modifiers.]]</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; vertical-align: top;">[[File:Ranged Weapon Defensive Modifiers.jpg|frame|Defense modifiers on an elemental ranged weapon.]]</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; vertical-align: top;">[[File:Magic Caster Defensive Modifiers.jpg|frame|Defense modifiers on an elemental magic caster (the melee modifier has been increased further through [[Weapon Tinkering]].]]</div>
</div>

=====Counterattacks=====
If you counterattack at the same height as the target is attacking you will both gain a bonus to melee defense. However, if you counterattack at a different height your defense will be reduced based on the difference in height. A high vs low attack results in a penalty to melee defense and a mid vs low or mid vs high attack results in no penalty.

===Damage Resistance===
====Character Rating====
''Main article: [[Rating]]''

There are also ratings for damage resistance and critical damage resistance that can be increased through various means such as your choice of [[Weapon Mastery]] and through the use of [[Augmentations]]. In addition to resistance ratings, there are rating modifiers for healing, mana consumption, mana charging and aetheria surging.

<div style="display:inline-block">
[[File:Character Damage Reduction Rating.jpg|frame|You can view your current damage ratings by [[Examine Target Panel|assessing]] your character.]]
</div>

====Body Zones and Armor Protection====
''For lists of armor by coverage, see: [[Armor]]''

Wearing armor protects your character's body zones (feet, upper/lower legs, abdomen, upper/lower arms, chest and head) from damage and also gives your character [[spells|endowments]] if the armor is magical. Successful hits on your character always display the body zone affected during melee combat.

:<font color=darkred>Tumerok Gladiator grazes your lower arm for 2 points of bludgeoning damage!</font>

Each piece of armor has a base armor level and a modifier for each element that is a percentage of the base AL. For example, if the base AL is 400 and the protection against electric damage is 200 the modifier is 0.5%. When you ID armor, the base level is shown along with the AL for each elemental protection (buffed, not base, if the values are green) and a description that gives the player a quick idea of the amount of protection for each element.

{|class="wikitable"
!Armor Modifier
!Description
|-
|0.0 to 0.39
|Poor
|-
|0.4 to .79
|Below Average
|-
|0.8 to 1.19
|Average
|-
|1.2 to 1.59
|Above Average
|-
|1.6 to 1.99
|Excellent
|-
|2.0
|Unparalleled 
|}

The base armor level and each individual protection modifier can be permanently improved by using the [[Armor Tinkering]] skill. When tinkering the high AL and unenchantable armor types, [[Covenant Armor]] and loot [[Olthoi Armor (Loot)|Olthoi Armor]]), you can only improve the elemental protections -- steel salvage cannot be used on these armor types.

A modifier cannot be increased above the cap of 2.0 or double the base armor level.

{|class="wikitable"
!Salvage
!Description
!Max % Success
|-
| [[Steel Salvage]]
| Increases Armor's Armor Level by +20
| 100%
|-
| [[Alabaster Salvage]]
| Increases Armor's Piercing Protection by 0.2
| 100%
|-
| [[Armoredillo Hide Salvage]]
| Increases Armor's Acid Protection by 0.4
| 100%
|-
| [[Bronze Salvage]]
| Increases Armor's Slashing Protection by 0.2
| 100%
|-
| [[Ceramic Salvage]]
| Increases Armor's Fire Protection by 0.4
| 100%
|-
| [[Marble Salvage]]
| Increases Armor's Bludgeon Protection by 0.2
| 100%
|-
| [[Peridot Salvage]]
| Imbues the target with a +1 bonus to [[Melee Defense]]
| 38%
|-
| [[Reedshark Hide Salvage]]
| Increases Armor's Lightning Protection by 0.4
| 100%
|-
| [[Wool Salvage]]
| Increases Armor's Cold Protection by 0.4
| 100%
|-
| [[Yellow Topaz Salvage]]
| Imbues the target with a +1 bonus to [[Missile Defense]]
| 38%
|-
| [[Zircon Salvage]]
| Imbues the target with a +1 bonus to [[Magic Defense]]
| 38%
|-
|}

AL can also be temporarily improved by using the [[Impenetrability (Spell)|Impenetrability]] spell and bane spells:
* [[Acid Bane (Spell)|Acid Bane]]
* [[Flame Bane (Spell)|Flame Bane]]
* [[Frost Bane (Spell)|Frost Bane]]
* [[Lightning Bane (Spell)|Lightning Bane]]
* [[Bludgeon Bane (Spell)|Bludgeon Bane]]
* [[Blade Bane (Spell)|Blade Bane]]
* [[Piercing Bane (Spell)|Piercing Bane]]

====Shields====
Shields protect the wielder in a (roughly) 180 degree arc in front of the character. The use of a shield increases stamina loss during attacks with heavier shields causing a greater amount to be lost. Shields can only actively be used while attacking by melee characters and missile weapon characters that use non-atlatl [[Missile Weaponry/Thrown Weapons|thrown weapons]]. Magic, bow and crossbow users all have to unwield their weapon before a shield can be used.

Like body armor, shields have armor levels and protection values for all damage types and elements but do not protect against magic attacks unless they have the [[Magic Absorbing|magic absorbing]] special property.

====Magic Absorbing====
Magic absorbing shields (also known as aegis shields) will negate a portion of all magic projectile attacks. The amount negated depends on the wielder's level of [[Shield|shield]] skill and also the shield itself (shields vary from 10% to 25% max reductions). Magic absorbing shields generally have much lower AL than standard shields are capable of and the 25% reduction shields are all unenchantable.

Although missile weapon users (except non-atlatl thrown weapons) cannot wield a shield, they can add the magic absorbing property to their atlatl, bow or crossbow using the [[Fetish of the Dark Idols]]. The fetish will also reduce the Melee Defense modifier on the missile weapon by 10%. The amount absorbed depends on your base Magic Defense and caps (max) at 25% damage reduction.

For a list of magic absorbing shields and more on the formula for determing magic absorbtion, see [[:Category:Magic Absorbing|magic absorbing]].

====Life Magic and Natural Resistances====
Increasing the attributes, Strength and Endurance (the two are roughly of equivalent importance), allows you to have a level of "natural resistance" to the 7 damage types (bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, acid, fire, cold and electric).

This caps out at 50% resistance (the equivalent to level 5 life protections) to these damage types. This resistance is not additive to life protections: higher level life protections will overwrite these natural resistances, although life vulns will take these natural resistances into account, if the player does not have a higher level life protection cast upon them.

For example, a player will not get a free protective bonus from natural resistances if they have both Prot 7 and Vuln 7 cast upon them. The Prot and Vuln will cancel each other out, and since the Prot has overwritten the natural resistances, there will be no resistance bonus.

Your character's natural resistances, drain resistances, and regeneration rate info is found on the [[Character Information]] panel.

'''Note:''' Natural resistances are not increased by Strength or Endurance buffs. It is the raw Strength and Endurance scores that determine the bonus.

===Stamina Loss===
When you're in combat mode (and your defense is at its maximum), you will lose [[Stamina]] for every incoming attack that you successfully evade. You do not lose stamina when evading attacks in peace mode; however, you will be more open to attack as your defense is at its lowest when out of combat mode.<br>
The rate at which you lose stamina can be reduced by increasing the [[Endurance]] attribute (regeneration bonus) when you have a non magic defensive skill trained or specialized.