Editing Combat (section)

====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]]