Armour in PoE2: Flawed by Design!?
# The Problem with Armour
Armour is objectively the worst defensive mechanic in the game, horrendous actually. I don't want to go into all the details, so [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw-uD-vz_5s) and [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=henLgTe4Ztk) are videos from Kripparian, a seasoned PoE 1 player who understands both games quite well.
But just for completeness' sake, here are the main points of why armour is bad, in my opinion:
- Armour only works against *one damage type*, namely physical, while evasion* (most types) and energy shield work against all damage types.
- Armour becomes increasingly ineffective against bigger hits. For example, 2000 armour mitigates 90% of a 50-damage hit, but only around 25% of a 1000-damage hit.
- Armour requires heavy investment that is disproportionate to the benefits it provides compared to other defences. The same amount of passive points and gear investment can result in *much* better defensive layers if spent on other mechanics.
# Possible Solutions
**Ablative Armour**: Armour could work like a shield—it would soak up damage until it "breaks," or lose effectiveness the more damage it absorbs. This is similar to how armour works in real life, and I think that’s a cool concept. This armour shield could either soak up all incoming damage, or just physical, but it would solve the issue of big hits bypassing mitigation. Balance-wise, this would also make it more comparable to resistances, which mitigate a consistent percentage regardless of whether a hit does 10 or 10,000 damage. The armour shield could recharge like ES—maybe with passives for increased regen rate like mana, or even a skill.
**Armour Provides Inherent Life**: Armour could grant a base life bonus—for example, every 100 armour provides +5 base life. A character with 10k armour (which is very doable) would get +500 max life. This would help compensate for the reduced effective life pool and the lack of mitigation against other damage types.
**Armour Keeps Same Effectiveness Regardless of Incoming Damage**: This would make armour function more like elemental resistance, so there’s no downside when taking bigger hits.
**Armour Mitigates All Damage Types with Reduced Effectiveness**: If armour applied to all damage types (even with the same diminishing return formula), it would give players more incentive to invest in it. It would also compensate somewhat for the typically lower effective life pool of armour-based builds compared to energy shield ones.
# Conclusion
In my opinion—and based on experimental data from players who’ve tested armour’s damage mitigation—armour is, respectfully, absolute trash when it comes to defences. Energy shield is clearly the best, as it provides the largest effective health pool. Even with 0 armour, an ES-based character with 10k ES is miles ahead of an armour-stacking character with only 3k life. Armour only works against physical damage, and even then only effectively if the hit isn't too big.
Typically, players die due to boss or rare monster mechanics with high-damage skills or attacks—basically one-shots. No one really dies to a random pack of white mobs. The lower health pool really hurts armour-based builds in many ways.
Furthermore, even if energy shield and evasion were nerfed into the ground, armour would *still* be bad—at best, the lesser evil among bad choices. I hope GGG addresses this outdated and objectively weak implementation of armour. Even in PoE 1 the armour mechanic was better and just barely worked—for different reasons that don't apply to PoE 2.
So for the sake of the game and its future, I hope defensive options get balanced and made equally viable.
**What are your thoughts?**
