Armour

Armour is the term for items that can be equipped to provide defensive bonuses during combat. Most armour sets require a certain Defence level to equip; the higher level an item requires, the greater bonuses it will provide. All armour is classed under a combat style (Melee, Magic, or Ranged), with the exception of Hybrid gear. The strengths and weaknesses of each class's armour play a primary role in defining the combat triangle.

A player's choice of armour can come from more than defence. Some armour sets will strengthen a player's hits, and others can offer equal defence and easy switching of combat styles.

Armour and the combat triangle
The combat triangle is a figure that demonstrates how each combat style relates to another.
 * Melee fighters overcome rangers because their weapons can cut through leather armour with ease. Melee armour is also effective at protecting against Ranged attacks, as their projectiles have difficulty piercing the thick, metal armour.
 * Ranged fighters overcome mages because their projectiles easily penetrate their robes. Ranged armour is usually crafted from tough animal hides with poor energy conductivity, which is highly resistant to Magic attacks.
 * Magic users overcome warriors because their spells conduct in their metal armour, effectively cooking them. Effective mages can also bind warriors while attacking from afar, and their magical robes resist Melee attacks.
 * Being Boss!

As can be seen above, armour plays a defining role in the combat triangle. Depending on an enemy's attacks, an item's Armour stat is used in varying amounts: 110% against the style it is strong against (eg. Melee > Ranged), 100% against the same style (eg. Melee = Melee), and 90% against the style it is weak to (eg. Melee < Magic). To simplify, the batwing torso and blue d'hide body have equal bonuses, but the former is class Magic and the latter class Ranged, and both armours will defend appropriately.

Also, not every item has a class. Some armour is class Hybrid (or class All on particular items), and can be used by any combat style without penalty. Details on Hybrid armour can be found here.

Wearing an item of the wrong class in any slot except the cape will penalise your accuracy. 80% of the item's Armour bonus is subtracted from your Accuracy stat. Capes are unaffected: this is likely a bug.

Melee armour

 * Melee armour is usually made from metal and is typically the heaviest gear.
 * Melee armour defends best against Ranged attacks and is weak to Magic attacks.
 * Some Melee armour may be created with the Smithing skill.
 * In some melee sets, boots and gloves are very hard to acquire.

Ranged armour

 * Ranged armour is usually crafted from animal skins, commonly dragonhide.
 * Ranged armour defends well against Magic attacks and is weak to Melee attacks.
 * Some Ranged armour may be produced with the Crafting skill.
 * In dragonhide ranged sets, boots are nonexistent.

Magic armour

 * Magic armour is not armour as commonly envisioned, but instead robes and similar garments.
 * Magic armour defends well against Melee attacks and is vulnerable to Ranged attacks.
 * Some Magic armour may be produced with the Crafting skill, or Runecrafting for higher-end sets.

Armour types
There are five types of armour one may find, most with different stats and purposes:
 * Tank: Tank armour provides the largest Armour bonuses. It is the only armour type to reduce damage in PvM or have a Life bonus. Most armour in the game is of this type.


 * Power: Power armour gives less Armour bonus than Tank armour, but it has a damage bonus similar to jewellery. The damage bonus increases with the tier of the armour.
 * Elite black armour (tier 40)
 * Dagon'hai robes (tier 40)
 * Fremennik armour (tier 50)
 * Rock-shell armour
 * Spined armour
 * Skeletal armour
 * Demon slayer equipment (tier 60)
 * God Wars Dungeon armour (tier 70)
 * Bandos armour
 * Armadyl armour
 * Robes of subjugation
 * Nex armour (tier 80)
 * Torva armour
 * Pernix armour
 * Virtus armour
 * Malevolent armour (tier 90)
 * Sirenic armour (tier 90)
 * Tectonic armour (tier 90)


 * PvP: PvP armour is especially good in PvP circumstances, or even in PvE. It offers the Armour bonus of Tank armour and the damage bonus of Power armour. It also reduces as much damage in PvP as Tank armour.
 * Combat robes (tier 20)
 * Penance armour (tier 40 various)
 * Corrupt Ancient Warriors' equipment (tier 40)
 * Corrupt Statius's equipment
 * Corrupt Vesta's equipment
 * Corrupt Morrigan's equipment
 * Corrupt Zuriel's equipment
 * Void Knight equipment (tier 45, 55 superior)
 * Elite Void Knight equipment (tier 50, 60 superior)
 * Battle robes (tier 60)
 * Ancient Warriors' equipment (tier 80)
 * Statius's equipment
 * Vesta's equipment
 * Morrigan's equipment
 * Zuriel's equipment


 * Hybrid: True to its word, Hybrid armour can be used by all combat styles without accuracy penalty. Hybrid armour carries lower defence than the above armours, but it defends equally well against all combat styles; it increases the block chance for each style equally, regardless of the other gear a player is wearing. It is useful when frequently changing attack style, or if fighting a monster that uses multiple attack styles. The following armour sets are Hybrid:
 * Pathfinder armour (tier 1)
 * Dragonstone armour (tier 50)
 * Tasks set (tiers 30, 40, 50, and 60)
 * Akrisae the Doomed's equipment (tier 70)
 * Ghost hunter equipment (tiers 20, 50, and 70)
 * Warpriest armour (tiers 25, 50, and 75)
 * Golden warpriest armour (tier 75)
 * Hybrid armour (tier 85) (Only in certain PvP minigames: Castle Wars, Soul Wars, Fist of Guthix, TzHaar Fight Pit)
 * Vanguard Armour
 * Battlemage armour
 * Trickster armour


 * All: This armour moderately redistributes the player's total defensive ratings throughout the combat triangle to balance their block chance for each style. The following armour sets or items are classed as All:
 * Void Knight equipment (tier 45, 55 superior)
 * Elite Void Knight equipment (tier 50, 60 superior)
 * Obsidian armour (tier 60)
 * Relic helms (tier 60)
 * Silverhawk boots (tiers 1 to 60)
 * Dragon Rider armour (tier 70)
 * Culinaromancer's gloves (tiers 1 to 70)

Power, Hybrid and All armour have lower defensive bonuses than Tank or PvP gear of the same level. Using Tank as a base, their bonuses are derived as follows:

To demonstrate, here are the bonuses of tier 60 torso armour for each type:

Damage bonus
The damage bonus from Power armour exists as Strength Bonus, Ranged Bonus, and Magic Bonus — the same bonuses as on jewellery. They are added to the player's main-hand damage bonus if they match the class of the wielded weapon. For example, if one wields an abyssal whip, the Strength Bonus from Bandos armour would affect their damage and the Ranged Bonus from Armadyl armour would not.

Should an off-hand be wielded, 50% of any damage bonus will also be added to the off-hand slot. If a two-handed weapon is wielded, the main-hand slot receives this 50% bonus.

The damage bonuses from Power armour scale with the level of the armour. A full set provides an approximate 13% increase to a weapon's damage, assuming the armour and weapon are of equal level. Should a Fast or Average speed weapon be wielded, any damage bonuses will be multiplied to compensate for the player's larger damage stat.

The total damage bonus from a set of Power armour is distributed as follows:

Damage reduction
Damage reduction is available on all armour types in PvP, and only on Tank armour in PvM. It comes as two percentages that may be observed on the Loadout screen.

Gloves, boots and shields of all armour types do not reduce damage in PvP.

The reduction from an item is determined by its tier, slot, and armour type, and functions as a percentage.

PvM reduction from Tank armour

 * Head: $$0.02 \times tier$$
 * Body: $$0.02 \times tier$$
 * Legs: $$0.02 \times tier$$
 * Gloves: $$0.02 \times tier$$
 * Boots: $$0.02 \times tier$$

PvP reduction from Tank and PvP armour

 * Head: $$0.0375 \times tier$$
 * Body: $$0.06 \times tier$$
 * Legs: $$0.0525 \times tier$$

PvP reduction from Power, Hybrid and All armour

 * Head: $$0.01875 \times tier$$
 * Body: $$0.03 \times tier$$
 * Legs: $$0.02625 \times tier$$

PvM reduction from shields

 * Shield: $$0.1 \times tier$$

Attributes
There are three attributes an armour piece may have: Armour, Life and Damage.


 * Armour raises the chance to block attacks from a creature or player.
 * Life raises the player's maximum life points. It is found on head, body, and leg Tank armour at tiers 80 and above, shields at tiers 70 and above, and on Nex armour.
 * Damage raises the strength of your hits. It is seen as Strength Bonus, Ranged Bonus, and Magic Bonus. Armour-wise, only capes, Power armour and PvP armour have this attribute.

The bonuses on armour are set via formula, and thus it is possible to determine or approximate the stats of non-existent gear. All armour sets of the same level and type will have identical bonuses.

As mentioned previously, some armour may also have a Prayer bonus. A Prayer bonus does not help defensively, but lowers the drain rate of active prayers.

Calculating Armour bonus
The formulas for calculating Armour bonus are derived from a base defensive value:

$$ \mbox{Base} = \frac{\mbox{tier}^3}{500} + (10 \times \mbox{tier}) + 100 $$

Using this base, the Armour bonus of each equipment slot is as follows:


 * Head: $$0.2 \times \mbox{Base}$$
 * Body: $$0.23 \times \mbox{Base}$$
 * Legs: $$0.22 \times \mbox{Base}$$
 * Shield: $$0.2 \times \mbox{Base}$$
 * Gloves: $$0.05 \times \mbox{Base}$$
 * Boots: $$0.05 \times \mbox{Base}$$
 * Cape: $$0.03 \times \mbox{Base}$$
 * Ring: $$0.02 \times \mbox{Base}$$

One may find charts with the bonuses of many armour tiers here.

Calculating Life bonus
Note that Life bonus is only found on shields at tiers 70 and above, or Tank armour at tiers 80 and above in the head, body, and leg slots.

The results for certain tiers may be seen here.


 * Head: $$(tier - 69) \times 20$$
 * Body: $$(tier - 69) \times 40$$
 * Legs: $$(tier - 69) \times 30$$
 * Shield: $$(tier - 69) \times 35$$

Calculating Damage bonus
The results for certain tiers may be seen here.


 * Head: $$tier \times 0.25$$
 * Body: $$tier \times 0.375$$
 * Legs: $$tier \times 0.3125$$
 * Gloves: $$tier \times 0.15625$$
 * Boots: $$tier \times 0.15625$$
 * Cape: $$?$$

Prayer armour
Several armour pieces have a Prayer bonus which reduces the drain rate of prayers. Some armour sets, such as Verac's or those from the God Wars Dungeon, have strong defences and are used regardless of Prayer, but other Prayer armours have negligible defences and are used solely for the Prayer bonus.

Most Prayer armour is only available for members, but monk's robes can be used by all and are found at the monastery.

Set effects
Some armour sets have passive effects when every item is worn, potentially allowing greater use for a set. Some passives boost damage like Power armour, but others may increase accuracy, heal the player, drain enemies' stats or adrenaline, and more besides. Nearly every armour set with an effect is available to members only.

A example of these are the Barrows sets, which have unique passives and are commonly seen. Another set used is the Void Knight equipment, which boosts both damage and accuracy. There are other sets besides, such as PvP minigame armour and robes from the Fist of Guthix minigame.

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