Gear sets

2nd Sword Division non-cosmetic gear set 3D renders. 3D model by Keith Kovach.^[1]

Not all armor sets will be the cookie cutter set. They will have the influences from the crafter available in it, if it's a crafted set.^[2] – Steven Sharif

Equipping the Titanbark gear set in Alpha-2.^[3]

We're going relatively traditional in the gear access points by being driven by level tier that players will have access to. So as you advance in your adventuring class you will begin to unlock the ability to equip gear of a higher level.^[4] – Steven Sharif

Gear sets (also known as tier sets) are a part of Ashes of Creation.^[5]^[4]^[6]

In general, higher tier gear will be from gear sets.^[5]

Q: How often will armor be part of an entire armor set with other cosmetically matching pieces versus unique armor pieces that don't match or go along with anything else in the game?

A: There is a balance of both set pieces and non-set pieces and usually you're going to see at higher grades within a tier are going to be more predominantly set driven; and the lower interstitial power levels of the gear for that tier are the potentially bespoke pieces; and obviously those pieces are catered around a number of different interactions, such as ones you get from quests, ones that you get from drops, ones that you can craft, ones that you get from legendary bosses, ones that you get from guild-oriented tasks, or in-game favor and unique currencies. So there's different types of acquisition models and each of them has a spattering of either bespoke pieces or set-oriented pieces; and there are even varying levels of set pieces as well. So you might have a full eight piece set, or a three-piece set, or a five piece set, depending on where it lives within the tier.^[5] – Steven Sharif

Players gain bonuses depending on the number and tier of pieces they have equipped.^[5]^[4]^[6]

Racial appearance of gear sets is tied to the character model of that race.^[7]

It will be possible to store and swap gear loadouts with a single button press when out of combat.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Approximately 49 unique gear sets were obtainable in Alpha-1 from crafting, quests, drops and exploration.^[11] These were unique sets with different stats, but some may be similar in appearance.^[11]

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

There are passive abilities that can be chosen to become more adept with certain set types.^[6]
There will be viable non-set builds.^[12]

Set bonuses

Players gain bonuses depending on the number and tier of pieces they have equipped.^[5]^[4]^[6]

An overarching set effect is granted to wearers of exclusively one "type" of armor, for example: all cloth, or all plate.^[13]
There may be set bonuses that members of certain communities will obtain based on gear set type.^[5]^[6]
Set bonuses will not provide new abilities, but certain higher-end weapons and armor will have active abilities, but the intention is that these abilities will not radically redefine the way an archetype is played.^[14]

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Certain set bonuses may trade off core gear stats.^[12]

List of gear sets

Alpha-2 in-game achievable Carphin robe gear set 3D turntable. 3D model by Emanuel Gonzalez.^[15]

A lot of games that I've been a player of, the cosmetics look better. They incentivize you to acquire the cosmetics because they always look way better than what's achievable in-game. This is our attempt to create parity in that regard.^[15] – Steven Sharif

In-game achievable gear sets.^[15]^[11]^[4]^[6]

Item rarities

Item rarities in Ashes of Creation.

Armor weights

Kaelar armor.^[24]

You're not going to get one set of armor that's going to be situationally relevant for every encounter you might face- that's crazy- and as a result of that you're going to have to succeed in acquiring sets that are situationally relevant for the types of encounters you are intending to face.^[25] – Steven Sharif

Light, medium, and heavy armor weights have different characteristics.^[26]

Stat values will be predominately the same but may be able to be adjusted by crafters who are capable with that type of armor.^[26]
- Physical Defense Mitigation.^[26]
- Magical Defense Mitigation.^[26]

The stat values on armor can include both damage dealing and damage mitigation stats.^[25]

Certain armor types are going to have certain type of predominant stat values. So there's going to be certain waterfall stats and/or certain primary attributes that are available on certain armor types; and then if you want to have the one that's not more prominently available- those will be rare to get- you'll have to elicit the services of a crafter who's very capable within that particular type of armor in order to get the non-traditional stats and/or waterfalls available. So there's still the ability to get whatever on these but they're going to be more predetermined for certain types of stats and waterfalls.^[26] – Steven Sharif

Set bonuses are granted to wearers of exclusively one "type" of armor, for example: all cloth, or all plate.^[26]^[26]^[13]

There'll be certain types of set bonuses granted across specific full sets or partial sets of armor types. There will be a similar function in how damage is mitigated based on the type of armor you're wearing and how that relates to physical or magical incoming damage. So that's something to keep in mind. It's going to be situational what type of adversarial foe am I facing and what armor is the best against that to mitigate damage.^[26] – Steven Sharif

The "type" of armor (cloth, leather, plate) a character is predominantly wearing is visible in their nameplate.^[26]^[27]
- There will be strengths and weaknesses for armor sets that opponents can exploit with gear enhancements, for example.^[26]

You're going to have certain strengths and weaknesses of armor sets and those can be specced into by your opponents. For example, I might place some type of elemental enhancements on my weapon that horizontally changes my outgoing damage and that's going to reflect based on the opponent on my target opponent and what type of armor they have available to them to counter that.^[26] – Steven Sharif

Itemization choice may potentially play into universal skill sets such as Dodge, Parry, and Active blocking.^[26]

We're playing a little bit with the idea of these universal skill sets, such as dodge, parry, block, active blocking, stuff like that; and progression within those areas. There is something to be said I think for incorporating itemization choice as part of that system as well; and how it might affect that system. That's something that I think is going to be coming up in the pitch phase here shortly from design as we implement those universal skills. So you can look out in the future for more information on that.^[26] – Steven Sharif

Light armor

Kaelar Level 20 robe set 3D render.^[28]

This set is a level 20 set and this is not cosmetic. This is an in-game achievable armor set I believe.^[28] – Steven Sharif

Light armor (also referred to as Robes and Cloth armor).^[29]^[30]

Light armor is more mobile than heavier armor.^[31]
Light armor is geared towards magical damage mitigation.^[32]^[33]

Medium armor

Level 10-20 crafted leather armor set 3D render.^[34]

Leather gives you a blend between both worlds. It also will have different types of set benefits that aren't purely related to damage mitigation. So that could be outgoing skill damage, it could be critical chances, it could be some other waterfall stats that are associated with it. Our armors don't just boil down to damage type mitigation.^[25] – Steven Sharif

Medium armor (also referred to as Leather armor) can incorporate robe, chainmail, and plate, influences.^[29]^[30]^[35]

May provide some benefits from light armor or heavy armor.^[25]
May also include benefits that aren't purely related to damage mitigation, such as improved critical chance.^[25]

Heavy armor

Tier 5 in-game earnable Kaelar plate armor 3D renders.^[36]

Heavy armor is predominantly plate metal, but may incorporate other influences, such as leather.^[35]

Heavy armor typically has more HP than lighter armor.^[31]
Heavy armor is geared towards physical damage mitigation.^[32]

Resistances

Different damage types are mitigated by the defensive stats (resistances) on different types of armor.^[32]

Certain damage types will be strong or weak against certain enemy types. So you'll have to be somewhat smart about who you're bringing where, or what abilities or specs. Obviously, you'll be able to do the content, but you'll have an easier time with certain contents if you're using a certain spec over others.^[37] – Tradd Thompson

Magic damage is mitigated by cloth armor (light armor).^[38]^[32]^[39]^[40]

Holy/radiant damage are modifying energy types that have corresponding synergies and resistances.^[37]^[41]
- Undead mobs are weak against holy magic.^[37]

Physical damage is mitigated by plate armor (heavy armor).^[32]
- Different classes of weapons may deal different types of physical damage: Bludgeoning damage, Slashing damage, Piercing damage.^[42]^[43]

Players will be able to counter resistances with resistance penetration stats.^[44]

When there's a lot of different complexity that exists between the multi-layered interactions of damage mitigation, resistances, damage penetration... those things stack up over time and there's an opportunity for that subtlety to be more expressed when the receiving target is, let's say, weak to that or... chosen not to spec into any resistances against that. That keeps things fresh and it also keeps a healthy level of itemization progression that's necessary for the player as well.^[45] – Steven Sharif

There is also non-mitigated damage.^[32]

Monsters will have certain types of resistances based on its type.^[46]^[44]

Not every monster is going to have unique resistances. They'll share groups of types of resistances based on whether that monster is a particular elemental affinity or a particular heavy armor, particular weapon type, stuff like that. So there will be resistances groups that are shared by certain types of monsters and their location and as it relates to their lower background and stuff like that.^[44] – Steven Sharif

Best-in-slot gear

A design goal for Ashes of Creation is to not have overarching best-in-slot items (BiS) that are meta for all situations.^[47]

What is considered best-in-slot is based on a character's role and the type of encounter they are facing.^[47]^[48]

There's still going to be customization within realms for your archetype that you will want to spec into, knowing you're going into a certain fight, or into a certain raid, or into a certain war, or whatever it may be: and you may want to spec specifically and gear specifically and have people set up in a way that makes the most sense for that.^[49] – Margaret Krohn

Crafted items are considered best-in-slot in Ashes of Creation.^[50] Previously it was stated that crafted items will be on-par with best-in-slot items.^[51]

Instanced content will contain scripted and difficult boss fights that drop gear, but the gear drops will not be best-in-slot. These can only be found in the open world.^[52]