Leather armor

Level 10-20 crafted leather armor set 3D render.^[1]

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.^[2] – Steven Sharif

Medium armor (also referred to as Leather armor) can incorporate robe, chainmail, and plate, influences.^[3]^[4]^[5]

May provide some benefits from light armor or heavy armor.^[2]
May also include benefits that aren't purely related to damage mitigation, such as improved critical chance.^[2]

List of leather armor

- None -

Armor characteristics

Kaelar armor.^[6]

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.^[2] – Steven Sharif

Armor characteristics are in general determined by the "type" of armor (Light, Medium, Heavy).^[7]

Stat values will be predominately the same but may be able to be adjusted by crafters who are capable with that type of armor.^[7]
- Physical Defense Mitigation.^[7]
- Magical Defense Mitigation.^[7]

The stat values on armor can include both damage dealing and damage mitigation stats.^[2]

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.^[7] – Steven Sharif

Set bonuses are granted to wearers of exclusively one type of armor, for example: all cloth, or all plate.^[7]^[7]^[8]

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.^[7] – Steven Sharif

The "type" of armor (cloth, leather, plate) a character is predominantly wearing is visible in their nameplate.^[7]^[9]
- There will be strengths and weaknesses for armor sets that opponents can exploit with gear enhancements, for example.^[7]

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.^[7] – Steven Sharif

Itemization choice may potentially play into universal skill sets such as Dodge, Parry, and Active blocking.^[7]

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.^[7] – Steven Sharif

Class weapons and armor

Weapons and armor are not class locked, but certain classes are more efficient with certain types of weapons or armor.^[10]^[11] Certain abilities require certain items to be equipped.^[12]

Weapons are intended to be somewhat agnostic in the sense that you can find a way for a weapon to be utilized by different classes. Not just the rogue is going to be able to use daggers. Because if you restrict equipment through that, it makes the economy more difficult to have sustainability across the market of items.^[13] – Steven Sharif

Q: We had stated that we were going to allow people to use any class combination, which would be both your archetypes together, being able to use any weapon. Do we see problems that could occur with that, for instance like a bow tank, or an orb tank or things like- will there be some strangeness there, or are there problems that you first are foreseeing in the future?

A: We're giving a lot of flexibility to the crafters in our game. They get to help define the stat block that a particular item, weapon, or gear has; and that stat block can be relevant to any particular class or archetype combination. So in that sense the idea is, no not to see any strangeness there or not to see any elements that would dissuade a person from that customization perspective.^[14] – Steven Sharif

Racial weapons and armor

Armor racial appearances in early Alpha-1.^[15]

Violet light and myself are wearing exactly the same armor set right: Same stats, same everything, but it drops for her it looks one way, it drops for me it looks another way; and... a small part of that is gender, but then the other part of it is race. So because I was a Vaelune in that playthrough my armor was in the Vaelune style; and when she picked it up it was in the elven style because she was an elf. So that kind of gives you an example of sort of the breadth of looks that we're going for and how we kind of try to capture like who you are as as a character and kind of allow you to kind of build your look that way.^[16] – Jeffrey Bard

Dünir and Empyrean racially styled armor concept art by Keith Kovach.^[17]

We have essentially sets that exist across all races; and each race that dons those armor sets is going to have their own racial influence on the presentation of those particular sets. So that's something that's unique in how each of the races get diversified.^[18] – Steven Sharif

Weapons and armor are not race locked, but armor will take on a racial appearance.^[18]^[19]^[20]

The customization of equipment per race is really focused on Armor sets not Weapon props. Weapon props will, from a model standpoint, will translate pretty one-to-one across the races.^[21] – Steven Sharif

Racial appearance of gear is focused on Armor. Weapons will not change in appearance but will scale in size based on race.^[22]^[21]

Let's say for example you have the Eagle set or something, right: The Eagle set has in art, it has a thematic design that's going to include certain attachments to the armor. It's going to include color palette and theme. It's going to have some aspects to it that define it as the Eagle set, right. When a Elf wears the Eagle set or when an Orc wears the Eagle set, you obviously have two different cultures there; and you don't want to stomp out that culture by assigning a de facto 'This is the Eagle set and this is how it looks on everybody.' What we want to have is cultural influences play a role in showing how that set looks.^[21] – Steven Sharif

Racial appearance of gear sets is tied to the character model of that race.^[23]

When you say, what if I'm an Orc but want to look like an Elf and I want my Eagle set to be the Elf representation? Well the issue becomes there that you know Orcs have a different organic model. You know, their body is different than that of the Elf. So, from a scope-creep standpoint, it's one thing to add different influences that represent the cultures that are donning the armor; it's another thing to adapt each influence as a matrix that can be worn pretty much by everything. From a scope perspective, that's a very difficult task for the character artists to kind of tackle. So instead what we've done is, in order to facilitate a variety of cultural representation between the races but allow for the sharing of assets like different armor sets, we give different representations of those armor sets to each race.^[23] – Steven Sharif

Appearance

Alpha-1 female plate armor 3D render.^[24]

We want to be realistic with the application of particular types of armor, such as plate armor. In this regard for the different sexes there's a fine line that has to be drawn between accentuating the form of the sex as well as making it somewhat realistic and actually applicable to the environment.^[24] – Steven Sharif

Gear is intended to be realistic in appearance.^[25]^[26]

There will not be "oversized" weapons.^[27]
Armor will not be overly sexual in appearance.^[26]
I'm more of the mind that it wouldn't really serve a purpose to have bikini plate armor, just in like reality, if you're going to have armor, it should be protective. I think from a fashion statement is enjoyable for some people, but it's a kind of an immersive issue.^[25] – Steven Sharif
- Some armor and costumes will be more revealing than others, but there will not be nudity in the game.^[28]
There might be sliders, but there are not gonna be naked sliders.^[28] – Steven Sharif

Armor will take on a racial appearance.^[21] Weapons will scale in size based on race.^[22]

Each race is getting its custom geo pieces, which then will share thematic components such as color palette, attachments, design filigree. Those types of things will get shared across the geo but generally you're going to see unique races with unique geo.^[29] – Steven Sharif

Cosmetics can be used by all races but there may be slight variations to make them work with the body builds of each race.^[30]

Players can change gear colors using dyes.^[31]^[32]

Helmet display can be toggled on and off.^[33]

Hair will likely be masked if helmet display is toggled on.^[34]

Particle effects are used to denote the importance and rarity of some weapons.^[35]

Crafters are able to influence what their crafted items will look like.^[36]^[37]

Weapons are able to be sheathed.^[38]^[39]

Appearance slots/Transmogs

Gear will have appearance slots (Transmutation/Transmog/cosmetic slots) that are used to copy the appearance of an item (in some cases).^[40]^[41]

There are rules when applying cosmetics to specific items, unlike costumes, which don't have level restrictions.^[42]
Cosmetic slots can be toggled on or off on their character by the player.^[43]
A "default player appearance" may be automatically applied during sieges or other large scale battles to improve client-side performance.^[44]^[45]

Cosmetics, whether purchased from the shop or earned in game, are an important component of MMORPGS I personally enjoy; and there's a lot of collectors out there who spend a great deal of time either in-game achieving these things or spend money purchasing them from the cosmetic only marketplace; and we don't want to demean or reduce that achievement or that expenditure. So it's going to be situational where the default appearance will be applied and can be activated.^[44] – Steven Sharif

Gear sets

Equipping the Titanbark gear set in Alpha-2.^[46]

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.^[47] – Steven Sharif

Empyrean tier 2 (level 20) early Alpha-1 leather armor non-cosmetic set 3D renders.^[48]

Gear sets (also known as tier sets) are a part of Ashes of Creation.^[47]^[41]

Different tiers of gear are accessible based on a character's level.^[47]^[41]
Players gain bonuses depending on the number of pieces of the set they have equipped.^[47]^[41]
- An overarching set effect is granted to wearers of exclusively one type of armor, for example: all cloth, or all plate.^[8]
- Certain set bonuses may trade off core gear stats.^[49]
- There may be set bonuses that members of certain communities will obtain based on gear set type.^[41]
There are passive abilities that can be chosen to become more adept with certain set types.^[41]
There will be viable non-set builds.^[49]
Racial appearance of gear sets is tied to the character model of that race.^[23]
It may be possible to store and swap gear sets with a single button press when out of combat.^[50]

Approximately 49 unique gear sets are obtainable in Alpha-1 from crafting, quests, drops and exploration.^[51]

These are unique sets with different stats, but some may be similar in appearance.^[51]

Best-in-slot armor

Crafted items are best-in-slot in Ashes of Creation.^[52] Previously it was stated that crafted items will be on-par with best-in-slot items.^[53]
What is considered best-in-slot is based on a character's role and the type of monster they are facing.^[54]
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.^[55]