1
edit
Changes
ADVERTISEMENT
From Diablo Wiki
Added info on calculating damage mitigation, and removed a false entry from the examples.
Higher Armor values make a clear difference in the damage taken. Some stats, all for a level 60 character vs. level 60 monsters:
* 1987 Armor = 39.84% Damage Reduction
* 3059 Armor = 50.49% Damage Reduction
As with [[resistances]] (which function very similarly) there are diminishing returns on the benefit from higher amounts of Armor. The first thousand points of Armor effect a damage reduction of about 25%, while moving from 4500 to 5500 only yields about 4.5% damage reduction. That 4.5% might be of huge importance to a high level character taking on a dozen enemies at once, but it's clearly a lot less of a total change than the first couple of thousand points of Armor provide.
The formula for calculating damage reduction against equal level enemies is: 100 * armor / ( armor + 50 * character level ).
In terms of effective HP for a lvl 60 character, every 3000 armor you have increase your EHP by 100%. For lvl 70 characters, 3500 armor does the same.
==Strength==
The [[Strength]] attribute adds directly to the Armor total, in simple arithmetic fashion. More strength = higher Armor = more damage reduction. This is very handy for Barbarians and makes them take much less damage from melee combat. Other characters get less benefit from it; the screenshot below shows a [[Paragon]] 49 Monk who has virtually no Strength on her equipment and thus gains very little additional armor that way.
[[File:Str-tooltip.jpg|center|frame]]
[[File:Defense-vs-armor-beta1.jpg|center|thumb|600px|Armor vs. Defense compared with item bonuses. Shot from the [[Diablo III beta]].]]
