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Armor icon Armor, or AR, is one of the two damage resistance subtype stats. It reduces incoming physical damage by a percentage.

Every champion has a certain amount of base armor that increases through growth per level. Total armor refers to base plus bonus armor. Bonus armor can be gained from any source other than levels, for example from abilities, buffs, items, runes, and others.

Excluding the intentional outlier of Thresh Thresh (whose base armor does not increase through growth per level and is 31), base armor values at level 18 range from 87 (Kassadin Kassadin) to 149.4 (Mega Gnar Mega Gnar).

Gold Value

  • Armor has a gold value of 20 Gold 20 per point.

Armor formula[]

Armor determines how incoming physical damage is reduced before it is applied to the target. The incoming pre-mitigation damage is mitigated by Armor into a reduced amount of post-mitigation damage that the target then takes.

Armor is a percentage reduction of incoming damage; this means that armor can also be interpreted as increasing the effective health of the target (when dealing with physical damage).

Arithmetically, to find the post-mitigation damage from incoming physical damage, the following formula is used:

Due to the order of operations for penetration and reductions of resistances, negative values almost never occur. Therefore, ignoring negative armor values, the following simpler formula may be used ( is armor, is mitigated damage, and is raw physical damage):

Solving this formula for physical damage gives:

This second formula shows that armor can be taken as a percentage increase of effective health when dealing with physical damage. Every point of armor adds 1% to the effective health pool. Also, see Stacking Armor below.

Examples using 1,000 raw damage

  • 25 armor → 1,000  ÷  (1  +  25  ÷  100)  =  1,000  ÷  1.25  =  800
    • Total damage reduction 20%,  + 25% effective health, 1,000 post-mitigation damage  =  1,250 Raw Damage
  • 100 armor → 1,000  ÷  (1  +  100  ÷  100)  =  1,000  ÷  2  =  500
    • Total damage reduction 50%,  + 100% effective health, 1,000 post-mitigation damage  =  2,000 Raw Damage
  • 200 armor → 1,000  ÷  (1  +  200  ÷  100)  =  1,000  ÷  3  =  333.34
    • Total damage reduction 66.66%,  + 200% effective health, 1,000 post-mitigation damage  =  3,000 Raw Damage

Stacking armor[]

Following the above damage formula, each point of armor increases the effective health pool against physical damage by 1%, formally:

Example: A unit with 60 armor has 60% increased health against physical attacks. If the unit had 1000 maximum health it would take 1600 physical damage to kill it.

By definition, armor does not give diminishing returns of effective health. Each additional point of armor increases the effective health pool (against physical damage) by another 1% of maximum health. This is not influenced by how many points of armor are already held.

If a unit's armor is negative due to reduction debuffs, armor has increasing returns with respect to itself. This is because negative armor cannot reduce effective health to less than 50% of actual health. A unit with -100 armor has 66.67% of nominal health (gains −33.33%) of its maximum health as effective health. This is an exotic case with only a select few in-game applications.

For a more detailed explanation, see this video.

Armor as scaling[]

Effects may benefit from (scale off of) a percentage/ratio, of total armor, or bonus armor.

Champions[]

Self[]

Enemy[]

Items[]

Self[]

Runes[]

Self[]

Neutral buffs[]

Self[]

Increasing armor[]

Items[]

This table is automatically generated based on the data from Module:ItemData/data.

ItemCostAmountAvailability
Bramble Vest Bramble Vest800 800 Gold30Nexus Blitz, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Chain Vest Chain Vest800 800 Gold40Nexus Blitz, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Cloth Armor Cloth Armor300 300 Gold15Nexus Blitz, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Dead Man's Plate Dead Man's Plate2900 2900 Gold45Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Death's Dance Death's Dance3200 3200 Gold40Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Frozen Fist Frozen Fist2600 2600 Gold60Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Frozen Heart Frozen Heart2500 2500 Gold65Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Glacial Buckler Glacial Buckler900 900 Gold20Nexus Blitz, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Guardian Angel Guardian Angel3200 3200 Gold45Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5
Hope Adrift Hope Adrift2800 2800 Gold65Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Iceborn Gauntlet Iceborn Gauntlet2600 2600 Gold50Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Jak'Sho, The Protean Jak'Sho, The Protean3200 3200 Gold50Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Knight's Vow Knight's Vow2200 2200 Gold45Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Locket of the Iron Solari Locket of the Iron Solari2200 2200 Gold30Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Plated Steelcaps Plated Steelcaps1100 1100 Gold20Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Randuin's Omen Randuin's Omen2700 2700 Gold55Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Reliquary of the Golden Dawn Reliquary of the Golden Dawn2200 2200 Gold40Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Seeker's Armguard Seeker's Armguard1600 1600 Gold25Nexus Blitz, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Shattered Armguard Shattered Armguard1600 1600 Gold25Nexus Blitz, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Steel Sigil Steel Sigil1100 1100 Gold30Nexus Blitz, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Sunfire Aegis Sunfire Aegis2700 2700 Gold50Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
The Unspoken Parasite The Unspoken Parasite3200 3200 Gold60Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Thornmail Thornmail2700 2700 Gold70Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Trailblazer Trailblazer2500 2500 Gold40Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Unending Despair Unending Despair2800 2800 Gold55Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Vigilant Wardstone Vigilant Wardstone2300 2300 Gold25Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5
Warden's Mail Warden's Mail1000 1000 Gold40Nexus Blitz, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Watchful Wardstone Watchful Wardstone1100 1100 Gold10Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5
Zeke's Convergence Zeke's Convergence2200 2200 Gold30Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid
Zhonya's Hourglass Zhonya's Hourglass3250 3250 Gold50Nexus Blitz, Arena, Classic Summoner's Rift 5v5, All Random All Mid

Item passives[]

Champion abilities[]

Runes[]

Neutral buffs[]

Reducing Armor[]

Armor can be negated by armor penetration, armor reduction, and Lethality, treated as negative values in damage calculations. The calculation then uses the effective armor values after the reduction; the actual damage formulae are not changed.

Armor vs. Health[]

HP Armor LW VS

Note: The following information similarly applies to magic resistance. As of season six, the base equilibrium line for armor is a function:

health = 7.5 × (armor + 100)

while the line for magic resistance is a bit shifted down and less steep:

health = 6.75 × (magic resistance + 100)

It can be helpful to understand the equilibrium between maximum health and armor, which is represented in the graph[1] on the right. The equilibrium line represents the point at which your champion will have the highest effective health against that damage type, while the smaller lines represent the baseline progression for each kind of champion from level 1-18 without items. You can also see that for a somewhat brief period in the early game health is the most gold efficient purchase, however this assumes the enemy team will only have one type of damage. The more equal the distribution of physical damage/magic damage in the enemy team, the more effective will buying health be.

There are many other factors which can effect whether you should buy more armor or health, such as these key examples:

  • Unlike HP, increasing armor also makes healing more effective because it takes more effort to remove the unit's HP than it does to restore it.
  • HP helps you survive both magic damage and physical damage. Against a team with mainly burst or just low damage, HP can be more efficient than resistances.
  • Percentage armor reduction in the enemy team tilts the optimal health:armor ratio slightly in the favor of HP.
  • Whether or not the enemy is capable of delivering true damage or percent health damage, thus reducing the value of armor and health stacking respectively.
  • The presence of resist or HP steroids built into your champion's kit, such as in Leona's Leona's Eclipse Eclipse or Cho'Gath's Cho'Gath's Feast Feast.
  • Against sustained damage vamp and healing abilities can be considered as contributing to your maximum HP (while being mostly irrelevant against burst damage).
  • The need to prioritize specific items mainly for their other qualities (regardless of whether or not they contribute towards the ideal balance between HP and resists).

List of champions' armor[]

Champions with the lowest or highest armor before items, runes, or abilities
Champion Level Top 5 champions Bottom 5 champions
Level 1 1. Braum Braum
1. Pyke Pyke
1. Leona Leona
1. Alistar Alistar
47 armor 1. Veigar Veigar
1. Cassiopeia Cassiopeia
1. Malzahar Malzahar
1. Taliyah Taliyah
18 armor
2. Tahm Kench Tahm Kench 42 armor 2. Annie Annie
2. Heimerdinger Heimerdinger
2. Kassadin Kassadin
19 armor
3. Rammus Rammus
3. Pantheon Pantheon
3. Taric Taric
40 armor 3. Orianna Orianna 20 armor
4. Gwen Gwen
4. Nautilus Nautilus
4. Yorick Yorick
4. Darius Darius
39 armor 4. Ziggs Ziggs
4. Neeko Neeko
4. Ahri Ahri
4. Twisted Fate Twisted Fate
4. Hwei Hwei
4. Zoe Zoe
4. Anivia Anivia
4. Lux Lux
4. Karthus Karthus
21 armor
5. Aatrox Aatrox
5. Poppy Poppy
5. Nocturne Nocturne
5. Kayn Kayn
5. Garen Garen
5. Skarner Skarner
5. Gragas Gragas
5. Cho'Gath Cho'Gath
5. Shyvana Shyvana
38 armor 5. LeBlanc LeBlanc
5. Jayce Jayce
5. Lillia Lillia
5. Xerath Xerath
5. Lissandra Lissandra
5. Ryze Ryze
5. Fizz Fizz
5. Aurelion Sol Aurelion Sol
5. Vel'Koz Vel'Koz
5. Azir Azir
22 armor
Level 18 1. Mega Gnar Mega Gnar 149.4 armor 1. Thresh Thresh 31 armor
2. Braum Braum 135.4 armor 2. Kassadin Kassadin 87 armor
3. Rammus Rammus 133.5 armor 3. Aurelion Sol Aurelion Sol 90 armor
4. Urgot Urgot 128.65 armor 4. Heimerdinger Heimerdinger 90.4 armor
5. Leona Leona 128.6 armor 5. Orianna Orianna 91.4 armor

Optimal efficiency (theoretical)[]

Note: Effective burst health, commonly referred to just as 'effective health', describes the amount of raw burst damage a champion can receive before dying in such a short time span that he remains unaffected by any form of health restoration*. Unless champion's resists aren't reduced below zero, it will always be more than or equal to a champion's displayed health in their health bar and can be increased by buying items with extra health, armor and magic resistance. In this section, effective health will refer to the amount of raw 'physical damage' a champion can take.

In almost all circumstances, champions will have more maximum health than armor, thus a single point of armor will give more 'effective health' to a champion than a single point of health. However, if there is a case where max health is below the value of 'armor + 100', the opposite becomes true.

Because of this relationship, theoretically, maximum effective health is attained by ensure that you have exactly 100 more max health than armor, regardless of how much health or armor you actually already have.

Example: Given a theoretical situation where you start off with 1 health and 1 armor and are given an arbitrary sufficient number of stat points (x ≥ 100), each of which you can use to increase either your health or armor by 1 point, the way to maximize your effective health is to add points to your health until your health has 100 more points than armor, then split the remaining stat points in half and share them between your health and armor.

However, this is only theoretically true if we consider both health and armor to be equally obtainable resources with simplified mechanism of skill point investment. In reality a player buys these stats for gold Gold gold instead. So when attempting to ensure the balance of 'health = armor + 100', consider it through gold value distributed to the stats. Because the gold value of 1 health is roughly 7.7 times smaller than 1 point of armor (as of V8.7), distribution per point of health or armor should be 11.5% gold into health and 88.5% gold into armor once the 'health = armor + 100' equilibrium is reached.

This model is highly simplified and cannot be exactly applied when buying any other item that aren't purely armor or health oriented as they deviate the equilibrium. Going even further, the continuous model simplifies a discrete character of real shopping, as you cannot really buy 1.5 × Ruby Crystals Ruby Crystals for 600 Gold 600, so you either opt to buy a single Ruby Crystal Ruby Crystal or 2 × Cloth Armors Cloth Armors, drastically unbalancing the equilibrium.

Broadly speaking, items which provide both health and armor give a very high amount of effective health against physical damage compared to items which only provide health or only provide armor. These items should be purchased when a player is seeking efficient ways to reduce the physical damage they take by a large amount. Furthermore, these items are among all available items the best ones to distribute their gold value equally among both health and armor, thus working perfectly for rule of preserving equilibrium.

Conclusion[]

This information is strongly theoretical. Due to how there are many variables aside from health, armor and gold value, "true equilibrium" is too complicated and unrealistic to achieve. However, a player can develop their intuition to itemize towards this equilibrium in a timely manner through the experience gained from the multitude of plays they perform.

The important thing to remember is that there is no reason to hold to the equilibrium too strictly, or else you might just lose the fun out of the game.

Trivia[]


Last updated: July 29, 2020, patch V10.15

Without using Thresh's Thresh's Damnation Damnation, Shyvana's Shyvana's Fury of the Dragonborn Fury of the Dragonborn or Jax's Jax's Grandmaster's Might Grandmaster's Might with Gathering Storm Gathering Storm which potentially allow for infinite amounts of armor, the largest amount of armor is reached with a level 18 Rammus Rammus at 3104 armor (which reduces physical damage by 96.88%).


Thresh Thresh, with his effectively infinite stacking, can obtain a maximum of 749999.25 armor off his passive alone. With the same set-up as above, he can obtain a total of about 910296.7564 armor, reducing physical damage by 99.99989016%.

References[]

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