Armor, Pierce and Sharpness: why a hit is Blocked

Sharpness is added only after physical damage gets through Armor. If the base hit is completely blocked, the game skips Sharpness, the critical roll and the weapon’s extra elemental damage.

Resolve the hit in order

1. Roll base damage, including applicable percentage bonuses.
2. Subtract the target’s Armor after Armor Pierce. Effective Armor cannot go below zero.
3. If the remainder is zero or less, the attack is Blocked.
4. Otherwise add Sharpness, then apply a critical hit if rolled.

For a 3-damage base hit with +2 Sharpness and no Pierce, a target with zero Armor takes 5. A target with 2 Armor takes 3. A target with 3 Armor blocks the attack entirely. The last result is 0, rather than the 2 damage suggested by simply adding Sharpness before the defense check.

Pierce and larger base hits

One point of Armor Pierce lowers a 3-Armor target to 2 effective Armor. In the previous example, that changes a blocked attack into 1 base damage plus 2 Sharpness. More Pierce than the target’s Armor provides no further reduction.

Percentage damage bonuses apply to base damage before Armor. They can help cross the threshold, but do not multiply Sharpness. Multi-strike skills face Armor on their separate hits, so adding their displayed percentages does not establish the final damage.

A normal hero critical multiplies the damage after Armor and Sharpness by 1.75. A crit cannot rescue an attack that was already blocked.

Armor on your own heroes

Enemy physical attacks use a different mitigation rule: each point of the hero’s effective Armor removes 0.6 damage, with that reduction rounded up. At 10 effective Armor, 6 damage is prevented. A 7-damage enemy hit then deals 1 before a critical; an enemy crit doubles that remainder to 2.

Enemy spells do not use the physical hit/Armor calculation. Check elemental resistance or a barrier instead. Likewise, Void Lance bypasses enemy defenses, giving the party a different response to heavily armored targets.

For attacks that miss rather than show Blocked, use the hit-chance calculator. Accuracy and damage prevention are separate checks.