Armour and Defences, their roles in relation to eachother.

Since playing the Early Access version of Path of Exile 2 and trying out a Two-Handed Mace wielding Titan utilizing Armour, I have come to realize Armour in Path of Exile 2 is not very good or satisfying to use. This opinion was further reinforced by the Path of Exile 2 community's discourse about Evasion and Energy Shield in comparison to Armour and one of Kripparian's latest videos, where he talks about Armour in statistical detail, revealing the EHP disaster that Armour really is, at the moment.

The experiences described above lead me to think about what role I would like Armour to fulfill in relation to the other defences in Path of Exile 2, such as,
Evasion, Energy Shield and Block.

To expound on my next points I would like to talk about metaphorical realism.
It is my belief that we derive meaning and resonate with art by art's adjacent symbolism of reality. Good art is a metaphor for something real or something real exaggerated, which gives birth to fantasy. That is not to say art has to be realistic to be good, but it is satisfying when art plays with ideas that are real, that is my opinion.

With that said, Armour in real life protects you, and it protects you very well. In Path of Exile 2, the same can not be said. That is a metaphorical inconsistency that likely lessens the amount that some players resonate with the game, atleast that is the truth for me.

So, what can be done to bring Armour more in fantastical line with Energy Shield and Evasion?

To answer that question let us first look at the state of and what each role the base defences fulfill, and then compare them.

As of right now these are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Energy Shield:
Energy Shield has an inherently large number of hit points, which protects from
all damage types. Energy Shield's weakness is Chaos Damage which receives a 2
times damage multiplier against Energy Shield.

As of right now these are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Evasion:
Evasion provides great Effective Hit Points against all direct damage, having a
chance to completely nullify an attack, regardless of damage types or damage
amount. Evasion's weakness is Area of attack hits, and the inconsistent reduction
of damage, potentially leading to large hits going through the Evasive layer of
defence, which can stun the Evader.

As of right now these are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Armour:
Armour reduces physical damage from small hits and improves Stun Threshold
Effectiveness against hits due to the reduction of the size of the hits that
Armour reduces. Armour's weakness is Elemental Damage, Chaos Damage and Large
Physical Hits.


Now to compare the base defences with each other in order of effectiveness:

The best defence is Energy Shield, it is effective against all damage types, less against Chaos Damage and it has the highest numerical value increases.

Evasion is the second best defence, as it can nullify attacks of any damage type, but is nullified against Area of Effect, and it has a chance to fail in critical situations.

Armour is the worst defence in comparison, it is only effective against small physical hits, physical damage being only 1 of 5 damage types in the game.

So overall, there is a gross imbalance between the defences, and they do not fulfill their metaphorical symbolism of reality.


Here is how I would fix the defences according to their imbalances and in my opinion metaphorical inconsistencies:

Energy Shield:

In real life, cloth is comfortable and light to wear. This could be a metaphorical argument for it's intellectual affinity. Energy Shield is metaphorically magical, but as far as I am aware Energy Shield does not exist in real life. However it is a phenomenon that people can endure stress the better and for longer the more rested and comfortable they are, and this phenomenon could be an argument for the fantastical Energy Shield.

Energy Shield based on this metaphorical reasoning should function mechanically, according to my opinion, in the following way:

Energy Shield would function the same way as it did before in regards to it's acquisition and it's application against elemental damage, as I think it is metaphorically appropriate that it is effective at protecting against magical elements especially. Since clothes are not very protective against kinetic physical forces, Energy Shield should take double damage from Physical Damage instead of Chaos Damage. As intelligence is good at dealing with chaos and sorting it into order, it makes more sense that it is indeed effective against chaos damage, but as a trade off, it is not effective at confronting physical reality directly. Since Physical Damage is more common than Chaos Damage, it then balances out the fact that Energy Shield is statistically superior to the less statistically impressive Life Hit Points.

Evasion:

In real life, leather is tight and responsive to move around in. This could be a metaphorical argument for it's dexterous affinity.Overall I am pretty happy with how Evasion functions from both a mechanical and metaphorical standpoint and I would change nothing about it.Evasion is metaphorically appropriate for a character that wishes to stay at a distance and avoid encounters which have intense periods of consistent damage output,and evading dangerous areas of effect is metaphorically represented by the new Dodge Roll mechanic.

Armour:

In real life, metal armour is protective against forces, providing a barrier to divert them and it is difficult to move around in. This could be a metaphorical argument for it's strength affinity. Armour is very strong in real life, making the wearer almost impenetrable to almost all kinds of physical attacks except very powerful concentrated piercing hits, or overwhelming crushing force. Armour's weakness in real life is that it does not protect against biological attacks such as poison which is represented metaphorically by Chaos Damage in Path of Exile 2, and to a lesser extent it does not protect as well against the elements, as it does against physical forces. Armour doing almost nothing positive in Path of Exile 2 is metaphorically inconsistent, it reduces the damage of 1 of 5 damage types if that hit already did not deal much damage.

These are the changes I would make to make Armour more viable and sensible:

Due to possessing a hard surface barrier, Metal Armour should partially deflect elemental damage (Example number could be: 25% of Armour Value applies against elemental damage). Armour should also increase ailment threshold as it is much more difficult to ignite metal surfaces. Freezing would be localized on the already hard surface of the metal before it spreads deeper and metal touching the ground, would ground the wearer, preventing electrical shocks.

With these changes mentioned above, strength wise, Armour would become a jack of all trades, master of none, with the exception of being weak against Chaos Damage.
Armour being good against most things is in my opinion metaphorically correct and is appropriate to the challenges a high Strength Melee character will face.
If armour is too powerful in combination with Spells or Ranged Weapons, I would suggest increasing the Attribute Requirement of Armour Bases until it is balanced in such a way that, High Armour Bases are very difficult to use in combination with the Attribute Requirement of Spells/Ranged Weapons.

Block:

In real life, shields are protective against forces and providing a barrier to divert them, very similar to Armour and Shields are extended further away from the body by an arm usually. I am satisfied with the Active Block of Shields in Path of Exile 2 preventing all damage from a direction and how it is based on a stagger bar.

My issue lies with passive block, here is what I would do to change:

Metaphorically passive block is a reactive partial block unprepared and unbraced. It should work similarly to Glancing Blows
(Example Number Could Be: 30% of a blocked hit is reduced by default.) and Maximum Passive Block Chance should be allowed to reach 100% chance to block.
This would make passive block synergize well together with Armour preferentially over other defences by being more consistent and reducing large hits to more managable sizes for Armour's damage reduction calculation. This could open up the path for a new stat such as "Increased % Block Amount".

Additionally it would make metaphorical sense if wielding a single Two-Handed Weapons gave a chance to block melee attacks.

For example, in reality a user of a Two-Handed Mace could use the shaft of the mace to intercept and block an incoming melee attack, however it is too slim to block or deflect a fireball or an arrow. The same logic goes for Axes and Staves. Swords would parry, but it could make sense to metaphorically represent a sword parry as a Melee Block functionally.