Armor and Shields
Armor on UO Sagas is a percentage system: your total Armor Rating is roughly the percentage of each physical hit you shrug off. There are no resistances and no random item properties — an armor piece is worth what its material line, its magic level and its condition say it is worth.
This page covers how that maths works and lists every line. For the offensive side see Weapons.
Armor Simulator
Build a suit and see its real AR — armor line, magic level, quality, durability, shield and Parrying, the Protection spell and the Base Mastery bonus, each switchable so you can see what it is worth on its own.
How armor absorbs damage
- Total AR ≈ the percentage absorbed. A 30-AR suit stops about 30% of each blow.
- A single blow can never be absorbed by more points than the armor's rating — very large hits punch through even heavy plate.
- Total damage reduction is capped at 90%.
The Protection spell adds up to +10 AR at Grandmaster Magery — full duration against monsters, 60 seconds against players. It cannot be combined with Reactive Armor or Magic Reflection.
What each slot is worth
Your suit's AR is not the sum of its pieces — each slot contributes a fixed share:
| Slot | Share | Slot | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | 35% | Helm | 14% |
| Legs | 22% | Gorget (neck) | 7% |
| Arms | 15% | Gloves | 7% |
The six body slots add up to 1.0, so a matched suit's total AR equals the per-piece base value. Chest and legs alone are 57% of your protection; gloves and gorget are 7% each, which makes them the cheapest slots to downgrade for looks or for a meditation build.
Shields are separate — they add on top at full weight. See below.
Armor lines
Base AR is the value of a matched suit of that line. Dex is the total penalty for wearing a full suit; it lowers your stamina cap and therefore your swing speed. Meditation shows how much of the piece's AR counts against passive mana regeneration — 0% means you can meditate freely.
| Line | Base AR | Dex | Meditation | Str (chest) | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Leaf | 15 | 0 | 0% | 10 | Recipe-gated, Tailoring |
 |
Leather | 15 | 0 | 0% | 15 | |
 |
Studded | 18 | 0 | 45% | 35 | |
 |
Bone | 20 | −4 | 60% | — | The battle-mage tier: ring-level AR, meditation still possible |
 |
Ringmail | 21 | −5 | 100% | 20 | |
 |
Chainmail | 24 | −8 | 100% | 20 | |
 |
Woodland | 26 | −10 | 100% | 20 | Recipe-gated, Carpentry |
 |
Plate | 30 | −14 | 100% | 60 | |
 |
Daemon | 34 | −16 | 100% | 60 | Recipe-gated, Blacksmithy |
A −14 plate suit swings roughly 7% slower than an unarmored one. That trade — 30% damage cut for 14 dex — is the core armor decision on Sagas.
Standalone helmets map onto the same scale: Leather Cap and Circlet 15 · Gemmed Circlet 16 · Bascinet 17 · Orc Helm and Royal Circlet 18 · Bone Helm 20 · Chain Coif 24 · Helmet, Norse Helm and Close Helm 26 · Plate Helm 30 · Daemon Helm 34.
The two face guards, the Leather Mempo and Studded Mempo, sit in the neck slot with no dexterity penalty.
Magic levels, quality and condition
Three multipliers sit on top of the base value.
Protection level — +3 AR per level, applied to each piece before weighting, so the full amount reaches your suit total:
| Level | AR bonus |
|---|---|
| Defense | +3 |
| Guarding | +6 |
| Hardening | +9 |
| Fortification | +12 |
| Invulnerability | +15 |
The level comes from the material it was crafted from (see Crafting Overview) or from a drop.
Exceptional quality multiplies the whole suit — base plus protection — by ×1.15.
Durability scales each piece by 0.5 + 0.5 × (current ÷ max). A suit at 0 durability is worth
half its rating, so repairing is not cosmetic.
Putting it together:
| Suit | AR | Damage cut |
|---|---|---|
| Regular plate | 30 | 30% |
| Exceptional plate | 34.5 | 34% |
| Plate + Invulnerability | 45 | 45% |
| Exceptional + Invulnerability plate | 51.8 | 52% |
| Exceptional + Invulnerability daemon | 56.4 | 56% |
Shields
A shield's AR scales with your Parrying skill:
AR = Parry × base ÷ 200 + 1
so a shield is worth roughly half its base value at Grandmaster Parry, and it adds on top of your worn armor at full weight.
Parrying caps at 100 — there are no Skill Scrolls for it, so Grandmaster is as far as a shield can be pushed.
| Shield | Base | At 100 Parry (GM) | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Buckler | 7 | 4.5 |
 |
Wooden / Bronze / Metal shields | 8–11 | ~5–6.5 |
 |
Metal Kite Shield | 16 | 9 |
 |
Heater Shield | 23 | 12.5 |
 |
Westwend Shield | 30 | 16 |
 |
Volarian Shield | 32 | 17 |
The two town shields are town rewards.
Because shield AR stacks on the full suit total, a Grandmaster-Parry character in exceptional invulnerability plate with a Volarian Shield reaches roughly 52 + 17 = 69% damage reduction — which is why parry warriors are so hard to kill.
Parrying also has its own Skill Mastery, built on the shield's stored charge.
Getting and keeping armor
- Crafted — Blacksmithy for metal, Tailoring for leather, studded and bone, Carpentry for woodland. The colored material sets the magic level.
- Recipe-gated sets — Daemon, Leaf and Woodland armor each need a learned recipe.
- Looted — from monsters and dungeon chests.
- Repair it before the durability multiplier eats your protection — see Repairing.
Related
- Weapons — the damage side of combat
- Crafting Overview — materials, magic levels and exceptional quality
- Parrying — the shield skill
- PvP Overview — how these numbers change against players