Armor
Armor does more than provide a protective layer; it provides magical defenses and can even provide attack bonuses.
Armor is generally leather or metal equipment worn over six locations: head, neck, chest, legs, arms and hands. The benefits of a single piece of armor are entirely in the magical properties listed in its description. Thus when outfitting yourself, you're merely adding up the bonuses provided by the six pieces of equipment, including the resistances.
Meditation
There are two distinct types of armor: medable and non-medable. Medable armor is armor in which you can meditate, both actively and passively. All cloth and non-studded leather armor is medable. In general, metal armor (plate/chain/ring), bone armor, dragon scale armor, and studded leather armor are not medable. There is one exception; normally non-medable armor can be medable if it has the Mage Armor property.
An additional difference is that it's much easier to use the stealth skill when wearing leather armor. Non-medable armor has no advantages over medable armor, only disadvantages. For that reason, non-medable armor is very rarely used; leather armor is almost always preferred. The primary exception is when a player wishes to use a non-medable artifact such as Jackal's Collar or Leggings of Bane. If you wear one piece of non-medable armor, adding more non-medable pieces has no additional disadvantage. Another exception is in a luck suit; players trying to maximize their luck may choose to wear pieces with the highest luck possible, and the pieces they have may happen to be non-medable.
Choosing Armor
Assuming you've decided to use only medable armor, the differences between any two types of armor are very little. For example the difference between leather gloves and leather ninja mitts is merely in the appearance; in practice they perform identically.
The main criteria to use when selecting armor is the magical properties. Choose six pieces (one for each location) that have the properties that best suit your style and purpose.
Popular Armor Properties
Resistances - The maximum resistance you can achieve with your combined set of armor is (usually) 70% in each resistance type. Most players see armor as protective gear, so this is an obvious property to look for. If you are focusing in a particular area you may wish to ignore some resistances. For example when fighting mages you will take mostly fire, cold, and energy damage. When fighting melee attackers you will take mostly physical damage.
Lower Mana Cost - If you use mana in your attacks, you will likely find LMC invaluable. This is probably the most desired property in armor, after resistances.
Stamina Increase - Players focusing on weapon damage often try to maximize stamina in order to swing the fastest they can.
Mana Regeneration - The effect of Mana Regeneration is not as significant as Lower Mana Cost (unless you are using a non-medable setup), but if you have maximized your LMC already, you may want to squeeze out more mana with this property.
Mana Increase - Less significant than LMC or Mana Regeneration, but still noticeable.
Hit Point Increase - A slight increase in your HP pool can be the difference between life and death.
Luck - If you are killing monsters, you may find Luck to be an essential property.
Lower Reagent Cost - Not normally a concern for most players, but in special cases having LRC is very useful, particularly when training skills. Some players still wear 100% LRC suits in normal activities because of the convenience it affords.
Reflect Physical Damage - Not a highly desired property, but in unusual cases it can be useful.
Gorgets and Necklaces
You have a special decision to make when wearing something around your neck - you can wear either a gorget or a necklace. This choice is often made depending on whether your best necklace is better than your best gorget. In principle you can look at the properties offered by gorgets against the properties offered by necklaces and see which ones are more valuable to you. Aside from resistances, the properties found on a necklace are more valuable, particularly for mages who require the Faster Casting and Faster Cast Recovery properties. However in addition to higher resistances, gorgets can also have Mana Regeneration and Reflect Physical Damage - properties that cannot be found on necklaces. Gorgets made with spined leather can also have up to 140 luck, whereas necklaces can only have up to 100.
Gargish Equipment
Gargoyles have a similar decision regarding earrings: gargish earrings have armor properties and resistances, whereas earrings that aren't race-specific have jewelry properties.
Gargoyles can also wear wing armor made of cloth or leather. On their own, wing armor provides no benefit; it has no base resistance and cannot be runic crafted. However it can receive leather material bonuses, and can be imbued with magical properties.
Materials
When making or enhancing leather armor, barbed leather is almost always the material of choice. Some prefer horned leather, and of course spined leather is essential when building a luck suit.
Some armor, notably headgear and gargish wing armor, can be crafted with either cloth or leather armor. Leather armor can be made of different materials and receive those bonuses. Cloth armor can be blessed with a clothing bless deed.
Wear
As you use armor, and absorb hits in combat, your armor will take wear. When the maximum durability drops to zero, your equipment will disintegrate. Be sure to repair your armor often, and use powder of fortification (available from blacksmithy bulk orders) as well.
Armor worn over the chest takes the most damage by far, with leggings coming in second.
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