Armor | The Witcher 3 Wiki

Armor Types

Throughout his adventure, Geralt will come across all manner of protective apparel offering varying degrees of protection against attacks from opponents, be it man, beast or supernatural. Armor is primarily classified into Weight Classes and each weight class has its own advantages and disadvantages in combat.

Made primarily of leather and fabric, Light Armor offers the least protection in exchange for freedom of movement, increasing the rate at which Geralt regenerates Stamina after attacking and performing other combat maneuvers. In contrast to Light Armor, Heavy Armor offers some serious heft with metal plates interwoven with thick leather, allowing for the most defense at the expense of reducing Geralt's Stamina regeneration rate, requiring you to be more deliberate with your attacks and dodges. Medium Armor strikes a good balance between mobility and protectiveness, not leaning too far into either characteristic. Medium Armor is the most common and plentiful type of gear in the game and you will not be hard pressed looking for new pieces to upgrade with.

While you can mix and match armor pierces from different weight classes, there is a benefit to wearing an ensemble with a matching weight class, particularly if you've invested in any of the Witcher School Techniques in the Skill Tree:

• Cat School Techniques - Each piece of Light Armor worn increases critical hit damage by 25% and fast attack damage by 5%.
• Griffin School Techniques - Each piece of Medium Armor worn increases Sign intensity and Stamina regeneration by 5%.
• Bear School Techniques - Each pieces of Heavy Armor worn increases your strong attack damage and maximum health by 5%.

Do take note that there are ways to circumvent any limitations imposed by wearing a certain weightclass. See the Upgrades section below for details.

Main Armor Properties

Each piece of Armor in The Witcher 3 has several properties that make them more or less effective in combat, as well as non-combat stats that relate to item class, inventory management and other interactions:

• Weight Class - Denotes whether the armor piece is of the Light, Medium or Heavy variety.
• Armor - Denotes the piece's Armor Rating, a measure of its defensive power.
• Slot Designation - Determines whether the piece goes in the Chest, Hands, Legs or Feet slot.
• Required Level - This denotes the level Geralt has to be in order to equip the piece of armor. Level for armor generally influences its Armor Rating stat. While some Armor pieces have a fixed level requirement, the majority of random loot will drop with a randomized level requirement but will typically be around your current level. Crafted armor also usually have a fixed level depending on the diagram.
• Weight - The Armor's weight value which contributes to the total maximum amount that Geralt can carry before being encumbered.
• Durability - Depicted by a percentage value and a hammer icon. The lower the percentage, the more durability your armor has lost. Armor  loses durability as you take hits in combat. As this value goes down, your armor's defensive capability will become affected negatively and once a piece of armor is broken, it will be completely ineffective in protecting you.
• Sell Value - Depicted by a numerical value and the Crowns currency symbol. This denotes how much the piece of armor will sell for. Rarer and higher level armor generally sell for more.

Armor Rarity

As with most items and equipment in The Witcher 3, Armor comes with varying Rarity — a stat which is denoted by a classification and color coding. In ascending order, the Rarity levels for Armor are as follows:

Typically, the rarer a piece of armor, the better it is for that level range, but this is not always the case. Rarity can influence the amount of Upgrade Slots an armor piece has, the number of Bonus Effects it can roll with, as well as the potency of those effects. Note that the same armor piece can drop in varying rarity levels, therefore you can have two or more of the same gauntlets, for example, with vastly different stats.

Many armor pieces only exist in the Relic tier and are considered unique. Witcher Gear is less of a rarity level and more of a completely different item classification, but they do tend to outclass most armor pieces of their level range. They also have certain unique properties that push them above all other equipment. See the Witcher Gear section below for details.

Armor Bonus Effects

Aside from the standard properties and Upgrade Slots available on Armor, they can also roll with varying amounts of Bonus Effects which further boosts their effectiveness in different situations. 

Armor Bonus Effects typically improve your resistance to various damage types, but can also provide effects such as increased critical damage, sign intensity and experience gained from defeating opponents. Armor Rarity will typically influence the Bonus Effects found on armor, with rarer armor allowing for more effects at once and with greater potency. For Common, Master and Magic tier armor, these effects are typically randomized. Relic armor have a mixture of randomized effects, as well as fixed effects for some of the more unique armor pieces. All Witcher tier armor have fixed effects.

Armor Upgrades

Glyphs

Some Armor can come with empty Upgrade Slots which can be socketed with Glyphs. Chest Armor can have up to 3 Slots, Gauntlets and Boots can have up to 2 slots. Trousers can have a max of 2 slots, with the sole exception being the New Game Plus' Legendary version of the Wolven Trousers which can have up to 3 and 4 slots as it goes up in upgrade tiers.

Glyphs are special items that grant various bonuses to Armor, just as Runestones do for Weapons. 

The bonuses granted by these Glyphs typically improve the intensity of Geralt's various Signs. With the Hearts of Stone DLC, more Glyph types are added which give more varied effects such as improving Vitality regen or elemental resistance. Each type of Glyph comes in 3 tiers: Lesser Glyph, Glyph and Greater Glyph, with higher tiers increasing the potency of the bonus granted. See the Glyphs page for a full list of glyphs and their effects.

Glyphwords

With the Hearts of Stone DLC, a new type of Armor upgrade is made available in the form of Glyphwords. These are Armor enchantments that can be imbued exclusively onto Chest Armor only. Only one Glyphword can be enchanted onto a piece of Chest Armor and only on those that have 3 Upgrade Slots available. A single Glyphword will take up all 3 slots, preventing you from adding any more Glyphs. However, these Glyphwords have substantial effects and can change your playstyle drastically or complement your preferred skillset, making them well worth the exchange.

Some of the most interesting Glyphwords to use are Levity, Balance and Heft, the effects of which make the game treat all of your equipped armor as Light, Medium and Heavy, respectively. This means that while wearing all Heavy Armor with the Levity Glyphword on the Chest piece, you gain the benefit of improved Stamina Regeneration as if you were wearing Light Armor pieces, while still retaining the higher defense that Heavy Armor provides. Additionally, using any of these Glyphwords will allow you to benefit from the bonuses granted by Cat School Techniques, Griffin School Techniques or Bear School Techniques, even while wearing mixed pieces of armor from different weight classes.

The levels and stats of these pieces of equipment are fixed and do not scale to Geralt's level in any way, but they are some of, if not the best equipment you can use within their level ranges. Furthermore, each Set of Witcher Gear can be upgraded to the next tier, increasing their levels and stats. This process involves finding the Diagrams for the next corresponding tier and then using your current pieces along with various materials to craft the upgraded equipment at a Blacksmith or Armorer. There are five tiers of Witcher Gear available:

• Standard
• Enhanced
• Superior
• Mastercrafted
• Grandmaster (Blood and Wine DLC)

Furthermore, each crafting Diagram has an Armorer Level Requirement, requiring an Armorer of the appropriate skill in order to craft an item. Just as with Blacksmiths, there are three Armorer levels: Amateur, Journeyman and Master. Each level of smith is more proficient than the last and can craft gear at or below their level. An Armorer or Blacksmith's level can be seen in the crafting UI: