Armor Tinkering

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Armor Tinkering - 4 skill pts to train
(Focus + Endurance  / 2)

The original Armor Tinkers let you increase the resistance of armor to a particular damage type. During the Festivus event, the percentage was increased from 0.1% to 0.2% for Slashing, Piercing and Bludgeoning and to 0.4% for the elemental resistances.

During A Swelling Tide, Armor Defense Imbues were introduced. The newer imbues act like other imbues in that they have the same low 33% success rate. You may only add one imbue per piece of armor. These imbues add a +1 stackable defense bonus to a piece of armor.

Covenant Armor also received the ability to be tinkered! However, steel is still unable to be used on Covenant Armor.

From Repercussions (updated during the Festivus event)

Effects:

Increase Armor Level (Steel)

Increase Resistance by 0.2
--Slashing  Resistance (Bronze)
--Piercing Resistance (Alabaster)
--Bludgeoning Resistance (Marble)

Increase Resistance by 0.4
--Acid  Resistance (Armoredillo Hide)
--Cold  Resistance (Wool)
--Fire Resistance (Ceramic)
--Electrical Resistance (Reedshark Hide)

Effects:
Armor Imbues (33.33% Max Chance)
--Missile Defense +1 (Yellow Topaz)
--Melee Defense +1 (Peridot)
--Magic Defense +1 (Zircon)
 

From the Tinkering FAQ

Q: Could you provide more details about the Armor Defense imbues?

A: It's an imbue, so you can do it once and only once to any piece of armor. The maximum chance of success is 33%, like all imbues. And the bonus you get is +1 skill point, not +1%. You can imbue the piece with a bonus to melee defense, missile defense, or magic defense.

So you can build a suit that, with all of its pieces, gives you +10 melee defense, or +5 melee defense and +5 magic defense, or what have you. These bonuses stack with any spells or weapon modifiers you have.

Each effect -- Melee Defense, Missile Defense, or Magic Defense -- is a separate imbue.

Q: The Armor Defense imbues appear to be underpowered, considering the 66% risk of failure even in a best case.

A: When creating new dynamics like this, we generally start cautiously to avoid potentially doing awful things to game balance. We will pay close attention to your feedback and look into adjusting the imbues in the future if necessary.

Tinkering Resources
Letter to the Players on Tinkering
Letter to the Players (Aug 2002)
Letter to the Players (July 2003)
Turbine's Tinkering FAQ

Tlosk of HG's Salvage Table
Tlosk of HG's Salvage Table - old version
Surge of MT's Tinkering Research Page
Bob the Dreadlord of TD Weapon Calc.
Caerthalion's Tinkering Skill Calculator
Caeryn Dryad's Weapon Damage Calc.
Isudus's Tink Calc - Decal Plug-In