Understand Breach
Useful when…
- Using a mace against targets with strong armor
- Choosing an armor-focused mace enchantment for combat
How Breach changes armor
Breach reduces the target's armor effectiveness by 15 percentage points per level, up to 60 points at level IV. For example, if armor would reduce damage by 50%, Breach I makes that armor reduce the hit by 35%. In the supplied formula, weapon damage is multiplied by one minus the target's armor effectiveness after subtracting 15% per level, with the armor effectiveness floor at zero. It affects armor itself, not protection from enchantments or Resistance.
Equipment and practical use
Breach applies to the mace only. Its value rises when the target relies on armor, so it is a focused choice for mace combat against armored players or mobs. It is less useful against targets with little or no armor, and the reduction does not bypass other damage reduction sources named above.
Investment and alternatives
Breach has four levels, each adding another 15 percentage points of armor-effectiveness reduction. It is incompatible with Density, Smite, and Bane of Arthropods; it is also listed as incompatible with Sharpness and Impaling, although those pairings are unavailable on the relevant Survival weapon types. Choose it for its armor interaction rather than assuming it is a universal mace damage increase.
Limitations and tradeoffs
- Specializes in reducing armor's contribution to damage reduction.
- Does not reduce Protection enchantment or Resistance effect mitigation.
- Uses the mace's mutually exclusive damage-enchantment choice.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating Breach as though it removes Protection enchantments or Resistance.
- Applying the armor-reduction example to targets whose armor is not reducing damage.
- Expecting to combine Breach with Density, Smite, or Bane of Arthropods in normal use.