getEffectiveArmorLevel
Returns the effective armor level for a single item.
Elite items: delegates to getArmorLevel, which returns getEliteDefense(item) * 4. The elite defense includes both the base material tier and the item's stored defense attribute, so an elite item's armor level directly corresponds to the mob level it was designed to match.
Vanilla items: looks up the material in VANILLA_ARMOR_LEVELS. Non-armor items (swords, tools, blocks, etc.) return 0 — they contribute no armor level to the gear score.
Null/air items: return 0 — handles empty armor slots gracefully since getArmorContents() can contain null entries.
Return
The effective armor level (0 if null, air, or non-armor vanilla item)
Parameters
item
The item to evaluate (may be null)