Armadyl armour is strong, and does not degrade; as such, it is often preferred over Karil's equipment when ranging due to Karil's equipment degrading and having lower defensive and offensive stats than Armadyl armour. However, equipping Armadyl armour incurs hefty negative melee attack bonuses. Therefore, in situations where the player wishes to melee in ranged armour to increase their magic defence, Karil's and/or black d'hide are the preferred choices as neither decrease your melee attack. The only difference being Karil's has slightly better magic defence than black d'hide, whilst black d'hide has slightly higher melee defences than Karil's, though excluding the negative melee bonuses, Armadyl armour is superior than both sets in every other way.
Armadyl armour is most often used for training ranged combat and Slayer, and for fighting bosses at higher levels. The armour also gives a small prayer bonus, which makes it desirable for completing the Fight Cavesminigame, along with a multitude of other situations where using prayers, and conserving one's prayer points comes in handy. Lastly, Armadyl armour is a popular choice for Castle Wars flag running as its massive magic defence bonus makes it more difficult for the opposing team to freeze you with ice spells or Entangle.
After an update on 26 January 2017 due to majority vote from Old School Content Poll #50, Armadyl armour was changed to show less skin on male characters.[1]
Some of the aviansies in the God Wars Dungeon can be seen wearing unique variants of this armour, none of which are obtainable by players.