There's a bug with dark elves. Not just the race alone but in combination with Periapt of Health and Helm of Excellence. It seems to when you evade a shot with the DE skill and you evade the same shot with the helm you will actually gain health. I've tried for a bit with Lee and he just killed himself shooting at me (from thorns damage), same thing with the other person that tried to kill me. All this time I didn't even fire a single round and my 150 starting health was over 400 when they died.

I'm assuming the same bug will be with heavy boots of armor instead of periapt as it will give you 50 extra health as well. You need to be over 125 for the helm to be effective.