The below was from Culture on a thread of mine about gear choices.
"The shield's resistances do not stack with the armor. The shield only works when it is up. Grey Owlite is a strong choice."
~VERIFICATION 1.
~My understanding is that the "armor" a shield has, in conjunction with it's health, help a player determine about how much damage of a certain type the shield can take before it breaks. In the case of the Owlite; it can take a good deal of normal an elemental before it breaks, but shadow and piercing would wreck it? And say a Shadow UV(on the shield) would help it take more shadow Hits?
~VERIFICATION 2.
~Again in the case of the owlite; The status resist to shock and fire, are they only applied when the shield is up or are those a constant that will continue to reduce the duration and likelyhood of those status ailments?
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"Another problem to consider is that when an armor/helm defense is applied it is halved."
~VERIFICATION 3.
~Per the full comment this applies to BOTH the "armor resistance" and the "status resistance", so to get a sets' listed values, you actually need both pieces of the set?
~LAST VERIFICATION. (or 4)
~If a helm has UV Elemental mid and a Coat has UV Elemental High, are they first halved (see calculation 1) and then combined or are they combined as is to creat a grand total(see calculation 2)?
::Calc 1: Mid + High = Ultra X .5 = Mid.5?
::Calc 2: Mid + High = Ultra?
(side note on this im pretty sure it's Calc 2 just because it would create wierd rounding issues)
Verification 1: That is my understanding of it, yes.
Verification 2: Those status resists mean the shield's bubble takes significantly less damage from attacks that can inflict that status effect. They are not passive, always-on effects.
Verification 3: What you see is what you get. The defense gauges on your character's "total stats" display are simply worth twice as much, to accomodate the fact that you can wear armor and helm.