I've been trying to wrap my head around the defensive system in this game but i still haven't managed to find some concrete answers regarding a couple of topics.
1.a. Helmet and Armor contribute 50% each to your total defensive stats (shadow/pierce/normal/elemental); thus a full normal defense helmet bar would mean half a bar in your total defense. Did i get this right? If so does anyone know how defense works? Is it "additive" (flat reduction) or "multiplicative" (percentage reduction)?
1.b. Shields have their own defensive stats that are independent of those of your armor+helmet duo. Which bar should i be comparing them to if i wanted to have a rough idea about the strength of the shield: the total defense bar (armor+helmet) in the lower left or to a single piece (armor OR helmet)?
2.a. Resists...how do they work? Higher resistance means what? Lower effect (for example lower duration/reduced damage) or lower chance to actually GET affected?
2.b. How do shield resists factor into all this? I know for a fact that shield resists are not factored into your "total defense" screen in your character sheet so that's either bugged or it works differently. If it affects only the shield what would be the point because i never got hit with a condition while my shield was still up and able to block the whole blow. If it's cumulative with your other armor pieces, does that mean that each piece only has a 33% contribution (because otherwise complete resists on all 3 pieces would go over a full bar).
Thanks for any insight you might provide :).
1a. Don't know
1b. Shields are kind of their own thing. Think of them as a whole second character with its own health and armor that you can hide behind. If your shield isn't deployed then it makes no difference in the amount of damage you take.
2a. There are resists to damage types and resists to effects. They can be totally independent. Theoretically one can have an armor that resists elemental damage type but has no change in effect tolerance from baseline and vice versa. How the effect tolerance works (chance, severity, or both) I don't know.
2b. A shield that resists means it takes less damage to its health when absorbing that damage type. I assume that the resist to damage effects are only valid when the shield is active. I don't understand that very much.
The resists to damage type are pretty understandable. Damage effects I know much less about.