Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) General A question for Raze about armor

Dear Raze,

I have a question for you.
Off course I don't mind if others join in,but this is related to an answer you gave in a post explaining how armor works.
You stated that each piece of armor has an individual armor rating that is used in calculating how much danmage is absorbed when that piece is hit.
You further said that the general armor rating is just there to give you a global idea about how good your armor is overall. In saying so you seem to suggest this is just an average number to give you an idea about how well you are globally prorected by armor, but that this is not actually used in calculating how much damage is absorbed when a piece is hit.
This makes me wonder if the skill "augment defense" actually works.
When I put skillpoints into it,only the general armor is augmented by the listed percentage,but not the individual armor on each piece of equipment.
So does this mean the skill is useless because it is not used in calculating the amount of damage absorbed or does it work in another way?
Thanks for taking the time to reply.

The stats listed for the equipment pieces are just the base stats, and do not reflect any skill bonuses. The elemental damage bonuses, Stun, etc are applied properly for weapons, so I would assume the same holds true for Augment Defense. With the weapon damage total and armour rating already requiring some calculations, including the 'augment' skill bonus is pretty straightforward.

I have not used the same character/equipment to let the same opponent hack away for awhile with and without Augment Defense, to see if the damage values are statistically different. However, lots of people have played the game multiple times, and I've not seen any reports that people don't seem to notice it working (people noticed True Shot didn't help in the disk version, or a couple of the weapon expertise skills in the unpatched original release).
I'd say it is very likely the bonus is used during the combat calculations, it just isn't shown in the equipment stats.

If you want to test this, though, use iZakaroN's SaveEditor (or from Kiya's site, with description) to get a new character to a high level, with very high hit points, and let a strong character beat on you for awhile, while you write down the damage done (20 or 30 values should be enough). After that, learn level 5 of Augment Defense and repeat. You may want to use DAD's item editor to get half decent armour to start with, so a 50% bonus would be significant.

Thanks,Raze,godfather of us all :-),for this clarification.
Unfortunately I do not have enough spare time to spend testing this out myself.
But your answer is reassuring enough for me that I will not be wasting skill points.
Keep up the good work and a warm thanks for your assistance!