Well, actually it's an Alpha and the point of all the feedback is that the devs plan to try different permutations of the game so the armor system might not even be there in the release version depending
There're in fact several threads discussing this in one form or another though
That would be a crying shame, and a strong argument against the benefits of acting on feedback... Magic armor in its current form is a really cool concept and something I haven't seen in any other pen and paper rpg style game. It would be a particular shame considering pretty much the only thing that needs to be changed to fix the current implementation is to alter the drop rates of magic armor equipment so that players have access to meaningful quantities of it earlier.
Why I like the current 3 bar system is that it is a system that is really easy to comprehend at a glance. I can look at any enemy currently and within seconds I know how to prioritize dealing with it and all I had to do was hover my mouse over the target.
Now, let's contrast that with conventional uses of armor/resistances and health. Almost ubiquitously you have a health bar that is clearly visible and if you want to know anything else about the target you need to dig through a menu at the very least. Once you have found the information you want, (which is usually a flat percentage or number by which damage of certain types is reduced) you then have to process that information and consider how to deal with it.
The net result is similar, they either have higher effective hp from mitigations or a larger pool, but one is drastically more user friendly than the other and also potentially adds extra neat features. (ex: preventing cc while active)
As a side note, this type of multilayered health is by no means a new thing. The first implementation of a similar system that I recall is the shield system in Halo 1 and, depending on how fast an loose you are with the definition of rpg, you could argue that Borderlands pioneered the crossover. With that in mind it isn't brand new tech, but it does stand to bring a lot to the table in the isometric rpg genre.
