I just discovered that putting a component like scaled hide or ancient about plate into one armor piece eg leg armor, the increases in armor% and armor absorbtion% are applied to all armor pieces (according to the in-game armor rating stat). Is that expected? I previously overlooked these components thinking they only applied to individual armor pieces.
yes % armor and % armor abs is global. Flat armor bonus is just for that piece (save for belt which is gobal armor)
My case as well. For a long time I literally never increased my absorption because I assumed ‘it’s not worth it since it only applies to this piece’
Just for belt? Not rings too?
can you get flat armor in rings these days?
I could be wrong but I thought Obsidian Seal has provided flat armor for a while. It appears differently in grim tools, but in the game has a flat armor rating.
then it is global armor
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/b28x83D2
look, all pieces of armor has some armor rating
witout ring you have no armor rating at all
Correct.
Maybe I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you were saying only the armor on belts is global. I wanted to confirm that the armor on rings was global, too, not just the armor on belts.
I was just referring to armor pieces. You can also get flat armor from skills and devotions, like oak skin etc, those are global too 
Right, I mean it’s kind of obvious when you look at the armor absorption screen, which only accounts for head, chest, shoulders, legs, hands, and feet. It stands to reason, then, that armor bonuses for anything not included there is global, because otherwise it would be listed as another target area on the armor absorption screen, right?
Like for instance with that ring, or a belt… what would you do to account for the armor absorption on that area? List it on the armor absorption screen as fingers and pelvis?
It’s much easier to just make it global and keep the armor absorption screen simplified. Makes sense!
You can also get some global armor from Resilient Plating, if you put it in your shield / focus.
I guess the easiest formulation would be: flat armor bonuses are global unless it is applied to head, chest, legs, feet, gloves or shoulders
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Thanx for all the replies, GD community is so awesome and the info about global armor is great.
But devs should insert the word ‘all’ into those descriptions, this would be small change, but knowing these are global would have big implications to component choices for many people I think.
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there is so much going on in Grim Dawn mechanics, game would be totally cluttered if everything was written in game. That is why ppl make guides, such as this 🤯 malawiglenn’s guide on game mechanics for beginners
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Also, I kind of like that many things are left relatively unexplained. It makes the game more rewarding once you finally figure out how certain things work, like the order of damage mitigation, damage conversions, % weapon damage, WPS probabilities when multiple WPS are used, etc etc, so many examples!
That guide is super helpful, btw. Thank you for taking the time to put it together!