Does Armor reduce damage to the Energy Shield?

Question

If I have

• 50% damage reduction due to my armor
• 100 energy shield up
• Monster attack for 150 physical damage

What will happen?

Does it deal (150*0.5) damage to my energy shield?

or

Will it crush my energy shield and hit me with (150-100)*0.5 damage?

Answer 1

Armour is applied to physical damage before it reaches your Life or Energy Shield.

Here is a quote from one of the game developers, Mark_GGG:

1) Avoiding the hit:
- Chance to hit (accuracy vs evasion) for attacks
- Chance to dodge for attacks, or spells with phase acrobatics

2) Avoiding the damage:
- Block chance for attacks, sometimes spells.

3) Mitigating the damage:
- Armour for physical damage.
- Resistances for non-physical damage.

4) Taking the damage:
- Non-chaos damage removed from energy shield until it's depleted.
- Remaining damage (including all chaos) removed from life.

Also FYI, armour does not reduce a certain percentage of all attacks. The amount it reduces is dependent upon the damage dealt. In order to get a 50% reduction of a 150 damaging attack you would need 1,800 Armour Rating. 1,800 Armour Rating would reduce a 300 damage attack by 33% and a 600 damage attack by 20%.