Armor deflect in PvE

[Detharon]

I've seen forum posts claiming that if I fight the animals the right way, my armor shouldn't take any damage. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore?
Currently, my armor is 71/52, and I've noticed that sometimes it takes 1 point of damage when I'm being attacked by very weak animals, such as bats, while my green opening is still below 20%.

I'll use my bat killing routine as an example. It's very predictable, because it consists of doing 3 punches and 1 chop. During that time, bat will attack me exactly 2 times.
If I wear armor, his second attack will sometimes damage it by 1 point (random part, but I'm not sure about it).
If I don't wear any armor at all, then I'll sometimes receive 1 SHP damage.

Why that damage was soaked, instead of being deflected? That doesn't make sense to me.

[MagicManICT]

This was a part of recent changes to combat. Although the newer combat system was reverted, the armor changes were kept.

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=60465

[Detharon]

Thanks. It basically means that deflect is gone, so... it makes perfect sense now.
Too bad, it completely discourages fighting stronger animals in an even fight, as the same can be achieved by kiting and using restorations, but with much less armor damage.

[azrid]

Its to encourage you to make more than 1 set of armor.