From Yannick...
Hi there,
There's been a lot of discussion and confusion regarding the changes we did with Armor and Health with this PTS, so we've put together a FAQ that should help you better understand our intentions.
Q: Will I be squishier now with less Armor?
A: Toughness is a value that combines Armor and Health to show you the amount of bullet damage it takes to kill you. Basically every bullet is reduced in damage according to your Armor. 50% mitigation would reduce the bullets damage by 50% et.c. This means that if you have less Armor, but more health, the bullet will do more damage, but on a larger health pool, which means it will still take the same amount of bullets to kill you. The bigger health pool also means you can take more of a beating from explosions, fire and the like, so in a sense you are less squishy than before.
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Umm, no, you can take that "in a sense" stuff and throw it out the window. When you are in front of a keyboard and mouse or have a controller in your hands and the bullets and everything else start flying the experience will absolutely prove that you are never less "squishy" than you were in 1.5, not even remotely close.
This may have been their intention, obviously, but there is a lot to got back to the drawing board on and completely re-do and at this point I have zero confidence that they can ever actually balance the Firearms, Stamina, and Electronic main stats and their scalability. We are nearly a year in from release and the game still doesn't have a solid foundation to stand on.
Edit: Maybe you'll be less squishy if you huddle up with a maxed out skill build using a Smart Cover while producing incredibly riveting and exciting gameplay otherwise known as the awful and boring 1.3 iteration of The Division.