Any AC from affects and armor counts. AC bonus/penalty from dex does not.

The type of armor makes no difference, just the AC value for the damage type you are getting hit with (slash, pierce, blunt, and magic).

You start getting echos when you hit divine AC (-120) going even higher produces more damage reduction... It maxes out around a 25-35% redux.

Because armor is sorta standardized by wear slot and material you will find in general that stuff classified as heavy armor works best but you can get a lot of milage from stuff that has a -AC affect (either gear or preps). Remember that berserk adds AC so if you are on the border be careful about using the skill. You won't get echos from affects moving you into or out of gates being active, only when you wear/remove a piece of gear.


gates also predates armor deflection and has no affect on it.