How does armour damage reduction interact with other life types in Overwatch? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

Having done some SCIENCE on this very question before, I can tell you that armor's damage reduction does not, in fact, apply to shields. If Zarya picks up Torb's armor pack and gets shot by Pharah, she'll take 120 damage to her shields, not 115.

As soon as armor has to take some of the hit though, damage reduction will apply. This means that damage reduction is applied even if armor can't cover all of the hit. Someone with Symmetra's shields (25 shields) and Torb's armor pack (75 armor) will take 115 damage from Pharah rather than the full 120 despite the fact that both shields and armor aren't enough to cover the damage completely.