Shattered Kingdoms

What is it?

If you are a heavy armor class get yourself a vest made of cloth, light armor and heavy armor. Iam sure it will be easier to understand after that.

better defense against melee attacks?

If you are wearing heavy armor, even the weak spots in your coverage are covered by secondary armor. Therefore even if your opponent hits well enough to find a chink in your armor, you still get some protection. This is not true of cloth or light armor.

It is very hard to see a difference between high quality energy armor and high quality adamantite (i.e., they compare the same) in combat. I've never really noticed any difference at all, but perhaps with accurate weapons, specialized mercenaries, and extensive testing you'd see the effect Dulrik's referring to.

Like most racial bonuses, it's not enough to tip the scales in all but the very slimest margin of situations.

As I recall, the heavy armor bonus doesn't come into play unless you're dealing with a highly accurate weapon. I don't think it would help versus a horde of wraiths, for example, but if you were fighting a flamberge merc (greatsword now, but whatever) you would definitely want to be wearing plate.

Thought only 'finesse' gave access to finding armor chinks?
Hmmm.. I love Dulrik answers... they always leave you wondering what he ment

I knew exactly what he meant.

Why do you people think he's cryptic?

Heavy armor protects against very accurate weapons. A greatsword won't do quite as much against full adamantite as it will against full energy of equal AC value. However, an epee with finesse will do the exact same damage against each, because finesse lets you ignore the heavy armor bonus. It really isn't complicated.