Holy dmg ignoring armor class?

Could someone please explain what this means. For awhile I thought it meant it ignored armor but judges insight says 20% armor penetration.

it ignores 20% or there total armor?

20% armor penetration would mean that, for the equations deciding how much damage you do, their armor level is treated as 20% lower (i.e., if they had armor 100, then Judge's Insight would make you hit as if they only had armor 80 (note: numbers used were for simplicity in giving an example, not based on actual in-game numbers)).


edit: and Judge's Insight freakin' rocks when fighting undead. I use it on my war/mnk with 6 or 7 in smiting whenever I know I'm gonna be fighting undead. Armor Penetration of 20% + double damage (holy vs undead) = massive damage output. (and as a warrior right in the thick of battle, Symbol of Wrath is a must against undead >=3)

what does it mean when it says holy dmg ignores armor class

Holy damage does not inherently ignore armor, just as lightning damage doesn't inherently have 25% armor penetration. Those are just really common features on the spells that deal those types of damage directly.

holy damage is a damage type as cold/fire/slashing/piercing it does not ignor armor. howver it ignores all bonuses to the armor. there isn't any armor with a bonus against holy. the necromancer has a armor set that reduces protection. but no boosters.

most holy dmg spells will ignore armor, like bane signet, banish, holy strike and symbol of wrath. but.. holy dmg != armor ignoring

Holy damage done directly via spells ignores armor (ie: Banish, Symbol of Wrath, Balthazar's Aura etc). Holy damage done via weapons does not ignore armor and is treated as general Elemental damage.

Ignores armor basically means that regardless of how much armor you have be it 1 or 100, the damage will do exactly what is listed. Armor penetration of XX% basically means when damage caculations are done, that attack will do damage as though the target had XX% less armor (basically meaning that you will generally do more damage than a similar attack/spell without the armor penetration).

Hope that helps, because people were just throwing stuff in from all over the place.