does armor penetration work for all damage types?

[kukuhimanpr]

example question:
i have a character build relying completely on fire damage type. so taking fire penetration bonus in ascendancy passives is no brainer. but then i wonder, does armour penetration strengthen other type of penetrations regardless of their damage types? or does armour penetration work independently by just directly reduces armor for physical damage types?

does armor and armour penetration stats are only related to physical damage? does elemental damages had no relation to both armor and armour penetration?

[arrowsoftgames]

Armour reduces all damage taken (regardless of Damage Type) while Armour Penetration reduces the amount of Armour that a target has and therefore effectively increases the damage that you deal to that target. (again regardless of Damage Type).

[Ikthallion]

Armour reduces all damage taken, so Armour Penetration helps your damage regardless of your damage type.
In regards to your damage type, Elemental penetration reduces your targets elemental resists ie. Fire/cold/arcane/lightning, so in relation to your chosen damage type of Fire, 200 elemental penetration would also equal 200 fire penetration.
Physical Penetration is a completely different stat to Armour penetration and instead would work more like elemental penetration, but with Physical penetration instead reducing your targets physical resists ( not armour ). So if your damage type is Physical then physical penetration is what would increase your damage, as it debuffs your target to your damage type.

In short.
If your damage type is Physical then Physical penetration works for you.
If your damage type is Elemental ( either fire/cold/arcane or lightning ) then Elemental penetration works for you.
Armour penetration works for everyone because Armour protects against all damage, ergo less Armour = more damage.

nb. On a point for point basis Physical/Elemental penetration is stronger than Armour penetration. ie. 400 Elemental penetration for you would be a fair bit stronger than 400 Armour penetration.
Mousing over the tool tips for the different stats on your char sheet should be helpful to you as it'll give a rough indication of the relevant strengths of the stats.

[kukuhimanpr]

thx for the info everyone.