Is deflection bugged/too weak/intended?

[Vesemir]

For now deflection is deducted from damage AFTER all x damage multipliers on a shot and even + damage multipliers on a crit got calculated
(e.g. 5 damage shot bolter x 1.3 (from items) x 4.0 (from operative stacks) x 1.8(0.5 from basic crit 0.3 from whatever crit bonus) = 46, so any enemy having 3 deflection (there are many with small amounts like tech-priests/servitors who even have the cool "Part-machine" tiered buffs (1/2/3 deflection) gets dealt 46 - 3 = 43 damage which kinda makes this deflection stat worthless.

Deflection tanks are worthless vs enemies aswell (20 deflection, gets bursted by 7*80 damage crits).

Isn't it supposed to be subtracted from the base damage so
(5 (base damage) - 3 (deflection) x 1.3 x 4.0 x 1.8) =~ 19 (further reduced by armor etc)
so deflection at least have some value ?

The whooping 50 deflection at bosses do nothing vs (myriad damage amplifiers) at the point they are reached because of the same reason.

There is big hype about this stat (only heavy/power armors can have it etc. and there are strength requirements to be able to use it) and it ends being a non-factor both ways (well, you can build a tank, but it just boils to armor stacking, not deflection)

Discuss.

[recursor]

Enemy deflection is pretty easily bypassable, so yeah, that's really just a situational obstacle. But it breaks a little different for party members.

While multipliers are applied before deflection, so are damage debuffs and many enemies do not have large % bonuses. If you're going to look to tank any of the heavier hitters, they should be appropriately debuffed and you might want to take some of those crit protection options. That being said, there aren't too many giant hitters in the game even on Unfair. Ember and Chtonos aren't representative of enemies in general.

Trying to facetank later bosses using just deflection doesn't seem advisable, at least until later Exemplar. Deflection is better used with Bastion to quickly build stacks of unyielding beacon from ranged enemies. You'll want to parry most melee hits and max that out with buffs and debuffs (such as from a strategist) and keep a buffer of temporary wounds.

Early game Abelard can easily tank mobs like the Forgefiend taking its damage down to 0, or tank the group of Daemonettes and the rapidfire guards in the governor's fight. Later on he can handle various xenos and tzeentch summons. And you can eventually spec up deflection pretty noticeably alongside the other defensive stats. Out of curiosity, I parked him in front of some endgame enemies and checked his per-hit deflection in the first turn:

62 deflection (29 steel shell + 3 bulwark + 1 covering bulwark + 7 equipment + 1 thick skin + 6 mystic ward + 6 brace for impact + 6 endure + 3 hardened scars)

All in all, he can solo tank the group of dopplegangers for somewhere around 3-4 turns, taking nearly no damage in the first couple of turns. The warp damage from Idira and mounting burst damage from Argenta do eventually take him down, though.

I do have a breakdown example from the Forgefiend here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQbfBHf6vPI

Edit: But to part of your point that I may have glossed over, I'd agree that investing into deflection is mainly something you'd only want to do for tanks.