Defect vs Plated Armor

[Phasmy]

Evoked orbs should remove stacks of plated armor if they deal damage to HP. Currently a majority of damage dealt by the Defect is not considered an attack and therefore does not reduce Plated Armor.
The fight vs the Shelled Parasite is especially tedious cause of this.

[Shovel Priest]

I think "majority of damage" is a bit of a stretch. A lot of my early runs playing around with the orbs were largely unsuccessful because I just never supplemented it with actual Attacks. Once I started valuing cards like Slipstream and... and... I forgot the name, but the common that deals X damage a number of times equal to the number of your currently channeled orbs...

*That's* when I started getting a bit better. That latter attack just destroys Shelled Parasite. Plated Armor is just a reason you can't build a deck that channels lightning and stacks block forever.

[robofish126]

Orb effects do not count as attacks, skills, or powers. This means Orb damage doesn't deplete Plated Armor from Shell Parasite or help knock down Flying from Byrds. However it also means that Orb damage doesn't trigger The Guardian's "deal damage when attacked" or Spiker's "deal damage when hit" and Orb effects in general do not trigger Gremlin Nob or Chosen.

Overall I think its better as is. If they changed it to work the way you prescribe, then fighting Spikers with a Lightning-oriented build would be a death sentence.

Also relying solely on Orbs for damage is a bad idea due to their random nature, as well as their somewhat limited output.