Why does the protection bar above the health bar exist on my enemies whose characters aren't gear 7?

"Markoscream;d-266362" wrote:
Hey guys,

Lately when I'm in the squad arena, I've been coming across my opponents as exceptionally hard to beat. Then I figured it's because of this protection bar. How come they have it when all their characters are gear 6, while in my squad, only characters who are gear 7 have protection? That's unfair, why is that?

If they have flat protection secondaries on their mods, they'll have a protection bar.

"herd_nerfer;c-2444366" wrote:

"Markoscream;d-266362" wrote:
Hey guys,

Lately when I'm in the squad arena, I've been coming across my opponents as exceptionally hard to beat. Then I figured it's because of this protection bar. How come they have it when all their characters are gear 6, while in my squad, only characters who are gear 7 have protection? That's unfair, why is that?

If they have flat protection secondaries on their mods, they'll have a protection bar.

This is the correct answer.

Or if the lead/unique gives flat protection, although Geo Brood Alpha lead is the only example of that I can think of.

Protection up in any form and bonus protection will also give a protection bar to units that don't have protection

"Markoscream;c-2444485" wrote:
What are "flat protection secondaries"?

The +6.77% stat on this mod is percent protection - it's only worthwhile if you have a base protection value which doesn't happen until gear 7.

The +1971 stat on this mod is flat protection - it's added directly to your base protection - so even if you have 0 protection (like at gear 6) this mod would add 1971 points and the protection bar would then appear.

At lower gear levels flat protection is better, but it doesn't take long for %protection to outpace it by leaps and bounds. Ultimately flat stats are less desirable than %stats because % will scale with gear and relic levels. In the very early game though you just take what you can get your hands on.

What are "flat protection secondaries"?

They gain protection from Mods, or a leadership, or they gain protection up from a buff (though that would be purple).

This is why protection up is based off of health