Glad to know that MA is looking into making changes, Hanne.
Someone compared the use of armor to using the pitbull as protection. Wrong comparison on many levels...
First, if you are wearing armor and get hit, YOU STILL TAKE DAMAGE! Whereas, if you are using the pitbull as a shield, whether standing "inside" or behind, you do not take damage, only the pitbull does.
Second, if your armor hits max decay limit, you have no option but to leave the area, hit up a repair terminal or auction, then return, having left the claim area for an extended period of time. The pitbull, on the other hand, you have a nifty little repair tool. And if you are standing inside the hitbox, you can repair to your heart's content and not really worry about healing yourself.
Third, let's talk about decay. My armor (I use gremlin/5b) decays about 36 ped on a 200 ped trox run. Max TT on the pitbull is 41 ped. After being completely destroyed from max SI, the TT decays about 10 pec. (maybe a bit more, since I haven't really done the math, but you get the idea) After an hour of non-stop attacks on the pitbull, I suspect the TT has decays about 10 ped. Given the armor most ppl use in LG, their armor/plates have probably decayed 200-300 ped.
Fourth, unless using (L) armor, the armor loses protective value as it decays. The pitbull has the same protective value, whether the SI is 1 or 1000.
That being said, give me an armor repair tool (one that repairs all 6 parts of my armor at once) and a UL set of armor that holds the same protection at 5% repair that it does at 100% repair, takes ALL the damage for me, and has bare minumum decay.
Once this happens, we can compare pitbulls to armor.