Armor Decreases as you level!

Sup guys,

i'm playing as Marauder right now, and i notice that every level i get my armor decreases, i had 71% but now 67% and it will continue till i find a better gear, problem is i'm at 59 right now and the better gear is only for 62-64..

my point is, what should i do?

if i Increase Armor, it will decrease when i get a new level and my Life stills low,

if i Increase Health my Defense will decrease,
i will get more damage so the new amount of life will not make any difference, or just a little.

i really don't understand it, in my thoughts the situation will remain the same, and when i get the last gear? should i stop leveling?

any experienced player to give me a light, or a DEV?

Thanks

The damage reduction shown on your character screen is an estimate based on the damage of an average enemy at your level.

When you level up, enemies do more damage on average, so the same amount of armor would offer less damage reduction.

You have to find a balance between armor, life, and damage that works for you. There's no way to increase them all at every level.

The way armor reduction works is a little different in POE. It's not a linear reduction. The more damage done by an attack, the less armor has an effect on reducing damage. Thus, when you level without swapping in new gear, you are mitigating less % damage. The same goes for evasion, accuracy and other stats.