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So, I was reading the metal lore spell, "plague of rust".

It seems it removes 1 point of armour save.

This raises a question:

Does it worsen your armoursave [whenever, and under whatever circumstance you are called to take it.] by 1 [stacking, of course]
or does it worsen your best armoursave.

So, the simple example:
Light armour, halberd and shield.
being shot at, it's a 5+ armour save.
in combat, it's a 6+ armour save.

Does this mean...
a. Being shot at, it's a 6+
and in combat, you get no save?

or

b. Being shot at, it's a 6+ save
and in combat it's a 6+ save?

Thanks in advance.

This may sound like a rather nebulous explanation, but the way I see it is this:

Armor saves are purely theoretical until they are actually applied to a case. If you are hit with certain weapons or abilities, you are denied a save outright, so the value of your save is never applied: it's meaningless. It is only ever brought into play in situations where it would actually have an effect. And, from that point, it is modified by various game mechanics. But it has to be TRIGGERED by an event.

So, in the above example, the type of attack that hits the unit will trigger the save, and the appropriate value of the save variable. FROM THERE, the -1 effect of rust would adjust it, meaning that situation A would be correct.

Thats... such a computer game answer.

It makes sense, however, I'd agree with that.

It's also worth noting that it doesn't actually remove your gear at all. So if you have light armor, shield and hand weapon normally giving you a 5+/6+Parry, getting hit by Plague of Rust twice may remove your armor save but you'll still get your Parry in close combat.

I imagined as much.

I would say you remove it for both, and steamdragon is right about the parrying.

Strelka is correct. But I'd imagine that Games Workshop's attempted reasoning was probably more realistic. Your stuff gets rusty and crappy, and it doesn't protect you as much. From whatever.