Recently several items that added +XX to defense had their stats decrease. Fangtooth from Blizzard explains what happened and why.

Many players have asked why the Defense stat was lowered. Below is the explanation we got from the developers.

The reason Defense was reduced is because it was more powerful than originally intended. It is still the best stat to have if you are the primary melee damage taker. We are confident that tanking will not become significantly more difficult for warriors than it was before, nor do we feel that keeping tanks alive will become increasingly more difficult.

Each item in the game that has stat points associated with it has a budget. Before this change, Defense was going over the allocated budget. This was because of a miscalculation on our part which led us to believe the stat was worth less than it really was. By lowering the Defense stat on all items, we have brought the stat value back to where we want it to be.

In regards to raid encounters, we will continue to watch them closely, and make adjustments as needed. We've been making raid encounters more manageable from a game play standpoint, and do not feel that the Defense change is going to make a drastic difference.

In addition, we will be performing further research on the public test realms to see how much of an impact this change will have on the game, and adjustments will be made where needed. Any adjustments will most likely be made to monsters, as we do not want to go over the stat budget again. As soon as we have more information, we will be posting again with what was found.

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