I don't have serious parses to scientifically comment on this. But the fact it's such a small increase in defense points and nothing else has been added that amped them up tells me it's probably really powerful. They added a soft cap to AC because raw ac became too powerful. They added heroics because raw stats became too powerful if they increased them. My theory is anything that touches base stats like defense is a big boost because it's the base, which then goes through however many levels of multiplication that adjusting the base is huge.
The 10 points of Defense might not parse out to much, but consider this … there is literally nothing else in the game that has a higher Defense skill mod. People still use that 10% dodge skill aug, because it is the best skill mod aug for that skill in the game. Unless/until they offer a replacement for this skill mod, this is a must-have for everyone that might take a hit on that basis alone.
It seems to me there have been other items in the past that say +x% but really arent that after you level past them. And I dont mean focus stuff that outright says it does that or AC items that are off because they split the ac. Cant remember specific items but maybe someone else can
The level locked items are the ones that boost nuke and heal amounts. In those cases, the levels of spells are what are capped. Things that directly raise skills tend to have a hard cap on the number of points : Tears have a hard cap of 10 Defense points; the Tradeskill trophies have a hard cap of 45 points, the specialization augs have hard caps on the number of points that they raise those skills up as well. However, none of those skill raising effects have level caps. You will NOT get the full 15% on tradeskills as you take that skill past 300. You WILL however, get the full 45 points, regardless of whether the skill si 300, or 350, or anywhere in between. You WILL get that 45 points, regardless of whether you are the minimum level to get enough AA’s to take the skill to 350, or if you wait 20 more years and are level 165. In other words, don’t focus on the ‘+x%’ - focus instead on the actual hard cap of the effect.
My suggestion is just fold the tablet runs into your dailies. Just get it done - if nothing else for the sake of saying, "Hey, this is completed." I get the feeling the Alaran Tear might be a precursor to an upgraded version soon....
I think I was more remembering some things that had a certain effect "against an equal level mob" which wasnt at first communicated.
Got mine done last week. If nobody is down there killing Alarans I can get a whole level done in less than two hours. I would do a level then stop to save my sanity or what is left of it. If they add 20 more levels to it I will either jump for joy or blow a gasket. Probably both.
