Really not happy with the fact that Class Items contribute significantly to Defense. Their primary purpose (because, well, that’s how they were designed) is cosmetic; and this has been the sole reason for choosing our Bonds, Marks, & Cloaks since day one. I mean, I’m glad Class Items are doing something practical now, don’t get me wrong, but I shouldn’t be heavily penalized at lvl 40 (for example) because I want to wear a really cool and pretty lvl 20 Bond. For perspective: I just got a lvl 30 Rare Bond (you know, the one Ikora gives you for completing the initial Warlock Quest) that gave me [i][b]50[/b][/i] more Defense than my lvl 20 Legendary Bond, and I just dismantled it because it was super boring and bland. My [armory]Seal of the Twin Eagle[/armory] looks so much cooler! I have nigh on a dozen different, very cool, Legendary Bonds from the core game, both expansions, and just very cool ones the Speaker has had; all of which I have carefully chosen or worked very hard for (i.e., VoG Hard, CE Hard, etc.), and on which I have dropped a very significant amount of Glimmer and Motes of Light. I like to switch between all of them as my mood changes, or based on my how my armor/shader looks; or maybe to show off my awesome-looking early Year 1 Bond that relatively few people have. The two most egregious examples I have are these: 1) [armory]"Dread's Enmity"[/armory], the Legendary Warlock Bond that drops from Prison of Elders treasure chests, only gives 3 Defense (that's right, three. From a PoE drop. Seriously Bungie?). Meanwhile, the Common (basic) Level 8 Bond, [armory]Existential Threats[/armory] (that you get from running through the first slew of Cosmodrome missions for the very first time) gives 42! What kind of bull pocky is this?? PoE is [i]way[/i] harder than running the first story missions! 2) The original [armory]Bond of the Queen's Guard[/armory], the Legendary Warlock Bond that was only obtainable during the "Queen's Wrath" one-time event (which occurred during the first few weeks of Year 1 Launch) provides only 30 Defense. Granted, a super-exclusive item like this shouldn't be [i]super[/i] powerful, but it should at least be on par with our current stats. Which brings me to my final thoughts on the matter: since Class Items are much more of a cosmetic choice (especially those Hunter Cloaks; I mean, seriously) and/or a way to show off how awesome you are because you did the really hard thing before everyone else, that should still be their main focus–like Armor Shaders. But I do still like them providing some practical benefit as well–I just think it would be much more appropriate for their effect to be something far less consequential, and not something that would make them effectively useless after rising a handful of levels. For example: rather than Defense contribution, they could provide Attribute contribution (Intelligence, etc.); and something small––like, +5 or +15. Small numbers like that, that could (slowly) increase with the level of the Item, but not so much that it would cause a character to have a huge drop-off of benefit; for example, if I really want to wear my level 20 [armory]"Emerald Light"[/armory] because I love the green fire effect, but I'm level 38, under the current system I'd be losing a few tens of Defense rating, seriously dropping my Light Level (and, of course, my actual Defense). Overall, I am very glad that this step has been taken; but I'm also [i]very[/i] frustrated that my Defense rating is already suffering because of a heavily cosmetic item.