[Lolzytripd]

Just uh.. my two cents from my dated perspective.

Why are defensive stats able to be used even remotely as effectively as offensive stats...

While also providing the defensive boons that offensive stats don't provide.

Just some introspection I have on the matter while I wait for BYOND to get back to me on helping me resecure my keys.

Edit: Aptitude, as it did forever ago, still seems to be a god stat among men, offering a huge bonus to every single stat for relatively little investment.

Defensive stats

1. Provide elemental attack, meaning anyone looking to invest in Earth, Water, Wind, Dark, and to a lesser degree Sound/Light damage gains useful defensive stats.
   
2. basic Tomes Scale X% Willpower and Y% element's stat, above mentioned elements. Rarer tomes sometimes also scale on  these stats and  you occasionally find a non tome weapon that leans heavily into defensive stats aswell.
   
3. As a product of the two above mentioned facts Spells in the above mentioned elements allow a user to benefit from on average 100% element attack +140% scaled weapon attack when using  casting the spell. This is on an automatically hitting spell that often will have awesome bonus effects and neato synergies and on average do more damage than the glass cannon trying to hit you really hard with his sword. 
   

 Aptitude however is not so much a god stat, just more so a put 36-42 points in it and smile, since it gives you a handful of health, and better stat minimum even in the stats you are just dumping anyway. The only time you don't put points into it is when you've discovered a 3-4 stat meme build that will get nerfed after you somehow manage to win 4 fights against the meta mages.