A minor change made recently that should have gone in with the last crash:

Everyone can use the Spin and Distance defenses now.

If you have the corresponding skills (you are a staff/spear or polearm specialist warrior), nothing has changed for you.

If you don't have those skills and you fight with a spear, staff, or polearm, expect to see these defenses function occasionally.

Have you ever had, a low level invoker and noticed you could sometimes parry an attack despite not having the parry skill? Expect something like that, except probably even less of it.

I crunched some numbers on this and in nearly every case I could come up with, shield block was a superior defensive option. Thus, if you are, for example, a shaman, your best defensive option will still probably be sword/shield, axe/shield, or flail/shield. It's just that you running around with a polearm will be slightly less stupid than it was yesterday.

Possibly the numbers on this will be adjusted up or down once we get to observe it in play.