Been playing for 2.5 years and still not fully understanding what each does. Does defense work for specials from opp team and health is just overall damage? Would appreciate if someone could explain the diff between both.
Health is the number of points of damage that can be taken before dying. All sources of damage apply to Health (or to Minions, which are like an external pool of additional Health).
Defense reduces damage taken from certain sources, like Tiles, Slash Attacks, and Special Skills — but not DoT, which is applied with no regard for Defense. So it can effectively reduce the amount of damage applied to Health. This follows the Damage Calculation formula.
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Health determines how much damage your hero can withstand before dying – your life.
Defense determines how much the attack’s damage is reduced before it hits you – your armour.
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defense will reduce the damage taken. Health depends on the damage sustained while alive. 
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Thanks for all the replies. Appreciate it.
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Choose the defense. Minions need health.
It is generally acknowledged that an increase in defense is worth double the equivalent increase in health. That is why the defense down heroes are considered so valuable.
Except for the riposters. For them the higher the defense the lower the counterattack. So it is better to have higher health for them.
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