If you are talking about saracin gear.

Bonuses of sarasin's Weapon (for example) :

- Troop Offense During an Attack: 24% - this bonuse works the only when you atack somebody. All your troops have this bonus (During an Attack);

- Total Defense: 12% - this bonus works alwies. All your troops have this bonus alvies (attack / defens it does not matter)

The same is with all saracin's gear

I just found this and it almost answers my question. Is it better to have Total Defense gems or Melee Defense gems?

Does the Melee still get the 12% with Total Defense? is the actual Defensive result the SAME with both except that ALL units get the Total Defense percentage?

This is a great question. I have been wondering about that myself. I will note that the 'Total Defense' is 2% less than the unit specific 'Melee Defense'. But the rest of the question holds true.

Hmmm.... On the surface it looks like a better option since you can mix troops with the shaman or Hero you are using the gems with.

However, each Shaman gives unit specific boosts and those Shaman boosts will not apply to other unit types. Those other troops will only get the Gem bonuses. The hero is a little more difficult to explain since the gear is unit specific, but the gems can still be the general 'Total Defense'..

a little unclear. "+% Troop Defense means "The Base Defense Value Of The Given Troop"

+% Total Defense means "All Defense Bonus From Hero / Watchtower / Wall etc" . Troop defense is for troops but what about for invaders does total defense help with invaders

You are asking a question on an old post ,which isn't always the best idea, sometimes things that happened in the past may not apply today.

Some of the bonuses suggested are only going to be relevant to specific locations .i.e. if a tile is attacked, or if a town is attacked if there are troops there.

The bonus you get from the hero, and now shaman, only apply if either or both are present at the time of the event, which could be a battle.