Shattered Kingdoms

Deflection is a type of bonus. It does not refer to what is happening, but rather, how it happens. In D&D, for example, rings of protection grant deflection bonuses to armor class by providing an "energy field" that blows can glance off of, while bracers of armor grant an "armor" bonus to AC.

The reason for using different types of bonuses is that they add together in different ways. Many times, bonuses of the same type do not stack. That is to say, wearing two rings of protection didn't work in D&D. The only bonus which applied was the larger of the two. However, a Ring of Protection and Bracers of Armor would "stack," because their bonus types were different.

This also happens in SK. For example, when you have both Frenzy and Bless, you'll notice that some of the usual effects from Bless aren't listed. This is because those bonuses are smaller than the ones from Frenzy and don't "stack."