I was levelling up some of my skills, in this instance it was Hardened Ward and I was periodically checking it to see the XP progress. Prior to hitting level 4, the ward would absorb over 10,000 damage according to the tool tip as well as it absorbed an extra 32% damage for myself. Upon hitting level 4 however, I noticed the tool tip states it absorbs 33% (no issue here) but only 4681 damage? Some quick testing does seem to show the tool tip is correct and simply not a visual error, plus the pinkish colour that appears on my health bar is noticeably smaller anyway.

This is not the first instance I noticed this. My Unstable Clannfear went from something like 1250 damage to 760 upon maxing as well.

So what's the deal? I'm fairly certain I did not get such a drop from maxing Empowered Ward (still 10K+). I didn't want to report it as a bug because maybe (even though I'm over 160 CP) it might be scaling still, I don't really know.