Blocking in the new age.

[Chenz]

Shield wall should be turned into a 1 min cooldown and decreases damage taken by 20%.

That should probably be 40% damage reduction to be in line with Icebound Fortitude. I've never quite understood why Icebound Fortitude decreases damage taken by 40% on a 1 minute cooldown when a glyphed and talented Shield Wall reduces damage taken by 40% on a 2 minute cooldown. In this age of cooldowns, it's easy to see which class has the edge.

[Hallak]

I have psychic powers. . . but you can't see them

OP. I cant see you shielding your own psychic powers. QQ.

[Kandrassan]

The easiest way would just be a straight conversion of Block Value from static damage to percentage damage, and would be consistent in that it scales with the how hard the mobs hit, the current issue that shield block has.

Block wasn't terrible back in Naxx, when mobs hit for 6-7k usually, and when most paladins are sitting on, about 1400 block (ranging from 1100 for the block ignorers, to 1900 for the block stackers). At that point, blocks were about 20% of the damage on an attack. Now that mobs are frequently hitting for 15k (most hard modes in question clock in at around 20k, Thorim Hard Mode Unbalancings clock in around 35k after a few stacks of his Haste/Damage buff as one of the largest non-magical hits. Hell, General 25 man normal mode white hits for 22k without Surge)

Make it so that what is currently 1500 BV equal to about 20-25% damage percentage reduction, and scale from there. That would leave Naxx blocks at about 1500, and bring Ulduar blocks up to 2-4k (depending on the boss). This would also solve the 'problem' of paladin tanks in Heroics, where, in example, in my 2050 BV set, I literally can't be hurt by most of the non-boss mobs.


BTW:

it's not like we're blocking with our hands in game.

Real tanks block with their hands. And parry with their dicks. Dodging is for pussies.

[Deralte]

Something needs to be changed about the block mechanics.



Oh, well, it's not like you would need 20 STR for 1 SBV.

[Bizarro]

Yeah I don't have a solution, nor can I even begin to toss out ideas. I just pray that something good happens soon. I don't want it to be some insane we are the king shit tanks for all encounters change. Cause then DKs and Druids would be in the same boat we're in now. Its not a nice boat either, doesn't even have a friggin mini-bar.

I'm not in some cutting edge guild thats got Uld on farm. We're doing decent I suppose, but some of the fights can be kinda boring from a tanking perspective. The twist of a boss being "he hits REALLY hard" is something that can wear on you a little when you block 2k from a 30k hit. I'm willing to bet M. Night Shyamalan could come up with something cooler than that (but not a whole lot, perhaps a McDonalds coupon or something).

[Xthform]

I'm glad to see so much positive posting going on in my threads . On another note Im really liking some of the ideas floating around here keep it up.

[Xucuroz]

I like having discussions like this, but all we can rlly do now is wait...and hope...after a lot of smart comments anyone can see this is a very tricky/complex topic i just hope blizz do something fast! Blizz are ALWAYS QQing about how they want evey class to be equal and not let class x sit in dal while class y is tanking hardmodes.

Agreed. Blizzard knows its not a great stat but really its something thats currently very up in the air. Its amazing how many Blue topics there are on DKs being better hard mode tanks and how they'd like to make block better but i honestly feel like we could be waiting a while with this one. I agree with the OP, the shields shouldn't just be there for show, it needs to be taken advantage of.

Lots of good suggestions in this topic on how to improve it, i just hope we hear more about what Blizzard plans to actually do, instead of dancing around the issue.

[Nangz]

but if u can imageine a paladin with 3000 damage blocked if they buff that number can u imagine how op paladins would be in pvp against melee?

lets say its 5000 now with high block u can block anything!

[Xthform]

but if u can imageine a paladin with 3000 damage blocked if they buff that number can u imagine how op paladins would be in pvp against melee?

lets say its 5000 now with high block u can block anything!

My friend I am already OP vs any melee now upping BV wouldn't change it much. The only melee class that has half a chance at beating me is a really well pvp geared frost knight damn that frost strike spam.

[PalliesThrowStuff]

Change the way a block reduces damage, and what it means to block an attack.

Firstly, reduce the global chance to block, make Holy Shield increase block value, but reduce the amount of blocks it allows.

Make blocks cause the opposite effect to parries, where parries increase haste, blocks reduce attack speed, now say double or triple current block values, so that blocking an attack reduces an attack typically by more than half, rather than less than a fourth, as it currently stands.

So now when you block an attack, you're not just defending against that one, you're also upsetting the enemy's rythm and enabling more healing time between attacks, this paves the way for Blizzard to adjust healing to be less spammy, as blocking 'buys time' for the healer to think about healing efficiently.

[Draco cracona]

but if u can imageine a paladin with 3000 damage blocked if they buff that number can u imagine how op paladins would be in pvp against melee?

lets say its 5000 now with high block u can block anything!

You could easily turn BV into a percentage of incoming damage, using DR with a sensible cap - change BV into whatever such that however much BV equals 1% reduction on a blocked hit etc., and you've automatically got a scaling system that's not broken in PvP or heroics, and is an improvement in Uld. Blizz have such differing scales of incoming damage to consider at the moment, and that's only going to widen as content increases, so I'm not sure you could balance a non-scaling system for PvP/heroics.

[Lightstrike]

I believe a good way forward would be to roll bv and br into a unified stat that increases the amount blocked by an mount equal to block chance based on rating. Warr and paladin +block% abilities would not increase the amount blocked.
It should be affected by diminishing returns though.

So for example 15% block chance from block rating would have blocks reduce damage taken by 15%. To balance out paladins, holy shield should be reduced to 15 or 20% block rating, and as stated previously holy shields 15% block chance wont reduce damage taken by a further 15%.


This way it *should* mean that pure avoidance on gear balances out with gear with block rating on it so 102.4% combined avoidance is difficult to reach once more.

[Astray]

I think the way block works is okey. Blizzard made the problem by their own by making "heavy damage" automatically mean "slow very big hits".

[mireigi]

The problem being that massive block values would totally trivialise older content and aoe packs.

If block value goes up for warriors, block rating % coefficient would have to go down (would make shield block more reactive and worthwhile)

If block value goes up for pala's, then other changes will have to be made to put them in line with other tanks, all they really needed was a cooldown anyway.

EDIT:

Maybe if the mechanic is modified to mitigate by block value or 75% of the attack, whichever is lower?

The solution is very simple tbh. Change Shield Mastery and Holy Shield to also passively multiply Block Value by 3.5 against targets higher level than yourself.

Block would then work kinda like the Ice Lance Glyph.

This should make Warriors and Paladins able to block 3.5k - 5k damage with every block.

[Stoan]

Would be interesting if they made Block Value similar to Armor Penetration. Your Block Rating gave you a chance to block, and your Block Value decreased the damage you took by a % of the hit taken. Would be a bit of a nerf to big trash pulls, but a bit buff to boss tanking.

[EK1]

Blocking is O.K. imo.

[dvdjrkns]

Honestly, it doesn't bother me that much anymore. I'm used to it. I've been tanking on my pally back when we were considered a gimmick, etc.
That said, I'd like to see some significant changes made to protection paladins. More block value or changing the way it works is a good idea, you're right.
I welcome a second CD. I'd also like to see AD redesigned, but that's just a personal wish.

[iktankniet]

Would be interesting if they made Block Value similar to Armor Penetration. Your Block Rating gave you a chance to block, and your Block Value decreased the damage you took by a % of the hit taken. Would be a bit of a nerf to big trash pulls, but a bit buff to boss tanking.

its a nice idea, but how would i affect pvp?

[grymgroeth]

Theoretically makes pallys and warriors easier to kill in pvp if they're running a shield. Wouldn't be a lot easier necessarily but it would be easier, especially for rogues.

[MestHoop]

Oke I got a great idea XD

First of all: I did not read anything past page 1 as I'm short on time now, but a great way to reduce incoming damage, be it big or small hits is just to make it like this:
rating still affects your chance to block (make this a lot less than it does now though, and on DR, no more 102% block pallies) and make block value scale into a percentage like armor. Then the hit will be blocked by a certain percentage making it better than it is now (without trivializing non-raid boss encounters) and still make it not as good as pure avoidance.