About the Shield Block nerf.

[Saverem]

Warriors - At level 85, the value of Shield Block decreases as block value generated by Mastery increases. To remedy this, we will convert overflow of block + avoidance that exceeds 100% into critical block chance instead. Along with that change, Shield Block will be reduced to +25% block chance (down from +100%), but this will still yield a net buff for most warriors. Also in response to this change, the amount of block and critical block provided by Mastery will be equalized. Finally, Mastery will now grant 1.5% block chance per point.

How will nerfing SB to 25% but making anything over 100% block add to critical block a buff to most Warriors? Maybe I'm miss reading, but won't we need to have over 75% block in order for this to even be viable?

[Battousai]

EXAMPLE:

With the little bit of mastery that I have my block rate jumped up 22-23% to about 43-45%ish. Now let's say your actual tanking gear has mastery on it in cata. Your block rate will be upwards of 50-60%...add in parry and dodge ratings of 20% and now your hitting the unhittable status again.

How much is shield block helping you at this point....raiding your block rate from 60% to 100% is only a 40% gain....and in my example that 40% is covered by dodges and parries.

The shield block change isn't a nerf...its a buff to critical block.

[shadowkras]

Its a nerf only if you have low block, its a small buff if you are unhittable already.
Point is, warriors get less block chance per point of mastery than paladins. 2.25% per mastery for pallies against 1.5% per mastery for warriors.
Their damage will be lower overall (-40% all times), while ours will be more spikey (30% most of times and occasionally -60%).

[JustintimeSS]

Yea what Batt said. Keep in mind that our current gear has no mastery on it baseline. Reforging into mastery alone gets us about a 20%+ increase to block. At 85 I have over 61% to block. The parry and dodge added to that makes me basically unhittable without even trying. Now if i use shield block it only buffs shield slam and no longer helps me with damage reduction. Putting the shield block to 25% is more helpful since we literally only need that much to begin with at that point. Also, anything going over 100% avoidance going into crit block is a nice buff that will help us passively avoid WAY more damage in the long run. Hitting shield block now is basically like hitting a forced critical block.

tl;dr It's a buff.

[fizikz]

My question is if "anything over 100%" is converted into crit block, is it impossible then to get 102.4% required to be 'unhittable' ?

[Deleted]

My question is if "anything over 100%" is converted into crit block, is it impossible then to get 102.4% required to be 'unhittable' ?

For every level a mob is over your character's level you need an additional .8% avoidance to be unhittable, or rather, to be at 100%. Actually consider it as if fighting any raid boss automatically gives you -2.4% avoidance.

In other words, while fighting a raid boss, this means everything above 102.4% will be tranformed.

[Mammoth]

I hope thats what they mean Iyona. But I'm still worried that the mechanic will be that the stat is truncated to 100% for level 80 mobs, since this is what is quoted on the tooltip, and everything else converted.

[Alianthos]

This change is amazing ! With our mastery, Unhitable can already be done at lvl 80 (currently, I am unhitable, I pushed 26% dodge, 25% parry and 46% block). It turns SB into a threat Talent only (from Heavy Repercution). Getting critical block chances from SB is like... A physicall Shield Wall (60% damage mitigated) every 30 seconds. So good.

[Darkreven]

Still i am unsure how people who play the class can call this a nerf as anything over 100% block chance is worthless anyway, ya can't go past a 100% chance to block so just for say block itself, we reach 120% block chance currently through the shield block CD and we already had say 30% block, what happens to that extra 30%, its a easy answer... nothing its wasted, now any % beyond that 100% auto converts to critical block so if anyone can please tell me how this is a nerf ?

---------- Post added 2010-10-28 at 09:34 PM ----------

As i said in my previous post you cannot go beyond 100% of anything in truth and stacking mastery currently can push block to ridiculous levels for warriors as is so now say if we manage to reach 100% block through the shield block CD and through what your current block chance is and ya reach say 130% ya get nothing but a wasted 30%, this change will convert any block beyond 100% to critical block so yeah a nerf i do not think so

[xebtria]

so if anyone can please tell me how this is a nerf ?

it appears to be a nerf when people only see "OMAGAWD IT WAS 100% NOW IT IZ 25% NREFNERFNRENFERFEFNERNFE MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI" and fail to read the whole thing.

... which is, sadly enough, not that uncommon.

[herpecin]

if you arent well over 102.4% right now then you need to reforge your gear.

little bit of info, your block% does not include your crit block%. E.G. with mastery i have 42.5% chance to block, AND 22% chance to crit block.

[JustintimeSS]

if you arent well over 102.4% right now then you need to reforge your gear.

Im not currently over 102.4% because I cannot reach that number even after regemming to avoidance. I miss it by 3%. All of my gear is reforged though so... Your advice is slightly misleading to those (not me) that do not completely understand the unhittable idea.

[fizikz]

it appears to be a nerf when people only see "OMAGAWD IT WAS 100% NOW IT IZ 25% NREFNERFNRENFERFEFNERNFE MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI" and fail to read the whole thing.

... which is, sadly enough, not that uncommon.

I read the whole thing and thought that they were removing crit block until you were pushed over 100% (shield block up or not) then I saw their clarification, that mastery still adds 1.5% block, and 1.5% crit block per point.... and now reading the rest of it... feeling like an idiot, I realize my original assumption/understanding was correct...

If you are somehow always over 100% (which will be pretty hard now), you only get the critical block when Shield Block is up.

that sounds pretty sucky to me... and only 1.5% block per mastery? I'm still not seeing how this is a buff. sure, now when being unhittable is possible due to such high combat ratings, but at 85? ...crit block will never happen outside of shield block? :\ that makes me a sad panda. not to mention the leveling implications.

[Deleted]

if you arent well over 102.4% right now then you need to reforge your gear.

I love the way you say it's like just a matter of reforging some gear and voila, you're unhittable. You need pretty fancy gear to reach it, which includes much that a lot of people do not have access to. I know I wouldn't reach it, even if I gemmed and did everything in my power to try right now. It'll be a different story once in 85, but for now, just need to settle for not being unhittable.

[JustintimeSS]

I read the whole thing and thought that they were removing crit block until you were pushed over 100% (shield block up or not) then I saw their clarification, that mastery still adds 1.5% block, and 1.5% crit block per point.... and now reading the rest of it... feeling like an idiot, I realize my original assumption/understanding was correct...

If you are somehow always over 100% (which will be pretty hard now), you only get the critical block when Shield Block is up.

that sounds pretty sucky to me... and only 1.5% block per mastery? I'm still not seeing how this is a buff. sure, now when being unhittable is possible due to such high combat ratings, but at 85? ...crit block will never happen outside of shield block? :\ that makes me a sad panda. not to mention the leveling implications.

We are at 1.25% per point now. How is an increase in that number not a buff?

Read these lines along with your blizz quote:

To remedy this, we will convert overflow of block + avoidance that exceeds 100% into critical block chance

The intent is to make sure Shield Block isn't wasted.

I just think you're misunderstanding it. You will always have a chance to get a critical block regardless. When you are over 100% avoidance (say when you use shield block) all of that spill over is purely critical block percent increase and nothing else as to not waste the gain of avoidance that shield block gave you.

Another example would be if you hit a trinket or got a proc that gave you dodge rating and that rating increase pushed you over the 100% cap. Any block percent from shield block over that cap would then become critical block rating.

Example:

you are at 98% avoidance and block.
You have a 50% chance to critically block.
you use your trinket and gain 2% to dodge.
you are now at 100% avoidance and block.
you use shield block.
you are now at 75% chance to critically block.

[Stanton Biston]

It sounds like a damn dangerous buff to me. I mean, if you stack avoidance and mastery, you could push up to perma shieldwall if shield block pushes all your block into crit block.

Though I may be off and the numbers may be too high to reach, but I could see it being an issue.

[Deleted]

It sounds like a damn dangerous buff to me. I mean, if you stack avoidance and mastery, you could push up to perma shieldwall if shield block pushes all your block into crit block.

Well the reason "unhittable" is such a pleasing status is because it means that you will always mitigate some of the physical damage you're targeted with. Either you avoid it entirely or you will block it, losing 30% of the damage (60% if you critically block). I don't really see this as an OP matter though since warriors actually have the weakest major CD in the game atm. Namely our Shield Wall only mitigates 40% of the damage, while as other classes like DKs get similar 2 minute CD but which mitigates 60%. By being able to block as much as possible, we are leveling that playing field.

[shadowkras]

A physicall Shield Wall (60% damage mitigated) every 30 seconds. So good.

Except the chance of a critical block to occuer is actually low (near 15-25%), and not 100% while shield block is up. Shield block, while at 102%+, will increase that by another 25%, thats all.

if you arent well over 102.4% right now then you need to reforge your gear.

You need pretty much your whole gear 277 to be able to hit 102% only through reforging, otherwise you will need to gem a bit of avoidance.

Im full 264, everything reforged to mastery, and i hit only about 20% dodge 20% parry and 42% block full raid buffed. Could get maybe an extra 3% swaping to avoidance/mastery trinkets.

[Torture]

For me, the single most important thing about this announcement is confirmation that a 102.4 build is going to be possible in Cata. Indeed this change seems to be aimed at that very possibility.

For me, a balanced 102.4 build is always going to be more fun than an EH build, so I like where this seems to be heading. Indeed I'd be delighted if this went live right now!

Of course in other news, why did Vigilance really need a nerf? I'm almost struggling to click a point into it now. The shield wall changes look pretty decent though.

[Deleted]

For me, the single most important thing about this announcement is confirmation that a 102.4 build is going to be possible in Cata. Indeed this change seems to be aimed at that very possibility.

Agreed. I was whole-heartedly expecting this to be nerfed, not buffed.