Would be nice to be able to block with your weapons. It would also make a lot of sense.
Of course the block chance, amount and recovery would be lower than with a shield, but imagine the new possibilities if you could.
- 10000000!
Brand new aspect of defence for melee. It could also be some new constellation for pure melee weapon block but with some damage or OA drawbacks (like you’re too busy blocking for landing critical hits).
I’m not 100% against the idea unless it’s added on top of shield blocks.
In other hands could work with (maybe):
- Dualwield
- 1h/caster off-hand
That being said some builds are already tanky without that, i wonder if that could make some build way too good defensively. The meta of defense in the game is balanced without it. Hence why it would be better not adding it, in my opinion.
Maybe if it’s part of a new mastery, then yes!!!
I would add the stat in a skill, constellation, rare, epic or legendary weapon, but not in every melee weapon.
And to balance the weapon, if you have the stat to block attacks, you can not get damage bonus, or something like that.
I would like to see it in the form of constellation for dual wield and 2H weapons only and only with cinsiderable drawback. There’s no drawbacks in GD yet, this is the very appropriate case i think. Something like 50% block chance and some block recovery but never deal crits or -500 flat OA or -20% total damage or something like this.
These numbers are crazy enough for no one thinking about taking that kind of block :rolleyes:
Like literally!
if it would have to be part of the devotion it would have to be located on the left side somewhere, maybe part of a new constellation that might be coming in the expansion, if any is added. The right side, especially the top right is highly defensive enough. maybe on the lower right side but pretty much every dual wield melee build go deeply there to take constellation like Oleron and Unknow Soldier. So no drawback there. Might have some drawback, but minimal.
My point is the drawback could be just adding such a stats within a constellation that is located somewhere in the devotion that adds decision making. You want the block? Fine, give up on some damage and or survivability elsewhere from another constellation.
Otherwise, adding that weapon block within a new mastery could be ok if that’s a major defensive skill like Blastshield is for the Demolitionist and Maiven’s Sphere of Protection for the Arcanist.
Furthermore, I’m against drawback as it is not fun at all. Especially if it’s a huge drawback damage wise. A lot of people didn’t like that feature too much on Maiven’s Sphere of Protection, right now it’s not that bad but the reduce damage is minimal to a certain degree. The numbers that you’re saying are way to high and not fun or even needed for any build currently for survivability.
But for examle for pierce Blademasters that can literally oneshot bosses -20% damage in exchange for good defence wouldn’t be that bad deal. And those numbers could be less ofcourse, it was just an example.
the way I see it, if you’d have to spec into specific constellation(s) for it, and knowing the block chance, amount and recovery would still be lower than a shield spec, it’s already a tradeoff.
I agree that finding the right numbers might be a little hard tho.