With FoA introducing on block procs like cooldown reductions, it finally allowed me to actually see in action why I never really liked retaliation/block builds in the first place. The reason? A very large chunk of the enemy roster simply doesn’t use any blockable attacks at all.
This means that the build in question is either supremely effective against anything that has blockable attacks, and absolutely horrendous against anything that does not. Doesn’t help that that vast majority of the most dangerous attacks are of the latter type. Bosses usually just cycle spells for example, many seemingly melee attacks are spells/don’t have a blockable component, anything AoE can’t be blocked either. Tried running a build with Ruugru’s Mane for the CDR on block for Forcewave, but it’s just so inconsistent. I can either machine gun Forcewave down anything that uses blockable attacks, or just wonder around idly while waiting for the cooldown to come up, as the core mechanic of the supposed build is useless. You can’t even proc stuff like Stone Form against many bosses. Whenever I see an enemy group that has regular ranged monsters in it, I have to pay extremely close attention not to kill them in order to be able to squeeze the core build mechanic.
As such, I will probably avoid anything that relies on blocking for now, which excludes a lot of items from the expansion. Will probably start looking into builds that have On Attack procs instead of on block. Anointed Blade caught my eye recently.
Retaliation is doable simply thanks to Retal damage added to attack. But the items obviously intended for Block procs that many of the FoA items have on them, I don’t think I’ll be playing around any of them any time soon again, if ever. Which is a shame, because there are some really cool ideas there. But the inconsistency just kills it for me. There really needed to be something like a Spell Block I feel.
most retal builds suck this version. just weak. Neither tanky enough nor fast enough.
block-to-reduce-CD design for skills that has knock down or stun effect feels quite stupid. What attack am I gonna block if enemies are knocked down by the skill I want to recharge?
I never really thought much about the implications, but that I have been carrying that thought for a long while. Spells in GD are already (thank to god) very material attacks: they target body parts, many can be blocked by a shield, and many have a physical damage component, for instance.
I don’t know what type of balancing issues such a change could introduce into the game. And it’s likely a no-go, now that we are coming to the end of the game development. But I do wonder if they ever considered and tested this.
Indeed. That is another thing I forgot to mention. Forcewave is actively counter-productive towards a build relying on block.
1 - Get hit (don’t overkill DA)
2 - To have a chance to block (if you heavily invested into block chance/recovery)
3 - Hope you are fighting something that actually has blockable attacks
4 - Stun everything for 6+ seconds with your max overcapped Forcewave.
5 - ???
Yeah, it is highly unlikely. The only way to play retal at the moment seems to be retal damage added to attack. Blocking is inconsistent both for survivability and now offense, requiring heavy investment to still have most of the dangerous attacks still hit you without isues.
Going with an on attack CDR proc (Anointed Blade) right after I threw in the towel due to have unfun the on block build was, it’s insane how much more effective, reliable and fun overall it feels to play.
All of the on block items from FoA are now unfortunately on my “never touch again list”.
Block feels to me like something that has just too much working against it from too many angles. I don’t see why everything can’t be blockable. It’s not like you even get a 100% DR like in other games.
Trying something once and never using it again is the same as BT or OFF. It’s similar in that I might mess around with 1P occasionally, but I’d never specialize in it.