I have over 6000 hours play time and still come back to this game, and even more find new ways to play. I have never taken a gun and shield build to the end game. Started and picked up anvil devotion and for the life of me feel like it never procs, not nearly as much as it would if i was sword and board. does using a gun negate blocking in this game? if so why am i chasing the Stronghold set with blocking procs as a build idea?
Maybe with a gun you don’t approach enemies that much and kill them quicker?
Or maybe you have higher DA on this character?
I don’t know why you’re doing that 
I had some fun with the oaht breaker (epic) set and the watcher of erulan. Though neither of these were strong builds. Also neither focus on blocking. Just doesn’t seem like a good fit with ranged imho. You usually want to line up the enemies so you can use passthrough to hit them all, which means they won’t all be hitting you.
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if your block chance isnt’ high and you’re killing melee enemies before they reach you, anvil wont trigger much.
Block definitely works with gun tho, you’re probably experiencing the specific GD block interaction mechanics in action.
What class are you doing this with? Since Stronghold got a conversion buff it leans more towards a straight fire build unless you’re trying to do an even physical / fire split.
I like the stronghold set.
My first character was a purifier (Yes, I read online advice) who ended up boring me halfway through act 1, and I only finished levelling that character literally years later. Tried a bunch of sets and gear options and didn’t like any until I tried Stronghold.
That set convinced me of the power of WPS and of shotgun effects. Stormspread + Stun Blast = over 50% chance of getting a 4 projectile shotgun blast. Encourages you to get right into the enemy’s face and blast them. Or you can clear out half a screen of trash mobs with a few volleys. Much more fun than just standing on a seal and blasting. (Though I would not recommend trying this in hardcore…)
But I have my doubts about using block procs with it. I’ve tried one build that had super blocking skills. Warlord sword-and-board. 100% block time reduction, blocking procs, lots of shield damage blocked… I was not impressed. I lost a lot of damage and the shield did not seem to make much of a difference.
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Gun + Shield and “wand” + shield are so weird build archetypes 
Gun + Shield isn’t weird, you can even combine them into one thing! Would be funny if GD had another Totally Normal Shield that is actually a gun instead of a mace 
(real thing from 1544)
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Zantai !
Now that is a cool gadget.
I want it.
I was thinking of this one for pistol + shield, which is not nearly as cool.
-50% OA though unless you’re 1 GD meter away from enemy
Please and thank you. This would be great 
I need this, now
I was in Art Institute in Chicago last weekend and they actually had a 16th Century Sword with 2 pistols incorporated into it. One on either side of the blade. Amazing. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it…
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the only attacks that can be reliably blocked are melee attacks so if you’re mostly taking damage from range that would be why. so many projectiles and projectile-based spells cannot be blocked it’s a bit ridiculous (previous observation).
the base fleshwarped enemies that throw fire/aether-balls that get spawned from the big aetherial guardian thingies - can’t be blocked. those ranged tentacles that pop up all over malmouth - can’t be blocked. the list probably goes on but that’s what was apparent when i picked up my block-based char again. might make a bit of a stink again in the next playtest about this.
edit: since i had the suspicion and just got to the end of forgotten gods: can’t block any of the koorvak servants projectile attacks, which on top have way too high physical damage still (seemingly didn’t get nerfed when we lost physical resistances) and they can’t hit you above a certain max range but won’t try to get closer.
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