Don’t post in forums too often, but just started playing blademaster and wondered why a dual wielding nightblade doesn’t have some innate block chance. I just think logically when you dual wield weapons, you have the ability to block/parry.
I’m not suggesting that dual wield block be as good as shield block in terms of defense, but I still thought it would add a new element of defense that nightblade sorely lacks in endgame. Also, parry/counter can be added as a supplemental skill/passive to dual wield block as another form of offense.
I’m not sure if I would add dual wield block as a feature for all dual wielding builds or just as a passive in the nightblade tree, but either would seem appropriate and not too overpowered/unnatural.
One easy method I thought of in implementing this into nightblade tree was to add a transmute option under shadow dance and change the %avoid melee/projectile aspect into blocking while dual wielding.
Unsupported/poorly supported block is inferior to dodge, so in this case this suggestion could only make sense if there’s an additional source(s) of DW block through skills/items/devotions, to combine the transmuter with.
Anyway, your suggestion of having DW block makes sense and would be welcome. A fair amount of melee DW builds got severe survivability issues on ultimate.
DW may initially come with a slight chance to block (like 10-15% or smth), and further improved by minor %chance from gear and skills, and minor %damage blocked through devotions (in form of dedicated nodes, or integrated in the already existing shield nodes).
Though it require so heavy reworks, that more likely we’d better wait for modders, if it’s technically possible at all.
Could just have the 1st tier DW passive also grant avoidance while dual wielding. Might be overkill with the PB modifier, though. Is there an avoidance cap?
You have a point. There’s no point of replacing the dodge from shadow dance if we’re trying to improve the overall defense of nightblade and melee DW build in general.
I wouldn’t be against the idea of a DW melee build being allowed to stack both dodge and block since that’s what a nimble/agile character would be capable of in order to survive in combat. Maybe nightblade tree can have another passive that allows dual wield block with increased % via more skill points used.
Since the soldier tree has oleron’s rage for offense and menhir’s bulwark for defense, it would be cool if nightblade tree also gave the player an option to choose a more offense-heavy build or more balanced/defensive option as well.
If they did this, I’d say they should have it in the place of part of the nodes for Lethal Gambit/Armasta’s Blade Burst/Whatever they decide to call it next (Which doesn’t seem to ever be a good skill regardless of what they do to it) and moved to the bottom section of the skill tree where the other passives are, and the remaining nodes from Lethal Assult reworked into an Exclusive Skill for Nightblade.
This would leave Demo as the only class without an exclusive, and I wouldn’t be against Uzulin’s Chosen being reworked into a very suitable Exclusive, so long as it got solid buffs to what it does/should be used for, probably by also including Thermite Mines (and increasing their #cap and duration when it’s active) and the Mortar in the skills that get the boost.