Thinking about Block, Parry, Dodge
I've been thinking about the tank avoidance stats, Block, Parry, Dodge, and what Blizzard could do with them.
The problem, as I see it is that EH is almost always preferred. Block scales badly, so you can have too much for trash and too little for bosses, while avoidance scales badly in conjunction with it. If the boss hits hard, avoidance makes the fight too spiky. If the boss hits fast and lightly, avoidance would be interesting except that block would make the fight trivial.
Here's how I think the three kinds of avoidance might work better:
Block (passive): You have up to 30% chance to block regular blows. Like the way it works today, but diminishing returns to about 30%.
Shield Block (ability, 5 sec CD): You extend your shield in defense anticipating a heavy blow. Your chance to block is increased by 10% for an attack that's 5% higher than average, increasing to 100% chance to block an attack that's 50% higher than the recent average. This kind of blocking is effective against any type of damage and will absorb double the usual amount of damage. This ability lasts 5 seconds and during this time you cannot parry.
Dodge (passive): While your opponent swings their weapon for a follow up attack, you have a chance to move quickly to avoid it. For any given enemy you can avoid a maximum of 50% of their attacks, and you can only dodge an attack that is equal or less powerful than an attack you just received or blocked.
Parry (passive): You have a chance to parry your opponents regular melee swings. The number of swings you can parry depends on the relative timing of your weapon and your opponent's. You cannot parry more than once per swing of your or their weapon, whichever is slower. You cannot parry while you are shield blocking.
So, passive block should have diminishing returns so that gear can be itemized for more SBV without allowing a player to stack SBV and SBR so they're invulnerable against easy melee mobs.
I think shield block should be an active ability like it is now, and the main idea is it should be applied to "the big hit". The current ability is a flat 100% chance to block 2x and so of course it cannot be up continuously, and gear cannot be itemized to block too much. What I propose can be up all the time, but the game will do the math to apply it only to higher than average hits or magical attacks. This opens up the way to itemize gear so that block can absorb a good amount of damage. There should also be a penalty for keeping block up, such as not being able to parry.
As for dodge, dodging the boss's uber hammer of death ability is not a good mechanic. It's far too random, and game breaking if dodge is high. You should be blocking the big attack. Dodge then saves your butt from the regular attack that comes close behind it. If you have a flurry type boss with very fast attacks that are about the same, block will block about 30%, a bit more if you keep it up, and dodge would dodge 50% of the attacks if you had 100% base dodge chance and 0% parry.
I've never quite understood in what ways parry for players is supposed to be different from dodge, and if the difference is just flavor. I'm assuming it's mainly flavor. I'm proposing to make a tradeoff between having Shield Block up and having your passive parry up, and that maybe it would be fun to factor in weapon speed in some way.
The problem, as I see it is that EH is almost always preferred. Block scales badly, so you can have too much for trash and too little for bosses, while avoidance scales badly in conjunction with it. If the boss hits hard, avoidance makes the fight too spiky. If the boss hits fast and lightly, avoidance would be interesting except that block would make the fight trivial.
Here's how I think the three kinds of avoidance might work better:
Block (passive): You have up to 30% chance to block regular blows. Like the way it works today, but diminishing returns to about 30%.
Shield Block (ability, 5 sec CD): You extend your shield in defense anticipating a heavy blow. Your chance to block is increased by 10% for an attack that's 5% higher than average, increasing to 100% chance to block an attack that's 50% higher than the recent average. This kind of blocking is effective against any type of damage and will absorb double the usual amount of damage. This ability lasts 5 seconds and during this time you cannot parry.
Dodge (passive): While your opponent swings their weapon for a follow up attack, you have a chance to move quickly to avoid it. For any given enemy you can avoid a maximum of 50% of their attacks, and you can only dodge an attack that is equal or less powerful than an attack you just received or blocked.
Parry (passive): You have a chance to parry your opponents regular melee swings. The number of swings you can parry depends on the relative timing of your weapon and your opponent's. You cannot parry more than once per swing of your or their weapon, whichever is slower. You cannot parry while you are shield blocking.
So, passive block should have diminishing returns so that gear can be itemized for more SBV without allowing a player to stack SBV and SBR so they're invulnerable against easy melee mobs.
I think shield block should be an active ability like it is now, and the main idea is it should be applied to "the big hit". The current ability is a flat 100% chance to block 2x and so of course it cannot be up continuously, and gear cannot be itemized to block too much. What I propose can be up all the time, but the game will do the math to apply it only to higher than average hits or magical attacks. This opens up the way to itemize gear so that block can absorb a good amount of damage. There should also be a penalty for keeping block up, such as not being able to parry.
As for dodge, dodging the boss's uber hammer of death ability is not a good mechanic. It's far too random, and game breaking if dodge is high. You should be blocking the big attack. Dodge then saves your butt from the regular attack that comes close behind it. If you have a flurry type boss with very fast attacks that are about the same, block will block about 30%, a bit more if you keep it up, and dodge would dodge 50% of the attacks if you had 100% base dodge chance and 0% parry.
I've never quite understood in what ways parry for players is supposed to be different from dodge, and if the difference is just flavor. I'm assuming it's mainly flavor. I'm proposing to make a tradeoff between having Shield Block up and having your passive parry up, and that maybe it would be fun to factor in weapon speed in some way.
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