Elemental damage change: now blockable

[Timetheos]

I only discovered this yesterday on Geddon; I guess I haven't really been paying that much attention. There have been hardly any elementals (let alone bosses) in WotLK to notice this on. I'll let these screenshots speak for themselves.



I don't know when this happened. The word "block" doesn't appear from elementals until 22 Jan '09 in my screenshots. Unfortunately I can't be sure about the validity of this, as I don't have a lot of information to draw from; I haven't studied incoming elemental damage in over a year. My guess is it was an unlisted change in 3.0.8, on 20 Jan '09.

It looks like elemental damage will behave as it always has if you don't have a shield equipped, or if you're a DK or druid.


Implications for MEH balancing:

Druids are no longer the most viable elemental tanks. DKs would have been the strongest by far, with high magic mitigation and avoidance, but they are now more equalized with blocking classes.

At least against elementals, druid and DK EH are cut down drastically, especially if the elementals of the future don't hit ridiculously hard. DKs still have their mitigation, and druids their health, but blocking classes are now much more on-par with them.

Could this mean Ulduar will have an elemental boss or two? Or is this just a step on the path towards wider MEH balancing? Maybe this is the direction all magic damage will take in the future, as it is obviously a balanced approach.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's tanked Hydross or Illidan's Flames lately. Because there haven't been any elementals in WotLK yet, this has both gone unnoticed and not been an issue at all. If Blizzard is using this as its prototype for magic damage, it seems to have gone quite well if nobody has noticed it yet.

[Halandir]

that's really interesting, grats for catching that. Now if they would include dragon breaths in the same mechanic...

[Darksend]

the fire adds on sarth ?

[sevve]

Lava Blazes on Sarth can't be blocked:
Wow Web Stats

We had two pala tanks on them.

[Muffin Man]

http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f97/4...tml#post185026

Looks like it does work on Lava Blazes now.

[Glomgore]

I believe the concept is of the RNG...

Think about it DND style. Breaths are considered spells, as you can't block a fireball (well maybe, but ya know)

Elementals do physical attacks that deal elemental damage.

So, like a guy swinging a sword, you go through your avoidance first, (counting block as avoidance) then through your armor. (might be vise-versa... not sure on how the RNG works.)

Physical Attacks that deal elementals damage would then be avoidance, and instead of armor, resists 2nd.

Implications? Not sure. We'll see.

[Ciderhelm]

Looks like somebody should have been reading the Wrath launch news!

[Timetheos]

You just made my list Cider.

[sevve]

To be fair there were two blocked attacks in my log aswell.
I still feel something isn't right though, two blocked attacks in 8 tries.

Can anyone explain this?

[Khordam]

So, like a guy swinging a sword, you go through your avoidance first, (counting block as avoidance) then through your armor. (might be vise-versa... not sure on how the RNG works.)

Physical Attacks that deal elementals damage would then be avoidance, and instead of armor, resists 2nd.

Armor/Resists first, Block second. This can be seen whereever blocking reduces the already mitigated amount. With physical attacks, you can calculate it (and see how much damage a block really stops!), while it is in plain sight in the combat log with elemental damage.
By the way, blocking a partial resist sounds as though the enemy were hitting a PW:Shield or something. Rather strange in my ears!

[sevve]

So the conclusion is that partial resists can't be blocked, which practically means you can't block elementals with resistance aura up.

[Khordam]

I am testing at this moment - that is not what I wanted to say, and I believe it is not what is happening, either. Results in a few minutes.


Back from testing in my block gear plus an Icebane chestplate.

First, letting an elemental kick my ass (literally) to find its damage range:

Hits average around 300-500 frost damage.

Then, letting an elemental bite my avoidance:

The grey lines are shield spec procs (Schildspezialisierung in German) which are one proof of successful blocks. The second proof comes from checking damage numbers, which go as low as 45 in "Elemental missed (x resisted)" lines. Since there is no way I could get 100% resists with only 115 frost resistance, these must be partial resists - which then are blocked.

Conclusion:
Blocks and partial resists do work together. The reason you are not seeing any blocks in your logs is because they do not show up as blocks in the combat log, but rather as full (or probably partial for Sartharion's flames) resists.

Note, the audio for blocking a partial resist is a block sound + an absorb sound.