Loading ...Back to Basics: The History of Block
A while ago I had the good fortunate of joining the Rawrcast crew for a podcast, one of the topics that was discussed was block and as this is a topic I haven’t covered in any great detail in a while, it’s passed time to take a stab at it. Specifically, we’re going to look at the history of block. What did block used to be like? How good is it now? How useful is it going to be in the future? As with any and all future telling, take the last part with a rather large grain of salt. Things change and everyone’s opinion including mine likely will too.
What this Wall-o-Text is about
Block value currently determines the static amount that you block. If you have 1000 Block value, your blocks will block 1000 damage. Your critical blocks will block twice that amount.
- Block value was okay in TBC.
- Block value kinda sucks in WotLK.
- Block value is gone in the future.
Block rating determines how often you block so stacking it will increase your percentage chance to block.
- Block rating sucked in TBC.
- Block rating is okay in WotLK.
- Block rating is changing a lot in the future.
Where it all began
Now we could go way back and talk about all manner of silliness in Vanilla as to WoW, but the past is something more to just give us some perspective so we aren’t going to focus too much on completeness in telling this portion. Block value items first saw real representation in the Naxx40 days which started the rise of this cool idea of ridiculously big Shield Slams. The idea continued into The Burning Crusade (TBC) with the Zul’Aman instance especially dropping a lot of Block value/rating pieces to support this gearing ideology.
Block value was pretty decent for a lot of TBC. Block value kept it’s value well into Tier 5 content, (Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep) but started losing a lot of it’s flare after that as a defensive stat. It should be noted that Block value never has been and to this day still isn’t a better threat stat than Expertise or Hit rating. It looks nice on Omen because you’ll see high threat spikes, but for consistent, high threat, it’s sup-bar. Block rating was terrible in TBC because Shield Block gave Warriors a 100% chance to block against all, but the fastest of hitting Bosses.
Jump forward to Now
Today, we enjoy Shield Block as a nice cooldown that can give us a big burst threat boost early on or act as a solid defensive cooldown for scenarios that aren’t so dangerous that they warrant the usage of our true cooldowns. (Shield Wall and Last Stand) What this has done is switch the places of Block value and Block rating in terms of usefulness. With blocking far less reliable than in the past and with bosses hitting for significantly more damage, Block value has become pretty poor. Block rating on the other hand has gained a little bit of punch. You’ll notice that Block rating is especially useful in Heroics and early raid content like Naxx10/25.
As a result, whenever I’ve been discussing itemization here over the course of Wrath of the Lich King, I’ve placed extremely low value on Block value items. I also rank Block rating pieces pretty low because they aren’t strong in Ulduar10/25 or even on the Malygos10/25 fight.
What the Future holds
As of this moment, block is getting a reworking for the next expansion, Cataclysm. Block value is going to be removed from the game and with it’s removal, block is going to shift away from a static reduction to a percentile one. (So instead of blocking 1000 damage, you’ll block 10% of an attack) Block rating will still exist in some capacity either to improve how much of a percentage we block, how often we block or both. This is concerning.
In the past, what made block work is that Warriors had 100% uptime. What has made block less desirable throughout WotLK is that Warriors don’t have 100% uptime. Come Cataclysm one of two scenarios is going to occur:
Scenario 1
Warriors have 100% block. Block rating in this world only improves the percentage that is blocked. This basically makes Block rating another stat that does the exact same thing as Armor. Not a very likely scenario as it’d make Block rating totally redundant.
Scenario 2
Warriors don’t have 100% block. Block rating improves our chances to block and may even improve the percentage we block a small amount. This makes Block rating just a really bad version of Dodge or Parry rating. It’s difficult to even guess at what they’d do with Shield Block in this scenario. This is the more likely scenario and it’s also what causes me some concern.
Currently, 5 things can happen when a Warrior is attacked.
- The attack hits.
- The attack is blocked.
- The attack is critically blocked or blocked with Shield Block up.
- The attack is critically blocked with Shield Block up.
- The attack is avoided.
Bosses hit for so much right now that the difference between a blocked attack and a regular hit really isn’t that different. What is concerning is when block becomes a percentage the difference could be huge and I fear that balancing Warriors around this is going to be troublesome. Either Warriors are balanced to have similar Avoidance, Armor and Health to the other tanking classes and block is considered a nice bonus (which means we’d be too strong) or being able to block decreases one of our Avoidance, Armor or Health numbers. Avoidance, Armor and Health are all a whole lot better than “Percentage Block” and giving up any of them means that Warriors are going to take damage more erratically than classes not balanced around this. Not good.
OMG THE SKY IS FALLING!
Hehe, easy guys and gals I’m not saying that I’m just laying out the current state of affairs. The expansion is a long ways away and there’s a number of things that could happen before then. All of the other classes could get a similar “Percentage Block” mechanic. This is a very appealing idea to me. They could also do a complete 180 and remove Block rating and bring back Block value and give Warriors 100% block. This makes the “nice bonus” scenario more likely as Warriors would be a lot less crazy awesome with the bonus. (This is basically where I feel Warriors should be right now in case anyone is keeping score at home)
Maybe the Sky is Falling and It’s Okay
There’s one final outcome that I’d like to run by you that has been hinted at on the WoW forums. In this scenario, Tank health becomes extremely high. So high that even the hardest of hitting bosses needs 3 solid swings to kill us. (Like if we all had 70,000 health right now) In this scenario, Healers would need 3 of their biggest heals to get us to full. What I’m talking about is going back to the idea of Tanks not falling off the face of the Earth in a fraction of a second. A world where mana management trumps haste stacking, button spamming and blind luck.
This is a great world.
In this world, if we’re balanced around block and not given it as a “nice bonus”, that’s okay. Yes, sometimes we’re going to drop fast, but drop fast doesn’t mean dead in this world. It just means that Healers will have to give us a bit more attention for a moment. It also means that during our Avoidance/block streaks that Healers will be able to heal other people more than if one of the other tanking classes was tanking instead of us.
A lot to digest
Yes, it certainly is. My advice is take joy in the future. Get excited about the appealing changes coming up. Don’t worry about the unappealing ones. They’ll get fixed. I can’t tell you how foolish it is to quit your character now over how the game might be (probably won’t be) 6 or more months from now.
September 14th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Block was never a stat that i geared for , neither value or rating. It has his ups and down. With my current gear (ToC25 normal and ToC10 hard ) i found myself lacking quite alot block rating ( I stand at about 17% ), Thas is why i tryed to go as much as i can for stam/armor/dodge.
Check Crazyboy on Draenor-EU
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September 15th, 2009 at 12:06 am
You’ve convinced me, I’m rerolling p*****n.
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September 15th, 2009 at 12:32 am
The word ‘block’ for me no longer holds any meaning
lol
I used to gear for block because I was in lolnaxx, OTing most of it and figuring I could get away with it. I did get away with it, it just meant Maexxna was a might rougher.
I’m now on the more sane side of things with more dodge than anything else. While I really do miss seeing 12k crit Shield Slams, I feel more solid as a tank.
Vene, I agree with you on your ‘perfect world’ for raid tanks. It doesn’t make life any easier as a healer, its just a more strategic way of doing things- that means if you’re not running with a paladin healer, you’ll insta-gib a lot less. Sounds like a plan!
And thanks for this post. I was a fury warrior in Vanilla (lol theres a hit cap? I was such a noob :D) and started tanking in TBC, but only heroics and some t4 content, so didn’t really see much. You explained a lot about what I was fuzzy on for block value and rating, so thank you
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September 15th, 2009 at 12:46 am
They should improve Block, then give it to all tanking classes. Make it increase chances for a “Glancing hit” for Tanks that don’t use Shields (Druids and DKs). Then if they make the stat desirable, they don’t have to worry about putting out 7 different kinds of Tanking gear. I know we don’t share Leather with Druids. However, they could be given a mechanic that converts a stat into an increased chance at hits “glancing” off of them while tanking, or work it in with a talent. They keep trying to homogenize the classes in this game, and while I disagree with it, they need to buy into it wholesale or stop trying. Making Block work for every tank, would help some issues, but they have to fix Block in the first place. I would rant here about how “bring the player, not the class” is steadily ruining WoW… but this ain’t the place for it.
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September 15th, 2009 at 1:01 am
I find a full block set very useful for your everyday heroics, especially ones with a lot of trash like COS. Having 41% block is nifty, usually take less damage than my total health from bosses, and usually more than 1/10th of my dmg from damage shield alone, which isnt bad for a passive, having nothing to do at all except normal agro
I’m sure the percentage block coupled with the hundreds of thousands of tank HP in Cat will do the trick and make block useful, even for bosses.
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September 15th, 2009 at 3:28 am
Maybe only the stat blockvalue on items is going to be removed, as planned for spellpower. Thus deriving blockvalue only from str and maybe sta would make sense: even the hardest and biggest shield can’t protect you from beeing crumbled to dust under the heavy blow from a giant, if your body is shaped like a wire hanger. Some kind of pushback after block would cool and talented pushback compensation.
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Arold reply on September 26, 2009 10:07 am:
The meat of the topic is that whatever block value becomes, it will be a percentage value.
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September 15th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Long time reader, warrior and proud tank… (like… Onyxia & MC long time)… first time commenter
Just a short question really, because either I’m being dense (likely) or just don’t quite understand some intrinsic element of how health block and stamina are comparatively valued, but…
Just a few articles before, you were saying how it is totally 100% absolutely worth spending ‘vast’ amounts of money on small upgrades (namely, 6 stamina in the example). Because, as you very accurately point out, those extra hit points can (and will, and do) make the difference between dying after two boss hits, and surving to get heals before the third.
So why is block value now considered to be so weak? Surely the relatively constant (though obviously dependant on the RNG outside of shield block active times) prevention of damage is at least equal to the gain of a buffer of health? In many ways it seems to me to be MORE effective, as less damage taken means less damage that needs healing (and has the minor benefit of threat generation as well, no matter how small)
Is it purely because the chance of a block at a critical moment is just a chance? Whereas hit points are always there waiting to be used? Is it down to prevalance of magic damage rendering block value useless? Or is it something else I’m not thinking of?
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Veneretio reply on September 15, 2009 11:53 am:
For a single itemization point you can get 2 Block value or 1.5 Stamina. That’s the ability to block 2 damage occasionally or always have 15ish health. You’d have to block like 8 attacks in a single lifepool before block was close to Stamina which is why it’s pretty terrible in single-target tanking situations.
Block would be still inferior to Stamina even if we had 100% uptime like we used to, but with us not even close to that mark the difference is massive. You’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head with your line of questioning at the end. Health is simply a strong stat in every way.
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Laeraneth reply on September 16, 2009 3:07 am:
Huh… I had no idea the itemization points for block were valued so low… I always assumed it was something more like 1 point (ie, 1.5 stamina) would be equal to 5 or so block…
Working on that assumption, with decent block chance, and critical block, and so on, I assumed they were roughly comparable.
Thanks for setting me straight…
I’m a bit disappointed now, I always viewed block value as an efficient well priced stat. I’ll have to re-evaluate my buy-list
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September 15th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Thanks for this topic coverage Vene. Shield block has been an area that has changed a lot this expansion and is preparing to do it again in Cataclysm. It was great to see a solid article that brought it all together for easier group discussion. Thanks!
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September 15th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Block’s usefulness is dependent on the content you’re running. MTing CC Heroic? Yes, it sucks. It sucks against any boss hitting you for 20K plus per swing.
Prot PvP? Heroic Farming? It’s godly. Until they started lumping it into T8 by default, it was also typically relegated to off-set pieces. I don’t know…I was always a block fan in TBC so I always tended to keep an eye out for anything with Block and grab it “for testing”. I’m now sitting on 30% rating and 2800 value unbuffed. Combine this with Broken Promise, 2pc T7 and 2pc T8, I have a great set for tanking trash and heroics, where my 2k + DPS has raised eyebrows; it means little in terms of progression but it makes heroic farming fun. Also, though I’m a complete idiot at PvP I’ve found I have had a lot of BG success in a full block set. The fact I block so much and so often seems to balance my lack of resilience, and again, I’m capable of pretty hefty shield slam burst (12-15k crits) so that is a lot of fun.
Yes it’s useless for progression fights, but it has its niche. Plus it means I get to use the Skull of Ruin I hung on to long after I got far better. You can’t argue with that
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goodmann reply on September 15, 2009 2:36 pm:
I dont disagree on that myself ive loved the fact of having a BV set for the soloing of Qs and Hc runs where the ppl i run with need to rly not just run to keep up but focus to also stay well over my dps out put…wich aint to bad atm in my BV set, in it i sit on:
+30K HP
38% block
3650ish BV
Hc dps going from 2-2,6k even more when ive finished the set and SS for over 17K from what ive seen, forgot to instanl a crit saving mod after a upgrade of my PC had a 16,6 record in lot worse gear…
Still im dreaming of the iron counsle cloak the block shoulders from ulduar and rings, then i think i wanna do some testing for dps
might be something fun
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belak reply on September 16, 2009 4:40 am:
How are you getting your BV so high? I thought the current cap was something a little over 2400? (Sorry, too early and too little caffeine to remember the formula.)
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Roarc reply on September 16, 2009 7:08 am:
The current BV limit on SS is around 3100 BV (you get DR from 2400 to 2700 so you need more than 2700 to max it out). You will still gain from more BV than that for incoming damage, in heroics it’s not a crazy thing to have.
Shield Block will also double your current BV but I don’t think it can scale beyond the ≈3100 BV limit.
belak reply on September 17, 2009 4:36 am:
I guess I’m still not getting it. I understand that DR on BV (hurray for acronyms!) starts at 2400, but I thought it capped out at 2700.
So how does one get past that to the 3100 limit you listed or the 3650 Goodmann listed above?
Signu reply on September 18, 2009 7:12 am:
There is no DR on amount you can block. The DR applies to the amount of bonus damage Shield slam can gain from Block value.
September 15th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I’ve always liked the concept of block, and never really considered its implementation until wrath (I only ever complete T4 content in TBC). I thought it was the nice icing on the cake, and in TBC it prevented you being crushed. Of course with the removal of crushing blows and the fact that bosses hit so hard I finally realised that it was pretty useless except for initial threat gen.
I would like to see them bring in some content which can utilise strategic block (a multi-armed boss who hit’s incredibly fast but for only a few thousand damage per hit?).
Failing this I think that the thought they’ll go back to mana/healing management which sounds appealing to me. I don’t really like the whole spam it or they die state of healing. Makes tanks look a bit stupid really. The supposed damage sponge, who really, can’t sponge many hits before biting the pavement.
Last words. Bring on more parry… All this dodging makes me feel like a paladin… (I don’t know if they changed the mechanic but didn’t parry used to generate rage?)
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Vivilros reply on September 16, 2009 2:47 am:
I believe what you’re thinking of is Parry-Haste, faster white attacks means more rage… of course, those white attacks /should/ be Yellow Heroic Strike attacks…
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Bhig reply on September 16, 2009 2:31 pm:
Ahh.. makes sense on the Parry-haste.
As for the HS.. yeah it should be… tee hee… tell that to my milk run naxx last night when I dodged all of the bosses first attacks and had no rage to gen threat off. Good thing a platey was the first thing to get threat…
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September 15th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
I always though of SBV as blizz’s quick ‘n dirty fix to warrior’s threat being negatively affected as their gear/avoidance got better.
Since now we generate rage, and more of it, when we dodge and parry, as well as block, we now aren’t any where near as rage starved, making us able to stay ahead of the DPSers who’s threat directly scaled with their gear.
That being said, i still hang onto a SBV set, if not just to see the big numbers, but also for heroics and aoe trash fights. being able to block 100% of an incoming attack from 50+ mobs is pretty cool in kara and old stuff like that
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September 16th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
my block gear is 47% block with 2200 sbv. Great for soloing anything from karazhan on down (as long as I avoid magic heavy encounters). been farming ZG and attumen for mounts for a few months solo.
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September 16th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
It was my understanding that the first scenario was what GC was indicating at blizzcon (and if I’m not mistaken one of the options outlined at tankspot). Yes it’s redundant but there are plenty of redundant stats still left in the game as flavor and derivation even after the proposed stat streamlining coming in the future. What makes it different is that some tanking classes won’t have access to this extra armor source and things like toughness, etc won’t adjust it. It’s a way to bridge the EH gap plaguing warriors (and paladins to a lesser extent).
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