Blocking is a means of preventing damage from enemy attacks by using a shield, staff or dual wielded weapons.
Mechanics[]
Blocking a hit prevents all damage and harmful on hit effects such as status ailments. The attack must be a hit in order to be blocked, therefore block does not work against damage over time.
Chance to block[]
The chance to block is a random roll made per attack/cast; it is not entropy-based like evasion[citation needed]. Block has the following base stats
- +15% Chance to Block Attack Damage while Dual Wielding
- +75% to maximum Chance to Block Attack Damage
- +75% to maximum Chance to Block Spell Damage
The base chance to block attacks is determined by which type of shield or staff is used. The maximum block chance cap applies to both attacks and spells. However, certain skill gems, unique items and Ascendancy class skills can raise or lower the maximum block chance.
Additional block chance can be gained from passive skills, items, and Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "items._pageName"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes... Attack block and spell block chance are often granted separately with attack block being more common.
Chance to block against projectiles[]
Any modifier that has X% additional Block Chance against Projectiles will apply to projectile attacks and can be made to also apply to projectile spells[1] with the appropriate X% of Block Chance applied to Spells statistics.
Hit effects[]
The general rule is that blocking prevents the attacker's on hit effects from stats, excluding things skills actively do when they hit. But blocking will not prevent the defender's when hit effects, because preventing those could make blocking a negative thing for the defender.[2]
Certain stats, such as "Gain 1 Endurance Charge every second if you've been hit recently", were originally classified under enemy's hit effects and thus were prevented by blocked hits.[2] This interaction was fixed in patch 3.11.1c.
Hits from skills like Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "items._pageName"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes.. and Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "items._pageName"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes.. will still apply because block doesn't prevent a successful hit. However, skill effects based on damage like Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "items._pageName"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes.. are essentially blocked.[3]
Reflected damage[]
Reflected damage can be blocked;[4] however blocking reflected damage will not trigger on-block effects.
Block duration[]
When an attack is blocked, the game has already calculated how much damage and if the attack would have caused a stun. If it would have caused a stun, the blocking animation is played, stunning you briefly.[5] If it would not have caused a stun, then you get a "free" block with no animation.
Faster Block and Stun Recovery and Increased Block Recovery modifiers reduce the length of the blocking animation.
The following formula is the complete calculation for the duration of the blocking animation (in milliseconds). If you cannot be stunned, the block animation will never play.
Status ailments have no affect on your block chance, but being frozen will prevent the block animation from playing if it otherwise would and chilled will make it take longer to play (since those two work by decreasing the speed at which your character plays animations).
Miscellaneous[]
The Gladiator Ascendancy skill Versatile Combatant changes your spell block to be equal to your attack block chance instead.
Soul of the Brine King Major Pantheon power provides the unique modifier You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds.
The Soul of the Brine King can be upgraded to grant an additional #% increased Stun and Block Recovery.
Modifiers on Items[]
Generic[]
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Influenced[]
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Corrupted[]
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Jewels[]
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Abyss Jewels[]
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Active skill gems[]
Related base stats[]
The following active skill gems have stats related to block:
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Related quality stats[]
The following active skill gems have quality stats related to block:
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Support skill gems[]
Related base stats[]
The following support skill gems have stats related to block:
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Related quality stats[]
The following support skill gems have quality stats related to block:
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Related unique items[]
A number of unique items give bonuses to block, either by directly granting additional block chance, or indirectly by enhancing it in various ways. Note: Only unique items with explicit block-related mods are listed here. Of course, all shields and staffs have implicit chance to block and they also apply on uniques, but they are not shown here.
Additional Block Chance[]
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Additional Block Chance while Dual Wielding[]
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Additional Spell Block Chance[]
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% of Block Chance applied to Spells[]
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Maximum Block Chance[]
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ES/Life/Mana gained on Block[]
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ES/Life/Mana recovered on Block[]
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Block during flask effect[]
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Minion Block[]
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Miscellaneous[]
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Passive skills[]
There are passive skills that grant blocking bonuses.
Chance to block with shields[]
These passive skills grant additional chance to block with a shield equipped. Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Chance to block with shields or while dual wielding[]
These passive skills grant additional chance to block with a shield equipped or while dual wielding. Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Chance to block while dual wielding[]
These passive skills grant additional chance to block while dual wielding. Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Chance to block with staves[]
These passive skills grant additional chance to block with a staff equipped. Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Chance to block spells with shields[]
These passive skills grant additional chance to block spells with a shield equipped. Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Chance to block for minions[]
These passive skills grant additional chance to block for minions. Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Block recovery[]
These passive skills grant increased block recovery. Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Miscellaneous[]
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Ascendancy skills[]
The following Ascendancy class skills are related to blocking: Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Keystone passive skills[]
The following Keystone passive skills are related to blocking: Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Cluster jewel passives[]
The following cluster jewel-only passives are related to blocking: Lua error: Error: invalid field alias "passive_skills.is_keystone"; aliases cannot contain dots or quotes..
Version history[]
Version | Changes |
---|---|
3.11.1c |
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3.4.0 |
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1.3.0 |
|
References[]
- ↑ Mark_GGG (May 19, 2014). "Question(s) about Titucius' Span". Official Path of Exile Forum.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mark_GGG (June 13, 2020). "Why does "Gain 1 Endurance Charge every second if you've been hit recently" not trigger with block?". Official Path of Exile Subreddit. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- ↑ Mark_GGG (November 5, 2012). "Viper Strike overriding block chance/dodge/evasion". Official Path of Exile Forum. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
- ↑ Mark_GGG (Feb 5, 2014). "I don't think I understand reflect". Official Path of Exile Forum. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- ↑ Mark_GGG (May 19, 2014). "Utter trust in your defense unleashes ultimate potential.". Official Path of Exile Forum.