So when does block become at all useful?

So I am upgrading my Naxx block set with whatever sidegrade Ulduar pieces I get. I have an insane amount of STR and BV right now. Sitting at 2750 ish raid buffed.

I tanked a few trash mobs in it and noticed I was basically taking about 10k or so hits when tanking those Pokemon Ball mobs before IC. Absorbed around 2500 or so. So my question is when do you all think BV or a block set might ever be useful in this content? I mean Steelbreaker 24k hit absorbing 2.5k..meh doesn't seem like it is worth it to even try. I have like 60% avoidance in my boss tanking gear.

But I am keeping a full set around in case GC and company decide to rework block. I have 23 dodge 17 parry and 39% block..it looks sexy but feels useless.

It becomes useful when they fix it. Until then, meh.

moduspwnens wrote:It becomes useful when they fix it. Until then, meh.

^ What he said.

Block is great for five man heroics and aoe grinding for funsies. Other than that... *spits*

It's also phenomenal for Loetheb. I can take zero physical damage on 10man.

Jasari wrote:It's also phenomenal for Loetheb. I can take zero physical damage on 10man.

Which is awesome, no doubt about it. But while it feels neat to say you actually look less damage than your dps, building a block set for a single 10 man boss is kind of sad. Sad in the sense that clearly block was never thought out properly.

Nikachelle wrote:

Jasari wrote:It's also phenomenal for Loetheb. I can take zero physical damage on 10man.

Which is awesome, no doubt about it. But while it feels neat to say you actually look less damage than your dps, building a block set for a single 10 man boss is kind of sad. Sad in the sense that clearly block was never thought out properly.

I'm not saying block isn't a flawed stat. But it's useful in more than that one fight. I wear my block set for most fights in Naxx as well as an add tank on 3D Sarth. But obviously, since it doesn't scale with incoming damage, it'll probably never be useful again until either it's redesigned or blizzard introduces a another fight with tons of weak hitting adds.

That said, it's still worth collecting a block set.

I don't have any personal experience yet, but from watching Algalon 10 videos this may be the one "fast hitting, moderate damage" fight in the game that could favor block value. On an Uld 25 geared DK, Algalon hits between 9000-11000. Assuming ~1800 BV, you'd mitigate 14-20% of incoming hits. If you decided to go full BV, I think you can be into the high end of the 2000s, but you would have to sacrifice nearly 10% avoidance.

Alone in the Darkness may be another encounter that favors block value in its present form since the tank will be required to AOE tank a great number of Immortal Guardians at low HP (thus low damage output).

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23122&start=45#p444862

Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!

Perception is often different than actual fact. Next time run WWS or something and find out how much damage you actually took versus how much you think you took. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not saying you're right either.

Nikachelle wrote:Perception is often different than actual fact. Next time run WWS or something and find out how much damage you actually took versus how much you think you took. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not saying you're right either.

I have the combat log from the 10man last night, I just need to parse it (stuck at work, atm).

Here's the parse for the 25-man Kologarn. Like I said in the other post, I was tanking the right arm and the adds, so glean what you can.

EDIT: Borked the URL BBCode. Fixt.

The other things that comes to mind is that since I was tanking trash with both single and multiple mobs, the block would become more effective. I'll just have to compare a boss fight from one week to the next.

Block is generally good whenever you're on add duty. There's plenty of fights for that such as Freya, XT, Razorscale...

Whenever you're tanking two mobs you're basically guaranteed to have a higher number of hits at a lower damage amount. This is when BV shines.

Right now it's crap for bosses though.

Bastien wrote:viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23122&start=45#p444862

Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!

like nika said, it can "feel" like something is better, when in reality it isnt, truly, valor medal isnt that great, its basically a crappy moroes pocket watch (oh god i miss you), with such miniscule amounts of avoidance compared to miniscule amounts of block, you cant tell a difference with the human eye on a glance by glance basis through a fight, you must see the whole picture


also, if anything, the valor medal would have done better, as chance to avoid a whole attack > mitigating a small % of it

Blocking for 2.5k out of 24k is still a 10% dmg reduction, perma reduction if you are block capped and its physical damage - I guess it depends on how much you give up to get those stats - I sit at around 2.1k~ raid buffed and block capped with decent avoidance. Add in the libram, 4 pc T8 proc and Greatness proc and its pretty beastly.

Block value is still sort of underpowered but definitely not useless. Blue has confirmed that block does not mitigate as much as they want it to (it was in a DK tank qq post on the wow forums somewhere) so maybe they will tune it better. I would like to see it do some sort of magic DR too.

Saladin wrote:Blocking for 2.5k out of 24k is still a 10% dmg reduction, perma reduction if you are block capped and its physical damage - I guess it depends on how much you give up to get those stats - I sit at around 2.1k~ raid buffed and block capped with decent avoidance. Add in the libram, 4 pc T8 proc and Greatness proc and its pretty beastly.

Block value is still sort of underpowered but definitely not useless. Blue has confirmed that block does not mitigate as much as they want it to (it was in a DK tank qq post on the wow forums somewhere) so maybe they will tune it better. I would like to see it do some sort of magic DR too.

Perhaps, but I prioritize just about every stat above BV (and STR) and I'm somewhere between 1300 and 1500. By prioritizing it over other stats to reach, say, 2.5k on a 24k hit, you're giving up probably some Stamina and avoidance for a ~4% decrease in damage taken. Not quite as appealing.