Unnanounced AD Block Mechanic Change/Bug on Test

Block is less effective in the AD range on Test than on live.

Here are the mechanic breakdowns:

Live: 10k post armor/talent blow comes in, AD reduces to 7k. 2k block value reduces it to 5k.
Mob's melee swing hits Myndrak for 5000 Physical (2000 Blocked)

Test: 10k post armor/talent blow comes in, Block reduces to 8k. AD reduces to 5.6k
Mob's melee swing hits Mindrak for 5600 Physical (2000 Blocked) (2400 Absorbed)


Data points:

Live Within AD Range:
Dark Rune Warrior's melee swing hits Myndrak for 314 Physical. (2084 Blocked)
* This is 3425 pre AD/Block

PTR Within AD Range:
Dark Rune Warrior's melee swing hits Mindrak for 601 Physical. (2340 Blocked) (257 Absorbed)
* This is 3198 pre AD/Block
Dragonflayer Metalworker's melee swing hits Mindrak for 1862 Physical (2798 Blocked) (798 Absorbed)
* This is 5458 pre AD/Block

Under old mechanics it should have been this:
Dark Rune Warrior's attack was blocked by Mindrak. (2238 Blocked)
Dragonflayer Metalworker's melee swing hits Mindrak for 1023 Physical (2798 Blocked) (1637 Absorbed)


Note: Myndrak is character name on Live. Mindrak is character name on PTR.

Makes sense since they changed it from a DR% to an Absorb.

In both situations I was using blessing of Sancturay, Righteous Fury, Seal of Light, devotion aura, and swapped between Judgement of Light or Wisdom.

On PTR I had vindication which accounts for the fact that the mob was hitting weaker pre AD/Block than on live.

That's a bit of a shame. Will make leveling quite a lot more annoying as well as being a huge nerf against AoE packs.

Do you think we can get them to change it?

Candiru wrote:That's a bit of a shame. Will make leveling quite a lot more annoying as well as being a huge nerf against AoE packs.

Do you think we can get them to change it?

Considering it reduces AD from a "really nice soloing talent" to "a couple more HP before you die while solo" I really hope they do fix it.

I did put a bug in VIA the PTR UI with the relevant details and linked this thread in case they wanted more details. I don't know if developers even consider following offsite links in bug reports though.

So basicly you're saying block comes before AD now, instead of on the end of everything.

Means it's gonna be harder to be imune on old content, and block is gonna be less interesting on low hits. Guess that's another one for avoidance.

Sabindeus wrote:Makes sense since they changed it from a DR% to an Absorb.

Basically this. It doesn't sound like it'll be THAT big of a deal though, does it?

Let's say I take a 10k hit (after armor and flat DR) and block for 1.5k while under 35% HP.

On Live:
(10,000 x 0.70) - 1500 = 5500

On PTR:
(10,000 - 1500) x 0.70 = 5950

Thanks for pointing it out, though. I didn't notice it myself.

It makes a huge difference when AoE tanking though, when on live you are hit for 0 but on the PTR you will be hit for SomeDamage.

Candiru wrote:It makes a huge difference when AoE tanking though, when on live you are hit for 0 but on the PTR you will be hit for SomeDamage.

I can accept that.

I wonder if that's intended, as that makes AD less effective as your block value approaches closer to the amount of damage you're actually taking. While more block value won't ever cause you to take more damage than having less block value, it just seems a bit counter intuitive that way.

Just as a few examples, let's say I block for 2000 damage. Obviously if I'm getting hit for exactly that AD does nothing. If I get hit for 2100, I'm only getting a 1.4% total damage reduction from Ardent Defender. Now obviously that's a very low value, so let's say I get a 10000 hit, in that case, I get a 24% total damage reduction from Ardent Defender. With a 20000 hit, it's a 27% damage reduction in total from AD. To summarize: AD loses effectiveness equal to how much percentage of the hit you're taking you're blocking.

Obviously this is still better than the live AD for anything that would normally be able to leapfrog it, but I have to wonder if it's the intention for it to work like this, it seems more likely a bug caused by making it count as an absorb effect; it does make sense for other absorbs to be applying after block, but that is because they absorb flat amounts, and are not a percentage damage decrease being applied as absorb.

Edit:

While I was speaking of hits fully under AD above, an effect like this basically applies to AD's absorb effect in general. Let's say that with a 20000 hit, only 10000 of it is below 35%, so AD would turn this into a 17000 hit without block. When I block for 2000 however, 8000 suddenly becomes what is below 35%, which means I take a 15400 hit. In the first example, AD reduced my damage by 3000, in the second by 2600. I'm still getting a better deal out of blocking of course, but with the way I'd expect it to work I should actually be taking a 15000 hit.

All this really does is keep us from becoming unkillable at the 35% mark. I'm okay with that.

I'm not sure on my stance yet, but I will say, this does not help make block more attractive.
That was one of the goals of 3.2 was it not?

Making block apply after all other absorbs and reduction effects - not just AD - would make sense and improve its usefulness, IMO. After all, if you have a bubble up you should be blocking only the damage that gets through it.

How does AD interact with other absorbs?

KysenMurrin wrote:Making block apply after all other absorbs and reduction effects - not just AD - would make sense and improve its usefulness, IMO. After all, if you have a bubble up you should be blocking only the damage that gets through it.

How does AD interact with other absorbs?

And yet, blocking before other absorbs apply increases the effectiveness of the other absorbs by only reducing the damage that actually gets through.