Help me understand dexterity and % block for my sorc...

[Milhouse]

So I'm following the meteorb guide. I already have 156 str for the stormshield.

I still have to get the gear I want:


Full Tal Rasha Set
Stormshield
War Traveler boots
Chance Guards
2x nagel
Gheeds fortune


Now, I'm level 61 and I still have base dexterity. What level do you recommend I get my dexterity to? Also, is my gear choice good?

[melianor]

Your gear choice looks good. Before you get the Stormshield we would need to know which shield you are planning on using until you get it. From there it can be determined how much dexterity you will need to invest to keep max block at your current level and beyond.

Visceratuant is a nice choice for example, or also Whistan's Guard or Moser's Blessed Circle. Stormshield is the shield requiring the most dexterity, so you will not be investing to many dexterity points in anyway, before your get a hold of it.

In general the calculation for the amount of dexterity needed at a given level and with a given shields base blocking chance, looks like this:

Formula for the amount of dexterity needed, to reach maxblocking with currently equipped shield
Dex = (150*clvl/(amount of block on gear)) + 15

Chance to Block
Total Blocking = (Blocking*(Dex-15)) / (clvl*2)

clvl = current character level

[Milhouse]

So for a moderate amount of blocking, should I get around 60 dexterity for my sorc? I still want some vitality.

My stats are:
156 Strength
25 Dexterity
164 Vitality
35 Energy

So should I shoot for 60-ish dexterity? Would that be okay with the stormshield? I'm lost.

[melianor]

60 Dexterity will bring you nowhere. Also there is not really somethinglike modest blocking. Either you get the fulll 75% blocking or you simply forget about it, get Spirit Shield and enough str (you already have it) to equip it and put all remaining points into Vitality.

Here is a table for the various available blocking shield and it shows how much dexterity you will need at a certain level to achieve max blocking of 75% at a given level.


Dexterity required for max block (75%) for a sorceress

shield str block dex/lv LV30 LV50 LV80 LV99
------------------- --- ----- ------ ---- ---- ---- ----
Lidless Eye 58 40% 3.75 128 203 315 387
Lidless Eye + Eld 58 47% 3.19 111 175 271 331
Moser's Circle 53 57% 2.63 94 147 226 276
Grim Shield + Rhyme 58 60% 2.50 90 140 215 263
Sigon's Tower 75 64% 2.34 86 133 203 248
Stormshield 156 67% 2.24 83 127 195 237
Sigon's Tower + Eld 75 71% 2.11 79 121 185 225
Visceratuant Heater 77 72% 2.08 78 120 182 222
Gerke's Sanctuary 133 74% 2.03 76 117 178 216
75% blocking shield 75% 2.00 75 115 175 213
Whistan's Guard 53 87% 1.72 67 102 153 186
Whistan's + Eld 53 94% 1.60 63 95 143 173

Bone/Grim Shields with Rhyme, Sanctuary, or Deflecting suffix have 60% block
Sigon's Tower + Eld and Moser's Blessed Circle + 2 Eld's both have 71% block
Gerke's Sanctuary and Stormshield with an Eld rune both have 74% block

[Robobaby]

Use this:

http://www.baronsbazaar.invisionzone.com/ppr/block_calc.html

Its a block calculator that take the pain out of crunching the numbers yourself.

Base Shield Blocking % = the item base chance to block. For example, a Visceratuant is a Defender and a Defender has 30% base chance to block for a Sorceress. If you upgrade your Visceratuant to a Heater then this will go up because a Heater has 42% base chance to block. This is one of the primary reasons why people upgrade their Visc.

Total + to Blocking % = the + x% increased chance to block bonus you can get on certain magical items. A Visceratuant for example has +30% increased chance to block (so the the total chance to block granted by this shield is 30 + 30 = 60% or 30 + 42 = 72% if you decide to upgrade it. If you socket it and stick an Eld rune in it then add another +7 for a total of +79% increased chance to block).

Now, you can find your actual chance to block on your character sheet by hovering your mouse over where it says 'Defense'. The maximum this number can be is 75% which means you can negate 75% of physical attacks. Having a shield with high chance to block will reduce the amount of dexterity you need to maintain 75%. Gaining levels will increase the amount of dexterity you need to maintain 75%.

In the calculator simply put in what level you want to 'finish' your build and your current dexterity and it will tell you how much dexterity you need to invest to maintain 75% blocking at that character level.

On a Sorceress it is only worth max blocking if you use a Shield with high base chance to block and +increased chance to block. Using an Upgraded Eld'ed Visceratuant at level 99 you need 203 dexterity to maintain 75% blocking.

If you wear Guardian Angel armour this will give you another +20 increased chance to block and will reduce the amount of dex you need to 165.

A Spirit Monarch has +42% chance to block and no increased chance to block. Therefore you need a whopping 369 dexterity to maintain 75% blocking at level 99. This is not really feisable given that you also need 156 strength to carry the thing - you will basically be putting all your attribute points into str and dex.

If you wear Guardian Angel and use a Spirit Monarch then your total +chance to block is 42 + 20 = 62%. You would need 255 dex to max block at lvl 99 which is still very high but reachable if you have alot of +dex items. However you may have to sacrifice nice armours and jewelry.

Stormshield is a weird one. It is a Monarch shield so base chance to block is 42% but it has +25% increased chance to block (total = 67%). At lvl 99 you need 237 dex to max block with it and you need to meet the 156 str requirement.

If you Eld it then you need 216 dex which is still high. However, Stormshield has a huuuuge 35% damage reduction which is what makes the necessary sacrifices you have to make in Vitality worthwhile. At least for some builds anyway. In that case, you may want to eventually socket it with a Ber instead of an Eld for even more damage reduction. However Stormshield doesn't have nice things like +skills or the huge +FHR and +mana that spirit gives you. Its a definite trade off but in some builds its totally worth it. In others not so much.

Since you want to use a Stormshield and you can't use Guardian Angel I'll do some of the numbers for you. I will assume that you will socket your Stormshield and stick an Eld rune in it.

At level 85 you need 188 dex.
At level 90 you need 198 dex.
At level 95 you need 208 dex.

After this point it takes so long to level that most people basically give up and dont bother making an effort to go any further. If you are mad and do decide to go further then:

At level 96 you need 210 dex.
97 = 212
98 = 214
99 = 216

By this point you will have played so much D2 you will probably have accumulated enough wealth to trade for a Ber rune which you will probably want to stick in your shield. This will increase the amount of dex you need to max block so be aware of this. Likewise if you change your shield it will change the amount of dex you need to max block.

For this reason, I recommend you make an ideal list of gear that you want to finish your build with and plan your investment in dexterity around it. Until you can reach your ideal gear list you can always make up the deficit with +dexterity charms.

[Milhouse]

So I guess I'll ditch the stormshield for now and use a mf shield if there is one.

[sirpoopsalot]

@Millhouse

Two pretty cheap MF shields are Rhyme and Splendor runewords. But Spirit is so strong in other regards that a lot of people (myself included) often sacrifice MF on the shield and just use a Spirit full time.


Also there is not really somethinglike modest blocking. Either you get the fulll 75% blocking or you simply forget about it...


I disagree (somewhat).

With sorcs I always focus on getting at least 700 life (often, I consider 800+ a minimum) to almost negate the chance being on the wrong end of a 1-hit KO. That's always my first priority. After that though, if I decide I want a blocking shield, I'll focus on Dex. Usually 700+ life and max-block is pretty easy to attain with good equipment. But...

When playing untwinked, good equipment can obviously be rare, and I've had multiple sorcs with ~700-800 life and somewhere between 40-60% blocking. Compared to max-block or max-vit, I've found the middle-of-the-road approach to be superior for my playstyle when my equipment is limited... Max-vit means you won't avoid many hits at all, and max-block means that a lot that get past your shield have a higher chance for 1-hit-KO or forced hit recovery, so they each can have an achilles heel (of sorts). But with the mixed approach, I end up with enough life to remove ~98% of 1-hit kills, and avoid hit recovery a majority of the time that I do get hit - while still managing to negate roughly 50% of attacks with my shield... overall, it's a decent balance.


Of course, that doesn't really apply in this case, does it? :whistling:

[Milhouse]

That's good because I obtained a spirit shield. :)