What are max block% and max dodge%? How is B% and D% calculated?der

[Karth]

The more I examine things, the more I see that blocking is likely to be as valid a gear choice as a two handed weapon or dual wielding or 1 handed weapon + class specific item.

If blocking in D2 wasn't overpowered, then why does anyone who cared about his survivability ended up with a shield and enough dex for 75% block?

Thing is, they didn't. There are lots of other ways to obtain survivability, and blocking actually interfered with survivability in some cases by interrupting attacks being made. If you lower the barrier to getting max block enough, sure, almost anyone would pick it if other concerns didn't interfere, but in many cases they did interfere.

[zakaluka]

From a PvE standpoint, I don't think it matters if blocking winds up OP.

Let's say: you double your EH by putting on a shield, and give up a quarter of your DPS for losing dual-wield at the same time.
Now you can survive in an area 1 level higher. But your killing speed is half of what it was dual-wielding in the lower level area.

I feel like you'll actually slow down your progression making that trade to be able to move from a lvl 62 area to a lvl 63 area.
Unless, of course, you're tanking for someone.

[MikeAR]

With the Guardian's Path passive skill, the monk has 15% increased chance to dodge attacks. Which IMO is pretty awesome, as in case of a dodge you don't get any damage vs a shield still possibly taking some damage. I realize that block may still be better in some cases, and we have limited passive slots, but the skill seams really good for those trying to go shieldless AND trying to get more APS / DPS.

[machinus]

If blocking in D2 wasn't overpowered, then why does anyone who cared about his survivability ended up with a shield and enough dex for 75% block?

Flat damage reduction is a problem period, because even on equal-power monsters it works much better on some types than on others, and thus is very situationally useful, which is not a very good thing for an item that is supposed to give you a generic boost to your defensive abilities.

Just because you have no blocking animation it doesn't mean that you won't get into hit recovery animation from the left-over damage that you do take. Of course, I haven't actually noticed any hit recover animation on my character while I was playing, at least not from actual damage (I'm not counting knockback effects that have their own unique animation).

Blocking and shields were part of the game in D2. That's not "overpowered" - it's a game that is different from world of warcraft. world of warcraft wasn't so great for combat anyway, it's not a good comparison.

Anyway, additive armor is a part of many games and seems to be fine here as well. Armor and resistances are for scaled damage and then blocking is limited but additive. I think this will be good for some builds but not all.

[galzohar]

Maybe not overpowered (though it really was, since you could play without it but were much better defended with it), but definitely imbalanced since it was clearly better than the alternatives.

Every game I played that had flat damage reduction effects was a big fail in terms of balance. Got any good examples of balanced games with flat damage reduction? Or heck, good examples of balanced games?

[Karth]

Maybe not overpowered (though it really was, since you could play without it but were much better defended with it), but definitely imbalanced since it was clearly better than the alternatives.

I disagree. There are many situations in D2 in which using that shield slot for a low blocking chance shield that does something else important, or using it for a second weapon, or using instead a two-handed weapon, were better than using a shield that was viable for max block. WW barbs, shapeshift druids, sorcs of all kinds, wind druids, necromancers...

[galzohar]

The only way you'd dumb your shield in D2 if stuff were so easy for you with your gear that you could afford losing the huge defensive benefit for a mediocre increase in damage. If you were struggling, there's no way you'd pick the 2h/dw option over a shield.

[Karth]

The only way you'd dumb your shield in D2 if stuff were so easy for you with your gear that you could afford losing the huge defensive benefit for a mediocre increase in damage. If you were struggling, there's no way you'd pick the 2h/dw option over a shield.

Maybe speaking about D2 as a whole is a bit difficult... major patches changed the radically over time. Let it be said, I'm speaking of 1.12+; earlier iterations are not in my recent experience and my memory of them is foggy at best. I am also not talking about hardcore.

That said, most of the time you aren't struggling. You're vastly overrating the defensive benefit of a blocking shield compared to the defensive and offensive benefit of killing things faster, leeching more, teleporting out of the way faster, more raw hp to take up all kinds of damage (instead of just blockable kinds). In pvp, a max block sorc or wind druid or necro or barb becomes more vulnerable to opponents with non-blockable attacks. Only for paladins, sins, and zons is max (or high) block an easy choice, and paladins have Holy Shield, zons have low mobility and also gain ED from extra dexterity, and sins don't even have to stat dexterity for claw block.