Regarding the mechanics of taking damage when blocking

With the announcement of patch 0.3 and the changes being applied to the blocking system, I've seen more sources appear adding the penalty of taking part of your damage when blocking.

I think this mechanic has a major drawback compared to the benefit you usually get in most cases. The fact that it applies to all your blocks the moment you acquire it doesn't make up for it, and I think this type of penalty should be reconsidered.


Here are some ideas:

- Option 1: The amount of shield damage is now capped at absorbable damage per second. The larger the hit, or the more hits you receive in that time frame, the more likely it is to exceed this threshold. The cap is set based on the percentage of your total health and energy shield that you would lose, after calculating all damage reductions. This percentage will be reduced if you stack this penalty.

Example of a notable node: "+30% to block chance. You take the remaining damage from hits that would exceed 80% of your total health and maximum energy shield every second."

How this penalty would stack: If you have multiple penalties with different percentages, the lowest is counted and an additional 5% is reduced for each penalty acquired.

Example: You have three sources with this penalty: 80%, 80%, and 70%. Take the lowest value and subtract 5% for each additional penalty acquired, leaving it at 60% in this case (70% -5% -5%).

- Option 2: Hits have a chance to take part of the damage. This could be around 30-40% of the damage prevented, and the percentage chance would increase with the number of stacks of this penalty you have.

Example of a notable node: "+30% block chance. Blocks have a 10% chance of being partial blocks, receiving 40% of the blocked damage."

How this penalty would stack: It is additive; a modifier of +15% and another of +10% would equal a 25% partial block chance.


In both cases, this damage when blocking no longer always applies; instead, it occurs if certain conditions (threshold, probability) are met. This makes the penalty less threatening and more tolerable to accept.

The current mechanism of applying damage to all blocks could continue to exist, but for more specific cases that truly have a significant benefit over this drawback.