Block Casting and the open use of block casting is so wrong :(

Dekkameron · December 2014

I block-cast all the time on my magicka NB. Nothing like spamming funnel health with siphoning strikes up so you can back stamina on every cast so you can block for ages just with a resto staff.

timborggrenlarsenb16_ESO · December 2014

ian92415b14_ESO wrote: »

I like to play everything in good sport and what I mean is everyone understands the intended mechanics and anything that tends to have a hidden function, that can be taken advantage of or is simply overpowered, is primarily avoided.

Block casting is something that most every active member on the forums and in Cyrodiil knows about but most players new to ESO or to Cyrodiil have no idea what it is; and thus, they are unfortunately way behind the curve in terms of fighting prowess, They are, effectively, taking twice the amount of damage thrown at them as anyone else.

Blocking vs Casting should be more of a risk/reward. Either casting to do damage or blocking to mitigate sustained damage. Blocking before finishing a cast animation (up to the spawn of the projectile or distant spell effect) should cast cancel even if that means ruining any "instant" casts which cant be instant because they all have a delay between key press and action anyways, such as the Sorc's Lightning Flood takes about 0.2 seconds to wave your arms summoning lighting.

Zeni has stated that the combat mechanics are working as intended but I submit that they, in fact, are not.

P.S. ignore any mis-congruence of the first comment as the OP has been edited

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Auto hotkey, are been used to do both at the same time: blocking(stanima) and use of magican skill. !

NotSo · December 2014

@NordJitsu‌
This goes back to the OP about risk/reward with finishing your cast or cutting it short for a block. Server lag is barely an issue until around 80 players are in the same vicinity but if you want the server to look at more information to process by having 180° blocking, that'd only add to the lag issue. I'm not saying it's a bad idea but my main focus and point of this thread is that block casting remains a broken mechanic and is punishing to new players.

Pmarsico9 · December 2014

NordJitsu wrote: »

If they changed block to 180 rather than 360 this would be less of an issue.

Would kill tanking.

eliisra · December 2014

xsorusb14_ESO wrote: »

There is no situational awareness to PvE blocking in this game..You're either blocking or dead if you're tanking in a dungeon..No amount of CC is going to save you from some of the pulls you have in this game.

Very true, PvE would become incredible challenging, close to impossible during certain encounters.

For once there's a 6-target cap on CC when facing adds and trash. Making it impossible to control and shut down everything. There's also the matter of player visual field, it's not 360 degrees. You can try zooming out all you want, but still very limited in dungeons, trials and DSA, spots you cant watch. You can't see all adds coming from or standing behind you, as a tank. No block and you might eat a 3k special attack from a ranged enemy that spawned in your dead angle.

As far as I see it, block/cast is being used a little to successfully by a few builds in PvP. Namely DK's and to a lesser extent tanky NB with Siphoning + Sap. No one else can really utilize block/cast without running out of stamina quickly and dying to CC. Some lesser fix might be needed as far as PvP goes.

But removing block/cast without making other adjustments first (like increasing heavy mitigation, improving AoE CC etc), would mess up PvE tanking. Do we really need more angry PvE'ers raging about PvP ruining their game play lol?