definitive guide to % block mitigation (also directional damage bonus! )

Wing · July 2015

so this has annoyed me for some time so I decided to do some math and the results are in. all data was collected by me and was consistent, I tested against multiple mobs multiple times. it was actually fairly easy as damage is flat in ESO and does not change per hit.

first the basics:

-you block 50% of the damage you would normally take while blocking in ESO.
-damage is calculated through you armor and spell resistances first before you block (or don't as the case may be)
-damage shields DO NOT benefit from any resistances, they are considered to have 0 armor and spell resist.
-block behind a damage shield not only has NO EFFECT in the damage the shield takes, but still REDUCES STAMINA as if you blocked the attack (DONT BLOCK if you have a damage shield up)

now % block mitigation:

-% block mitigation in NO WAY stacks or works with the normal block mitigation of 50%, it is a completely separate calculation made AFTER the initial block calculation.
-all % block mitigation is additive with one another. example: 10% from dk, 20% from sword and board, 8% from defensive stance, 12% from footmans = flat 50%

what does this mean?

if you take 100 damage and block you take 50 damage, if you then have the above example of 50% block mitigation you only take 50% of the damage blocked, 25 damage.

if you take 100 damage and block you take 50 damage, if you then have say 40% damage mitigation you take 30 damage.

etc.

now before you run out and grab a set of ward of cyrodil armor to stack with footmans let me remind you, all damage is calculated through your base armor and spell resist first, so while ward of cyrodil may cut an additional 12% of the blocked damage, it has less base armor then heavy and thus your first damage calculation would be higher, so end the end it might only even out and thus not be worth it.

Directional damage bonus!

yup you heard right, ESO has directional damage bonus, I only noticed this by accident when mudcrabs tunnel to get behind you, I didn't turn and just sat there and realized I was taking more damage, turns out:

-in ESO if you are hit in the back you take a flat 20% more damage before damage calculations.
-this applies when the attack was initiated, thus wind up skills like wrecking blow and power attacks will still get a 20% damage bonus even if you turn and block from the front if they were cast at your back.

so get behind your enemy.

**hope this helps everyone and if anyone has any further info I will be happy to update eh post ^_^**

-Wing

nooneonboard · July 2015

So technically having mobs surrounding you is not a best thing to do?

In PVP, does getting hit by frags at backside ( or any single target class spell, weapon abilities) increases as well?

That might explained why i keep panicking during AOE spam, and now i know fleeing from battles is a bad thing.

UrQuan · July 2015

Wing wrote: »

all data was collected by me and was consistent, I tested against multiple mobs multiple times. it was actually fairly easy as damage is flat in ESO and does not change per hit.

Well, except for crits, but we all know that only players can crit, not mobs, so that doesn't invalidate any of your testing. In fact, I'm only bringing it up to prevent someone from coming in and saying "you didn't take crits into account".

You definitely get an Insightful for that post! Thanks for doing some research.

Wing · July 2015

im currently leveling a character to do some controlled pvp testing, and will update this post to include crits, spell casts, and to also see if even aoe gets a directional bonus.

stay tuned ^_^

UPDATE: the directional damage bonus only works for NPC's. and thus does not work vs other players in pvp because we the players cannot use it, only NPC's can.