ZOS, We Need To Talk About Blocking ...

Gabriel_H · June 11

As any tank out there knows, there have been a few block bugs over the years, causing all sorts of issues. As any tank out there knows, one that persists is the time before a heavy attack hits that you need to start bracing. Depending on latency issues and frame rates and the rng gods, this time can range anywhere from 1 to 2 seconds. Failure to start blocking (brace) within this time frame will result in a heavy attack landing fully.

Tanks have learned to deal with these issues, we know we have to brace long before the heavy attack fully charges, we've learned to live with it. Which brings me to this the, latest mythic - Rourken Steamguards: While Bracing, you gain Steam Guardian for 0.5 seconds, reducing your damage taken by 90%. This effect activates only upon the start of Bracing and can occur once every 10 seconds. Blocking any attack while Steam Guardian is active reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds, up to once per application of the effect.

You have put an effect, triggered by starting to brace, which only lasts 0.5 seconds. That is far too short and far too precise for this item to be of any use given the reality of how imprecise blocking actually is. So, my question to ZOS is: Why? Would any Dev care to come and explain what the thought process is behind this?

Pelanora · June 11

Ahhhh this is why my blocks seem to fire randomly, I'm not managing the lag/time/pre charge heavy properly.

Hasenpfote · June 11

The funny think is, guardian triggers at the moment you start blocking, while the blocking is delayed by around 1 second.
Many effects and skills have a build-in delay of 400ms, this cause that these skills miss. This skill miss if the target leaves the area in this timeframe, also this skill miss if the if the target enters the timeframe, because the target was outside the area before starting the skill.

Gabriel_H · June 11

Pelanora wrote: »

Ahhhh this is why my blocks seem to fire randomly, I'm not managing the lag/time/pre charge heavy properly.

Indeed. If you start bracing 2 seconds before the heavy is due to land you are 99.9% sure to block it, at 1second you are risking a 50/50 chance.

There is an addon called Code's Combat Alerts (if you don't know it) - that for dangerous, deadly and boss mobs will show a timer bar on their heavy attack charging up. Typically you need to start bracing before that bar is 67% full.

Gabriel_H · June 11

Hasenpfote wrote: »

The funny think is, guardian triggers at the moment you start blocking, while the blocking is delayed by around 1 second.
Many effects and skills have a build-in delay of 400ms, this cause that these skills miss. This skill miss if the target leaves the area in this timeframe, also this skill miss if the if the target enters the timeframe, because the target was outside the area before starting the skill.

Which is what surprises me most about their choice. Given one of the scribing scripts is "deflects the next direct damage in the next 3 seconds" to deal with such issues I would expect something similar on this mythic, but no.

Aorys · June 11

With a ping of 200ms that would be like 0.3s parrying window. Dark Souls technology

ToRelax · June 11

Not being useful to you doesn't mean it's worthless. Still, Meridia's Blessed Armor is probably more useful.

Gabriel_H · June 11

ToRelax wrote: »

Not being useful to you doesn't mean it's worthless. Still, Meridia's Blessed Armor is probably more useful.

Nothing to do with me. It's the reality of how the game works.

ssewallb14_ESO · June 11

That was my first thought on this set. 500ms accuracy in ESO in any context? lol.

tsaescishoeshiner · June 11

I assumed this was just for PvP, since a PvE tank has to be blocking so often that they couldn't like wait for the effect to be off cooldown and time it.

I assume it was a short duration because the damage reduction is so high. That way it works like a Dark Souls parry or a Bug Fables perfect block. If it lasted longer, it would probably have to either have a long cooldown or less damage reduction, right?

I definitely feel like 90% would be just fine and still useable, if that meant the duration could be adjusted for ping. How many situations are you taking 100x the damage that you could normally survive in a .5 second window lol? But taking 10x the damage you can survive is definitely more likely in a crowded PvP environment

Necrotech_Master · June 11

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

I assumed this was just for PvP, since a PvE tank has to be blocking so often that they couldn't like wait for the effect to be off cooldown and time it.

I assume it was a short duration because the damage reduction is so high. That way it works like a Dark Souls parry or a Bug Fables perfect block. If it lasted longer, it would probably have to either have a long cooldown or less damage reduction, right?

I definitely feel like 90% would be just fine and still useable, if that meant the duration could be adjusted for ping. How many situations are you taking 100x the damage that you could normally survive in a .5 second window lol? But taking 10x the damage you can survive is definitely more likely in a crowded PvP environment

to be fair it still has an absurdly long downtime, unless you actually block dmg with the mythic

0.5 sec uptime on 10 sec cooldown is already like 95% downtime, if you got lucky and blocked with the effect then you would be 0.5 sec with 5 sec cooldown, which is still very high overall downtime, it just gives you more "uses" in the same time period

i would agree with the OP that there are some enemies in which the heavy attack is not clearly telegraphed so you get hit before the enemy heavy finishes and still take the heavy for slightly mistiming the block

i dont think pushing the active time to 1 second would be a huge problem, and it would still have a large downtime (or even remove the "bonus" time reduction for actively blocking with this)