Glancing Blows - the new Vaal Pact

I try it a few times but it is kinda useless against metamorphs and some bosses.

They hit too much damage. 50% damage = bye bye.

Don't you think you overrate this a little?

Sure, it's powerful but without investment on the tree you will have ~15% attack block on Dual Wield and ~25% on shield based builds. Even when doubled that's still far away from 75% and taking the % block nodes on the tree has quite a big opportunity cost as most of them offer very little besides the block.

Further more, attack block is pretty much useless in most endgame boss fights, the 5 Conquerors use only spells iirc, Shaper/Elder also use mostly spells so most of the really dangerous things in the game will just bypass it and getting spell block is only possible with a select few shields and/or stone of Lazwar or how it's called so not exactly easily available and comes with huge opportunity cost. Rumis obviously gives both but is temporary.

It's also worth mentioning that statistically over a large number of hits the node doesn't provide any advantage what so ever. If you have 20% block without it that means you will take 80% damage. Taking it will change it to 40% block where you take 50% per hit so you're also taking 80%. This means the node would be most valuable against bosses to avoid big hits/one shots but won't apply there most of the time due to no spell block.

To really take advantage of it you have to invest in "gain on block" stuff as well as % block nodes on the tree at which point it won't be "free" at all.

Imo the best use for it is on Gladiator where it allows you to cut down on % block nodes on the tree, still get max block and it will apply to both spells and attacks.

duh.. ofc you invest into 'XXX when you block' stuff. Vaal Pact builds also invested into leech and nobody claimed it to be 'cost'


anyone who used Surrender or mixed life/ES on block knows what monstrosity this Keystone is. people who havent tried it yet - are invited to do so before commenting.


https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Bone_Offering + Mistress of Sacrifice almost caps Necromancer. nothing else is needed. just like that. Ascendant can do the same trick. the remaining % can be obtained from Tempest Shield of from various nodes around witch.

Pathfinder+Rearguard+Rumi's Concoction = capped attack/spell block

i would not call this expensive. sure, Pathfinder has to spend extra 4 passives from life wheel to get it but.. it is worth it even for 10

vs endgame it helps to blunt what is dangerous - big hits. and it does it perfectly. during last 3 days ive been playing meme build with 4k life/2.2es (so nothing fancy, the gear is garbage) sustaining solely on life/es gained on spell hit and 5% recovery on block

i could do T16+ including vaal temple and stuff without pretty much any risk. fights take a long time because it is a meme build after all but only chaos dots are dangerous, everything else is cut in half. it is like having Fortify with 200% inc effect, and it costs me 5 passives.

no, im not overreacting. try it out before waving it of

Very good analysis! Ill definitely try to use it this league.

One thing. You can go wrong with it if you don't have good life recovery either by mechanics you mentioned or leech + regen.

For chars with weak sustain it's better not to get hit.

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sidtherat wrote:

Why does it matter?

Because you can get a lot going on when you 'block' with most important being:
- recover 5% ES
- recover 5% mana
- recover 5% life
- recover flat life
+ fluff (gain charges, chill etc)

Which items roll these mods? Mechanic is really op, but never really thought much about it before.

shaper shields, i think lvl75+ (all types, i have a 900EV shield with life/ES at the same time. it is positively bonkers for hybrid glancing blow builds on Trickster)

people are aware of its strength, prices of items with said rolls are quite high - even if all remaining rolls are garbo


(self-crafted with dense fossils)
shield like this but with life+150ES or 220ES+ is in 10ex+ range

however you can EASILY get something with worse stats as it is the mod that carries you, not the rest of the shield

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TorsteinTheFallen wrote:

"

sidtherat wrote:

Why does it matter?

Because you can get a lot going on when you 'block' with most important being:
- recover 5% ES
- recover 5% mana
- recover 5% life
- recover flat life
+ fluff (gain charges, chill etc)

Which items roll these mods? Mechanic is really op, but never really thought much about it before.

ilvl 68 Shaper shields can get 5% life / mana / ES as a suffix. Combine any two of these with a +max resists prefix and you're almost unkillable. Warlord just has the 5% life mod, but warlord shields are dirt cheap so it's probably easier to hit if that's the one you care about.

Likewise, Crusader gets just the 5% ES and Redeemer has 5% mana.

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ARealLifeCaribbeanPirate wrote:

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zzang wrote:

Pretty much meta game keystone which also weakens identity of the already weak Gladiator ascendancy.

I dunno, Glancing Blows is pretty nutty on Gladiator too... you get the Painforged block chance 100% of the time and you cap block/spellblock with literally zero nodes on the tree

Looks like garbage Painforged finally have a use at least in combination with Glancing Brokeness Keystone.

This one is really powerfull for builds that are not gladiators. I might try it with a spell block build I planned if I can get a max resist + es on block shield.

Will try it.