IS it just me or is versatile combatant not what you said it would be?!

Hyped all week just to see the pob and wonder why would I go thru this again.

And what exactly did they say it would be?

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JKlupper wrote:

Hyped all week just to see the pob and wonder why would I go thru this again.

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Versatile Combatant is now a Keystone Passive on the Passive Skill Tree: Grants +2% Chance to Block Spell Damage for each 1% Overcapped Chance to Block Attack Damage. Also grants -25% to maximum Chance to Block Attack Damage, and -25% to maximum Chance to Block Spell Damage. This means that if you have a 75% chance to Block Attack Damage, allocating this Keystone Passive grants you a 50% chance to Block Attack Damage, as well as a 50% chance to Block Spell Damage.
More access to Spell Block has been added between the Templar and Witch sections of the Passive Skill Tree.
The Suffix modifiers that grant Attack Block and Spell Block on Shields have been improved, and new tiers have been added. These now grant up to 16% Attack Block and 15% Spell Block respectively at the highest tier.
The Gladiator’s Block Ascendancy Passive Skills will be reworked. We’re experimenting with a new Notable Passive that makes the Gladiator’s chance to Block Attack Damage lucky, which helps offset the downside of Versatile Combatant.
We'll be making further changes to Passive Skills and the Life granted by Bone Offering.

It does exactly what they said it would do...

You need to invest quite heavily into it, otherwise not worth it. And investing heavily mean - you will lose big time DPS from the tree.

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RoyalMarauder wrote:

You need to invest quite heavily into it, otherwise not worth it. And investing heavily mean - you will lose big time DPS from the tree.

Not true. Obviously the max values are lower if you take Versatile Combatant, but hitting those values can be much easier.

For example, Gladiator with a 30% block shield such as Surrender can be maxed out without even leaving the duelist area. 62/50 or 60/52 attack/spell with Versatile Combatant, or 87 attack block without it. You don't have to path to any other class' block nodes to get there if you don't want to. It's still an option if you're pathing by anyway--you can skip some of Duelist's nodes in that case. But previously, you had no choice but to path elsewhere to hit block nodes if you wanted to max out.

Block itself isn't as strong, but it's definitely more flexible.