Blocking Projectiles

Can you please correct any of the following please and put me on the path to wisdom?

1. If projectiles are from an attack, they can be blocked with a shield block %.
1a. Projectiles from an attack are arrows from bows.
1b. Proejctiles from an attack do not include any form of fireballs, cold globes, or sparks from mages.
1c. Projectiles from spells cannot be blocked without special passives.

2. Some shields and passive nodes give additional block % to projectiles.
2a. This bonus only works if the projectile is an attack, not a spell.

3. With a special passive and on some unique gear, a portion of your % to block attacks can be applied to blocking spells.
3a. This only works for spells which are projectiles (i.e. not AoE spells such as Firestorm or Ice Nova).

4. If you have, via 3 above, an ability to block spells, then an additional chance to block projectiles will help you gain an additional chance to block those spell projectiles (again, 3 above) as well.

Thank you.

Regarding 3a:

All sources of spell block are worded "x% of Block Chance applied to Spells." Since there is no mention of projectiles, I would assume that this applies to all spell.

Thank you. I was trying to be conservative.

I am particularly interested in a consequence of 3 and 4, if both 3 and 4 are correct.

If they are correct, is the following true?

5. Therefore: If you have one passive node which allows you to block spells (e.g. 12% of shield block applied to spells), and gear which gives you +% chance to block projectiles, will the gear bonus also apply to projectiles which are spells (thus giving you an effectively huge synergy)? (Or, contrarily, only apply to projectiles which are attacks?)

Thank you

Anyone?

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onomastikon wrote:

Thank you. I was trying to be conservative.

I am particularly interested in a consequence of 3 and 4, if both 3 and 4 are correct.

If they are correct, is the following true?

5. Therefore: If you have one passive node which allows you to block spells (e.g. 12% of shield block applied to spells), and gear which gives you +% chance to block projectiles, will the gear bonus also apply to projectiles which are spells (thus giving you an effectively huge synergy)? (Or, contrarily, only apply to projectiles which are attacks?)

Thank you

I don't know, but my general understanding of mechanics says no. Basically, the %chance to block projectiles probably only checks in the event of an attack which would be subject to normal blocking. So if you have 50% block, and 50% of block chance as spell block, and 10% bonus projectile block chance, the scenario should work out like this (remember, this is conjecture on my part):

A: An attack is launched by an archer type enemy. The attack gets past evasion and dodge, and the roll is made for blocking. The game pulls a random number out of a hat and checks it against your block chance plus 10% (50 + 10, because the attack is flagged as PROJECTILE and BLOCKABLE.

A: A fireball is launched by a mage type enemy. The spell gets past Phase Acrobatics if you have it, and the roll is made for blocking. The game pulls a random number out of a hat and checks it against your SPELL block chance (50*.5), but doesn't add the projectile bonus because the fireball is flagged as PROJECTILE and SPELL, but not as BLOCKABLE.

However, it is possible that Spell Block does derive benefit, since, as I have stated, this is my conjecture, not the result I have gotten from heavy testing.

No, I do not think "projectiles" in this circumstance ever applies to spells, regardless of whether you have spell block or not. I don't have hard numbers on it, but I run guys with near-max block and spell block, and it appears to work as you'd expect: 67% chance to block blocks melee 67% of the time. 67% chance to spell block blocks spells 67% of the time, not 67% + %chance to block projectiles. It'd need more testing, but I think that's how it works; spell block seems totally separate from projectile bonuses. I'm fine with being corrected on this; it's a good question.

I would like clarification on things which are not spells, but are not arrows either. I'm assuming "%block vs projectiles" and block in general will work on them but not 100% sure.

I'm referring to all the non-spell ranged attacks like carrion queen, tenticle miscreation etc. I think carrion queen is best described as a mortar, but thats besides the point i guess.

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Asmosis wrote:

I would like clarification on things which are not spells, but are not arrows either. I'm assuming "%block vs projectiles" and block in general will work on them but not 100% sure.

I'm referring to all the non-spell ranged attacks like carrion queen, tenticle miscreation etc. I think carrion queen is best described as a mortar, but thats besides the point i guess.

Generally speaking, if it can be Evaded (Via evasion, not just moving out of the way), it's an attack. If a projectile is created by an attack, it counts for Block chance versus Projectiles.

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Asmosis wrote:

I would like clarification on things which are not spells, but are not arrows either. I'm assuming "%block vs projectiles" and block in general will work on them but not 100% sure.

I'm referring to all the non-spell ranged attacks like carrion queen, tenticle miscreation etc. I think carrion queen is best described as a mortar, but thats besides the point i guess.

I had attempted to cover this in 1b above. My (incorrect?) understanding is that these are (treated as) spells. Please correct if wrong.

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onomastikon wrote:

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Asmosis wrote:

I would like clarification on things which are not spells, but are not arrows either. I'm assuming "%block vs projectiles" and block in general will work on them but not 100% sure.

I'm referring to all the non-spell ranged attacks like carrion queen, tenticle miscreation etc. I think carrion queen is best described as a mortar, but thats besides the point i guess.

I had attempted to cover this in 1b above. My (incorrect?) understanding is that these are (treated as) spells. Please correct if wrong.

I believe the Carrion Queen's attack counts as a spell, but I know that at least the tentacled miscreation creates projectiles. The easiest way to tell is with a high evasion character with Arrow Dodging.