Block strength is not 100% like stat says.

[Antofdeath]

As I have been experimenting with the Shield maiden I have noticed that I can get my defensive stays pretty high, I think i had like 80 defence 100 block at one point, point is that the vast majority of enemies were hitting me for 17-24 damage, but my block strength said that all of that should have been blocked, but if I ran into a swarm of enemies it only blocked the first hit or two.

My theory is that the animation is only blocking a certain amount of attacks per second but if it is this isn't listed anywhere. The other theory I have is that it's a log formula issue where like it's 99% chance of blocking but that doesn't seem to hold up when I go way above and only get a few blocks after running into like 30 enemies.

[AirSniffer]

The game is lacking information almost everywhere. Like why does warlock not benefit from ring of fire? What exactly do range and area do? How does duration work with certain abilities? And why the hell does speed interact with the orb ability? Also since the game is heavily oriented towards damage, I guess most people ignore defensive values for the time being and take offensives instead.

[Flannastri]

Do you know for sure that their attack is 17-24, or are these numbers subtracted from your health pool? Because defense is supposed to trigger after block, right? So is this already reduced damage or am I confusing something?

[Antofdeath]

I'm literally watching it on the bottom left, which reminds me that is one other alternative. I don't know if block tries to "block" first and then the damage is reduced later, that might make a lot of sense as well, but enemies still get blocked more, the more armour I have so I am not sure, thus why I am confused.

Also yeah I noticed the ring of fire and thunder not working, his "summons" aren't "attacks" per say they seem to be a entity that doesn't inherit any of the abilities of the warlock. This leads to no critical damage as well. Astronomers orbs in their ability description say that speed affects their orbit speed, but note that I think that's only while moving funny thing is with guiding star you can cause them to rotate backwards for a half second even.

Duration though I wish I knew anything about that one, I just assume it makes status effects last longer, I think it makes fire wall go further? It somewhat affects the minion ring summons, but they are kinda crap anyhow.

[Flannastri]

I'm pretty sure the block works first, and then if it fails to block the attack, the defense reduces its value. Therefore, the numbers that are subtracted from health are not entirely accurate.
I also have a theory that the damage value of enemies can be pretty decent, so that there is always a chance to both block and not block an attack. Perhaps the monster damage is somehow oriented towards the approximate block value that can be accumulated by this minute. Probably the most reliable way to test how the block works is not to raise defense at all, so that you can clearly see how their damage changes from one type of enemies to other or over time.

[Antofdeath]

Yeah, the sorceress is the good way to test that, lots of extra block skills in her tree almost no defence. I think i tried this before and got mixed results. The enemies do a static amount of damage though, if you look bottom left it says the actual number, and this will slowly decrease with defence. I think the first area skeletons without defence do either 17 or 20 damage not sure. So if you could get 100 block score it would in theory have no hits go through?

[shadowmpire]

if you read the tooltip on block and defense. it tries for block first then reduces damage.

[galactus]

Originally posted by shadowmpire:

if you read the tooltip on block and defense. it tries for block first then reduces damage.

Is block a percentage or a flat value? ie: is 100 block 100% chance of blocking, or it is blocking 100 damage?

[Lilbabycat]

From what I see its a percentage and it scales to a certain amount hit. If you want to collect data or see the difference you gotta look at all the stats as they change with points. 1 def isn't enough to increase the first number but will increase the 2nd and 3rd. So we know each calculation is different, probably % scaled. You can probably extrapolate it with just a few data sets, such as defense: 10 - measure changes for the next 3 points invested, one by one. then defense 30 - measure changes from next 3 points invested. Can't be too complicated and given how early this game is in dev, could be changed at some point.

EDIT - DID SOME QUICK TESTING,
With Exterminator, base block 5

Block. 100% - 50% - 20%
7 BLK 2 - 7 - 17
9 BLK 3 - 9 - 22
11 BLK 3 - 11 - 27
13 BLK 4 - 13 - 32
15 BLK 4 - 15 - 37
17 BLCK 5 - 17 - 42

edit 2: more data, fixed naming to Block instead of Def.

With just 5 sets you can see there appears to be flat scaling:
0.2 - 1 - 5 per point of block or 20% - 100% - 500%

[Kotli]

Its 50% chance to block damage = to block value.
100% chance for block/4 (rounded up).
20% chance for block*2.4 (rounded up).

No idea if block is before or after defence though.