Understanding the 85% damage reduction cap for shields

[Predator]

Several sources/discussions http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Block seem to indicate that the total damage reduction cap for shields is 85%.

These sources indicate that most shields will be able to reach the cap with 100 block skill and all shield wall perks. However, this is NOT true as adding fortify block (via enchantment or potion) seems to increase the damage resistance even further.

As a test I used two legendary Dragonscale shields with 151 armor rating. Only difference was that on one of them I had a 67% fortify block enchantment. I also have 100 levels on light armor & block and all perks taken for both trees.

I unequipped all my armor except for the shield and tested block against a single giant with both shields. After running a few tests I came to the conclusion I was surving way more hits with the enchanted shield compared with the un-enchated one (taking all combinations of club, fists, kicks attacks from the giant into consideration).

My conclusion, the 85% damage cap only applies to the base shield - Fortify block enchantments and potions will decrease the damage EVEN futher. Don't assume just because you're level 100 block with all shield walls perks that damage cannot be reduced even further with enchantments/potions !

!!! **NOTE** - Disregard above conclusion. I have understood how the 85% damage cap works ! See my message below !!!

[Rez Elwin]

First you're gonna wanna remove the parenthesis from your link otherwise it sends you to a blank page.

Secondly. the page states
Effectiveness of this reduction are determined by several factors:
-Whether the block is performed with a weapon or with a shield;
-Block skill of a blocking actor;
-Shield Wall perks a blocking actor has; and
-Magical Fortify Block effects on the blocking actor.

I think the way that it is stated on the wiki makes it seem that with just a sheild, level, and perks you can reduce the damage by 85%, when you actually need enchantments too.

This is a wiki afterall made by people and people make mistakes, if you wanted you could edit it yourself to make it clearer.

[Predator]

Ok, so I think I understand how the 85% shield damage cap works.

Against normal attacks, most shields will be able to reach the cap only with 100 block skill and all shield wall perks.

Against power attacks (i.e Giant kicks, etc), there is a 34% mitigation to the damage reduction (see http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Block ), so as per my calculation an additional 52% Fortify Block enchantment/potion is required to reach the 85% shield damage cap.

1/(1-0.34) = 1.52 = 52%

The enchanted shield was bascially helping reach the 85% damage cap against the Giant kicks (power attacks), whereby the unenchanted shield was not able to reach the 85% damage cap.

Edited http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Block with this info.

[Zsrai]

Well if you can reach 85% damage reduction with 100 Block skill, of course you can get a higher damage reduction with a Block skill over 100... which is what the enchant, and potion, does. This is how every skill in the game works, and is how you can get such insane armor and damage numbers through using the alchemy -> enchanting -> alchemy loop before finally smithing anything: your crafting skills all go far above 100 and everything relevant keeps scaling up.

[Predator]

This is not how every skill works. Things like Block and Armor have hard caps on damage reduction so it does not make sense investing in them after a certain point - you can get their stats higher but it has no effect. Other things like one-hand damage, archery, etc can be improved indefinitely.

Read my previous post.

[lupus_hegemonia]

Dragon-armor generally are terribly looking armors, looks like your covered yourself with... skeletons and bones. I never liked them (except the helmets and the sword). Especially the dragonbone shield are sooooo ugly.

I like a more "Nord" Viking metal look on me...

[Jirki88]

Originally posted by lupus_hegemonia:

Dragon-armor generally are terribly looking armors, looks like your covered yourself with... skeletons and bones. I never liked them (except the helmets and the sword). Especially the dragonbone shield are sooooo ugly.

I like a more "Nord" Viking metal look on me...

Woah woah woah man, are you seriously telling us that armour made from dragon bones look like bones?!?!?!

[lupus_hegemonia]

Aye, seriously. How they look like to you???? The entire armor is covered by bones. So, it looks ugly (to me). I like METALLIC armors.

[Predator]

Originally posted by lupus_hegemonia:

Dragon-armor generally are terribly looking armors, looks like your covered yourself with... skeletons and bones. I never liked them (except the helmets and the sword). Especially the dragonbone shield are sooooo ugly.

I like a more "Nord" Viking metal look on me...

That's nice to know .. lol !

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Incompressible:

This is not how every skill works. Things like Block and Armor have hard caps on damage reduction so it does not make sense investing in them after a certain point - you can get their stats higher but it has no effect. Other things like one-hand damage, archery, etc can be improved indefinitely.

Read my previous post.

That is literally how it works and is what you described in your previous post. If they have a 34% damage mitigation reduction then you need more damage mitigation to still reach the hard cap. This is what increased skill levels do.

You can still increase Block indefinitely except for the hard cap of damage reduction. When that damage reduction cap is changed (either through enemy stats or mod changes), then you need more, or less depending on the change, skill to still hit that hard cap.

[Predator]

My point being that after getting 100 Block skill, 5 shield wall, and 52% Fortify block enchantment there is no need to spend resources and improve Block further since you've reached the 85% damage cap and get no additional benefit.

On the other hand, with something like One-handed there is no cap and you can keep trying to improve it and get the benefits.