Draugr elite 2-star can't block?

[Ghettochild_2600]

Still relatively early in the game, but testing with a 3 star iron tower shield and these guys just smash through it as if I'm not even using it, 60-75 dmg per hit anyway.

[Exodite-Dragon]

why are you letting yourself get hit in the first place

[Ghettochild_2600]

Originally posted by Exodite-Dragon:

why are you letting yourself get hit in the first place

I’m focusing on improving my blocking skill. Dealing with them using my atgeir or a bow is simple, so they don’t pose a problem. I haven’t used a shield much yet. Everything else barely scratches this tower shield except for these guys. I’m just getting the hang of the blocking mechanics.

[Kai]

They must be hitting you for a ton of damage if you are taking 75 damage after blocking.

My suggestion is dig a hole in the meadow where a lot of neck is, and lure a bunch into it, then you can use it for block training since neck are so darn weak.

If there is more than 2 necks in a small hole, they can't run away as far and will return to attack again.

[Zathabar]

Remember 2* creatures are FOUR times as powerful as the Base.

A 2* Draug elite should be treated with caution even if your a late game player, You might get a bit of damage still even with a Blackmetal shield with that guy its just the way they are designed.

I assume your on you best HP level and food as that also helps?

[glass zebra]

If you get staggered while you block, it might be your block failing. Then you just take the full damage as if you were not blocking at all or "not even using it". When you block or parry there are basically 2 ways you can get staggered:
1. block/parry tries to reduce enemy damage based on the block/parry value like armour does and converts the rest to stagger
2. the remaining damage gets further reduced by your armour and you take the remaining damage and the stagger of it

If you get staggered only on step 2, the block/parry is still successful. If you get staggered on step 1 though, the block/parry fails completely and does not reduce damage at all. This is likely happening to you. 2 star draugr elite do 116 (if the wiki is correct), so if you take 60-75 damage, it sounds very likely that that is just their full damage reduced by your ~40 armour and nothing else. Stagger bar is 40% of your max HP, so having more and better HP food helps with block/parry being successful. Level 3 iron tower shields have 64 block armour (at 0 skill), so you need more than 130 max HP to not get staggered when you block a single attack of them at 0% stagger bar.
(formula for reduction)[valheim.fandom.com]

You should always take caution with 2 star enemies and basically treat them like minibosses. Even if you parry with a buckler they can need some higher skill and HP focus or dodging hits might be better. This becomes more true as the game progresses, since damage will go up a lot after swamp. Some trash enemy in the next zone does almost as much damage without stars as that 2 star draugr elite.


Tower shields are mostly good for their high block knockback and if you are in situation where you can't really parry or need stamina, e.g. tons of enemies in front of you/many attacks coming in. Parry costs 20 stamina per attack, blocking costs 10 multiplied by how much of your (skilled) block value got used vs. incoming damage. Tower shields are definitely nice to get your skill up due to their high block value and therefore low stamina usage, but parry is very strong in the game due to it instantly staggering staggerable enemies, stunning them and making them take double damage.

Using a buckler is usually the way to go due to their very high parry value, but the other shields definitely have their place and might be easier to use for beginners, but even then I would suggest trying the rounds shields, since they are "good enough" on block most of the time, do not have that extremely movement slow down and at least let you try out parry.

Having block up also reduces your stamina reg slightly (wiki says to 80%).

Originally posted by Zathabar:

Remember 2* creatures are FOUR times as powerful as the Base.

How do you define that "four times" and "powerful"? They have double the damage and triple the HP.

Edit: had wrong max HP in the example. You need more than 130 and not 55.

[Zechariah]

afaik health actually has nothing to do with block or parry value, that's staminas job.
the reason you get staggered is because damage taken is converted into stamina. if that damage breaks a certain threshold and overwhelms the capacity of your stamina, you become staggered. this calculation is modified by armor and block values. so you could have 2000 block value in theory, but at the end of the day if you don't have any stamina it ain't gonna make much of a difference.

so health is actually a pretty useless stat in terms of mitigation (though it still helps to survive landed blows), contradicting the tank trope who is able to take a bunch of hits. stamina is king.

take 3 stamina foods and see if it makes any difference.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Zechariah:

afaik health actually has nothing to do with block or parry value, that's staminas job.
the reason you get staggered is because damage taken is converted into stamina. if that damage breaks a certain threshold and overwhelms the capacity of your stamina, you become staggered. this calculation is modified by armor and block values. so you could have 2000 block value in theory, but at the end of the day if you don't have any stamina it ain't gonna make much of a difference.

so health is actually a pretty useless stat in terms of mitigation (though it still helps to survive landed blows), contradicting the tank trope who is able to take a bunch of hits. stamina is king.

take 3 stamina foods and see if it makes any difference.

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Blocking

Apart from blocking costing stamina and failing if you run out of it, most of what you said was pretty much the opposite of how it works and misinforming. If you take 3 stamina foods, there is very little in the game that you can block after early game due to stagger bar depending on max HP. 20 Current stamina is enough to block any blockable attack in the game and if it works or not depends on damage vs. block value and max HP.

[Zechariah]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

Originally posted by Zechariah:

afaik health actually has nothing to do with block or parry value, that's staminas job.
the reason you get staggered is because damage taken is converted into stamina. if that damage breaks a certain threshold and overwhelms the capacity of your stamina, you become staggered. this calculation is modified by armor and block values. so you could have 2000 block value in theory, but at the end of the day if you don't have any stamina it ain't gonna make much of a difference.

so health is actually a pretty useless stat in terms of mitigation (though it still helps to survive landed blows), contradicting the tank trope who is able to take a bunch of hits. stamina is king.

take 3 stamina foods and see if it makes any difference.

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Blocking

Apart from blocking costing stamina, most of what you said was pretty much the opposite of how it works and misinforming. If you take 3 stamina foods, there is very little in the game that you can block after early game due to stagger bar depending on max HP. 20 Current stamina is enough to block any blockable attack in the game and if it works or not depends on block value and max HP.

i hope you did not just use a fandom to try to prove me wrong?

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Zechariah:

Originally posted by glass zebra:

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Blocking

Apart from blocking costing stamina, most of what you said was pretty much the opposite of how it works and misinforming. If you take 3 stamina foods, there is very little in the game that you can block after early game due to stagger bar depending on max HP. 20 Current stamina is enough to block any blockable attack in the game and if it works or not depends on block value and max HP.

i hope you did not just use a fandom to try to prove me wrong?

What did you use to prove anything? Playing the game and using different food makes it very clear that the direction of the explanation is correct. It is also explained roughly ingame by the raven tutorial the first time you equip a shield.

[Zechariah]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

Originally posted by Zechariah:

i hope you did not just use a fandom to try to prove me wrong?

What did you use to prove anything? Playing the game and using different food makes it very clear that the direction of the explanation is correct. It is also explained roughly ingame by the raven tutorial the first time you equip a shield.

i did not try to prove anything sir, hence the introduction 'afaik' which is generally another way to say "i could be wrong".

i never tried to debunk anyone though with a fallible, fan made website hehe

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Zechariah:

Originally posted by glass zebra:

What did you use to prove anything? Playing the game and using different food makes it very clear that the direction of the explanation is correct. It is also explained roughly ingame by the raven tutorial the first time you equip a shield.

i did not try to prove anything sir, hence the introduction 'afaik' which is generally another way to say "i could be wrong".

i never tried to debunk anyone though with a fallible, fan made website hehe

The website was to give you the gist on how it works, not to provide a proof. What I tried to say was "you never provided any proof at all". I would assume that someone would at least try something once before trying to explain something to someone or at the very least read the ingame tutorial message.

[Zechariah]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

Originally posted by Zechariah:

i did not try to prove anything sir, hence the introduction 'afaik' which is generally another way to say "i could be wrong".

i never tried to debunk anyone though with a fallible, fan made website hehe

The website was to give you the gist on how it works, not to provide a proof. What I tried to say was "you never provided any proof at all". I would assume that someone would at least try something once before trying to explain something to someone or at the very least read the ingame tutorial message.

sir this is a video game discussion board not a conference meeting. i think it would generally benefit you to take things *less* seriously.

[Fraqment]

Originally posted by Ghettochild_2600:

Still relatively early in the game, but testing with a 3 star iron tower shield and these guys just smash through it as if I'm not even using it, 60-75 dmg per hit anyway.

You can't block it, you have to outwit it....
Not even with an iron shield.

[Riitoken]

Originally posted by Ghettochild_2600:

Still relatively early in the game, but testing with a 3 star iron tower shield and these guys just smash through it as if I'm not even using it, 60-75 dmg per hit anyway.

So, I just now tested your OP description.

I equipped an iron tower shield (max upgrade), and a mace and no armor. I set my blocking skill to 25 points.

I spawned an elite Draugr (2 star). I was able to consistently block, and the damage averaged between 25-30.

So I'm thinking that you're not actually blocking.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Riitoken:

Originally posted by Ghettochild_2600:

Still relatively early in the game, but testing with a 3 star iron tower shield and these guys just smash through it as if I'm not even using it, 60-75 dmg per hit anyway.

So, I just now tested your OP description.

I equipped an iron tower shield (max upgrade), and a mace and no armor. I set my blocking skill to 25 points.

I spawned an elite Draugr (2 star). I was able to consistently block, and the damage averaged between 25-30.

So I'm thinking that you're not actually blocking.

Did you test it with swamp food? Freshly eaten sausages + black soup + turnip stew can barely block them at 0 block skill (you probably still get staggered from the damage that goes through at 25 skill).