What is the perfect legendary shield; 2.0

All of the math is fixed. Again, thanks a bunch to @Armando for pointing out the flaw and enabling me to fix this so that it is the product that you all deserve. I've also uploaded it for you all to download and use/modify as you see fit. If you share it elsewhere, I'd appreciate it if you give me the credit, but I can't really stop you, can I?

Some of you may remember my posts regarding the math for the ideal shield. Well, they changed the mechanic that effects Block Strength. They also adjusted the HP/Armor lines that you can get from the enchantments too, significantly improving them. For the longest time, it was widely held that the best shields were 2/2 (rate/strength) or, baring that 3/1. Lets see if I can shake up that old perception. I designed yet another spreadsheet for calculating large quantities of data to compare different items.

My newest toy obviously accounts for Block Rate or Block Strength, but it is also designed to take into account HP, % HP from Knowledge, current armor, resistance (only so that this becomes an "Effective HP Calculator" for the shield.), set bonuses and stats from the Warlord set, and even if you have HP or armor on the shield. The equations are normalized to indicate the total effective HP you gain from adding the shield you describe under the conditions described.


To make this easier to navigate, I'll be organizing it into a collection of "spoiler" tags that will allow you to look for specific examples and makes the whole thing more manageable.

Even with this trying to make it manageable, it will likely take a lot of thought to follow at times and referring back to previous examples, but I assure you the data is all accurate.

Spoiler: Baseline simple example

Lets start with the simplest example. Standard armor (4500), resistance (1400), 10,000 HP, and no Warlord set.


In this case, the best shield you can get is a 3/1 with near max BR and BS. With some luck, you could get a 1.86 multiplier to your HP. In the past, this was as far as my math went, but with my new sheet, I can answer "What about if I took an HP or Armor line instead of the 3rd BR line?" The max lines on a shield are 717 HP or 660 armor so lets take a look at 650 and 600 respectively in all future examples...

Spoiler: Adding 1 HP Line on Shields and Adjusting Total HP

First off, lets look at the HP Note that this is with % HP from knowledge set at 75%. As that % goes down, a HP line on a shield will correspondingly drop in usefulness:

Now, because we've spent a line on HP, we can't get the ones that the arrows are pointing to because we don't have enough stat lines. I've also crossed them out to make it easier to read.

You see now that your max multiplier is 1.79 times more effective HP when using a 3/0/1xHP. This is nice, but it doesn't beat the 1.86 of a perfect 3/1, but it comes close enough that it makes me curious to check them out later in the analysis.

But that is also dependent on the total HP you start with. If we raise that up to 15,000 due to higher HP from your other items, you'll see the benifit of the HP line drop and become less useful:

As expected, the same 3/0/1xHP is now only worth 1.73 time your base HP where as a 3/1 would still be 1.86.

But this leads us to an interesting question... what happens if you have less HP? Is there a point where you have little enough HP that a good 3/0/1xHP actually becomes better than 3/1?

It turns out that the answer is "Yes." However, there is a "But"...

If your HP is low enough that a 650 HP line on a strong 3/0/1xHP is equal to a strong 3/1, then you probably have no business tanking to begin with and I have no clue what you are doing with your 1H build. For that matter, you probably shouldn't be tanking with as little as 10K, but it is just a baseline.

So, now that we've seen that without the Warlord set, having a shield with 1 line HP or adding more base HP doesn't help and usually makes things worse, lets move onto the question of armor.

Spoiler: Are Armor Lines on Shields a Good Idea?

Now, lets reset to the baseline values for HP and instead of adding an HP line to our shield, lets add that armor line.


Your max effectiveness is now a 1.65 time multiplier with 3/0/1xArmor, which is significantly lower than 3/1 and it's 1.86 and it is even worse than the 1.79 of a 3/1/1xHP. By the time you have little enough armor that a good armor line would make a difference, it means that rest of your gear is so cruddy that I have no clue how you got lucky enough to get such a 'good' shield. I hope it speaks to common sense that if I increase your base armor, your effectiveness goes down accordingly.

Spoiler: Warlord Set, Pauldrons Only

Lets reset back to the baseline and start adding pieces of the Warlord set, starting with just the pauldrons.

Just from adding the pauldrons, you can reach 80% block rate with 2 lines of % block rate for as little as 115%. That makes a near perfect 2/2 capable of giving a 2.41 multiplier to your effective HP. Take my word for it, but adding armor drops the effectiveness, but now it is time to take a quick look at a 650 HP line with 10k HP.

So, a 2/1/1xHP's 2.38 is worse than the 2.41 multiplier you could reach from a 2/2, but only by 0.03 which is 1.2% of 2.41... This bodes well for the case of a 2/1/1xHP or a 3/0/1xHP or even a 2/0/2xHP later on. We shall see...

Spoiler: Warlord 2/3, Helm/Shoulders

When it comes to Warlord sets, the next important item to add when looking at the Warlord set is the Helm. While I'm aware that one very common configuration is the shoulders with the cape, nothing really interesting happens to block effectiveness with that configuration because the 15% armor isn't so significant that it makes an appreciable impact on these numbers for the large sweeping examples we are covering.
So, without further ado, reset to baseline, but with a helmet and the shoulders.

First thing that you ought to notice compared to the previous example (pauldrons only) is that not much changed. After all, adding the helmet only adds 0.3 BS. That means that a 2/2 would still be the best in this situation giving a 2.52 multiplier bonus, but lets try adding a HP line (armor lines are still worthless if you were wondering).

What's this? Now a 2/1/1xHP is actually tied with better than a 2/2 at 10K HP. I know that this is just for 10k HP, and that if you raise the base HP even by 500, it drops back down to being sub par compared to a stong 2/2, but it shows that under certain circumstances, a 2/2 isn't the best you can ask for.

Spoiler: 3/3 Warlord Items... Now things get really interesting...ish

Using the Warlord set, 3/3, is a common choice for many DKs, 1H and 2H alike. In 1H, it opens defensive opportunities that you might never have been able to reach otherwise.

As expected, for 3/3 Warlord, we are still looking at a maximum effectiveness occurring on a 2/2 because all we did was make it easier to reach the 80% threshold for block rate. You can now do so with as little as +85% BR making it laughably easy to max out your rate. The effectiveness is still 2.52, so no new number to break.

Adding HP at this point would be irrelevant again because like I said, the only thing that changed is that the threshold to reach 80% BR is lower and easier to attain. Other than that, it looks the same as the one in the previous example.

Spoiler: Upgrading Block Related Items

Upgrading the shoulders gives you 60, 63.4, 66.6, 69.8, and 73.3 more block rate every time you upgrade them. This alone is worth 0.54%-0.66% better block rate each upgrade. If you apply the 30% bonus for 3/3 Black Warlord and a minimum of 60% block rate from the shield, each level up will give you about 1.03%-1.25% per level up. Total, with 3/3 and a shield with at least 60% rate on it, this will account for 5.7% more crit. This just makes it even easier to reach the 80% threshold and allow you to focus even more on your HP lines to make the shields better. 18 million glyphs for 5% more block rate may be a bit steep for most, so lets look at an example with just three levels for approximately 3.25% more block rate a much more reasonable 8.4 million glyphs.

For all these "Upgraded Items" examples, I'll be looking at a 20k HP build and I'll even upping the resistance/armor to reflect more endgame levels. The reasoning is that if you have this many glyphs to throw around on a defensive build, you probably have higher HP/Armor/Resistance than the previous examples.

This is with no HP lines, but I hope you are starting to notice trends... 2.52 is the magic number again. Sure, it is easier than ever to max out the 80% with as little as a total block rate of 75%, but it still takes 2 lines to do this. Because of this, adding HP at this point still has the same effect; it lowers effective HP.

But what happens if we talk about improving the base block rate on the shield itself. Doing so will also boost the armor a little which can't hurt, even though it will be almost insignificant.

Each time you level a shield up, it goes up 121, 126.9, 133, 139.7, and 146.6. This is worth 1.09%-1.32% each level just on it's own, and if we apply the 30% for 3/3 Black Warlord and one line of ~60% (because by now, we know that 1/0/3xHP is likely the best we could get if doing a full warlord setup), that comes out to 2.07%-2.51% each level. Total, with a LVL 55 shield and the conditions described, you could gain 11.42% block rate.
Again, this just makes it easier than ever to get to the 80% mark, probably with only one line. Same as last time, LVL 55 is expensive to get... 55 million glyphs, so lets look at only LVL 52 for 16.2 million. In that case, you'll gain 247.9 block rate, and if you multiply that by our sample, it comes out to 4.24%.
I'll also leave our "LVL 53" Black Warlord pauldrons on for this test.

Finally... something new! Now the best you can hope for is a 2.70 multiplier from a 1/3. Not bad, considering the theoretical max is 2.778 (see bottom of this post). This is a marked improvement over 2.52. That additional 0.18, in a 20k BaseHP build, is equal to 3790 more effective HP.

Now that we've finally managed to achieve a block rate of 80% with only one line, maybe now it is worth adding a HP line and checking the results. I'd been using HP lines of 650, but since we are talking about a shield that has been upgraded twice, I'm going to use 700. That is an estimate of about 25 HP per line per level so I feel it is reasonable.

So close! In a 20k HP build, one HP line could bring you really close... 2.67 vs 2.70. If your base HP without shield was as low as 17000, then that 700 HP line would put you on even footing with the 1/3. It is worth noting, that at this point, the 1/2/1xHP can be better than even a 2/2 because of the cap to the block rate, but the 1/3 would still beat them both.

So ends the discussion of Legendaries. The end result, a good 2/2 is hard to beat, unless you put some glyphs into your shield/warlord shoulders to improve them to the point where you can achieve 80% block rate with only one block rate line. At that point, it is a bit of a toss up between a 1/3 or a 1/2/1xHP, depending on luck.

Now, lets take a look at the 4 well known unique shields.

Spoiler: Unique Shields, From Garbage to Godlike

Lets start looking at uniques.
Lets start with the most useless shield ever so that DKs everywhere will stop using this piece of junk... The Varlgruf Round Shield:
Lets assume max block rate... 150%. Even with that max, and the LVL'ing up to 52 and the shoulders to 53, you end up with the following. I've selected the cell that applies to the shield.

2.01... a lousy 2.01. We haven't seen an effectiveness this low since before we started including the pieces of the Warlord set and were looking at a basic, unupgraded 3/1, but this is with 3/3 of the Warlord set and with items upgraded. I hope that none of you every try to claim that the Varlgruf Round Shield is worth using... Even if you were trying to use it with 3/3 of the Full moon set, I still doubt that the 10% HP or 10% run speed would be useful enough to make it worth using... especially when you consider the block strength you'd lose from 3/3 Warlord items and not using the Warlord helmet.

Next lets look at Justice. This shield has long been discounted due to it's lack of block rate, but lets see how it measures up to these other uniques. I actually have one with 2505 HP, so I'll use mine in the example. If I were to level it up to LVL 52, that would be 2729 HP.

Too bad that it is 0.5 block strength and not 50% block rate... then this shield would be better than a great many legendaries. But alas, it is 0.50 block strength. As it is, you get 1.99 multiplier, which is on par with the Ancestral Wolf shield.

Next up is the Shield of the Wolf Slayer. Right now, I think that it may be bugged and have more block amount than it is supposed to, but we'll look at the max stats that you can get right now, 65% block rate and 1.65 block amount. Again, this is with the glyphed up versions.

This one has an effectiveness of about 2.63 which is close to the max that we've seen (2.70 for that theoretically perfect 1/3), but there is something about that shield that makes it awesome... it has a respectable amount of crit on it which makes it useful if you are making a well rounded 1H DK given that the crit comes with impressive defensive stats. If I'm right and the Block Strength line is bugged (+0.65 as opposed to 1.65), then the best multiplier that you can get drops to a 2.20 multiplier, but it is still nice for the crit that it gives... plus, it is still way better than that stupid Varlgruf Round shield.

Next up is highly sought after Heredur's Royal Shield (Tier 3).
Leveled up to 52, the 760 armor should be 827 (all stats of the same value for the same level will level up the same and my Dragonsilver amulet has 760 armor at LVL 50, that is how I know that the shield's armor line would be 827).

So, the most sought after shield in the game is on par with a decent legendary. Of course, since it has fixed stats, you know that you will get about a 2.42 multipler, so the random element is taken out of the mix, but you are still able to find much better shields out there. The catch is if you are planing to use the shield with the helmet. Sure you will lose a little bit of block effectiveness, but you gain some very useful PvP skills. It is still a very impressive shield, but if pure defensive ability is what you are looking for, you are still looking for a legendary or a Wolf Slayer Shield with really nice stats.

Spoiler: The Nitty-Gritty: How to be a DSO Nerd

All this analysis wouldn't be possible without a healthy dose of math to go with it. I'll give you the important formulas and how I arrived at those formulas.

First of all, here is a screen shot with the alphanumerics along the edges shown so that you can see the cells that are being referenced.


First of all, all the green cells on the left hand side are where we enter data. The yellow cells are where the sheet calculates a couple of numbers for later.

Cell A2: This is where we input your HP without your shield on. If you have HP from Amethysts in the shield, there is no place to account for this as the sheet is analyzing just the quality of the shield.

Cell B2: This is where we input your Armor without your shield on. If you have armor from Cyanites in the shield, there is no place to account for this as the sheet is analyzing just the quality of the shield.

Cell C2: This is where we Input your Resistance. If you have resistance from Diamonds in the shield, there is no place to account for this as the sheet is analyzing just the quality of the shield.

Cell B3: =IF(B2>=9480, 0.8, B2/(B2+2370))
This calculates the damage reduction from armor (before shield) for use later.

Cell C3: =IF(C2>=9480, 0.8, C2/(C2+2370))
This calculates the damage reduction from resistance (before shield) for use later.

B5: This is where we input the shield's base block rate. This allows you to account for a shield that has been leveled up, or a lower level shield that you may be using.

B6: This is where we input the value of any armor lines on the shield. This does not have a significant impact on effectiveness, but is included for the sake of being complete. (See section 3 above)

B7: =IF(AND(A11="Yes",B11="Yes"),B6*1.15,IF(AND(B11="Yes",C11="Yes"),B6*1.15,IF(AND(A11="Yes",C11="Yes"),B6*1.15,B6)))
This long conditional statement accounts for the increase of 15% armor that you get from marking 2/3 of the Warlord items "Yes". This number is then used later in calculations.

B8: This is where we input the value of any HP lines on the shield.

A10 to C11: This is where we enter "Yes" or "No" Make sure to use capitalize the first letter or the conditional formulas I wrote won't recognize them properly... if I make a version for people to download, I'll makes these drop down boxes to eliminate the possibility of mistake.

B13: This is where we input the Warlord Shoulder's base block rate. This allows you to account for a piece that has been leveled up, or a lower level one that you may be using from the last time the event came.

B14: This is where you input the % HP from Knowledge. This has no impact on pure Block Rate/Block Strength shields, but it is significant if you are looking at a 1/0/3xHP shield like we discussed above.

B15: This is where we input the value of the base armor line on the shield. This cell allows you to account for a shield that has been leveled up, or a lower level one that you may be using. This does not have a significant impact on effectiveness, but is included for the sake of being complete. (See section 3 above) This is also the reason why a shield with only block rate/block amount can get more than the theoretical max of 64% and can get up to 65%.

B16: =IF(AND(A11="Yes",B11="Yes"),B15*1.15,IF(AND(B11="Yes",C11="Yes"),B15*1.15,IF(AND(A11="Yes",C11="Yes"),B15*1.15,B15)))
This long conditional statement accounts for the increase of 15% armor that you get from marking 2/3 of the Warlord items "Yes". This number is then used later in calculations.

H1 to AH1: This is the the amount of +Block Strength you can get from enchantments. The max per line is 0.65 and multiplying that by 4 means that you could get from 0.1 all the way to 2.6.

H2 to AH2: =IF(AND($B$11="Yes",$A$11="Yes"), H1+0.6+2, IF(AND($B$11="No", $A$11="No"), H1+2, H1+0.3+2))
This formula is placed in H2 and then dragged to fill through AH2. The use of the $ symbols ensures that the static cells don't change. It factors in the increase in Block Strength if you are using the Warlord Helmet and Shoulders which have 0.3 block strength each. This line is then used in the calculation of the line below.

H3 to AH3: =IF(H2<=5, 1-1/H2, 0.8)
This forumal calculates the damage reduction from the Block Strength line above. It also detects if you would pass the 80% max and limits it to 80%.

D5 to D49: This is the amount of % Block Rate you can get from the shield. The max per line is 65%, so the most you could get on a shield is 260%, but past 220% it becomes irreverent because that is when a LVL 50 shield with no upgrades or Warlord items comes out to 80%.

E5 to E49: =IF(AND($A$11="Yes",$B$11="Yes",$C$11="Yes"),($B$5+$B$13)*(1+D5+0.3), IF($B$11="Yes", ($B$5+$B$13)*(1+D5), $B$5*(1+D5)))
This formula is placed in E5 and then dragged to fill through E49. The use of the $ symbols ensures the static cells don't change. It factors in the additional block rate you would get from the shoulders and the 30% block rate you would get from using 3/3 of the warlord set. It is then used in the calculation of the actual block rate in the next column.

F5 to F49: =IF(E5/11096 >=0.8, 0.8, E5/11096)
This formula is placed in F5 and dragged to fill through F49. It calculates the % chance of block based on the Block Rate in the previous column. It also detects if the Block rate would exceed the 80% cap and limits it to 80%.

Now time for the really interesting one...

H5 through all the computation cells:
=(($A$2+$B$8*(1+$B$14))*(1/(1-H$3*$F5))*(1/(1-(IF(($B$2+$B$7+$B$16)>=9480,0.8,($B$2+$B$7+$B$16)/(($B$2+$B$7+$B$16)+2370))+$C$3)/2)))/($A$2*((1/(1-(IF(($B$2)>=9480,0.8,$B$2/($B$2+2370))+$C$3)/2))))
This formula is placed in H5 and then dragged to fill through H49. It is then dragged across to AH49 to fill the other cells. Finally, the blocks that have been filled that represent values that are impossible to reach (for example, a 4/4 shield) are then deleted.
I've highlighted this one to make it a little easier to understand. The first part, in blue, is the effective HP equation for all stats, HP, shield, armor, resistance, everything. The green part is the effective HP calculation without the shield included. When we divide the total effective HP by the effective HP without the shield, we are left with how much the shield improves the HP. If we wanted to convert this to a number that corresponds with the old %BS*%BR but with considering HP/armor/resistance, we could invert it by doing 1-(1/result), and then compare it to the old measure of effectiveness. I chose not to because I feel that it is easier to understand as a multiplier to your HP.

From there, it is just a matter of formatting the sheet to make it easier to read/interpret. I placed dark borders around the "stat groups" that are possible. Since a Block Strength or Block Rate line can be as much as 0.65 or 65%, I placed these divider lines in between those values. It just makes looking for a 2/1 shield or a 3/0 or a 1/3 shield easier.

I also applied conditional formatting for cells H5 through AH49 to highlight the cells different colors based on the mins and maxes.

Then, when I deleted the sections that corresponded to the "impossible values," the range in the Formatting Rule adjusted accordingly and is as follows:
=$H$5:$AH$32,$H$44:$AH$49,$H$33:$W$33,$H$34:$V$43,$AG$33:$AH$43

And now you have a little insight into how I see the game as opposed to how a normal person sees it. I hope that this has helped you and that you will benefit from it by finding a truly high quality shield.

Editing complete... finally! Enjoy!

Just as a side note, I hope this mini essay helps shed some more light on how ineffective the CV system. The existing CV system could never hope to catch the level of nuance of what I'm describing here and a "good" shield in there book could be proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be garbage and further more, the value of a "good" shield is also utterly dependent on the build that it is used with.

EDIT:
Below is the original mistaken content so that no one can claim that I'm trying to erase my mistakes and pretend that they never happened. It will also allow some of you to compare and see what changes were made.

 

Thankfully we have you. It truly shocks me that some players care more about this game than the people who make it, and if they were honestly listening, they would be bugging you daily. So maybe it's a good thing they don't care too much.

 

I wouldn't mind, so long as they compensate me with andermant for time spent fixing their mistakes/telling them how to do their job.

In other news, I've updated the post to include upgraded block rate related items and a look at the 4 "endgame" unique shields.

This is no longer accurate based on the modified formulas:
If it too long for some of you to read, it turns out that from a pure defensive point of view, Justice is even better than Heredur's Royal Shield, and the only thing that is better than Justice, defensive wise, is a really nice 1/0/3xHP shield. The math part will be coming in a little bit.

EDIT: Math is done. My analysis of shields is complete. I'll refine the sheet a little and then see about offering it for download for you all to use.

 

_Baragain_ You are changing the meta of the game for defensive DK's from 2/2/0 to 1/0/3... you are a rebel XD.

 

EDIT:
The below is invalid due to corrections in the formulas:

I expect that there will be some DK's who don't agree and will still go with "Feel" over the math. I spoke about this at length with a DK on Agathon that I respect and we came to the conclusion that if you are PvPing, there may still be a place for a 2/2. In PvP, a single hit can be the difference between life and death and you need the predictability that comes with a 2/2. On the other hand, in PvE (say against a boss), where you are taking hundreds of smaller hits spread out over time, you are looking at the long term performance of a build. So, predictability or long term performance... beyond the raw math, there is always the unquantifiable factor of the "Feel" of a build.

 

So then which one of these shields should I be using? The one with more hp?

 

You want to be using the 2/1/1. Remember that armor had only small impact on improving effectiveness , and HP without block starts at all is not that good. If you post a pic of your stats without either shield I'll give you a measure of effectiveness for both shields to back it up.

 

Well "feel" is never a good way to decide things.. never , there are plenty of examples in real life for that after all the ability of the humans mind to reject/oppose any change even though positive is due to the fact it doesn't feel right at first.

2/2 is predictable but then too at best, it is 80% ... there is still 1 in 5 chance that you might not block XD

 

As someone who has gone with "feel" over the math more often than not, I can say that it doesn't always work out in the end. It certainly didn't for me. Maybe some have better "feel" than I do, but I'm learning to trust the math.

It's still hard when you see a huge armor line pop up or two huge hp lines. Trying to remember your long term goal is more important is the hardest part. I do know that these couple of threads have completely changed how I look at gear and stats.

 

Like the one above from Universeea? I know.
Until he gives me more specific stats to work with, here is a sample of those two shields with a 15000 HP, 4500 armor, and 1400 resistance build.
The 2xHP/2xArmor

The 2/1/1xHP

As expected, even though the armor and HP lines are really nice and the block rate and block amount on the other one are just "OK," the power of block on the total effectiveness of a shield shows right here. I can refine this if he gives me a snap shot of his stats without any shield, but I'm betting from looking at his gear that I'm pretty close for starters.

 

OK here is my tank setup using the two sheilds and 50% wisdom block rate bonus. (I only have 2/3 warlord)


image upload no size limit


photo hosting sites

 

Universeea, using Baragain's handy dandy spreadsheet, you can see the differences between your shields.

Even with less hp, the battle shield has better effective hp.



This is where listening to the math instead of the feel can really affect a build. I'm still learning to do this, but since I've decided to follow it, my DK has become so much more effective in both 1h and 2h.

 

Stats were higher than expected... nice. The only thing I really messed up is that you have 2/3 warlord. I couldn't quite tell in the first post that it was only the 2nd tier cloak.

The interesting thing about the pic that Rhysingstar posted is that if we are talking about just physical damage, the armor/HP shield is actually a little better, but the moment you consider elemental damage, there is a significant difference in favor of the battle shield.

 

That and the EDIT CV system is how new players lose track of their character's balance between offense and defense.I have been guilty of it myself before i stumble upon this forum

Edit: Typos

 

When you equip full dragan,i think 1 block rate 3 block strength will be the best.
But if you only use shoulder+cape,still need 2+2
And i m talking pvp situation cuz pve is not so hard compared to 5 grandmarshals trashing you at the same time when you caught trap in singularity XD

I ve thought about the shield long long time ago,long before the warlord set was introduced and your great work here,the conclusion i got is:
1,If you get hit for enough times(enough for statistic) without dying,your model here is right
2,But if you will get oneshot,there is no much room for statistic,just pure luck,i think i will still choose full block rate setup.

Again,great work of you

 

This is my perfect shield...I still want Heredurs Shield (that is my no1 no matter what numbers say )

 

one I found recently

 

?

 

lol, yeah would rather have that. I don't use mine as block rate too low compared to my other shield

 

Dear @_Baragain_ ,

thanks for all your effort, insights and explanations.
I'd have a few more questions, if you don't mind...

1. You don't provide your amazing Excel tool for download or as a Google spreadsheet, do you?

2.

As far as I can see, this green part only takes armor and resistance into account.
So any blocking by Dragan pauldrons and helmet alone is not taken into consideration? Is that intended?

3., and basically most important:
Why (I would really love to understand it, seems I have some mental blockade here) do you treat blocked damage differently than damage reduced by armor/resistance?



What I would actually expect, is



E.g. if you "block away" 1/8 of all incoming damage (and take only 7/8 of it), in average, then you should be able to sustain the 8/7-fold of your HP, no?

There is an HPI/DPI calculator created by @Potzi, available here.
It uses the formula as I posted it above.

However, we just had another discussion about effective HP in the German Forum, where the thread creator suggested to use the same formula for block impact as you do.

It would be great if you could try to resolve the confusion!
Thanks a lot in advance and best regards!