Block 2 (Source)

As I promised earlier today I've spent some time today having guild mates attack me in order to test out the effectiveness of block.

My current template is 4-0-04 marksman, master rifleman, 0-0-0-4 brawler, master pikeman (I also have 2-0-4-0 medic & novice scout, but that's not really important to these tests). This provides me with +103 ranged defense, +72 melee defense and +195 block (capped to +125).

I split the tests into 2 sections, with 3 subsections to each:

Rifle vs Rifle Rifle vs Polearm Rifle vs Polearm (using CoB) TK vs Rifle TK vs Polearm TK vs Polearm (using CoB)

My opponents for the tests were a master rifleman for the ranged tests and a 2-4-4-3 TK for the melee tests.

On to the results:

Rifle vs Rifle 120 shots fired Shots Blocked: 11 Shots Missed: 5

Rifle vs Polearm 120 shots fired Shots Blocked: 16 Shots Missed: 11

Rifle vs Polearm (using CoB) 120 shots fired Shots Blocked: 56 Shots Missed: 8

TK vs Rifle 120 punches thrown Punches Blocked: 37 Punches Missed: 0

TK vs Polearm 120 punches thrown Punches Blocked: 26 Punches Missed: 10

TK vs Polearm 120 punches thrown Punches Blocked: 70 Punches Missed 9

Thanks to Owem and Yteb for helping me with these tests.

Whilst I did block ranged attacks, at best I blocked only around 9% while holding my rifle going up to 13.3% of them outside of CoB with a polearm equipped and still under 50% of them using CoB.

Against melee attacks I blocked over 30% of the time with my rifle equipped, but only slightly over 20% of the time with a polearm equipped. Using CoB I blocked nearly 60% of the time.

+125 block vs melee while holding a rifle does seem to be pretty effective and does somewhat offset the to-hit modifer although since block allows 50% of the damage through I'd have still taken a lot of damage in any real engagement. I'm slightly disappointed that I blocked less vs melee using a polearm, though thanks to the +26 polearm toughness modifier I would have taken less damage.

+125 block vs ranged is pretty ineffective outside CoB.

I'd be interested to see how these numbers compare against dodge and counterattack, but as yet I've not found any detailed tests on their effectiveness.