Can somebody explain what this means?

As I understood the old blocking mechanics was that it didnt’t matter whether you were swinging a weapon or casting a spell - you still had a chance to block (75% if max block). Does this change now?

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo2/23765907/diablo-ii-resurrected-patch-2-4-balance-ptr

This post was edited by kayko on Jan 21 2022 02:03pm

I am not 100% sure but my zeal sorc would miss all of her zeal when blocking during mid zeal.
So if I understand correctly, this is an amazing change.

But do you think that it just won’t interrupt zeal (the block animation will not display but you won’t be hit) or that there is no blocking at all in this pre-animation phase and your sorc will get hit and lose life?

I think its something like this :

For example we have a spell that takes 9 frames
4 frames pre cast
1 frame cast
4 frames post cast

During the 4 frames pre cast you can't block an attack, during the cast frame you can't block, but during the 4 post cast frames you can. This makes it that you can always cast your spells without being interrupted by a block.

Maybe I'm wrong tho.

Yeah, I don't get it either...

So, you'll be hit more often in the new patch but won't be interrupted... at all? Because being interrupted post cast doesn't really do anything bad, right?. Does this make "uninterruptible" skills less valuable now? Because every skill will be uninterruptible...?

This post was edited by kayko on Jan 21 2022 03:15pm

the way i read it it would be something like this

teleport initiates > you get hit, still teleport but get block frames once you arrive at location instead of getting an aborted teleport

Seems like block simply doesn't work on the precast animation frames. Block lock was never bad in 1.10+ really. Seems like it will buff melee characters a bit, and zons too.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. This info they provided is as nebulous as can be...

This is potentially a big change when you consider teleporting. Like I imagine: attacked during teleport -> teleport -> block, or maybe they mean no block at all... Just get hit and teleport

Or block -> teleport -> nothing, but this block is "silent". Which means you don't lose hp but there is no animation and no interruption.