So i'm playing hcl, having fun, going through normal with all characters as melee. Using angelic 3 item combo, doing great damage against undead and decent against everything else too. Good charms and stuff helps.

Using a 3 socket shield ofc, for 3 normal diamonds through act 2 from level 12-18. The ama has 4 points in dodge. But i never see the dodge animation. Am aware of the slow block animation, but i can live with that.

Does the dodge animation trigger if the monster hit check passes the block chance? Or is it a guaranteed hit then?

Is it like this:

1) Block check 2) Armor check 3) Dodge check?

hit check
block check
d/a/e check

Right-o. That's a pretty good safety net. The ama is a formidable melee fighter. Critical strike doubles damage relativwly often too.