Amazing guide! Thank you

I'm looking to buy a shield on the AH right now. I know it should be a Sacred Shield with at least 25% block. I have 3m to spend on it, but I am having trouble finding any with valuable stats other than just the block %......I'm not sure if there is anything you are able to do to help out....but if there is I would love to hear it (:

Edit: I'm also having a hard time figuring out whether or not it's overpriced. Would something like a Sacred Shield with 27% block and 50 all res for 2-2.5m be too much?

This post was edited by SharronPeters on Jun 7 2012 01:21am

i got a 27% 80 all res sacred shield today for 2.5 but im pretty sure that is not the norm for that price

It really depends on the rest of your gear, it's hard to answer in a vaccuum. If you're asking me whether I'd sacrifice 200 strength and 100 vitality for 150 resist all, then the answer is yes, but only if I needed more defense. You'll lose a ton of dps. If that's what it takes to succeed in act 3 farming, then so be it.

For A3 you recommend at least 800res, what about for other stats like Block, Health, DR, ect?

Ty

well its just the only way u can build barbarians up without dieing 24/8 ...

really good job zrave
you helped me a lot with your guide here and the videos on youtube

one question:
For which legendary would you safe the money first?

thx a lot

@OP

I play a monk and we also like to go with high block..

However i've been thinking about this for a while now and the more I analyze it. For me the only logical and realistic way to explain block is that it would activate during hit checks..
This would mean before all reductions from armor, resistances and reduce on gear.
Why? Well picture yourself fighting.. what gets hit first, your shield or your armor?

Have you, or anyonelese extensively tested how block works and when it activates. I myself have done some small tests on A3 with my Monk, I have about 35% blocking and I reduce 3k-4k.
I tried with both the shield and without and really didnt notice any difference. I still kept dying and as far as I can tell I wasn't dying more often. I could still defeat and tank all monsters in the same way as I did before.

So I was thinking, could we all have been wrong assuming the block amount is deducted from the reduced amount of damage we receive?
If this is the case it might be time to start thinking about going dual wield or 2 handed to massively stack LoH and vit/str/dex

Right now I'm not in act 4 so I can't speak for that level of play but in act 3 I really see no difference between using a shield and not using a shield.
The only thing it gives me is more armor, however I could offset the armor loss when not using a shield by simply buying the same gear I have now but with an additional +100-200 armor affix..

Some food for thought, lmk plz. Maybe I missed some thread or blue post that confirms or disproves my theory..

Block is applied after damage mitigation. It is very easy to test, just find any mob that hits for like 5k on you, and then see how hard it hits you when you block. Against Inferno Diablo and ponies/bears in Whimsy, my block cuts their melee hits almost in half. They hit for like 7-9k when I don't block, and 4-6k when I do block, using a Stormshield. If Block was applied first it would do hardly anything, since their melee attacks hit for like 150-200k before mitigation.

This post was edited by Suprfli6 on Jun 8 2012 07:44am

Quick question.... I couldn't find any sacred sheilds with the stats I wanted....so I got 980+ armor 112vit 22%chance to block + 8% chance to block, so total it has 30%, 50 something all res, I think + armor and some str sheild and other random stats.. I believe it's the same type as an SS( the one right below sacred).... I paid 900k for it.... Did I overpay?? I'll post a pic once I get home... And if so do you think I can re sell it again at that price?

This post was edited by animefan289 on Jun 8 2012 07:57am