Anyone else here uses item with Greater Spearblock?

[Sarezar]

I just submitted a bug report because Greater Spearblock only blocks 5 points of piercing damage, regardless of what the description or the combat log say. However, this effect is only on a few items in the game, most of which are epic. I tested this on the Bramble-Casters, both epic and non-epic version and they are both bugged, so I am guessing that it is the effect that is not working and not the items. But I wondered if anyone has any of the other items with Greater Spearblock on to test it for me.

Epic Shield of the Scorpion
Epic Weathered Targe
Epic Ring of the Mire

If the above items work correctly, then I may need to resubmit the report cause it would be the gloves that stopped working.

Thanks

[Zeruell]

It seemed to be working fine the last time I ran elite Weapons Shipment (prior to U12). I'll have to give that another go...

EDIT: Wait, is your 5 DR figure a product of final damage number observation, or are you saying that the combat log says it blocks 5 points of damage? Were you testing in a raid/full group or running solo or shortmanned? This matters.
EDIT2: vvvvv --- For that reason --- vvvvv

[gloopygloop]

I just submitted a bug report because Greater Spearblock only blocks 5 points of piercing damage, regardless of what the description or the combat log say. However, this effect is only on a few items in the game, most of which are epic. I tested this on the Bramble-Casters, both epic and non-epic version and they are both bugged, so I am guessing that it is the effect that is not working and not the items. But I wondered if anyone has any of the other items with Greater Spearblock on to test it for me.

Epic Shield of the Scorpion
Epic Weathered Targe
Epic Ring of the Mire

If the above items work correctly, then I may need to resubmit the report cause it would be the gloves that stopped working.

Thanks

If you're in a quest by yourself, you were experiencing dungeon scaling.

The amount of damage that you take is cut by about 50% when you're in a quest solo. All forms of Elemental Resistance and DR are taken before dungeon scaling. Because of that, it can appear that you are only receiving half of the DR that you expect.

Take 30 points of damage.
Greater Spearblock stops 10 points leaving 20.
Dungeon scaling kicks in, turning that into 10 points of damage.
If you did not have that DR, you would have taken 15 points of damage because of dungeon scaling. With the DR, you take 10 points of damage.
Your DR is correctly blocking 10 points of damage, even though 15-10=5 in most cases.


Similarly, elemental resistances will appear to be working incorrectly if you think that they apply after elemental absorbtion instead of before.

[Sarezar]

EDIT: Wait, is your 5 DR figure a product of final damage number observation, or are you saying that the combat log says it blocks 5 points of damage? Were you testing in a raid/full group or running solo or shortmanned? This matters.


If you're in a quest by yourself, you were experiencing dungeon scaling.

The amount of damage that you take is cut by about 50% when you're in a quest solo. All forms of Elemental Resistance and DR are taken before dungeon scaling. Because of that, it can appear that you are only receiving half of the DR that you expect.


Thanks for the replies. I was talking about final number observation but I did some more testing.

On Normal, Hard and Elite solo, I see this issue. In a raid, it works fine. Which means that what you explained about dungeon scaling is what is happening (although I thought dungeon scaling doesn't trigger on Elite).

BUT... this really puzzles me now. If a rat or a bat or an arrow is doing 1d6 damage, Greater Spearblock should block it all the time. Even if you apply it before or after dungeon scaling. But it doesn't.

Arrows that do 1d6 damage without the gloves, will hit me for 0 or 1 damage with the gloves.
Rats that will hit me for a max of 9 damage without the gloves, will hit me for 0-4 dmg with the gloves.

If dungeon scaling is supposed to help you solo, why does it halve the effect of Greater Spearblock. Surely it can't be that Greater Spearblock is overpowered to use when you solo? Or are they trying to help you get SP back from Torc/Conc Opp as by not getting any damage you don't get sp back? :)

[Zeruell]

On Normal, Hard and Elite solo, I see this issue. In a raid, it works fine. Which means that what you explained about dungeon scaling is what is happening (although I thought dungeon scaling doesn't trigger on Elite).
Dungeon scaling is generally lessened on Elite, but it still applies -- in some quests, very noticeably. Raids, of course, are absent scaling.


BUT... this really puzzles me now. If a rat or a bat or an arrow is doing 1d6 damage, Greater Spearblock should block it all the time. Even if you apply it before or after dungeon scaling. But it doesn't.
If those things only did 1d6 damage, then yes, it would always be blocked entirely. Many mobs have significantly boosted base damage dice, though (looking at you, Grazing Hits...). Besides that, strength (and other) modifiers end up tacking on quite a bit more damage.


If dungeon scaling is supposed to help you solo, why does it halve the effect of Greater Spearblock. Surely it can't be that Greater Spearblock is overpowered to use when you solo? Or are they trying to help you get SP back from Torc/Conc Opp as by not getting any damage you don't get sp back? :)
Arguably, yes. Applying constant damage reduction at the end of damage calculations would result in much lower damage numbers across the board.
But more to the point, it's not so much that dungeon scaling is "nerfing" your DR (though to the end user this is the apparent result) as it is applying the damage scaling just before the end result. As gloopygloop described, your DR always applies the full amount, but the damage you take is reduced after the application of DR (in the presence of scaling or, as another example, Shield Mastery / the new Monk Earth Stance).

[Sarezar]

But more to the point, it's not so much that dungeon scaling is "nerfing" your DR (though to the end user this is the apparent result) as it is applying the damage scaling just before the end result. Your DR always applies the full amount, but the damage you take is reduced after the application of DR.

OK I'll try to find a trap that does loads of piercing damage to test this further, because according to your description it is definitely bugged in some way. If damage after DR is 0, then reduced damage cannot be greater than 0. Unless the negative numbers are swapped to positive in the code (which would be the bug).

There were no grazing hits in my testing by the way, everything was full damage. I just tested it with damage sources that did not exceed 10 points of damage.

[Zeruell]

I just tested it with damage sources that did not exceed 10 points of damage.

Just to be perfectly clear on this, in order for Greater Spearblock to drop a piercing attack to zero damage, the original, base value of the damage prior to scaling would have to be 10 or lower. You'll never see the full, pre-scaled damage while testing solo (unless in a raid instance), as only the post-scaled damage makes it into the combat log.