Unyielding Defense vs. Ravenous Defense

[Crom67]

Ravenous Defense- Increases armor 5% when a pact is gained. Can be applied up to 10 times, lasts 6 seconds.
Unyielding Defense- Damage is reduced 20% when you block.
Which is better?

Can someone explain the dynamics of converting pacts into ravenous defense, can it be continuously be kept up now that there is Blood from a Stone?

Thanks.

[Keltorian]

Ravenous Defense- Increases armor 5% when a pact is gained. Can be applied up to 10 times, lasts 6 seconds.
Unyielding Defense- Damage is reduced 20% when you block.
Which is better?

Can someone explain the dynamics of converting pacts into ravenous defense, can it be continuously be kept up now that there is Blood from a Stone?

Thanks.

You should be able to keep Ravenous Defense nearly 100% of the time. Considering that u get pacts when your healed, and 25% of your swings generate them, and u have abilities to generate them... yeah, thats alot of pacts coming in all the time.

Unyeilding defense does seem very good if you can stack block high enough.

[Lemniscate]

you can grab both

build i hope to test at 50 in good gear, stacking strength
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0c...zVczM.gc0VI.Ee

I try to get Balance of Power/Tip the Balance in all shield tank builds, because it is nice free passive aoe threat and healing. For a single target raiding build, you could sacrifice it for some other talents.
This build gives:
50% armor, + 10% armor, +10% armor
50% strength (don't overlook this, great for stacking strength for parry/block!)
+28% block, +5% dodge
-5% damage taken x 2, -5% enemy hit chance
-5% spell damage (with the option to easily switch around and take as little as -20% + -9% )
and of course endurance buff, endurance/magic resist buff

Interested in seeing if VKs will be hitting armor cap.

And keeping up pacts is quite easy. they can turn Attack Points into pacts, and it's off the GCD, sacrificing threat.
The heal when gaining a pact is very tiny, but it may be worth it if that heal can trigger a pact through the other talent (just one point then).

[rowdysattva]

How much damage is blocked with a block?

Does it depend on the shield? Is it just standard?

How does the paladin ability really work? Does it mean you reduce an extra 20% damage when you block or does it mean that you take 20% less damage from all sources when you block? If it means the second then how long does it last? If it means the first then what is the base it is buffing?

I have heard that block actually "blocks" a pathetic amount of damage BUT that the armor gain from having a shield makes it worth it.

Obviously the paladin has most of their attacks and abilities based off shield as well. How does this work?

[Talamare]

you can grab both

build i hope to test at 50 in good gear, stacking strength
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0c...zVczM.gc0VI.Ee

I try to get Balance of Power/Tip the Balance in all shield tank builds, because it is nice free passive aoe threat and healing. For a single target raiding build, you could sacrifice it for some other talents.
This build gives:
50% armor, + 10% armor, +10% armor
50% strength (don't overlook this, great for stacking strength for parry/block!)
+28% block, +5% dodge
-5% damage taken x 2, -5% enemy hit chance
-5% spell damage (with the option to easily switch around and take as little as -20% + -9% )
and of course endurance buff, endurance/magic resist buff

Interested in seeing if VKs will be hitting armor cap.

And keeping up pacts is quite easy. they can turn Attack Points into pacts, and it's off the GCD, sacrificing threat.
The heal when gaining a pact is very tiny, but it may be worth it if that heal can trigger a pact through the other talent (just one point then).

I honestly dont see where you have "5% less damage taken" twice

[Talamare]

How much damage is blocked with a block?

Does it depend on the shield? Is it just standard?

How does the paladin ability really work? Does it mean you reduce an extra 20% damage when you block or does it mean that you take 20% less damage from all sources when you block? If it means the second then how long does it last? If it means the first then what is the base it is buffing?

I have heard that block actually "blocks" a pathetic amount of damage BUT that the armor gain from having a shield makes it worth it.

Obviously the paladin has most of their attacks and abilities based off shield as well. How does this work?

The amount blocked is based on your STR, it blocks on my low level char it blocked 30% around 12% of the tim
I dont know if the Block 20% more means 30% * 1.2 or 30% + 20%
Its passive... lasts forever, works on every block etc

Block for warrior is good

Last question I didnt understand

[rowdysattva]

Talamare ---> Thanks a ton for the feedback. Very helpful. I have been wondering how this works for a long time.

Sorry my last sentence didn't make much sense. It was just me saying in general how does block work for warriors and for paladins. As i said i have heard it was actually quite bad. That doesn't mean i believed it... just what i had heard.

If i understand you the paladin ability adds extra damage mitigation on each attack blocked for that attack. The other way i thought it might work is that when you blocked you got a little buff and took 20% less damage for some amount of time. First way does make more sense. It makes the paladin block even more awesome.

If paladin block is based on strength... that means both the amount blocked and the chance to block (yes?) then i wonder how much extra damage blocked the void knight ability to be at +50% strength will give. Probably that will not give more than an extra 20%, regardless of whether it is additive or multiplicative.

I didn't get a chance to try any tanking builds as i was a bit hurried and at a loss as where to gear. In the next beta i plan to try out paladin big time. I really think i would enjoy a paladin/void/(champ-or-rift) build. Gonna try that stuff out!

I will also probably play with my melee cleric and see how i can get that to work. I like tanky sorts.

I do also like my riftblade build though.

Again, thanks.

[Talamare]

Sadly Lemi thought of a build similar to the one I was intending to use

Parry is also based on STR btw

[Lemniscate]

I honestly dont see where you have "5% less damage taken" twice

Intimidating (when enemy strikes you, they do 5% less damage)
and
Pacifying strike (reduces the damage the enemy does from melee attacks by 5%)

granted, this only affects physical damage.

Oh, also an armor buff from on of the warlord attacks. Another buff to keep track of, so this could be a complicated build to play balancing buffs, debuffs, and pacts.